Two phone calls today Congratulating my D on being accepted with BIG scholarships and into their Honors programs!! Thats great BUT we still have to audition for MT and one of those auditions is not until February!!
This audition stuff really delays the excitement… How did you all deal with that long unknowing?
Congrats on some great early (if incomplete) news!
We lucked out with an ED acceptance which short-circuited our D’s process, but I’ve heard both wine and doughnuts come highly recommended. 
It’s so much tougher than students and parents in other disciplines realize. As early as Junior year, when you visit schools, you have to steel yourself against liking a college too much, since the probability of an eventual offer is against you. Instead of enjoying the invitations, offers, and scholarships from the colleges, you have to keep remembering that the offer means nothing if you don’t get through the pre-screen then through the audition. And even if you get that far, you might discover you can’t afford to send your kid to a particular school, after all. As careful as you are about estimating cost, you might end up with zero financial aid or talent scholarship. It’s a constant battle to keep yourself and your kid from committing emotionally to a school before you are able to make a final decision–often not until mid-April. (My music major daughter decided on April 30th and really had no idea where she was going to end up before that). And all the while, peer students are happily accepting offers and scholarships from their dream schools. It’s not a process for the weak of heart…
Donuts, ice cream, CC, coaches, wine (or, in my case, strawberry margaritas), pottery, chocolate…
Try to focus on the excitement of it all and all of this time with your D/S! I look back fondly at most of this process, also remembering, though, how crazy it was sometimes. Hang in there, and have as much fun as you can!
BTW, my D’s process wasn’t over until May 8th (decision day is May 1st), and I have heard of others who were getting off of waitlists and accepting those spots mid-summer! Crazy. Just take it one day/bit at a time, though.
Though it’s hard, also try to realize before the fact that a very short 5 years from now all of this will appear as a small blip in your rear view mirror. These may be some of your final months of really being near to your child on a regular basis, so try to step back from the crazy frustrations periodically and give them (and yourselves) random big hugs.
Thanks all.she was sooooo happy with each call… @claire74 you are so right! When she shared the news today, although the family and her friends know she still has to audition they asked so which one are you going to? She was like well, since I still have to audition…etc… and they all say Oh you’ll make it because they dont realize how competitive it all is.
The waiting is tough under the best of circumstances- but what seems to make it harder is that so many colleges have rolling admissions, and it “seemed” to D (remember, perception and reality are 2 different things) that all her non theater friends “knew” what they were by Christmas- and she had barely even gotten started with auditions. If you know people doing Ivies or other competitive programs (and aren’t ED) you may have people in the same boat- but she had more than one person who was confused when she didn’t have any info on what her college plan was in say February. Smile and say you’ll know by May 1st (though as my loves points out- some go beyond that)
@toowonderful thanks and yep thats learning to just say I will know in May is the best thing I can tell her.
And that blip might feel like it was the easy part young grasshoppers. Remember when you first had your kids and everyone with older kids offered what felt like self-serving advice with their “it goes by in a blink” nonsense and all you could think at the time was, “I’m up to my eyeballs in diapers and Stim Mobiles, so what exactly is your point?” Yeah… that.
Enjoy the now. Don’t let all of senior year be consumed by this process. Find a way to celebrate the small things… the Homecoming dances, Christmas concerts, even dinners together as a family, etc. Before you know it, she’ll be graduated & gone… and you’ll wonder why you wished for it to go quicker.
@halflokum - Exactly what I was thinking reading this thread before I saw your comment! Ditto to what everyone else has said - seems like the longest year ever. All of D’s friends were planning dorm decor and she was still auditioning. And most of your friends do not understand the process at all. Others have said this on other threads, but keep notes/journal of the year (something I didn’t do & now wish I had). Thankfully we had a couple of friends going through the process - all at different high schools, but helped to have someone to talk to in person (I wasn’t on CC then). Friends and wine!
She is sooooo excited,I dont think I have seen her as happy as when she received that first college phone call, so right now she is just living in happy land.I think its the relief & realization of "I am really going to college. "
Mantra of"I will know by May"is going to get a lot of play around here 
Haha yeah and then in the end you get the puzzled muggle looks of "What? After all that you’re going to _____ ? (insert name of relatively unknown or unimpressive school but that has an utterly impossible to get into and fabulous MT program).
In this as in all other things, it helps not to care what other people think.
Truer words were never spoken.
I so often want to tactfully remind those kids (and parents) who pursue MT, or choose colleges, with the goal of “showing” others (classmates, former directors, teachers, other parents, etc.) that they are talented of just how little anyone else really cares what our kids do or don’t go on to do. And when other kids start pulling down steady paychecks as _________ (engineers, lawyers, bankers, marketeers, whatever) they will care even less.
An elderly woman on a plane once said something very wise to me (no idea if it was an original thought). She said…
When it comes time to plan your future, you should completely forget everyone you have ever competed with and focus solely on YOU and what YOU can afford and what YOU want to learn and in what environment YOU want to spend the coming 4 years. Be the best you you can be, and leave everyone else to do the same.
Be careful not to get too excited about schools that admit you before the audition – my d was accepted into two programs academically and with scholarships, but did not pass the auditions…big let down, and then the schools kept calling to see if she would be attending.