I was reading something where it said you won’t get a prescreen pass for MT unless your student would be admitted academically and if your student wouldn’t be accepted academically, they won’t get a pass even if the auditions are solid.
So I guess my question is…is it customary to receive an academic acceptance before receiving a callback for auditions, or how does it all work together?
It depends on the school and whether their academic admission separate from the audition or not. Every school is a little different and the academic and artistic notifications can come separate or together, depending on school. If you don’t see the specific words that you’ve been accepted as a insert major you’re auditioning for here student, then it’s only academic.
Some schools will not admit you unless you are accepted into the program you audition for, but others might give you academic acceptance (with honors college and lots of merit!!) before you even hear about the prescreen. Or even after you’ve been given a “no.” Some of the ones that reject you artistically will aggressively try to get you to enroll anyway… 
Many times, if academic admission is tied to the audition, it will say so somewhere on the college’s website; such as where the audition info is. Emerson is one of those; they say they weight academic and audition equally before making a decision.
Another example is Wagner, which has you apply academically, and if you will be accepted for academics, you will be invited to audition.
Best of luck, it’s stressful sorting those out, and so hard to get a big fat envelope and realize it has nothing to do with artistic admission.
Oh wow, so confusing, LOL!! But that makes sense. We got an academic acceptance with aid an merit scholarships from one school and she hasn’t submitted her prescreen for that yet. We submitted prescreen and common app for Hartt (her dream school) and I wasn’t sure if we’d hear about the academic piece first because it’s rolling admission, or if we’d hear about the prescreen, and also if she didn’t pass the prescreen if they would still accept her to the school as an undeclared major, you know?
This is so confusing!
My daughter applied to a lot of schools last year so it’s hard to keep them straight, but I feel like Hartt was one of the ones last year that we got a message after she did NOT pass the prescreen that if we would still like to be considered for the school to inform them, otherwise they would consider that she was withdrawing her application.
It is so confusing. The really hard ones are the ones that, despite not being accepted artistically, keep sending things. My favorite last year was Texas Christian. Shortly after hearing that she hadn’t gotten in artistically, a large box arrived in the mail with a yard sign (something along the lines of future TCU student lives here). Also puzzles, socks, financial aid packages. It got to the point that I started to try to intercept the mail if I saw something from a school she had already been rejected from artistically!
I seem to remember the same thing, there was no further follow up after Hartt prescreen did not progress, although my S was so annoyed with them that he may have immediately withdrawn.
My D applied to Hartt on 11/4. Passed prescreen on 12/5. Has heard nothing about academic acceptance. Maybe they wait on academic until after your final audition?
I thought about that, but then they say it’s rolling admission and you should hear in 2-3 weeks. Maybe they need to specify that’s for non-audition programs only?
Quite possibly. 
We’re finding this to be the most difficult part! My daughter has gotten several academic admissions with substantial merit scholarships that for any other child would be cause for champagne. But for these same schools, she’s got to wait on results from auditions - so the whole thing is somewhat anti-climatic even though we’re trying to make a big deal out of each affirmation she gets. I keep telling her there are worse things than being financially rewarded for your academic hard work, right? 
The other side of this is that my S definitely got into a few academic schools that would have been a huge reach if not for the theater supplement!
Oh so that’s interesting, from what I was reading, they were separate and didn’t impact each other, but I’m sure that’s dependent on the school as well.
I am referring to schools that were BA acting that were not audition based that he sent an acting supplement.
Oh I see!
this is such a drag and it happens every year!!! sometimes you get confetti and a gift followed by the prescreen rejection! yup it stinks!
My DD had the opposite suspense. She was shocked and thrilled to get THE dream call about artistic acceptance, but then had to wait 23 more days for the academic decision. We THOUGHT it would be okay, based on hearsay that most schools have lower academic standards for MT (hers weren’t terrible but definitely below posted school standards.) However, when her Admissions Counselor said, in response to my D’s first email, something like “that’s great news that you’ve been accepted to MT- You can expect to receive our academic decision on 12/20” it took the wind out of our sails and made us incredibly anxious about the academic piece (especially bc in prior years, some mt kids were indeed told early about academic decision.) Thankfully, it did work out for her but the lesson was that every school does it differently and there isn’t always a clear explanation made public to applicants.
Oh, wow. How nerve wracking! What school was that? Congrats to your daughter, btw!
I know this is true for u of Michigan. That’s why you need to have the whole application done with transcripts /recommendations/scores, etc . They won’t pass you through unless they feel you can get in academically regardless of your pre-screen
It was Elon
unweighted GPA 4.0 ?!! Would 3.8 or 3.9 stand a chance? n got SAT 1380 only 
yes, my S passed the prescreen with an unweighted 3.7 and 1430