<p>Hello everyone. I was accepted into the BFA Acting program at SU and am entering next month in August for Fall 2013! I’m very excited. I know SU has great opportunities such as studying abroad in London and performing at the Shakespeare Globe theatre, and also the Tepper Semester in NYC, but other than those two, do SU performers get good exposure to professionals in the business?</p>
<p>My daughter is going to UNCSA in the Fall. It may not be quite as strict as Juilliard and Otterbein with respect to exact number but it basically does not over accept. Maybe a couple more than the total class at most. It is certainly not 50 to yield 30. Given the quality of program and price, they anticipate a high yield. There are plusses and minuses to this approach. On the one hand, there is not a risk that some schools have of all of sudden getting more acceptances than anticipated – e.g. Ithaca last year. Also, I do think waitlist at UNCSA probably have a better chance to clear than most. The downside is that the school can get a little antsy when people don’t decide well in advance of the deadline as they start to worry about losing waitlists. I know a couple of accepted students who experienced this. </p>
<p>Also, if people are not aware, the 28-30 person class is broken up into two sections of 15 and every semester that sections are changed up as to who is in the 15 person section. Number of girls is usually around 8-10. From the class facebook page, there will be at least 11 girls this year.</p>
<p>A little off topic, but do you think that the colleges take into account how many ethnicities/hair color/ shape/sizes of the kids they would want for performances? Or do they strictly go off talent?</p>
<p>Type is a huge factor in any program that takes a small class size.</p>
<p>My D has a very distinctive look and I am trying to figure if that will help or hurt her…I know there is no way to know how or why they make the decisions they do. I was just curious.</p>
<p>It depends yearly on what they are looking at to make their company. Definitely the schools that take a smaller number have certain types they are looking for that year or in general. If you look at the graduating classes online you can see how each school makes their company.</p>
<p>CCPA claims they do not have a certain number of girls/boys nor do they chose based on type. They accept who they like then chose their projects based on that. That was not the norm based on what other schools said.
My favorite audition day comment was at the pre-audition meeting at BU (my D’s first audition). He (can’t remember his name but we all loved him) said “Do NOT try to crack the code parents. It can’t be done!” Meaning don’t try to decide if they liked your child based on what they said during the audition, whether they asked her certain questions, worked with her or didn’t, asked her to do another monologue, etc. Took some of the pressure off of me as the mom.</p>
<p>^That might have been Paolo DiFabio at BU. Everybody loves Paolo. BU also chooses whom they like and bases their projects on that.</p>
<p>^^Yes, Paolo said something similar at this year’s auditions, and I’ve definitely also heard that BU does not base their acceptances on type. I liked that about their program.</p>
<p>Most of the programs we talk about here take equal numbers of boys and girls. And there are usually more female applicants than male, which means that competition is fiercer for girls than for boys.</p>
<p>I think (and as always this is just my opinion) that having a distinctive appearance is only going to help your daughter. The colleges will have to say “Hey, we don’t have anyone else of this ‘type’”.</p>
<p>Final tally on this year’s UNCSA class is 11 girls and 17 boys. </p>
<p>On the distinctive type question, I don’t know that anyone can give you an answers on the helps or hurts. I do think though it may be even more important with a distinctive type to pick monologue pieces that play to that type. Years ago my daughter had an interview from hell with a potential manager. However, he did say something that I think is very important. Lots of really talented people in the business do not get the work they should because they don’t understand their type while less talented people in the business get more work because they have a better understanding of their type.</p>
<p>Althought there maybe more girls auditioning for MT than straight acting, there seems to be more boys accepted into straight acting programs. I have seen this with Juilliard, UNCSA, purchase, and the London schools. I don’t know about some of the others. I also noticed a difference in types when looking at Carnegie Mellon as opposed to Mason Gross, Purchase, juilliard and the London schools. As I said earlier, a great way to see the “typing” of the top schools is to look at their graduating classes as a whole.</p>
<p>Please note the original post is from 2007. Numbers may have changed from that year.</p>
<p>Actingmom18, I really agree with your advice re: looking at a school’s graduating BFA class. It can be an eye-opener. Some schools really have a wide variety of types, sizes, ethnicities. Some classes, frankly, seem oddly gorgeous, slim, fit and… gorgeous. It is helpful, I agree, to know where an acting applicant seems to fit, because, while there may be a few exceptions to their “type”, it’s best to be realistic what each school is looking for.</p>
<p>Ithaca BFA Acting class is 30…more people committed than anticipated.</p>
<p>Dreambelle 13, Since more committed this year then anticipated, do you think they will cut this year’s acceptance numbers to make up the difference?</p>
<p>I have no clue, if I would have to guess I’d say they’ll try not to over accept this year and aim for the average class size which I think is 20.</p>
My daughter is one of the 13 Emerson BFA acting kids entering the program this year. I remember when she first received the admittance there was a class of 17 or so, now is at 13. HOWEVER there are a good 25(approximate of course) kids in the BA acting program. Honestly they are all in the same dept, taking from the same teachers, and auditioning for the same shows so I’m not sure if it really matters. The common thread I’ve seen with these kids is that they are creative and driven in all aspects of their life, good students, diversified in activities, extremely normal in terms of ego, great writers and seem to be kids that frequently took the road less traveled. There is my arm chair look at the group, I could be way off! They are incredible and I’m thrilled she is at Emerson! Parents, don’t try to figure out the college audition system, our kid got accepted or called back at some of the better programs in the country and wait listed at a less prestigious…its SO weird and impossible to predict!! Best advice I have for parents is don’t interfere! Let the kid pick where they want to audition and show the schools who THEY are every step of the way. Transport them to where they need to be, pay the bills and lend a shoulder when an audition or application doesn’t go as planned, that’s it, they will do the rest. OH and as my kids theater teacher said- “Your child is the prize, NOT he program, they will blossom wherever they land!” Cheers and good luck parents, the ride is super fun!
DePaul accepts 30 (not 50) Aprox 15 girls and 15 boys for BFA acting. They have a short waitlist. They had over 1500 audition this year.