Jpkcmo- My S passed all of his prescreens as well and his academics are solid but nothing like your’s. From what we’ve been told, meeting the minimum academic standards pretty much puts them all on an even plane for a BFA acceptance. Acceptance will be based on audition ?
Those grades will likely earn him some great aid! (I’m jealous!) Congratulations to your S!
@CTDramaMom - totally not going there! But I looked up an old thread on the Acting forum that I remembered where I created a difficulty rating of “not hard” to OMG.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/21606877/P1
On my difficulty scale I would rate 2 of @Jpkcmo’s son’s schools as “hard”, 3 as “very hard” and 6 as “OMG”. He doesn’t have any schools in the “not hard” to “pretty hard” range.
Thanks CaMom13. No back up plans. I think if he went 0/11 he would probably pursue something completely outside of performing. We’re really trying to gauge whether being 11/11 (especially with this list) is any indication of top level talent (increasing the odds that he at least goes 1/11) or if it’s a possibility that he could really just be just above average and got put through to auditions because he is an academic oddity. I know the academics won’t help getting artistically accepted at most of these schools. Just like everybody else we’re trying to read into every little thing as a predictor of what we will know for certain in 45 days. It looks like passing prescreens means that you are in the top 400 kids that chose to send a prescreen but there aren’t 400 spots at his 11 schools combined. Has anyone heard in years past of someone that had 10 plus auditions and got shut out on final acceptances? Not trying to focus on the negative but maybe a little preparing for worst case scenario. 8 auditions in Chicago next week. I guess he’ll do the best that he can and then wait on pins and needles like everyone else.
That’s all you can do @Jpkcmo - you set your plan and you stick with it and see how it works out. I think everyone should have a back up but that’s me. You do have a bunch of very tough programs and I don’t think passing all the prescreens is a guarantee but I also think that you have a talented boy and he’s set his sights high so second-guessing now is just going to make you crazy. Let him get out there are do his thing, I certainly hope one or more of those great programs loves him.
@Jpkcmo - I know it’s really hard to do, but try not to sweat it so much or try to read anything into anything - maintaining your sanity is crucial! The only certainty in this crazy process is that it’s uncertain. Encourage your S to be himself at every audition, and success will be his! As everybody has been saying: you only need ONE.
@Jpkcmo congrats on the prescreen acceptances and also on the high academic profile of your s!
I’m not an expert by any means, but I think you are asking, is there a higher chance my S will get accepted to at least one very competitive school? And I think the answer is “yes.”
But, you are also asking, is there a chance if my S passed all 11 prescreens that he can get rejected from all? And I think that unfortunately, that answer is also “yes.”
If you are also asking do you think my s should have a backup plan, the answer would be “yes” as well. If you are looking for suggestions, I think there’s some great wisdom here.
If I can offer any advice it would be to relax and enjoy this process as much as you can. Your s sounds amazing and I wish him much success 
@Jpkcmo I think, sadly, we’ve all heard of kids getting shut out. It’s hard to read anything into anything in this crazy process. Since you’re going to Unifieds, if it will make you/him feel better about his chances, you might want to see if he can do any walk-ins at schools that aren’t on his list.
Thanks all. I like how you put it @artandtechmom. I kind of figured the answer to both my questions could be possibly yes. Luckily my son is having a blast with all of the auditions, while I stress over it. Nothing I can do but keep encouraging him to enjoy the ride and what happens will happen. Good luck to everybody and thanks again.
@CaMom13 - I think that the rating is actually quite interesting and helpful. Can you comment which of those schools were the “hard” schools? Thanks!
@Jpkcmo - I don’t think your son’s academics had ANY relevance in passing prescreens - even at the schools like Syracuse and Penn State that have a separate, competitive academic criteria (exception: UMich which I believe has some form of academic review at prescreen phase, though not as complete as full admission). Prescreen is artistic only. Now, for several of those schools: Ithaca, Pace and Otterbein for SURE - he might be artistically denied and still be getting a full court press from the university b/c he is a high stats kid. You have to decide in you are interested in the program, or the university.
@lithpool. Did the portal change too? Waiting for UArts decision but on the road so can’t pick up mail. Checked the portal but it hasn’t changed but not sure if it does change when letter goes out
@Jpkcmo unfortunately I don’t think passing 11/11 is any guarantee. I recall from another forum a boy who was similar last year. Passed the prescreens with all the big name programs with zero acceptances. My son passed prescreens for all the really hard schools this year and his GPA is around 3.2 so don’t think it’s the GPA getting him through prescreens. It’s his talent!! I’m extremely nervous that we will end up with no offers from the top schools even though he passed prescreens. I think it has given him a confidence boost and maybe an expectation that because he passed all the prescreens he will get into one of them -that’s what’s concerning me because there’s a good chance his expectations won’t be met. when I hear that other kids are getting early acceptances that makes me think that he won’t get offers because he’s in the very large group of kids still under consideration so he’s not a top choice. Can’t wait until May 1st!! Anyway enough of my ranting. I’m off to check the portals again,???
Talking about streamlining this process, I have a gripe. Today is the last day to submit CSS for Emerson and others, so that’s another $9, plus $16 for each school, and then they want you to upload your tax returns, etc. I can take the time to upload all of this stuff and then receive an email, letter, whatever communication tomorrow or a week and they say thank you but no for MT acceptance. What a total waste of time and money.
While I am ranting, does anyone know if they just want the 1040 uploaded, or do they want all of the schedules? Lord help me!
@Jpkcmo last year my D had a similar profile - high academics, 32 ACT, much success w/BFA MT prescreens - Michigan, CMU, Pace, Point Park, Temple, Emerson, Elon, Manhattan School of Music, UCLA, Syracuse, NYU Steinhardt. BoCo didn’t have a prescreen last year, but was high on her list. So yes, we were wary of the odds, but confident. And probably over-confident that good academics would help with the artistic decision. It did not. Auditioned at all and then got an offer at one…on the last day before April 1. She did walk-ins at Chicago Unifieds and got got offers from three schools that weren’t on her original list - one of those was very compelling. She was not as interested in the other two programs, but they were good offers. Do walk-in’s, people! So it wasn’t a shutout by any means, but it was a shutout on her “A” list waiting all the way through March, prompting all kinds of second guessing and gap year? make it work at one of the less exciting (to her) schools? conversations. She was leaning toward the latter and I’m sure it would have been just fine. And less expensive! BAL everyone - have so much fun with auditions.
@onepercentmom S just checked and said that his portal did not change.
Ouch, that first rejection hurts. I am logging into different portals to see if anything else is required and reconfirm cutoff dates. I logged into Rider, and it says decision made, not admitted. My D changed her mind about Rider after the audition process, but it still hurts a bit.
The rejections hurt @BWmama - the ones they love hurt more but it’s just HARD to put yourself out there, do your best and be told it’s not good enough. Even though “not good enough” really isn’t the reason for many rejections, that’s what it feels like. Sorry about Rider, hope some of those highly desired programs come through!!!
@HPDbfa - I can’t PM you because you don’t have enough posts. 
I really don’t think discussing a personal ranking of schools by difficulty (they are all hard to get into!) on this thread is a good idea. It can only hurt feelings and engender conflict and that’s not what anyone needs. The acting thread was started over the summer, when everyone knew where their kids were going and the pressure was off so the idea of discussing school admission results objectively was less likely to upset or annoy other members.
@CaMom13 No worries, I was just curious about Millikin. I would guess that it’s a “hard” school, but just curious. I’ll have to post more!
yes @BWmama - the first cut is the deepest! Hang in there!