<p>amtc, in the first instance, your response to the “particular question” concerning “safety” was incorrect by your own standards. It was in fact a “blanket statement” which in reality is not accurate nor applicable to all students. As soozie points out, whether a school is a “safety” turns on the particular academic credentials of the applicant. I won’t belabor that point; soozie made it well in posts 54 and 60.</p>
<p>Moreover, Muhlenberg is not simply a metrics driven school. They give significant weight to many other factors to determine more holistically if a student is a good match. In addition, they give significant weight to the interest a student shows in the school. My daughter visited Muhlenberg 3 times, once to visit and tour, once to audition and once for an interview. At the time of her audition, she was strongly advised to schedule an interview and it was made quite clear that the admissions office takes the interview seriously. It was also clear from her interview that the admissions office was aware of her prior audition. While the audition is not mandatory and a student is not penalized for not auditioning, there is little question that a very favorable audition experience can assist in the admission process, not simply because of the “talent” but because the audition is yet another opportunity for the school to get a feel for how you would fit into the community. Anyone who is interested in theater at Muhlenberg should both interview and audition.</p>
<p>As to “taking money away from those who need it”, I suspect that Muhlenberg offers talent money as an enticement to more than the exact number of students it expects to matriculate and is pretty good at predicting yield. A person auditioning is not necessarily going to preclude the offer of talent money to another. I would be far more concerned about demonstrating a high enough level of talent to be offered the money than whether I am going to be knocked out of the running because the person before me hit the numerical ceiling on talent money. If a student who is accepted decides they don’t need the money, the student can always decline it when the admissions packet arrives.</p>