Anyone know anything about the BFA Acting program at FSU? How many applicants, what’s the acceptance rate and yield? The FSU website indicates that BFA Acting callbacks are held on the day as the audition, so if no callback, then no offer for that program, right - Meaning you’ll know you are out at the time of the audition? Is it like that for all BFA Acting auditions?
My DD is starting the application and audition journey in the Fall of this year - FSU is her top choice.
I don’t know anything about FSU but yes, if you are not called back, you are no longer in consideration. As Juilliard put it: “your journey with us has ended.”
Getting into the BFA Theater Acting program at Florida State University is difficult. It is one of the best programs, but it is small. They only take 8-10 students, approximately half female and half male. In 2016, they had 600 or so people submit a pre-screened audition and of those, 100 got invited to do a live audition, divided over two Saturdays. The day my DD auditioned, there were 60 students that auditioned and only 10 got on the callback list for that day (I did not count girls and boys). There were other audition days. They said that if you were not on the call back list, you were finished for the day and you could go home. The lucky few got to stay and audition further before a faculty panel of audition judges. However, they encouraged those not on the call back list to apply for the BA Theater program, which is not a performance based program and acting classes were not available to the BA students. However, anyone, including the public, could audition for their performances. BA students were allowed to audition in their sophomore year for the BFA program, but they would have to go through the 4-year program from the beginning. The University of Central Florida is also difficult, but has a BA program as well. There is no pre-screen and no callback for UCF.
As for other programs having a same-day callback and elimination, the BFA and BA with Acting concentration programs at each school are different. DePaul, Carnegie Mellon and University of the Arts BFA have callbacks and elimination the same day but University of Southern California, UNC School of the Arts, NYU and Emerson do not. As of this year, we were told in the audition that Emerson has changed their system and separates BAs and BFAs after sophomore year, so everyone would be accepted would be into the Theater and Performance Major at Emerson, not the Acting program or Musical Theater program. Everyone takes classes together at Emerson the first two years. UCLA and Fordham have BAs with auditions for acting concentrations and they do not notify you until March. These were the schools my DD considered. So you see, it depends on the school what the rules are. My DD is accepted to Emerson, SCAD (no callback) and the AADA 2-year conservatory in NY. The AADA has a coupled program with either Oklahoma City University, Baruch College (CUNY), or St. John’s University to give a BA degree in theater. We are waiting on the larger schools for their decisions that will come in March. Keeping this all straight is mind-blowing! I have a chart.
I don’t think CMU has an “official” callback- at least, they never have before. They do pass students between different auditors when they are interested, is that what you are considering a callback?
Thanks for this wonderful information - we have a lot to learn before Fall! I really don’t mind the “if you don’t get called back you are done” approach. I think it is probably good to know where you stand so that you can move on to other things - hate the waiting to hear part of acting.
My DD did not apply to CMU, but we toured. I loved it, she did not. But I’m not the one going to school, so I did not encourage her to audition. In the tour, the student guide mentioned something about different auditors and I thought they meant a callback. It would be interesting to hear from someone who actually auditioned for CMU, either acting or MT, to see what their process was. Did your teen audition at CMU?
I am happy to report that my DD got into University of the Arts with a generous scholarship for the BFA program in acting. Still waiting on decisions from other schools, but this was one of those call back schools, so this is encouraging.
Big Congrats satanicrabbitmom!!!
Thanks very much!