BFA Acting Pre-Screen and Auditions. Class of 2022 - Sharing!

@HopeinMT - sorry to hear about Syracuse. S got the same message, same exact time.

@emf1959
Emerson is pretty awesome for anyoneā€¦ a dedicated communications college (but not with the strong traditional and larger art wing like painting, sculpting that other performing arts/communications colleges have), and they have a good film school for film acting on the side both for classes/capstones and just for fun filmed work.

Itā€™s in a city but not a massive city like NYC or LA, and itā€™s a college city, easy to have friends and networking, in other colleges and a wide area of free/low cost student events. They donā€™t have an isolated campus but itā€™s a quick walk or elevator trip to a number of the major AEA theatres in the area. And they have ample enclosed/locked buildings for classes, hangouts, and living. A step up towards future city living in NYC/LA for those who live in rural areas, suburbs, or smaller cities.

The only real downsides for most would be if your student feels a big drive to be in NYC or LA only, the $$ possibly, and the inability to have a second major if you are in a BFA Acting programā€¦ And limited access to more than basic film making courses on campus outside of a summer semester at their LA campus and informal work crewing on non-course student filmsā€¦

But, there are many other area colleges with good student film programs and maybe crewing on some or cross enrollment could be possible if you are driven? Each of my girls were a lead in a different RISD Sr Thesis film and for my bio-major the crew included an alum and I think 2 non film school students, perhaps some of the other colleges in or closer to Boston allow this as well? My acting-major daughters included pre-casting mentorship from the alum wo directed her twin and recommended my girls as did their professor, the dp was an alum and underclassman who had interned on set or worked in editing with my bio-majors most recent SAG feature (it was a small role and her sr thesis director was already an alum and a full hire to assistant edit, neither she nor the casting people knew of the connection until after we accepted the role), and I think she had at least 2-3 non-film school majors on the crew at least one in a key position, with her dad driving out from NJ to cater it, mmmm. So, if they arenā€™t too stressed, thereā€™s a possibility that they could crew in some manner not only on campus but at area schools if they build connections. (I went to college in Boston and I had on campus best friends, off campus besties and 4 roomates from a different area college in my apt, no boyfriends who went to my college as UG was all female.)

So, yeah, Iā€™m skipping the admitted student events to fly across country with my bio-major for the only week that she can attend events at one of her top two choicesā€¦ I already know sheā€™ll do great there if no other acceptances come in and nothing terrible happens when she attends the event! Now we just need the financial aid package!

@HopeinMT weā€™re too far from USC to have a letter today, I thinkā€¦ but itā€™s supposed to go up on their portal tomorrow. Crazy as it is, I think one of their acceptances was in a small folded letter envie!

Weā€™re close enough to Pace to get an envie in a day from when they send itā€¦ But, no informed delivery images for it. (Are waitlist envelopes small enough to be scanned) and we got a phone call from a different number there on the day that they started contacting accepted students, but no message and no email that she can find. Still crossing fingers as itā€™s her favorite with film acting as her end goal (2 Sundance Feature Films under her belt already along with some other cool projects both indie and cable tv but also 4 AEA theatre roles while avoiding EMC, SAG eligible since 7th grade but holding off til itā€™s mandatory.)

My bio-major twin applied as well as an academic safety for her but has heard nothing at all from them. So thereā€™s a chance the call was for her as well. Hopefully weā€™ll know one way or the other on Monday.

@ginaf1102 - getting choked up thinking about Fiddler. :ā€™ā€™

@ginaf1102 Love that song! Too bad we canā€™t post videos here!!

Has anyone gotten an acceptance from Syracuse yet?

@ginaf1102 Could not agree with you more! THIS 1,000x THIS ā€”> ā€œbecause a talented and driven kid is going to shine - no matter what.ā€ AMEN!

My son is very fortunate to have options from several programs as well. Heā€™s already declined two offers. He will decline two more offers this week. He sees it as good Karma. He has a few friends waiting for spots and there is one schoolā€™s waitlist he wouldnā€™t mind getting off of himself.

When he started this process we thought he would just go to the program on his list with the ever subjective ā€œbestā€ training. Now that decision time is here itā€™s so much more ā€” and the most difficult part of this process. Since the bottom line cost of all the financial packages weā€™ve received are similar, for him the final decision is being based on feeling ā€œrightā€

Last week, we visited one his top choices going into this craziness. We thought this would be it ā€” sign on the dotted line and send the check. Guess what? He just canā€™t picture himself there. It just didnā€™t feel right to him. He wants to love it, but doesnā€™t. So, he visits a second school Monday, then the third option the following week if needed, hoping there is a connection and we can move on and 100% enjoy the remaining 6 weeks of senior year. The thought of him holding out for a waitlist option is annoying I just want this to be done!

@ginaf1102 can I ask which offer you declined? My S said no to several of the BA redirects, but not to any BFA s yetā€¦hoping for waitlist movement

I imagine tonight will be heart wrenching !

@ginaf1102 Heart wrenching indeed!

Yep. USC rejections are in thin envelopes. Ugh. They will not get any more of our money!!! :((

@HopeinMT That is too bad:( Nothing from USC here ā€¦I wonder if a portal rejection stings less.

@HopeinMT @frontrowmama I was just curious if your child said at the audition that they were open to the USC BA too? Or were they BFA or bust?

Hi guys, I have a quick question!

I just got into millikin yesterday, and Illinois Wesleyan a few weeks ago, both for acting. I was wondering if anyone had any insight as to their industry reputations for their acting programs.

S got accepted to USC (BA program- not the BFA). Now he finally has to choose between the BA and the BFA option.

@TwinGMom - I also have twins (2 sets), but my S going through this is my singleton. I cannot imagine going through this BFA process for one twin and the regular BA application process for the other. Wow!

I am a parent to a D who is going through this process a second time. As I have been reviewing othersā€™ posts, I decided to share some of the experiences we have had, that might be helpful.

My D went through her first applications for the 2016-17 school year and ended up at Emerson. We had researched a lot of schools and she had applied to 12; however, the 12 were only top tier schools and she ended up with only one yes. It was a gut wrenching year with all of the rejections, no matter how we tried to frame the statistics of getting accepted. She had plenty of theater and dance training and many high school performances to support her academics.

It turned out to be fine for her as she was thrilled with the acceptance to Emerson. She fell in love with it on the tour and was so looking forward to get the in-depth training associated with a BFA acting degree. Although she really enjoyed Boston, Emerson actually turned out to not be a good fit for her. She cited several factors in her desire to leave. First, she said her incoming class turned out to be around 60 students, who were then put in to two groups. This was not the conservatory style program that had been described to us, and many more students than we had been told would be in her year. Second, she had only 10 hours of class time per week. Lastly, she found it very difficult to navigate the world of student productions as the upper class students who were vying for acceptance into the BFA acting at Jr year, cast themselves. She did like her several professors but overall did not feel challenged in the performance classes.

After many discussions about giving up a sure thing, falling behind her peer group for graduation, the costs of staring over, and the possibility that she would not get accepted to any of the kinds of schools she was hoping to attend, we agreed that she would take a gap year and reapply. She has spent the year getting one on one coaching for acting and voice, participating in several weekly acting classes, taking a Shakespeare course at RCS, taking several dance courses as well as a semester long MT course. She also worked a part time job.

Once again, she applied to only top schools, mostly in the UK and a few here in the US. After going through a string of rejections, she did get accepted to CalArts with a talent scholarship. Since this was was one of her top choices, she will most likely go there. She is still waiting on a few UK schools and will make her final decision then.

As much as she was sure Emerson was for her, a year of experience and maturity led her in a different direction. It was a challenging year for us as parents to support the change considering all of the effort and heartache from round one. Not to mention the expense. It took a lot of courage for her to tell us it was not working and I will say I have to take ownership of some of her difficulty. I might think I hadnā€™t put pressure on her and rather tried to support through the first application season, I am sure she didnā€™t want to let us down. As she has said to us this time when we tried to encourage some BA programs, ā€œIt is my journey.ā€

@Twoboysandadog Much to my surprise, he ended up saying he was open to both at the audition. How about yours?

@Melville77 This is a very helpful post. My son also knows someone as a freshmen there who also remarked on how much bigger the class was than expected. And the point about the students casting themselves in order to further their chances of getting in for Acting junior year is extremely informative.

@frontrowmama He actually withdrew his application after getting in early decision at Chapman for Screen Acting. But, he would have said he was open to both programs because the flexibility of the BA program was definitely more appealing to him.

@MomofJ5 Congrats on USC!! That is awesome!

@Melville77 My S is accepted at Calarts as well. I find your post extremely interesting! What is drawing her to Calarts if you donā€™t mind me asking. One of my Sā€™s fears is ending up in a program where he wonā€™t be challenged enough.

@Melville77 Thank you for sharing your story here. I think it is really hard for these students to know 100% going intuit the program will be right for them! I always wonder how many of these programs turn out to be not quite what we thought they would beā€¦

@Melville77 - that is a really good story to hear right now as decisions are being made. Given what happened, what questions do you wish you (your D) would have asked? I.e., not sure they would have told you that the junior year folks take up the casting. Also - I guess this tells me that itā€™s worth asking if there are grade-only shows as well. Right? Wouldnā€™t you think that the seniors and juniors are more likely to be cast than the sophomores (and freshman- if they allow freshmen to audition).