A couple of things–
- "Am I correct that you enter the School of Communications and then audition at the end of the your freshman year for the acting program?" No, you only audition for the MT program, not the acting program. You're admitted to the acting program. You may be interested to know as well that Northwestern just started the Acting For Film module, which can be added to the Acting major. My D is in the first class to graduate with this module. Please feel free to pm me with any questions overall about the NU acting program.
- UNCSA is excellent. There are many other top BFA programs, e.g. Tisch. But may I recommend you take a step back and really figure out what your son wants.
You say he’s applying to Ivies ‘because of their reputations.’ Reputations in what? They are most certainly not all created equal in acting training. That may be fine for you son, depending on what he wants. Or it may not be fine. He needs to figure out what sort of training he wants, and what each Ivy provides. They are quite different from each other, and each has very different opportunities & training. (Btw, yes, Yale is known for its MFA program, but a student in its BA program can take advantage of opportunities afforded by being at a school that houses a top MFA program.)
Again, I want to stress the dangers of saying, “Oh look at this Playbilll–Jane & Bob both graduated from Ivy U! That must mean Ivy U has a great program!” No, it doesn’t necessarily mean that at all. Bob could already be a B’way actor with a top agent, for instance, & Jane could be the daughter of a B’way producer, etc. You really need to look at the training and opportunities the program itself provides.
But also: you list conservatories, which are *extremely * different from Ivy or NU training. I wouldn’t apply to Juilliard or CMU just because what the heck. He needs to take a look at these programs and decide if this is what he wants. If it is, he can figure out what similar programs he wants. My own son is at LAMDA in the UK (yes, there are several top UK conservatories) He is in class roughly 60 hours a week, and does an additional 15-20 hours a week outside class. It’s extremely rigorous in acting training (including singing, dancing, writing, film, etc). It is much more like a craft-intensive apprenticeship. Please feel free to PM me with any questions about the particulars, but my point is that a conservatory approach is fundamentally different from going to, say, Columbia. And going to Columbia is very different from going to, say, Northwestern.
You can find a lot of information about the particular program by going through the college’s own website and taking a look at their curriculum and policies. Your son should also ask what his goal is in going to college, as that would help in narrowing things down. Finally, you say your son already has a lot of training–Many students enter programs with a lot of training. Most programs are designed so that a student can take from it whatever they need at the level they’re at.
Good luck in figuring all this out 