<p>Remember too to not look at the outcome at a particular school or schools as the definitive picture. You can only attend one school or program. Look at the total outcome. Do not pin hopes on just the favorite ones on the list. Sarahsmom....your D got into three BFAs, hurray! I don't know much about Drake, but Hartt is a good program and BOCO is a well known program in this field. She done good! She even has choices. Look at the big picture. Sure the "no's" were disappointing but she has places to go. I can assure you once these kids get involved in their new settings, they will enjoy themselves and the angst of this admission process will be over. </p>
<p>It is hard on the parents to see their kids disappointed, absolutely! But disappointments happen in life. For lots of kids, particularly all these talented ones, it is perhaps one of their first disappointments of not getting chosen for something. It is going to happen so many more times if they go into this field. It's not the fun part but it is something they will experience often. Best to be realistic and to be open of many options. It need not be one program or one particular school. There are lots of places to train and to thrive and to be happy. It will happen. Maybe not where you dreamt, but other dreams will come true.</p>
<p>For parents, it is so hard to see their kids have to go through the down moments! Try to help them look on the positive side of things. All of life will involve some down turns. It likely is harder for the parents and it is one of the first time that parents have no control over what will happen for their kids. It's not easy but you all will endure it! There are bright futures for your kids, never forget. There will be down turns on their journey.</p>
<p>I agree that there are very viable alternatives to expending the costs of summer programs and expensive private voice, acting or dance classes. School shows and choral groups, community theatre, low cost classes at the local Y are all ways to learn and get experience. My daughter's first "voice teacher" was the cantor at out synogogue who is operatically trained and runs a youth choir that my daughter participated in for years. She worked with my daughter regularly on additional numbers for her to perform and on solos with the choir. </p>
<p>The most important resources for this process that we can give our kids as parents are our unconditional love, support and understanding, teaching them the values of a strong work ethic and perseverence, instilling in them a strong healthy sense of themselves and being there for them when they feel like the world has kicked them in the gut. A parent who does their best at these things has nothing to appologize for or regret.</p>
<p>And summer programs are not in anyway a guarantee on admissions. Of the seniors among the 50 or so kids in the UArts program my daughter's year (2005), we know of only 2 that were accepted into the performing arts department there. Of the seniors who were among the 21 kids in the Syracuse program last summer, we are unaware of anyone else who was accepted and know of 3 who were rejected and 1 who was waitlisted. As has been stated, the value of these programs is not an "edge" that you get for college applications, it's the experience itself and similar experiences can be found in many other milieus.</p>
<p>MichaelNKat, at least one other kid from the Syracuse precollege summer program got into SU early decision. Of course, that is not to say that being in the program gave your D and this other person an edge! Summer programs are great for training, exposure to the arts, etc. But, as wiser people have said, don't count on them to help your kid get into a school.</p>
<p>"Having a child is like having your heart walk around in someone else's body."</p>
<p>I am going to frame that quote. It is exactly how I feel. I feel every tear of joy and every tear of pain....and I would not want it any other way. As crazy as it sounds, I can sense when my d's are having a bad day...even my older one who is away at college.
My younger d (flute) has one of the most wonderful private teachers ....she has been there to sweep up the crumbled little pieces of d's heart after bad auditions. What she has said that the kids who go through these roller coaster auditions are stronger, and become even more prepared. We have definately seen this to be true for our d. Older d (MT) went through an absolutely gut wrenching senior year. She had been the one who got everything, rather easily. As horrible as this was to go through, it made her so much stronger. She now can go to auditions and accept when she is not cast, or even when she does not get a call back!! She has grown so much this year. Both of my d's have to realize that in the profession that they are chosing, bad auditions and rejections are part of the job. Now I need to learn to accept that!! These kids are much stronger than I ever was...or ever will be.
As far as summer program,s well, older d did not do any camps, but always performed in a summer show. Younger d (15) has applied to several summer long camps with the sole intention to better her skills. She is incredibly excited to go, doing all of the research herself for these camps. Yes, they are obscenely (sp?) expensive, but I feel (and hope) it will be worth it for her. (I am the one who is not looking forward to her being gone!!) Not sure if older d would have even gone away for 6-8 weeks over the summer!! We just did not really know they were out there....sadly enough.</p>
<p>All this talk of financing training and of local opportunities (or lack therof) has me rooting ever harder and louder for our Kayla from Barbados. Still hoping that slow US Mail will bring her good news in the forthcoming weeks.</p>
<p>notfromme, I know what you mean about not looking forward to a child being gone. People are always saying stuff like "Oh, I bet you can't wait to get some time to yourself. You are always driving that girl around to lessons and auditions and shows." And yes, I complain sometimes about being tired, or having to drive to one more voice lesson. But the truth is that I love every minute of it. (OK, not <em>every</em> minute. But most minutes.) I think all of you parents know of which I speak when I say that some of my best talks with my daughter have occurred spontaneously, as we drive back and forth to rehearsals, etc. Sigh. Guess I am getting sentimental here .... :)</p>
<p>sarahsmom ... sending a hug your way... you are a great supportive mom with a very lucky family! Remember that with everything you have been through this year there will be times that all of you will feel more down than you might otherwise. I hope Sarah can find her niche in one of the programs she has been accepted at and I am sure she will thrive wherever she chooses.
nmr... oh no you are making me cry and I have been so stoic so far!!! I remember exactly that kind of conversation last year as Eva prepared for CMU pre-college. </p>
<p>One of the biggest values was for me not for her!</p>
<p>I was able to process some of my feelings about letting go and I think it helped enormously throughout this year. We have been able to have a closeness I cherish without losing a healthy respect for her space (I think!).</p>
<p>Sarahsmom, The perception that most applicants have had the benefit of premier summer programs and performing arts high schools along with CC commentary accelerated my anxiety, too. However, kids really are accepted into many strong programs even without the camps, etc. Some local help with monologues over a few sessions, regular photos for headshots and no experience other than public school shows can yield good acceptances. Auditors are looking for students who can be directed and who have qualities of character that will help them stay the course. Good, old-fashioned summers can inspire creativity and out-of-the-box thinking, which is a good thing for actors. Summer MT/acting programs are great if the kid is asking for them - for the experience, not the resume building - but I look at it the way people say liberal arts education helps actors; all that narrow focus all year isn't the best approach for every kid. Actors need experiences to bring to their work, not just technique.</p>
<pre><code>I think that D will end up at Drake. It's a good fit for her. If Elon or Ithaca come through, they would be better choices based strictly on the beef of the program's curriculum and how the schools "felt" to her
As far as the summer programs are concerned, I DO think that the kids that attended them DID have an "edge". They had each other. Everywhere we went, kids that had met at pre-college or summer camp were squealing with delight at seeing each other. What a great stress buster! Going off to college can be very intimidating, exciting and lonely all at the same time. When we dropped our older D off at Maryland last fall my husband and I could remember very well the feeling of being "alone in universe" that first day on campus. Having a couple of familiar faces would have been nice!
Yes, you can only go to one school. Make sure that you hone your list very carefully. The list my D had changed dramatically as the auditon process went on. Some schools that we thought were going to be wonderful ended up being crossed off all together. I wish that we could have visited all of the schools prior to auditioning, but once again, we could not do it all. We have three kids to put through college and we don't want them to have a bunch of debt when they graduate. Maybe we should have let them have the debt and spent more money visiting and going to camp! I guess we'll never know!
Thanks everyone for the support!
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<pre><code> Thanks again. You are all right. I'm tired and probably hormonal (sorry michaelnkat). It will all look better in a few weeks!
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<p>Sarahsmom42,
That's ok, my daughter tells me this process has made me hormonal too. Except in my case I'm so hyperfocused that my daughter has announced that I'm suffering from testosterone toxicity.</p>
<p>Interesting discussion....Is it worth the money?</p>
<p>My d attended CMU pre-college last year and that was the only summer program she did. It was a definite family effort to make it work! My daughter had to come up with a certain amount of money, my parents chipped in, she got a local performing arts scholarship and we paid the rest. It was an extremely expensive venture but she felt it was extremely worth it! Sarah'smom is right about the kids knowing each other at auditions. That alone made it worth it. What a fabulous thing it was for her to have that familiar face at just about every audition she was at. </p>
<p>Did it give her an advantage? Ummm...not sure. Maybe in terms of how prepared she was but I think cc also provided a tremendous advantage and that didn't cost me anything! Will you have a better chance to get into CMU if you go to pre-college? I don't think so. As far as we can tell only two students from pre-college (out of 160 or so) got accepted to CMU, my d and a boy who got in for acting. When my daughter was at pre-college she never had any of the three faculty members who were at the unifieds doing auditions. She only met the voice professor on the final audition day of pre-college and at a workshop he held. So it's not like they knew her better than anyone else. </p>
<p>We didn't visit any schools ahead of time except for Elon because we have seen shows there for years and CMU because of pre-college. Every other school my daughter chose to audition at was because of what she researched about them, word of mouth, reputation and things she liked about what they offered. I am glad that we did not incur the extra expense of visiting all over. We saved that for auditioning. It worked for us. </p>
<p>I wish she had better opportunities too. We have seen the kids who have grown up working in equity theaters or who have parents with connections, or have been taken classes in NYC with big name voice and monologue coaches and my daughter did not have any of that! All of her experience came from school and community theater and she ended up doing better than we ever thought she would. </p>
<p>If you can make a summer program work...great! If not...don't worry about it. Just taken in every opportunity to learn what you can along the way. There are some wonderful community theaters out there who may even be willing to trade some classes for some office help or something. Or in my daughter's case, trade babysitting for voice lessons every now and then!</p>
<h2>" As far as we can tell only two students from pre-college (out of 160 or so) got accepted to CMU, my d and a boy who got in for acting." </h2>
<p>Actually one of the other girls who was accepted to M/T did indeed attend CMU's pre-college in 2005. (So at least 2 out of the 3 or 4 girls accepted did attend.) (Same in stats in this yrs. Freshman's M/T class.) </p>
<p>However, having said that, I agree that attending a pre-college program should be for the joy and experience only (not for the "edge"). I do believe (the larger "edge") that students coming from a performing arts high school have more of an impact....oh and let's not forget being a male helps too.
:confused: :)</p>
<p>I went to CMU's precollege program and going there was one of the best decisions I've ever made.</p>
<p>I had never been away from home, and I wasn't even sure if going far away would work out for me. I was so nervous, and I thought I'd be coming home after the first week. I was completely wrong. At the end of the program, I realized going away was EXACTLY what I wanted to do. It gave me indepedence, and by the end, I was crying because I didn't WANT to be home.</p>
<p>It clarified my decision to go into MT as a major in college, as well. It was extremely rigorous and demanding, and I know that a few people realized that MT wasn't where they wanted to be in college.</p>
<p>It also gave me the confidence I needed to go into the auditions. The actual material I used for my auditions I could have found on my own, but before CMU, I didn't have the confidence/knowledge to go into any of the auditions.</p>
<p>I also made lifelong friends who share in my love for theater and have helped me get through this process!</p>
<p>The only set back is that by going to CMU's precollege program, I don't believe you have any more of a chance of getting into the BFA program for college.</p>
<p>Regarding CMU pre-college, I believe that according to the summer faculty introductions, very few (if any) were actually CMU faculty. Most came from other programs or professional ranks. So, exposure to actual faculty at pre-college isn't an advantange at CMU. It may not be the same for other pre-college programs.</p>
<p>OCU's summer program is great and may not cost quite as much as some of the other programs. The students do get to work with the real college faculty. It was a wonderful experience.</p>
<p>We know many people who have gone to the summer program and have not gotten in for the college MT program, so this is similar to what is being said above - go for the training, the friends, the wonderful experience. Do not go because you believe it gives you a benefit getting into the program.</p>
<p>PS - many who have not gotten into OCU for MT were still offered one of the acting programs there.</p>
<p>UArts program is also very good and costs 1/2 what most of the other summer college MT programs cost. Faculty is some of the same faculty as the BFA program so you can get a feel of whether you mesh with the faculty if you are considering the school for the future.</p>
<p>I am new to this site and this is actually my first post. My D is still in high school and will graduate 2010. I got on this site to research MT programs and colleges, and it is amazing what I have learned so far.
But, now I read about summer programs. I guess I feel so unimformed, what are these all about? How much do they cost? Where are they and which are the best? Please help a late bloomin' mom.</p>