Thanks for all of the kind words and empathic tales. I don’t know how some of you go through this more than once! I have really hated this process and most of the time I feel too negative about it to even post. 
Yes, my D is accepted at her non-audition safeties and they are good schools where she will do well. Just - sigh.
@katew529, I don’t think that colleges are specifically LOOKING for kids from performing arts high schools, or that they’re biased in favor of them or against them. I definitely don’t think they have a quota or anything, as your post seemed to suggest!
I think it’s just that the very tippy-top programs are looking for super talented kids who give a great audition, and kids from performing arts high schools, by definition, have gotten a lot of training in their school, which shows in their audition. So in that way, they have an advantage, because they have a lot of training and experience. In other words, statistically, a high percentage of kids from PA high schools are going to be talented and well-trained, compared to the percentage of kids from non PA high schools.
But if a kid doesn’t go to a performing arts high school, but is super talented and has gotten lots of great training on their own, outside of school, they have just as much of a chance as anyone else. (And sometimes, someone has little training, but has so much raw talent and personality that schools want them anyway.) It’s all about the training and the talent…and of course, type, gender, building a class, and everything else that goes into it that’s out of our control!
@bisouu SMART SMART Daughter! YES! I always think of wanting a school that wants you while remembering Dirty Dancing Quote “nobody puts baby in a corner” I wholeheartedly agree. The experience of being wanted by a school and them wanting you right back just feels good.
@frontrowmama the scary part is to come. Hoping and wishing for Amazing Scholarships for everyone. BFA’s are expensive and there is nothing wrong with hoping that the programs offer enough to not make you pass out when looking at the bill.
@katew529 from other posts. Many students that get into programs have coaches. There is a popular coach that many accepted into CMU use ( and they did not attend performing art schools).
@actorparent1, sorry, that came out wrong.
I guess what I’m wondering is whether there are certain programs who are looking for kids who aren’t already very trained/coached but for kids who are talented but still a little more… what’s the word… raw, maybe? I could swear I’ve read in the past about auditioners shying away from kids who seemed “too coached.”
Again, I’m sure this was naive on my part. Try not to snort too hard, but I guess I was figuring that in many cases, a lot of the programs would be expecting that the vast bulk of their students’ training would be done at the college level. And that their curricula might even be somewhat redundant for kids who’ve already spent 4 entire school years getting such extensive training.
@CaMom13 Walking with you today.
@actorparent1 No, my gosh, I’m sure they DON’T have quotas. I’d just thought they might have something of an anti-quota (a cap on any given HS) and your post helped me realize how faulty my thinking had been there.
@katew529 Thanks for being on top of this potential trend. Lots to share with friends/parents of kids in middle school. I think its too late for the kids in the class of 2019 to consider a PA school, but you are wise to suggest modifying expectations (ratcheting them down) for public high school kids and kids from more rural non-feeder school areas. What gets me about all this is that my guess is that there are not enough public performing arts high schools. If the PA schools are fee based, then once again there is the wealth gap that keeps more kids without enough money to train etc. out of the performing arts. If they can manage to find their way there (as some we know do) then they have great opportunities for scholarships etc. But, my guess is that there are a lot of kids with innate talents who do not get the opportunities they need in the public schools. Ours’ not being those kids given how amazing our community is for the arts.
@katew529 Me too. Almost all the audition blogs say they are looking for the “real” person not just the character. So much for not hiring a professional coach or doing years of voice training etc. Its like not paying for Huntington. Those extra 2-3 points matter. With so many paying for value added services like these, it makes it tough for the “raw” talent or intellect to compete. Feeling very fortunate now that my own lack of understanding didn’t mean my D didn’t get a spot somewhere she can be happy and proud to call her alma matter. She has been telling me she is feeling “behind” having met so many PA kids this year in her work outside high school (lack of voice lessons for example). I didn’t think she was behind at all, but when a mom asked outside the UMich Unifieds who her “coach” was and she said, surprised, “uh, no one, I just practice on my own and I have good directors at my school etc.” I started to wonder. Oh well, college will level the playing field for sure.
@actingdreams – thank you for this super enlightening information. I had no idea and I am not usually lacking information nor the ability to do research. This seems like inside information that PA schools have that does not seem to be shared widely, nor by the actual school programs!!! Not fair, I think, for the Programs not to be candid about this.
This, I think, will be the last public opinion I share on this board. I wish the colleges had a check box requiring an applicant to say whether they took an SAT or ACT prep course to get the score they submit (it could be verified or not depending on whether the GPA was consistent with the score). Reading today’s posts, I also now wish the BFA programs had a “good faith” check box for applicants to check whether they have had the advantage of a private audition coach in addition to their PA training high school. If something like this were to be implemented, then at least the auditor(s) would have an idea about whether a kid who looks like they have a raw talent but is rough around the edges should be coached more during the audition to see what is really there. Maybe auditors do that sometimes, but who knows? The articles say schools do this, but the BU audition at Chicago Unifieds was almost 2 hours behind schedule and my D was the last one on the list. The last audition for a guy she said clearly looked like he was done an hour earlier. She got less time than most, she said, and although it is working out for her at other schools, it just doesn’t seem like this process has all the “equity” kinks worked out yet.
@Noreplays2018 I had no idea that private coaches existed until Unified started and I met a mom from Conn. She said there were no performing art schools or programs within 200 miles from where she lived so a coach was necessary. I have read previous year acceptance posts and many have mentioned if they used a coach
in your previous mention. I don’t know if there is any inside info at PA schools. Certainly not at my S PA school
@Noreplays2018 I agree… I had no idea coaches existed or what a PA high school was. We flew blind and it showed. Completely outgunned by the professionally trained high schoolers and those with coaches. But know that the real world will even everything out. Those who had coaches and PA HS will be standing in the 4 am non equ line with our kids :). And the CD’s won’t care what college the kids went to at all. (Well mine will be a few steps ahead as she is EMC) but you get my point 
@noreplays2, I don’t know about other PA schools, but my daughter’s school is a public school that doesn’t cost anything to attend. However, you have to audition for the school and be accepted. I believe @actingdreams’ son’s school is like that too (correct me if I’m wrong).
But there have been threads here on CC about how hard it is for lower income kids in general - consider the cost of classes, of coaches, of college application fees, of traveling to Unifieds or on campus auditions, not to mention the cost of tuition if you do get in!
Also, you have to realize that we’re talking about the very tippy tippy top schools, that have their pick of students. There are plenty of lower-tier performing arts colleges that have excellent training and DO accept a wider variety of students. Given that CMU accepts only 12 kids, and they’re seeing thousands of extremely talented professional-level kids with lots of training, I do think it’s naive to say that “it’s unfair for CMU not to pick a kid with no training over a kid with many years of training and experience.” The kid with little or no training does have plenty of options, but maybe not the most elite and selective school in the country.
And by the way, that’s one reason people use coaches. Not just to coach them on the addition, but also to evaluate their talent and training level, and help them craft an appropriate list instead of only applying to the tippy-top programs.
My daughter goes to one of the top performing arts HS intbe country. Prescreens were a breeze for the kids. I think the name helped them pass prescreens. I do think, however, auditions were tough on them because of the name of the school. We were fortunate that she had so much help preparing for auditions. I admire parents who had to be the ones helping their kids get ready for auditions. I could never have done it.
Yes @actorparent1 My S had to audition, Wait for a call back ( 3 times stretched over 2-3 week periods) I guess they were preparing our kids for what it will be like in the real world.
Just like College auditions, exact thing happened. They only took 12 Theatre conservatory, 20 MT students 40 Dancers, 8 writers, a small Jazz ensemble etc
They even had the galls to send small Letters of rejections and Larger Packets of YOU’RE IN for those accepted
. My son has been trained to receive Rejections. The Almost Had It, The Yay You’re In for a very very long time and I can honestly say that If he gained nothing else from his school, he’s learned how to deal with all of this madness. He literally just says it’s part of the business. The parents are learning more from the kids at his school than they are learning from us. They are taught that they will not fit in everywhere at every school and for college, you only need 1 and it will be perfect for the school and the student
Before he auditioned, neither of us knew what a monologue was.I’m learning along with him and the rest of the students. They just showed up with Raw Talent I suppose
@katew529 -OMG. This is the second topic you’ve brought up that mirrors my exact thoughts. Full disclosure- when I first came to this board, I thought PA was Pennsylvania. I did think it was odd that so many were from that state! If I were sitting in a school’s parent Qand A, I would ask for the percentages of accepted kids that went to PA high schools vs non-PA (academic?) schools. I would bet that you’d find that each school takes a consistent percentage, but that those percentages might be different from school to school. I am not making a judgement- I definitely see that PA kids have way more training - and they’ve demonstrated a consistent desire to work hard in this field. Maybe the coaching + summer intensives can make up for it - I don’t know. This is why I was so worried when I first started posting that my S wouldn’t get in anywhere. I really started wondering after @actingdreams told the story of her S who tried to cancel an audition at a top school - but the school really wanted him and called his PA drama teacher to get him to come to the callback (when he didn’t even audition!) This told me that the college obviously had a close relationship with the drama teacher at that PA school! That’s yet another leg up on the academic HS kids. You really can’t beat a close relationship with a trained and talented applicant’s drama teacher! Kids who go to academic schools really need to know so they can up their preparation or figure out which schools perhaps value the raw kid. I wish our final results page had that info on it (PA high school?, audition coach?). It would be very useful for future applicants.
Yup, my D also got the Pace BA - Directing (IPE) acceptance email. Exciting!
It would be very unfortunate if theater were closed to all but the kids who were able to go to performing arts high schools. There’s a lot of life in acting, and that is one very specific kind of life.
@MomofJ5 and @katew529 about the School Drama Teacher and the University They don’t have a personal relationship. His School was on his resume and the Director had happened to contact the school and asked to speak to one of the drama teachers. There isn’t a personal connection there. Actually, this particular Drama teacher went to USC but I’m sure there are connections everywhere just none between his current HS and any of the schools that my S has applied to.
I will also say that maybe those Summer Intensive Camps did help with the training portion. He went to UIC summer camp, NHIS Cherubs and the Berridge Program in France (excellent program and please pass it on. the price is comparable to other camps btw)
for Juilliard, all of the students seem to have gone to PA schools, working performers or have small theatre companies