Anyone get snail mail good or bad from Pace today?
@Twoboysandadog my S was open to a BA as well.
Nothing from Pace in the mail today for my S @Rizzo2
@Noreplays2018 - Nothing from Elon yet 
Nothing from Pace yet!!! ARGH!!!
Nothing for my S from Pace today, either @HopeinMT
@rizzo2 finally received official Pace BFA acceptance. It was a letter in a folder. Nothing like the big package from academics in Oct of last year
@Melville77 thank you for your story. Right now Emerson is at the top of my sons list. Now I am concerned he wonāt get to perform and he will hate itā¦ugh.
@Rizzo2 S received his official BFA acceptance from Pace today. We have been waiting. @actingdreams sounds just like ours!
There is a lot to be said for big fish in the little pondā¦
@Melville77 you make some excellent points that I never thought of before. Even though class sizes appear small if there is a large group that they split into smaller classes it doesnāt make much difference if they donāt increase performance opportunities. I truly believe you learn by doing and if you have to sit on the sidelines for 4 years Iām not sure how much you learn. Good luck to your daughter!
Re: small fish and big ponds and vice versa, that has been my thought for awhile; but, recently, I received a PM from a mom who has a kid who has been through this and her thoughts are worth sharing anonymously. She made me really think. Here is her wisdom:
I get that itās not popular to say but the notion on CC that everyone is a top tier talent is crazy. Itās equivalent to everyone gets a medalā¦ and they just donāt. Once your kid is in a top tier programā¦ the talent is amazing and they will most certainly not be the best (who wants to go to a program where they are the best as a freshman???). Again, even in the program, everyone doesnāt get a medal. Everyone doesnāt get a role, a special solo, etc. I told my S to go to school for training not roles. Learn as much as he can from the faculty and the top talents.
āThis is me againā
This entire decision process really boils down to individual goals, short-term needs (money), and long-term vision/strategy. There is not a formula here that applies across the āboardā and the discernment process needs to recognize what is going on in our own families. This board has been really helpful to think about commonly applicable facts and how to navigate a complex process that does not come with an instruction manual, but when it comes down to making a choice on April 30th, I for one am not going to be consulting this board. I appreciate it for many reasons, but it is becoming time for me and my family to look inward.
I agree @Noreplays2018 each family and child has to look inward and do what is best for them. 
For mine she did not want to sit on the sidelines for 4 years watching while others played. She wanted in the game even if it was something tiny. For us, college was a lot of money for little return on investment if she never got off the bench. A chance to practice what she was learning and training for. Never getting in the game was not an option for her. And it paid off. My daughter was willing to trade the big name school for a smaller one that offered her a more intimate setting of instruction and performance opportunities. For others, especially at the top tier schools the training is more important than the actual stage time. I get it. Good luck to everyone as they make their decisions.
For future boards, however, I wanted to put in a good word for Rollins College in Winter Park. They have had famous actors in the past (including Fred Rogers! and Dana Ivey) and some recent grads on broadway. They also have a 10k Priscilla Parker Theater Scholarship that lasts 4 years (10k each year) and can be auditioned for every year if you didnāt get it the first go-round. Rollins is very well endowed and very generous with grant aid and merit aid (based on a numbers formula so you know when you apply if you are going to get merit aid), and best of all ā the financial need based aid given is guaranteed all 4 years (as it is at BU) ā in other words they donāt recalculate your need award based on changed circumstances (good or bad) so you know going in what you are going to have to pay. Thus, even if tuition rises (which it does as at all colleges), the increased cost is based only on the increased tuition etc. across the board; the aid is the same. The Rollins Theater Department is a true gem. Small, creative, enriching, and their improv group is awesome! It may not be a national school, but it is a big deal regionally (as Elon is) and esp. in Florida. A lot of alums end up working at Disney etc. at some point. And the major Florida Universities (FSU, FU and Miami) are all aware of the quality of the Rollins program if a kid is considering an MFA after the Rollins College B.A. Its not a program to disregard. Fiskes Guide also lists it as one of the best B.A. programs for Drama too.
Full Disclosure: I am on the Parents Council for Rollins College, but only because I believe in the mission of the school.
@Melville77 Thanks for sharing your story. Could you elaborate on why they only had class for 10 hours a week at Emerson?
@Griffilus @HopeinMT @rizzo2 we got a Pace rejection in the mail yesterday
S got the big white acceptance box in the mail from USC today for the BA program.
Itās his last decision. I am so glad this part is over. Months ago, I read the comments from last year about the wait and the rejections and remember thinking it canāt possibly be that bad. Wow was I wrong - it was so much worse. Never would have made it through with most of my sanity intact without the kind souls on this board. Thank you all!!!
@HopeinMT NO mail for acting twin today at all, no online movement eitherā¦ Tomorrow we will know USC, hopefully we get a call for Pace monday, if not a letter saying no, wait, or anything would just take all the weight off! We have to call CalArts because without a working portal when they sent decisions her answer may have gone to a typoed email account? Then just wait on NYU. If not, we know her only other possible top pick that she applied to and sheās in, just have to wait on financial aid
My bio-major twin just got one of her financial aid offers in the mail, then found more hiding onlineā¦ Nice deals between merit and financial aid for all the private colleges in her top list, good but not as wow from the out of state public university, but their Cost of Attendance was lowerā¦ 2 are equal costs, 1 is a bit better, the other a bit worse but all manageable! And she finally agreed to the one visit that we have to fly forā¦ right after the accepted student event filled up. I called today and someone answered, he was pretty positive that she can get off the waiting list, almost guaranteed he thinks if we skipped the overnight part (limited sleep spots) for the event for her subset of the student body. He gave me the email for the person authorized in case she checks email this weekend but told me that we can call Monday morning to know for sure before I book the flight.
Working out the potential schedule for the 4 accepted top picks for my bio major, the one accepted tip top pick for my acting major, and the potential for each girlās remaining top choices that weāre waiting on for acceptances. Most are in driving range of 3-5 hrs from home and the other two are in the same city across the countryā¦ we can do this!
@MomofJ5 2 sets of twins, eek! Is the singleton first born or are any of the siblings already in college? If they are all in at once Iād imagine need based financial aid is a guarantee hehe!
(I was talking numbers earlier with my husband and if the aid packages were a bust and our singleton switches from community college to a private 4 yearā¦ well we could make some upgrades to our 70+ year old home and sell the house, move to a much smaller house, lower quality build, in a lesser neighborhood/town as empty nestersā¦ or do some upgrades, rent the house out and beg to move in with my parents for the cost of our electric/etc maybeā¦ and somehow make it all work without giving the kids all the debtā¦ if we really truly have to.)
@frontrowmama and @actingdreams with your āletter of acceptanceā from Pace today, I presume both were USPS mail? Had you already received a phone call and/or email acceptance? Which major?
Crickets from Pace FTVC and CalArts despite being close enough to receive USPS from NYC in a day. But had a mystery call from a new number at Pace the day they started callingā¦ and missed it. Since my bio-major twin had performed on stage in a 5 person AEA show with my acting-majorās auditioning teacher as her main scenemateā¦ Iām crossing fingers that if she got in he said that he wanted to make the call himself or that he knows us and wants someone else to call, so when we didnāt pick up maybe they are planning to call Monday? Or hope that sheās waitlisted/alternate. Thatās the program on paper that my daughter has always wanted the most. I think that her lack of a working portal at CalArts until this week may mean that we have to call to find her results.
With Emerson, weāve been on campus a number of times with film students, know many past students in theatre, etc and past tours, etc enough to know that barring stellar on campus visits in the future sheād likely pick it over all her other acceptances and maybe the other top schools outside of Paceā¦ I donāt think sheās as concerned with the number of roles sheāll get on campus as sheās been pretty lucky with some great professional experience in theatre and film already along with great non-union that sheās in for quality not quantity now. And since she has serious interest in film acting, she can use any spare time from smaller stage roles/nonroles to act or crew with the film studentsā¦ Home is the same city so she can audition right in town for summer roles once her advisor thinks that itās good for her and she and her twin already have good relations with folks and even mentors at a number of area AEA and EMC theatres and in other cities in filmā¦ so she doesnāt have the same urgency for on stage roles during the school yearā¦ as much as the teachers/advisors thinks she should aim for but should be ok with what she gets if the college is a good fit for her otherwise.
At least, that is the position I believe that sheās in from her personality, history, and everything sheād confided in me during this process.