To follow up on earlier conversation - Onstage has published a list of top 10 BM MTs. It still feels strange to me - like they threw it together at last minute based on what happened with BW on/off the list earlier in the week. (I wish I could remember if Oklahoma had been in original BFA list as well- but I can’t. Only remember the BW so vividly b/c I know 3 kids in the pic they published) Also - question for those in the know… how many BM MT programs are there?
@toowonderful last count there are approx 20 BM MT programs.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20943747#Comment_20943747
@NYYFanNowMTdad MY D is a current senior.
@toowonderful It was always their intent to do both a BFA and a BM list. Their projected timeline of various lists was published last week - https://www.onstageblog.com/onstage-blog-news/2018/8/20/understanding-onstage-blogs-college-rankings. And yes, Oklahoma was on the original BFA list.
My question (and obviously no one here knows the answer), is if they always intended to do BFA and BM - how did the lists get messed up in the 1st place? and @afterp89 - they’ve updated that article… I took a screenshot of their original timetable on Au 21st when that article was 1st published (b/c I am just the sort of person who likes a schedule) BM does NOT appear on the list (it was to be bfa MT, the MFA acting for those keeping score at home)…
So many people take these lists as end all- be all (and I enjoy seeing my kid’s school on them - no question) But this makes the methodology suspect… in my humble opinion. And what makes it ironic is that I am the one who posted the link to their article about methodology… b/c I was excited at the idea of someone being transparent. (in years past we have seen links go up and be hotly debated where it turns out that the list was compiled by a student at the #1 school, or was based on a student survey - but you had to DIG to find that out) ah well 
Just venting a bit with this post about my D’s challenges for this year. We got way ahead in planning and preparing - but goes to show you cannot plan for every contingency. We started visiting schools spring break of her sophomore year and then she went to AMDA’s summer MT program as a rising junior - and earned admission through audition at the end of the program. She liked their option of either jumping in professionally after 2 years of conservatory training or continuing on to finish the BFA liberal arts requirements junior/senior years. So far so good - at least we know she’ll get in somewhere.
Continued visits during junior year and getting as much information as possible. Then the challenges started. First, the church choir director she’s been with for 7 years and has set her up for vocal performance gigs left our church. His replacement won’t be on board until the end of September. Then the acting teacher she’s been with at the PVA high school took a job with the state arts council - school starts tomorrow and she hasn’t met the acting teacher yet who will hopefully be helping her with choosing monologues and more. Finally, then the professional opera singer who has served as her teacher for vocal lessons decided to move to Europe with her husband and tour around going on auditions. We’ve got a new vocal teacher who is great and that she’s done workshops with, but she’s still getting to learn my D and help identify the best songs for her.
We had hoped to have most of the prescreens done before school starts, but now it’s looking like the end of September at the earliest. The PVA program will have an “Audition Boot Camp” which works great for on-campus, but won’t be as much help for the prescreens. I’m not upset with any of the people who have left for better opportunities, but it all has me a little frustrated for my D.
Anyway, we did get some good news from the early start. She got her first academic acceptance today - West Virginia University (Maryland students studying MT can pay in-state tuition there). WVU audition is mid-November, so I’m assuming we’ll know for sure around Christmas.
@afterp89 that’s so frustrating! I mean, it sounds like everyone involved has gotten great opportunities to move on to, but definitley gums up the works for your daughter. It’s good that you have this spot to vent.
The good news is that you did your visiting, so your daughter knows where she wants to audition and (if you haven’t already, but you do sound prepared so maybe you did this already) you can take this time to become intimately familiar with all of the myriad requirements that each school has for their prescreens and auditions. For many schools, getting the prescreen in by the end of September will be just fine.
Using this time to learn how to emotionally deal with crises and changes in plans will be good for her (and you 
) too, since there will be plenty of that to come in college and professionally!
Hang in there!
I’m an MT mom from high-school class of 2017, and I just wanted to say, first, GOOD LUCK TO ALL OF YOU. Being at the side of your performing artist offspring through this process is very emotional, but also incredibly rewarding . . . um, over time. In the moment it can be harrowing, not going to lie. And you won’t ever see me post the “what’s meant to be will be” point of view, because I don’t think that way, but I definitely believe that if your child casts a wide net, then someone (or more than one someone) out there in the sea of adjudicators (who are mostly wonderful theater people and educators) is going to truly LOOK and SEE your child clearly and there will be a spark there, and that person’s school will be the right one for your child. Can’t say for sure that it will be a first choice or even on their radar yet (don’t forget about walk-ins at Unifieds), but the connection will form. (Again, a wide net is necessary.) Second, every year I see on this board at about this time of year frustration with prescreens taking longer than planned. Like many of you, my daughter hoped to have hers done very early in the fall (or at least that was my plan), but they ended up taking much longer. My daughter decided it was more important to feel genuinely good about the videos before she hit “send” on any of them than to be ahead of the other applicants in submitting them, and that turned out to be the right call, as she had a great success rate with her prescreens. Better a little later and solid, than early and less than one’s best. Just my two cents. Again, good luck! One motto we found helpful: “Pursue those impractical dreams—but be practical about it.”
@afterp89 Prescreens done by the end of September is actually VERY good and very much on schedule! I would not worry about that small slip in time! Would her former acting teacher coach her via Skype?
@artskids I think the former teacher will help if/when she can. She already wrote an amazing letter of recommendation. She’s given her good material to work with in the past - but most of the monologues are way too long. Finding decent ones under a minute is pretty tough.
@afterp89 - yes - my kids found cutting appropriate monologues to be quite difficult!
Check out performerstuff.com. There are monologues from published plays on there that you can purchase (so no copywright violation worries). Classic ones are free, of course. You can search by male vs female, comedic vs dramatic, etc. There is even a link to purchase the entire play on Amazon or Samuel French, etc. They tell you how long the monologue is uncut and you can work from there.
I went through this process last year and just wanted to share a document that really helped with our college list: https://www.broadwayartistsalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Colleges-and-Performing-Arts-Programs-Packet-2015.pdf#page=1&zoom=auto,-73,798
I saw earlier posts about those top MT lists - don’t take those too seriously and if you are going to use them at least go back for several years because they seem to like to put a variety of schools on the lists. The ones this year seem to have a lot of schools I never even heard of! LOL But they can give you some programs to look into but can also confuse you. I would have an idea of what your child is looking for and what your priorities are (BFA/BA, cost, large/small school, location, acting/voice/dance focused…) For example our priorities were location and higher level dance options. The document above is where we started because it lists schools by state. And may help with some close by safety schools for you. Anyway, just wanted to pass that along! Good Luck to Everyone!
oh one more thing - there are schools that are harder to get into scholastically (for example UM and Penn and CMU) but do not look at the school expectations of grades or test scores - those DO NOT apply to MT students! If you have over a 3.0 and 24 ACT don’t let academics stop you. If you are under that than you may not get past pres-screens for a few of the schools (although doesn’t hurt to try) but most will be looking more at the talent than grades.
…and if it hasn’t been said already - get BW and CCM applications in as soon as possible - their auditions slots will fill up pretty quickly!
@MTdreamz - you are correct about CMU, but I believe Penn state, and I know U of M do apply their regular academic admissions standards to BFA students. There may be a touch more “wiggle”, but you need to be in the ballpark.
@toowonderful that is not what it says on the UM theatre admissions page https://smtd.umich.edu/admissions/undergraduate-admissions/admission-guidelines
We require freshman applicants to achieve the following:
Graduation from an accredited high school.
GPA of 3.0 or better (calculated using unweighted grades in all subjects taken from 9th–11th grade.)
Completion of either the SAT or the ACT. Please note that U-M does not accept rush scores. We require official test scores, sent to us by the agency; test scores included with a transcript are not sufficient. Minimum score requirements are:
ACT of 24 or better
SAT of 1180 or better
The Bachelor of Science in Sound Engineering requires a GPA of 3.5, an SAT math sub score of 630 or better, or an ACT math sub score of 28 or better.
As of summer 2018, U-M no longer requires the essay portion of the SAT or ACT.
@afterp89 - I stand corrected. This may be a new policy, and TBH I have zero direct experience as my child did not apply to Michigan - I just know I have read about academic standards and U of M many times, and the average is much higher than that.
@toowonderful - I just wanted to double check, because my D is definitely interested in UM but was worried she didn’t have the stats. Based on the info on the site, she’s going to go for it.
When a school posts their minimum threshold, it doesn’t then follow that as long as you have over that minimum bar, you are fine on the academic aspect of the admissions process. They are simply telling those below that bar to not bother applying. I believe that U of Michigan cares about the academic profile of its applicants to the BFA program, and will look for a challenging high school level curriculum, good grades and above average in the standardized testing, plus all the other things like activities, essays and recommendations. There are more qualified applicants to the BFA program than they can take and so talent being equal among some contenders, a strong academic profile is going to be preferred or have better odds of admissions at UMich.
This list got updated today. I always find it interesting, as my favorite part of reading a playbill is scanning for colleges