<p>I had a scare yesterday when my d came home and told me her friend was accepted by mail and I thought they changed the notification process... then she tells me he applied for music. UGH!!</p>
<p>So can we assume we will hear on Friday at 530pm</p>
<p>I just called the admissions office about ten minutes ago to ask if they will be emailing decisions this Friday, and the lady said 'yes', they will. I asked what time they will be sent and she said something along the lines of "I'm not sure....I think 5 o'clock.....so students can't call."</p>
<p>ya from what I read in this forum... that makes total sense...
funny though</p>
<p>Hit "send" and hit the door...I don't blame them a bit!</p>
<p>Actually they hit the doors at 5pm and ask the cleaning lady to hit the button a bit later :)</p>
<p>I wonder if these programs are accustomed to having upset kids and parents flood the switchboard with phone calls asking for explanations once the emails go out or something .....</p>
<p>Apparently you can call BoCo and they will tell you why you didn't get in so therefore they probably get a lot of phone calls and must do it this way to avoid everyone calling in at the same time... Makes perfect sense...</p>
<p>NMR....shockingly (TO ME, that is), I think this DOES happen. I can't imagine calling a school after a rejection in this way but apparently it is common. I first came to realize this when back in my oldest child's junior year of HS, we were on a college visit and my D had lined up various appointments on campus and I took care of lining up the tour and information session. This particular school normally gives information sessions, but on the date we were visiting, they only had the tours. While waiting for the tour, I asked how come there were no information sessions on that day and the person explained that the admissions decisions had just gone out (this was late March) and that the adcoms were so busy fielding phone calls from parents (of those rejected)! I just could not believe it as I would never think to do that and we didn't for either child. But apparently, it happens more than you would think and thus, BOCO's procedure. Many of the highly selective colleges (non-MT) post decisions online at 5:00 or 5:30 March 31 or April 1. My D found out several schools at once.</p>
<p>Hi all! It has been great reading all the posts! Makes me feel like I'm not the only person waiting until Friday!!! </p>
<p>I think it is great that BoCo will field “rejection” calls. How many times have you or your child gone to an audition and felt like you nailed it, only to receive a "rejection" call? Your left confused... This way you are able to ask for the auditors evaluations and hopefully use them for artistic growth. (At least that’s what I keep telling myself.) You'll also know what BoCo is “looking” for if you decide to audition for them in the future. I have a few friends who graduated from BoCo (various years) and most of them auditioned a second time!! </p>
<p>Just a thought……</p>
<p>SwoozieVT, you are so helpful and supportive in so many of your posts, but I don't understand your most recent one. Why is it shocking that students might want or deserve feedback on their audition? They often invest years of training working toward their goal of being admitted to a BFA MT program, prepare different materials for various auditions, travel, sometimes at great expense, to spend 5 or 10 minutes auditioning, not to mention the $100 audition fee. To me it only seems logical that schools could offer some helpful information to those not accepted into their program. A rejection for other types of degree programs usually boils down to more obvious reasons like grades, scores, lack of activities, etc. Yes, we all know that MT programs are very competitive and even though a student might be talented, there will still be rejections. However, this type of feedback could be invaluable to someone who wants to keep on trying to reach their goal.</p>
<p>Chloe, I won't presume to answer for Susan, but will offer the answer that occurred to me when I read your post above. I don't think that it's shocking that students would seek feedback/reasons for not being accepted at programs. In fact, I think it's wonderful that some programs actually offer this, especially considering how many kids they see. But I do think it is shocking/not a good thing to do when PARENTS call admissions office to complain/yell at/argue with admissions officers about thei child not being accepted. I believe that what Susan was referring to (and feel sure that if I am wrong, she will clarify for us) was <em>parents</em> calling to lambast the adcomes. In my mind, there is a vast difference between a student respectfully seeking any information on his or her performance, preparation, etc. that can be of use later and parents reaming people out because their child did not get in. Does that make sense?</p>
<p>NMR, I agree...there is definitely quite a difference in your two scenarios: calling for a constructive critique-gratefully appreciated; calling to complain/argue-shocking. Perhaps I misunderstood SwoozieVT to mean the former. Thanks for your reply.</p>
<p>I don't remember which school talked about this now (funny how its all becoming a big blur at this point!), but one school talked about why they DON'T give feedback after the auditions, and I thought he made really good points.</p>
<p>He said that the feedback should come from a trusting relationship, preferably the student's teacher or someone that he/she works with, not from someone who just saw them for only 10 minutes. What if they had a bad day, and they call and hear something about their "bad" voice - how would your student react? Maybe there's a chance they will get some constructive criticsm/advice, but do they really take the time to write up that detailed notes on each student they see?</p>
<p>If my daughter doesn't get in and does want to talk to them, I will make sure she does it with the right attitude - that they are commenting on one tiny piece of performing.</p>
<p>My daughter doesn't want to know. She thought it would be "weird to call" and ask... probably for the reasons mentioned in the post above. Also knowing will not change the outcome and by next year BoCo and the other schools could be looking for completely different kinds of students.</p>
<p>Given how much time a lot of us spend sifting through CC for hints, clues, etc. regarding how schools make decisions, any details from the auditions themselves would seem to be very valuable. Even if the comments are painful, isn't it better to know whether a rejection was due to something relatively minor such as the student not fitting some specific need of the school or perhaps due to an apparent lack of polishing and training? In other words, things that are totally out of the kids' control or things that can be fixed with good instruction? </p>
<p>Also, many kids don't have access to highly knowledgeable, experienced people to provide unbiased, honest assessments of their abilities. As a result, a string of college rejections could leave a very talented kid wondering whether they should continue to push forward when in fact what might be lacking are the kinds of skills and training needed to best allow that talent to shine through during auditions. </p>
<p>In my D's case, one of the programs she auditioned for this year offered to provide honest and direct feedback. I'm sure that it's a difficult task for them, but that feedback is having a huge effect in helping her recognize her weaknesses and strengths, which in turn is helping her pick among acceptances and in gauging the significance of rejections.</p>
<p>For these reasons and others, I think that schools should be encouraged to offer information from the auditions, and any that are willing to do so should be thanked for doing a real service. I can certainly understand why schools would not want to open themselves up to angry students or, worse yet, parents, which makes it even more admirable that a few colleges (and at least one of the two-year conservatory programs) are open to providing feedback.</p>
<p>Hi Chloe,
I will try to clarify what I meant in my previous post (although NMR did a pretty good job in expressing thoughts that I share and we tend to think similarly). By the way, my member name is Soozie, not Swoozie, but perhaps after a few glasses of wine, maybe it is Swoozie?? :D</p>
<p>First, I feel funny discussing this on a BOCO thread but as discussions go, one thing can lead to another. My previous post was not about BOCO specifically and in fact, was not about BFA programs, but about colleges in GENERAL. For one thing, not only am I a parent who has had a child apply to regular colleges, besides one who applied to BFA in MT ones, I also advise students and their families about ALL types of college admissions and not JUST for musical theater and not JUST BFA admissions. My comments had to do with college admissions generally speaking. </p>
<p>I was commenting about parents who call up the schools that rejected their children to find out (or in some cases, demand) why the school has not taken their child. For a moment, please put aside audition based programs because that was not really my focus in that comment. For one thing, I do not even think it is the parents place to call as this is the child's admissions process, not the parents', even though parents play a major supportive role in this process. Further, for REGULAR colleges at the least, I cannot see the point in asking "why didn't my child get in?" I am not sure what there is to be gained because in most cases, the child got into a college but maybe not the one they wanted. In particular, I find this question even worse in cases of HIGHLY selective college admissions. In those cases, I am not sure a college could even pinpoint to a parent why the kid did not get in because a lot of times, they are rejecting students who DO qualify but they can't take them all given the very low acceptance rates and so there is not a clear cut reason the student got a "no". And how at that point, does it help to even know? How can they field in some cases, 20,000 such calls??? My children both were involved in highly selective admissions processes (add on that my oldest JUST went through in this cycle a highly selective grad admissions process). I can tell you that I felt that both were qualified for every school on their list BUT realistically speaking, I knew and my kids did too, NOT to expect to get into many of them given the very low admit rates and that qualified students will be turned away (again, to very very selective schools or programs that accept at a very low acceptance rate). If they got a rejection, nobody cried or was devastated. Nobody was angry about it. We expected it. We looked at the overall picture in the end (which I am happy to say worked out really positively). I have read CC now for almost six years and I have read many stories (beyond the MT forum....I read the other CC forums as well, not sure some of you do) where parents are truly IRATE when their child is rejected from a school like Yale. I can't imagine that. Mom or Dad then calls the school to complain or ask "why?" So, I related in my previous post about how when visiting a school (this was NOT a MT school at all), how I was told that their adcoms were so busy fielding calls from PARENTS (remember this is the KIDS' process) about why their kids were rejected that they couldn't even run the information session. I also explained how many highly selective schools such as the Ivies and other top colleges, seem to release decisions online at 5 PM or so and now I see why. That was the gist of my comments. I was specifically talking about parents calling to either complain or want explanations of why their child was not admitted to a college. Sorry, but that is one thing I am not into. </p>
<p>Now, you do bring up audition feedback which again, was not really what I was referring to in my previous post. I can understand wanting that, I truly do. Some schools may give it and some may not. That also is a bit different, as NMR mentions. If a STUDENT (not parent) calls up asking for some feedback (NOT "why didn't I get in??") about their audition to help them with subsequent auditions and the school is willing to provide it, I guess that can be a good thing, but not all schools are willing to do that. I do NOT think that is particularly useful at the end of the cycle (such as around NOW) unless, of course, a student is rejected everywhere and wants feedback and is considering trying again the following year. The one time I think that could be useful is if a student is rejected early in the season with a lot of auditions still to come and can get a school to give some constructive feedback about the audition. In fact, in 2005, when my own child auditioned for BFA in MT programs, I had not thought of doing that. However, about half way through her auditions, she heard from one of her earlier ones with a rejection and another mom who I had met at the audition at that school (who as it turned out, had a D who had gone to the same summer program as my D but they didn't know one another) shared with me that the adcom for the program was very willing to give the student feedback about the audition and that they had called and gotten that. I never thought to do that but asked my D if she wanted to and she did and so she called up this lovely person who we had met in a private meeting on a visit, and asked for feedback about her audition and was grateful for it. That was the only time she did that because of what this other person said about this school and that they do this there. Actually, she didn't have other rejections during the season but I don't think she would have called any others anyway because she only did because of hearing that this was something they do at that particular program. Also, a rejection in late March is not going to yield constructive feedback that she needed for subsequent auditions. So, audition feedback in the first half of audition season is nice if you can get it and still apply it to auditions still to come. I don't think it is necessary to bother schools about that at this time of year, unless one has no acceptances and will be going through the process again in the future. I don't need to know why certain schools said no at the end of the cycle if my child is holding some acceptances. Not all schools can accept them given the odds and so it just goes with this territory. </p>
<p>So, I hope that clarifies that I can see it being beneficial for an applicant (not a parent) to get feedback on their audition, but I am not sure many schools could handle that but if they are willing, that is cool, particularly if there are still college auditions to come for the candidate. But a parent calling a college, ANY college, not just BFA or audition schools, after a rejection to find out why their child wasn't accepted....I am not into. I could see a guidance counselor calling about a student to ascertain any information that may be helpful down the line with students still to come from that HS.</p>
<p>Heads-up everyone:
Boston Conservatory has sent out their emails already, apparantly around 4 pm EST!</p>
<p>Decisions are out there! Good luck to everyone waiting and congrats to those getting good news! :)</p>
<p>It's a yes for my S. Good luck to all!</p>