<p>If you have a recommendation from someone who has been working with you as a teacher or director, would you have that person send it to the college as another recommendation, send it to the theatre department specifically (don’t even know if they would take it that way!) or bring it to the audition? (Some schools don’t ask for a letter, so I’m not sure they would accept one at the audition.)</p>
<p>Any advice about this?</p>
<p>Thank you!!</p>
<p>Has no one had one of these recommendations? Thanks!</p>
<p>Unless you are requested to do so, I would NOT bring any artistic recommendation letters to the audition.</p>
<p>Some schools require artistic references. If so, they would tell you how to submit them.</p>
<p>If an artistic recommendation is not required and you decide to send one anyway, I’d send it to the theatre department. This should be done after the student’s application has been processed, so that you can include the reference number (or whatever) for identification.</p>
<p>There are two schools of thought. According to one of them, it is best to do exactly what the school requests, because they like to see that applicants can follow instructions. </p>
<p>(I believe that NYU/Tisch says they don’t want artistic recommendations. There may be other schools that make similar statements.)</p>
<p>The other school of thought is that it is okay to send them, even to a school that says they don’t want them.</p>
<p>In any case, if it is an audition program, the audition counts far more than any other factor.</p>
<p>I would chime in with the others here, and advise you to read each school’s admissions page(s) very carefully, because they’re all different (including those that accept the Common Application). NYU/Tisch explicitly states that it wants recommendations from academic teachers; Emerson also said as much when we visited. My son is in an IB Theater Arts program at school, where the teacher knows him better than any academic teachers, but we will only use her recommendations for some schools.</p>
<p>If you do see that certain schools accept letters and decide to send them, it would be best to send any recommendation letters to the university yourself. It is just more courteous to the person who wrote the letter for you. Also-- there is a better chance of the letter getting to the school because it is going through only your hands and, as NJTheatreMOM said, you can include your reference number in it.</p>
<p>Break a leg at your auditions, and I hope this helps. If you have any questions, feel free to message me! :D</p>
<p>I am new to this process, so I welcome corrections by others who have already been through it, but it looks to me like the “Arts Supplement” of the Common Application allows for the uploading of a recommendation from an arts teacher, which would include theater arts teachers, directors, etc. This could be a way of getting that rec in front of admissions committees.</p>
<p>Hi northdad, I think that the college has to accept the arts supplement for you to be able to submit it. Most of the colleges to which my daughter is applying don’t take it.</p>
<p>RTR, yes, after looking more carefully at the common app sight I now see your point: virtually none of the bfa acting programs that are regularly discussed on these boards accepts the arts supplement; at least that is what I glean from this pdf:</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.commonapp.org/commonapp/docs/downloadforms/common2010_Grid.pdf[/url]”>https://www.commonapp.org/commonapp/docs/downloadforms/common2010_Grid.pdf</a></p>
<p>I tried to get letters from my more artistic teachers, such as my choir director and the department head. Not only did they have the best things to say, but they were able to speak about the categories that mattered.</p>