<p>halflokum is right… it depends on the school. </p>
<p>Rolling Admission Schools – within a period of time that they indicate you may hear whether or not you are into the school academically (for schools where the academic and artistic acceptance is separate). These schools may also let you know whether you have been admitted to, deferred to a later decision date, or denied from the program.</p>
<p>EA/ ED schools – some may have separate artistic and academic admissions (although in the case of ED programs, I think most are all or nothing, so you would not be in a binding ED situation at a school that did not accept you to the program… others PLEASE correct me if I am wrong). In the case of ED it is likely that you would hear yes or no to both the school and the program by the ED notification date. In the case of EA (at a school that has separate admissions processes) you may hear that you are in academically before you hear you are in artistically. This is the case at JMU (where I teach), Penn State, Elon (I think), and others.</p>
<p>RD Schools – Some schools are all or nothing. Others, you could be accepted to the school, but not the program, or could be admitted to the school, but waitlisted for the program (this is the case where I teach, where academic and artistic admissions are separate – although we can recommend students that we would like in the program for academic admissions during the RD round of academic admissions). </p>
<p>Some schools will let a student know if they have been accepted artistically BEFORE they know if they are in academically. In this case… at schools where the admissions processes are separate… the student’s acceptance to the program is provisional pending the academic acceptance. </p>
<p>So, the short answer is… it very much varies from school to school. AND even some schools that will let SOME applicants know if they have been admitted or denied both academically and artistically within a few weeks, may defer most students until after they have seen all applicants audition.</p>
<p>Great questions to ask of all of your schools… At least so you know the individual time lines.</p>
<p>Some schools that accept earlier than others will try to pressure students into committing before a student has all acceptances in at the end of March… and I do not mean ED schools, where this would be acceptable… tricky…</p>