<p>MsMommy, my theatre daughter went to a school like you are describing except it was larger, and started in middle school. It is not surprising at all that someone that is as confident about admission to the schools on your son’s list, would not have already thought through their willingness to walk away, and wait it out if they don’t get in to one of these highly competitive schools. It’s not easy to decide to be the one who puts up his hand and says, “I’m not going because I didn’t get in anywhere, or at least not anywhere I was willing to go” if you come out of that kind of a high school environment. If he is, then KEVP offers very decent advice and I’d say, let him roll the dice with his current list. </p>
<p>Meanwhile though, I’ll echo the caution already shared by others. There is not a safety school (that he seems to be taking seriously) on his list. Not one. It doesn’t mean he won’t get into many of the schools on his list and have the last laugh. He might if he is among the most talented of the hundreds of auditions that the schools will see, and if he is lucky enough to be “on” at every audition and also to be the “type” that a school wants to include in their program if they pay attention to that sort of thing. That’s a lot of “ands”. But hey, as long as he understands he’s taking a risk of getting in nowhere, roll the dice with the list he’s got. He needs to know that the extraordinary talent out in the bigger world is redundant many times over. If he’s lucky, he’s in company with that crowd as a starting point.</p>
<p>On the academic side of things, as a cautionary tale, my daughter’s high school (also one of those uber prep type schools) regularly has about 40+ National Merit Semi-Finalists out of a class of 120, I’d hate to tell you how many of them apply to schools like Northwestern and do not get in. National Merit measures how well you did on the PSAT test. The PSAT test has nothing to do with admissions. I’m glad to see your son’s SAT performance kept pace which is why he isn’t worried as far as test scores go, but there are also plenty of kids that I know that are not National Merit candidates of any flavor that turn around and kick butt on the SAT when the time comes. They prep for the SAT because it counts. Not everyone pays much attention to the PSAT. Point being, the competition can come from places you were not expecting.</p>
<p>I’m sure he is suffering from the same application fatigue that my son is right now. It’s a delicate dance to nudge them to do anything. This is my second time through it and the one thing that I did pay attention to this time (and didn’t two years ago), was finding a real highly likely fit for admission school that my kid was completely willing to embrace and feel excited about. We talk as much about that school as an awesome option in our house, on par with the others because it is. In fact, the safety may well end up being the school he picks even if he does get into the far reach schools which he just might.</p>
<p>I agree with what Halflokum says; however, I think you can be confident that the addition of URI to your son’s list puts him comfortably in the safety zone. Re: Northwestern, we had a student recently with sky-high stats and legitimate vocal talent who was accepted at a gazillion competitive schools and conservatories (both auditioned and non, for MT and VP), wait-listed at Harvard, and flat-out rejected by Northwestern. She is happily ensconced and singing her heart out at Yale. With the uber-competitive schools, it’s just impossible to predict results!</p>
<p>^^^I agree Times3 but that is what I meant by my “that he seems to be taking seriously” in brackets in my post. If he takes it seriously and gives the school its proper due, then yes, it seems like an obvious safety. And Rhode Island is a beautiful state and a very nice place to go to college. (It is U Rhode Island right?)</p>
<p>MsMommy, you mentioned earlier that your son was interested in auditioning for UK schools but said their info wasn’t up yet. Maybe you know this by now, but their info is definitely up and running My own son has finished the applications for them. The deadlines are a little later than US schools however.</p>
<p>Ah, gotcha, Halflokum–didn’t notice your parenthetical remark when I posted! And yep, it’s Univ. of Rhode Island (at least, I think so based on some earlier posts).</p>
<p>just wanted to say hello everyone. GREAT advice not just for our new member but for all of us. Thanks!!! and msmommy, u did not hijack this thread at all. It started out with 5boys sharing her son’s decisions with all of us re the BA route and has gone in so many different directions since then. I’d say beginning with page 3 if not sooner it has turned into the parents support and advice thread for all our kids as we go through this time. So you fit right in!!!</p>
<p>I’d suggest to anyone to tie up some safeties early in the process. We pounced on U of Minn. No essay, no app fee, rolling admissions, great city, solid BA program.</p>
<p>My daughter’s going for a BA Theatre, and we’re following her GC’s advice 2-3 schools in each bracket: safety, target and reach. We’ve told our daughter after those apps are in; she can knock herself out and apply to as many reaches as she wants.</p>
<p>That makes so much sense arwarw. I am very lucky that my son’s so called safety is a great match for him in so many other areas and he should get full tuition there to boot. It has made him a little too laid back in this process but it is is good to know he has somewhere to go that he’e excited about already(at least i’ll feel that way once he is admitted). He should be admitted there but I will feel better with an admissions and scholarship letter in hand. it is a BA non auditioned(at least to start) program.</p>
<p>haflokum,. once again, great advice and on ur last paragraph, u already know how wound up I can get in this process But some of the best part of this process is having my son find that school that is a great match for him and seeing that process evolve. His college visits really helped that process along and ended up being more for helping him find what he really wanted than a specific school being the ONE. For example, we learned on the Philly trip he wants URBAN, forget suburban, forget a country school. That narrowed the field a lot!!! and when in Cali, he realized it was really hard to stay in touch with his EC friends due to the time difference and for him that is a BIG issue. He knows he will make new friends in college but to shlep to the other coast and have a harder time even connecting with his existing friends has been added to his equation of where he wants to go. He is still seriously considering LA schools but is doing so with that in the back of his mind. And we had a great chat at one of the Ivies. He was feeling as though he should apply, because after all, it was “…” And I told him, look even if this is the “best” school in the country, we’re not looking for that. We are looking at what is the best school for u. He has since scratched all the Ivies off his list and took that advice to heart.</p>
<p>connections, THANKS! My son has completed the LAMDA app as that is the one he was seriously considering…the Guildhall and RADA are “might as well”…and he doesn’t always articulate the “why” of a decision unless pushed. And there’s so much going on right now I try not to push unless necessary. Anyway…LAMDA has not published firm US audition dates…and we were trying to be sure we could fit it into his schedule, that is what I meant by info not being published yet. I see that the other two have published dates and I really appreciate the heads-up on that. This week is his final rehearsal for Richard III, performances next weekend, so I guess that is why I was feeling the “push” this weekend. He will have time for nothing but school, rehearsal and performances this week. Next week a bit of breathing room, then term finals. I wanted to make sure we weren’t missing anything…and frankly…without this thread, I would have missed the Fordham deadline (well, we did miss it…I need to call today to see if there was any leeway there).</p>
<p>I know I seem “late to the dance”. It is just how we roll around here. We are all so Type A that things work better when one of the parents takes the “lead” and the other stays out of it…at the beginning, anyway. So my husband (who has worked hard all his life to make sure he can send his boys to their dream schools) took the reins on this one early on and I’ve just stayed in the background…watching…doing some research…but basically trying to stay out of it…until it became obvious that he did not have a safety (in my opinion) and this thread confirmed it. And the link about not getting into ANY of one’s choices really drove it home. Thanks for posting that, arwarw! </p>
<p>I really am breathing easier. The conversation has been opened and I can see that my son is beginning to understand the “why” of it. Also, it helps that I can say that the seasoned parents/actors/counselors on CC are saying this…so he is more apt to believe it…rather than thinking it is just “kooky mom”.</p>
<p>Just one more thing…and maybe this belongs in its own thread, but given he has the stats to get in almost anywhere (if only life was “fair”), and given that he wants EC or WC (almost exclusively…Pittsburgh and Chicago are pushing it), and given that he would like to be near a large city (but doesn’t necessarily need to be IN it…given that CalArts (in Valencia) and Purchase are two of his top choices), does anyone have another safety recommendation based on your research or visits? I’m not asking you to do further research for me (I know we are ALL busy)…just wondering if anything pops up for you?</p>
<p>Thanks again, everyone. Have a wonderful week.</p>
<p>Yes. Pittsburgh or Point park are 2 other options. I will give you more details soon as I know some about both these schools and the city of Pittsburgh</p>
<p>Pitt is BA, non auditioned and a small program. But since they are small, it seems like they have the willingness to work with the kids. and several of the schools in Pittsburgh, including Pitt let you take one class a semester at another campus. there are some hoops to go through but that clearly seems to be option. Unlikely he could take any of the BFA classes at CMU if a Pitt student but it seems like acting classes at Point Park is an option and acting classes at any of the other colleges is clearly an option . Plus the city of Pitt has its share of off campus theatre options so he could audition off campus too. His stats are great for Pitt so he should have no trouble being admitted there and it’s a fun college and a great college town. I think there may even be some agents in the area. Point park is auditioned and I think they have a BFA and a BA. Same thing with being allowed to take classes at other schools. People from the pittsburgh area have recommended Pitt over PP for my kid. Pitt has something called a repetory theatre that I think is open to all students and apparently great. and they just felt like Pitt would be a lot more fun than PP to go to college. My guess is people in the theatre community would suggest PP over pitt. I don’t think Pitt is what your kid is looking for in theatre but if he is willing to go to school in Pittsburgh, it would be an option.</p>
<p>One more question…my son’s audition schedule for NY and LA will overlap with Unifieds in both cities. We have only scheduled one audition per day. I have read in the forums that some people were pulled in to audition at Unifieds…and were accepted to a school they hadn’t considered, but ended up being a good match.</p>
<p>Would anyone recommend researching schools that attend Unifieds…and then spending any spare time there to gauge the interest…and possibly do some walk-in auditions?</p>
<p>feel free to pm me on Pitt if you want. Same for Temple which is one of my kid’s top choices. In fact, Philly has a lot of schools with acting programs.</p>
<p>Swarthmore is also an option and is just outside Philly. It has low admit rate though for oveall admissions. and there are several Philly suburban schools that I can’t think of right now but there are a lot(Haverford. Brywn Mawr). Columbia has an acting program through Barnard that might be BA? Given his SAT scores, that could be option. and I’m pretty sure Pace has a BA option. Their theatre school is in lower manhatten.</p>
<p>Thanks, ctl987. I will look at Temple and Swarthmore. I think he has to send a DVD for Pace and he is planning to make that during Finals week…must be for their BFA? Maybe also consider the BA! I’ll check with him on this. If I remember correctly, he does NOT like Columbia’s program…his CC was pushing him toward this, but he would not apply.</p>
Re: Northwestern, we had a student recently with sky-high stats and legitimate vocal talent who was accepted at a gazillion competitive schools and conservatories (both auditioned and non, for MT and VP), wait-listed at Harvard, and flat-out rejected by Northwestern. She is happily ensconced and singing her heart out at Yale. With the uber-competitive schools, it’s just impossible to predict results!</p>
But some of the best part of this process is having my son find that school that is a great match for him and seeing that process evolve. His college visits really helped that process along and ended up being more for helping him find what he really wanted than a specific school being the ONE. For example, we learned on the Philly trip he wants URBAN, forget suburban, forget a country school. That narrowed the field a lot!!! and when in Cali, he realized it was really hard to stay in touch with his EC friends due to the time difference and for him that is a BIG issue. He knows he will make new friends in college but to shlep to the other coast and have a harder time even connecting with his existing friends has been added to his equation of where he wants to go. He is still seriously considering LA schools but is doing so with that in the back of his mind. And we had a great chat at one of the Ivies. He was feeling as though he should apply, because after all, it was “…” And I told him, look even if this is the “best” school in the country, we’re not looking for that. We are looking at what is the best school for u. He has since scratched all the Ivies off his list and took that advice to heart.</p>