BFA Acting Class of 2023: preparation, prescreens, auditions, questions and support

Oh I see, thank you so much!

@sebbysabby - University of Hartford (Hartt School) and The New School both have Early Action applications and auditions.

@sebbysabby Emerson and Chapman also have early action applications and auditions and will inform you of a decision in mid-December.

Marymount Manhattan, Adelphi, and Montclair are rolling admission, so if you audition early, you get the result early.

Morning everyone! You know what I started thinking about! Travel costs. I guess that is something we as parents should think about in regards to traveling to see them in shows, them coming home to visit. Will they need a car to get around where they go to school or is there public transportation…Oh boy!

@thespis1 yep! We are from NJ and my D is at LMU in LA. We went in August with our D22 to move her in which was a pretty big expense. We originally thought we wouldn’t be able to go see her in shows if she went far away, but then she was cast a couple of weeks into school…and we went lol! How could I not go? So two airfares, hotel, rental car and food add up. Then we went again for Family Weekend in February. Tried to keep it reasonable by using Uber and staying in a cheaper hotel and it wasn’t too bad, but that was three trips in six months!

@actorparent1 Hi! Do you know if Montclair and Marymount accept based on prescreen or sending video OR do you need to audition in person?

Montclair and Marymount don’t do pre-screens. The auditions are in person. However, it’s possible that if someone lives far away that maybe they would accept a video in lieu of an in-person audition - I’m not sure about that. So you would need to email and ask them, or check the website. But I do know that they do not have prescreens.

For folks looking for talent scholarships, Illinois Wesleyan U and Arcadia U (BFA) were very generous with talent based scholarships for my S. Rowan U (BA MT) offers in-state tuition to PA majors. SUNY Fredonia, SUNY U at Buffalo (BFA) have very reasonable OOS tuition and IS is a true deal. Also SUNY Cortland has a BA MT now that is on par with BFA, as they are transitioning to a BFA in 2 yrs (?); SUNY Geneseo also may be offering a BFA soon.

VCU will accept to the performance track in mid-December if you apply and audition at the early December date. Having this one locked in really helped us mentally, financially (fewer applications, less travel, etc.).

I highly recommend trying to secure an acceptable choice early. Without such a choice, one really needs to apply to at least 15 programs, in my opinion. It is just that competitive and the outcomes are random. And having a choice in hand reduces the stress of waiting through February and March. Although, I can assure you that it is still highly stressful. Still, I saw two kids at my son’s school get reject after reject with no acceptances and I felt I had it easy compared to their parents. Finally, one got his first and only acceptance from CalArts where he is headed in the fall. He is a fabulous actor and only applied to the very top programs - Syracuse, Julliard, CMU, Rutgers, etc. The other wonderful young woman has a fantastic voice and got nothing but rejects and waitlists for MT. She just recently was accepted off the waitlist for LIU MT. I could not be happier for her.

Minnesota will allow one to apply for theatre BA at the early action date - my son got his BA acceptance in November - and then sign up for a BFA audition after that. He auditioned at NY unifieds. No call back, though…

JMU also gave academic admit before the audition dates.

Keep these tips coming, please! So very helpful!

Question for the Been There Done That folks (like @VASkydog @booknerdmom @actorparent1 @frontrowmama and others) – would you recommend some BA/BFA programs with less stringent GPA requirements for admission? (We are frequenters of the 3.0 - 3.4 thread.) D is looking at theatre tech programs, most likely in set design or perhaps projections.

@OrangeFish Most of the programs S applied to we’re academically friendly. Where he could, he did not submit his SAT scores. That said S has IB English & SS (2yrs) and took a third IB lit & perf. this year. He also finished 4 lab science classes by junior year. There was no applying to NYU or BU, for example. His two early acceptances, by December break were academically appropriate for him, and offered Arcadia U BFA & Rowan U BA choice, both in MT.

S did get waitlisted for Syracuse & Emerson, considered academic reaches for him.

A cautionary tale for us as NYS residents: I had NO IDEA how academically stringent some of our SUNY schools are. Laugh of hysteria for me was that U at Buffalo academic acceptance was the last piece of his journey on 4/18. I was not happy, it was just too late for comparison.

I will say that all the q&a sessions we attended, dept. loved to comment about how tech kids will always have work!

@OrangeFish -

I think we’ve “spoken” before. My S17 had a 3.4 and 27 ACT. He is in the Honors program at SUNY Fredonia and received a $2K/year academic scholarship, which is about 10% of the total cost. He is finishing up his first year and LOVES his program, although I will confess that he hated drafting class. He had the academic acceptance and admission to Honors before his tech interview, but he was accepted on the spot. Interestingly, the major critique he got at his audition was that his drafting skills seemed weak.

@"#booknerdmom" - The SUNY schools really vary in their academic requirements. We didn’t apply to Buffalo for family reasons, but I also didn’t know that he could have gotten an academic acceptance. Like you, we also didn’t consider NYU for reasons of grades, but also because S17 didn’t want to go to school in the city. I didn’t think he would have gotten an academic acceptance at Geneseo,but in any event, its program wasn’t really suitable for him. He could have gotten into Cortland academically (most likely) but, again, the program didn’t meet his needs. He did get into the non-audition BA at Purchase but never completed the tech admission process.

@OrangeFish We did the full range. LSU, VCU, JMU, and Denver were high likelihood. He was a match for Clark, Minnesota, Fordham, and Syracuse. Kenyon, UCI, UCSB, UCSD, and UCLA were reaches. He got into everywhere that was a match or safety. The academic rejections all came from reach schools. We think theatre helped him out at Kenyon and UCSD (video audition).

@OrangeFish I will be honest and I do really believe GPA counts! With that said, I was constantly checking the stats of the average GPA range for all schools he applied to. And, he was accepted to all but one in his range and waitlisted at that one that did not accept on the first round. His GPA is a 3.37. I would suggest: Marymount Manhattan, Otterbein, Texas State, University of Arizona, Pace, CalArts. I am sure there a TON more schools, but these schools accepted with nice merit scholarships for this GPA range. I did not plan on my S getting any merit awards with his GPA, so this was a welcome surprise! I would look into all “tier 2” academic schools offering BFA programs! He did get a WL at NYU and based on their GPA average, we were happy with this! Also, we did not submit test scores where applicable(even though they were decent-just not outstanding). There are so many programs out there! Just cast a very wide net!!!

If you have access to Naviance, consider looking at the stats of the kids that go to your high school getting in, don’t look at the average GPA of the school. The expectations were higher at my kids high schools because they had such access to rigor and there’s tons of academic rock stars.

How is everyone doing?? I’ve been thinking about scheduling auditions. I I just looked at last year’s dates and going based on that. I think we are going to have to narrow things down. Logistically and financially it’s not possible to travel everywhere. We are definitely doing Unifieds… Hoping to get some early acceptances by auditioning early in November. The deciding factor for us is 1) FINANCIAL- I am not even bothering with schools that are 50 K and up. So hoping to find schools that are generous in merit 2)If school has a good film/screenwriting program where student could do student films or minor or take a class it’s a PLUS but we would put that criteria aside if it’s a top dream school. So the schools that only offer ON CAMPUS auditions in which we are interested in but can only pick 2 are: Baldwin Wallace, Elon, Oklahoma City University, Wright State & Texas State University! We love all of these programs for various reasons. I guess we need to figure out which one would be the best fit! Not sure if anyone could help me gain some clarity. DS is strong actor and singer (strong classical singer but can do contemporary), beginner dancer with lots of potential. Great writer and would love to develop this on the side if possible.

(Lastly, I am new to CC: Sometimes it’s hard to figure out where to post. How do you delete or move a post?)

@thespis1 Is your S planning to apply for Acting or Musical Theater, or both? I think being a beginner dancer will most likely be a problem at Texas State MT and Elon MT. Strong classical singer will help at OCU. I don’t know about the film/screenwriting options at any of these schools. If he is looking for overlap between Acting and MT, I would look into that in detail at the outset.

Hi @elsacc. Hard to hear but thank you for your honesty! I guess the prescreen will determine if his dancing is enough. Maybe he’s more than a beginner. I am probably being tough. He is truly open to a BFA in MT or Acting. He wants to be a versatile actor who can do film, television and stage. Though voice will open doors so thinking MT may be the way to go. He wants to be able to audition and be cast in both musicals and straight plays. Very important and a must. So he would be fine with doing a BFA in Acting as long as he can audition for musicals and have some access to dance/voice lessons.

@thespis1 My son was auditioning for Acting programs this year. So for the schools you listed here is what I know about on campus auditions… For TXST I can not say enough about how beneficial the on campus audition is. You get a real feel for the program and campus. For the January audition classes had not started yet but there were lots of theater kids at the auditions. It’s an all day affair, with a campus tour given by theater students, mixed Acting and MT tour guides and perspective students followed by individual and group auditions, Q&A session with current students led by Lauren Lane (who is beyond engaged in the program and students) ending with a Masterclass that perspective students participate in and parents can observe.
We also did an on campus audition at BW(only offered on campus) that involved a faculty Q&A and individual audition. Both were very different but very valuable in giving you a feel for the program, students and faculty.

At TXST you can take voice and dancing as electives(per Lauren Lane) and Acting students can audition for musicals. We saw the TXST production of Ragtime and there were 3 BFA Acting and 1 P&P(as I recall) in the cast. So, not a huge amount but in talking with the students many don’t audition.

We also say Anything Goes at BW and only 1 Acting student was in the cast. Didn’t ask students about this.

Also, for any on campus audition, always try to see a show. Another valuable way to gauge the program.

BAL!!