<p>What if, by amahzing incredible good luck, the kid got accepted - and was notified fairly early about it - into more than one of the really competitive schools - or if one of the schools that accepted, didn't give quiiiiite enough financial aid to make it an easy choice - not so expensive that it was clearly out of the question, but expensive enough to merit some really hard thinking, and not be able to really decide until hearing from all the other schools.</p>
<p>Or any other situation (though those are the main two I can think of) that would make one need to ponder a while and not commit immediately to a sudden early acceptance.</p>
<p>Is it assumed you really do have until May 1 to commit, or is is different with these super competitive hard to get into spots and you really need to answer yes or no right away?</p>
<p>Do they just waitlist? I'm sure the vast majority of spots they offer get snapped up with a quick "yes please!" but surely it happens from time to time that a kid does get more than one, and needs to think a while. Or the financial thing.</p>
<p>I don’t know how it works with EA or ED, but all of D’s schools abided by the May 1 deadline for replies. Some of her acceptances came in December and some on April 1, but she waited until she had all of them before responding. One school tried their best to get her to make an early decision (emails from the dean every couple weeks or so, phone calls from current students, etc.) but D stood her ground and asked them to wait until May 1. It ended up that once she had all the decisions, HER decision was fairly easy, so she ended up giving her final answer around April 5 or 6. As long as the application was not EA or ED, I believe they are obligated to keep your slot open until May 1.</p>
<p>Well, none of the actual universities to which she is applying, are a terribly big reach, academically. In fact none are - they range from safeties to very comfortable fit to fit. I don’t think any of them would really be poking her much before May 1. And we aren’t doing ED for sure and I think only a couple of the schools on our list even have EA, and we probably won’t do EA.</p>
<p>It’s the MT and theater programs that cap at very small numbers I’m wondering about. Or do they have so many qualified applicants that they couldn’t offer a spot to, that they don’t really worry if short brunette ingenue number 87 didn’t reply right away because they have 50 more who were also highly qualified?</p>
<p>I know that the MT departments would love if everyone replied early - but realistically they know that most kids are waiting for all the offers, especially the most talented kids. If your D has an absolute favorite then I could see accepting right when it was offered. But you have nothing to lose by waiting, and it gives you plenty of time to weigh and compare the FA offers. However, we were surprised how similar all of D’s FA offers were. Somehow every school managed to put together a package for her that ended up with roughly the same COA (except UT-Austin, which was her only state school).</p>
<p>snapdragon…if your child is offered a spot at a college or in a MT program, you have until MAY 1 to accept or turn down the offer. That is the National Reply Date and colleges must abide by that. Know your rights. The ONLY exception is Early Decision (not EA) whereby you agree to attend if admitted. EA is NOT an agreement to attend, nor requires you to notify the school of your intentions until May 1. Your child’s spot is held until May 1. After May 1, if the spot is not taken by your child, the school or program then offers it to someone on their wait list. Yes, most schools have a wait list.</p>
<p>But let me clarify that a bit. MOST schools (with a few exceptions like CMU and Otterbein) accept MORE theater applicants than spots in the class. For example, if there are 20 spots in the class, they may accept 26 applicants with the hope of yielding 20. Then, if they only yield 18, they then go to the wait list to pluck two more off it. In other words, they accept more students than slots available because they know many students have more than one offer and all will not matriculate at their program. CMU and Otterbein, two small programs (and in CMU’s case, a program where many admits truly take their spots) accept the exact number in the class and if those slots are not filled on May 1, then they go to the wait list. Hopefully that clarifies it for you. </p>
<p>In any case…you ask how to choose…Well, once your child has all of her acceptances in hand, she should try to put to paper, perhaps on a chart or spreadsheet, how each school matches up to her personal selection criteria. She can then compare and contrast them and see which is the better fit. As well, she could list pros/cons for each school. She could revisit the schools. It will become clearer to her which fits her the best if she has investigated each one deeply and has also spoken to current student and faculty and so on. As an aside, it is a nice “problem” to have many choices! And then there is the financial situation for many people as well.</p>
<p>(It would be complete utter dumb luck for her to get accepted into more than one, or even just one, of the really picky schools - not that she isn’t fabulous because of course she is, but, so is everyone else! - so we may not even have that problem! But I just wondered about it.)</p>
<p>Like Soozievt said, all of my D’s schools abided by the May 1st date, however, there was definitely pressure to decide before that date. Thanks to Soozievt, we knew what my D’s rights were and held everyone off. One school in particular worded their acceptance letter such that it appeared she would need to decide by April 1. She replied that she was waiting to hear from ALL of her schools prior to making a decision and they were OK with that. They did keep contacting her and pressured her a little, but were understanding about the delay. She was a transfer and one of her top choices was UCLA which does not notify their transfer students until late April- I think it was April 25. So in this case, she held off until really late in the game before making a decision, and it was not an issue.</p>
<p>My DD was fortunate enough to be accepted to all the schools she applied to, some in theatre, some in dance and I will concurr with what others have said. One - from the private schools the financial aid packages were remarkably the same, Two -out of state public school packages, with the exception of one that waived out of state tuition were prohibitive, Three - at least one school worded the acceptance letter to sound as if she had to respond sooner than May 1.
All the schools except one that DD applied to used rolling admissions, so she knew her status early on. Many of the schools accepted her academically and offered some merit scholarship money, prior to her auditions. (It was at that point we began ruling out the out-of -state publics since talent scholarships would be harder to get.)
In the end DD made her decision before the May 1 deadline, and schools that she rules out along the way, we contacted earlier. By the time her FAFSA and final aid packages arrived she had ruled her choices down to 4 and all of these financially were close, some of the differences in money included things like cost to travel to and from, differences in room and board and cost of living in the location. Her final choice was not made by based on costs, although in the totality the school she choose was the second least expensive of the 4.
Her final choice was not what I wanted, but I prioritized different things than she did.</p>
<p>takeitallin is right that there will be SOME schools (not all) that try to pressure you to respond earlier than May 1 but you don’t have to and your spot will not be given away. Many schools do not even notify applicants of their decision until April 1. </p>
<p>It so happens that I recall one school pressuring by phone, and that was your D’s school, PSU, where my D got in for their BFA in MT. The way they worded it was that they had to know if she was accepting the scholarship or not, and I thought that was silly or misleading because that is akin to asking if she was going to attend as she would only need the scholarship if she were to attend. We were still waiting on the April 1 schools and told them so and replied back in early April that she would not be matriculating there as her number one choice was one of the schools that did notify around April 1. Ironically (not that this had to do with my D’s decision of where to attend), PSU’s scholarship was the smallest of the 7 scholarships by far. </p>
<p>While my D did not apply to Point Park, there have been numerous accounts that that school really makes it sound like you must reply well before May 1 but you truly do not have to and you spot is secure until that date. Don’t be fooled!</p>
<p>Our experience was much the same as others, and yes, PSU did pressure her to let them know if she would accept their scholarship offer which is the same as saying they needed to know her answer prior to May 1. I will say that by holding off, a couple of schools increased their scholarship offers. By no means were we playing games and holding off notifications for that reason- my D was truly just waiting to hear about her UCLA acceptance. But in the end, 2 of her financial offers were increased without any discussion on our part. Also, in my D’s case, some of her best financial packages were from OOS public, so don’t automatically assume they won’t come through. On the other hand, UCLA, our in-state local school, gave her nothing!</p>
<p>I concur with other posters…my son had three offers out of five schools, so don’t assume she won’t get several offers to choose from. We held off until the end, also, not because we were being coy, but because one of the schools notified after April 1st. </p>
<p>One school let us know as early as November, and did send us a very “formal” letter that had to be signed and sent back, worded as “if you decide to attend ____ University, that you still intend to take the BFA MT”. It made us really nervous, but, again, thanks to Soozie we understood that we did not have to decide until May 1st. We signed the letter (becuz of course he DID intend to study MT IF he went there, and waited for the other decisions.</p>
<p>As it turned out, S visited the school he had pretty much decided on (and the latest to notify) late in April, and the director offered a scholarship that he had not offered previously. My gut feeling was that some of their other candidates had already chosen other schools, and they really wanted to keep S in the “cast”. It wasn’t the deciding factor, but it was a really nice surprise, and we did not have to negotiate either. But I have heard others on this site say it never hurts to ask (even for non-theatre majors).</p>
<p>Everyone has a different scenario, but Soozie is right…go into it knowing if they give you an offer they have put a lot of thought into what mix of types and voices they want…and they want you as much as you want them…all programs are small and selective.</p>
<p>I agree with all above as well…my daughter had four offers and one final wait list out of five schools. All of her auditions were on campus, so she had a feel for each. One offer came in December, and they checked in with my daughter periodically, but she didn’t feel any pressure, just that they were interested. She let them know she was strongly considering them. She still had some of her big auditions ahead of her and wanted to complete her audition season. </p>
<p>When she received her other acceptances in mid March, we chose to re-visit the school with the strongest offer. That visit sealed the deal for my daughter and she has never been happier in her life. She has just returned to school to start her second year, and very much feels that she made the correct decision for her.</p>
<p>This process took us till about mid April and we notified all the other schools that she was respectfully declining their offers and to be removed from the final waitlist of the last. With the time we took in making the decision and the visit we made, I feel our daughter truly felt she had the information she needed to make the correct choice for her to be happy in her training for the next four years, this is what we all want to have happen for our children.</p>
<p>Best wishes for a wonderful audition year and a successful outcome! Good Luck!</p>
<p>We will, indeed, suggest we would like to hear before the deadline. For us (beyond the talent issue) this is a bit of a numbers game. Soozievt has it dead on - we make offers to a few more than we expect to yield. Those acceptances are normally based on the norm as suggested from previous years.</p>
<p>Our offers ask for a response within two weeks. That response can be “no”, “yes” or “I need more time.” What the schools are looking to do is move on if the student is not really considering our program. For instance, if your son or daughter has a university deep down on the list of choices, and already has offers from programs higher on the list, than the first university wants to know. </p>
<p>We all know the deadline, we all want our full class in place by the deadline. So, we ask for you to make a decision as early as possible - basically we are asking the family to just be considerate. It potentially means something to a person that might be on the waitlist. </p>
<p>Finally, remember, for the University there is a potential that too many will say “yes.” This can cause issues for many of us. Our numbers are based on curricular development and too many students will hamper our educational goals in some cases.</p>
<p>kjgc, I can fully understand why a college wants to know as soon as possible if each student plans to matriculate. But by the same token, please know what when a college asks for a response within two weeks, there are a LOT of families who will ASSUME that they must decide in order to hold their spot at that college. They do not understand their rights to wait until May 1 to inform colleges and in fact, to even wait until April 1 when MANY colleges send out admissions notification, to obtain all of their results. And what this invites some families to do is to be unethical. They will put a deposit down on more than one school to “in their mind” hold their spot. That is something nobody should do, nor should it be encouraged (I believe Point Park comes across as needing the deposit and lets families know they can get it back before May 1). Nobody should be putting deposits down at more than one school (I know you are not advocating for that kjgc) and not only is that unfair to other kids to hold spots that may not be eventually used, but it is unfair to families to have to tie up that kind of money at multiple schools. So, I’m just sharing the other end of this situation. </p>
<p>Yes, colleges are not forcing students to accept offers prior to May 1 (they would be in violation of the rules to do so), but by asking for a response before May 1, they are putting families in fear who assume they MUST respond sooner than May 1, or inadvertently are encouraging multiple deposits. I do understand why colleges WANT to know as soon as possible. On the other hand, they can go to the wait list, as necessary after May 1 which is what MOST colleges do. I have had two children of my own apply to 8 colleges each and one applied to ten graduate schools, and only ONE (Penn State) asked if my child was going to take the scholarship offer (in essence asking if she was going to accept her spot in the class) before May 1, though of course could not enforce that and we were luckily knowledgeable to know we did not have to respond yet. So, many colleges do just fine by getting all responses back by May 1 and determining their yield and then utilize their wait list, as needed. Wait list movement is typically after May 1 at most colleges.</p>
<p>kjgc, out of curiosity, when you ask for a response within two weeks of the offer, do you also state that they may respond, “yes,” “no,” or “need more time / have until May 1”? If so, that is different. NO problem. But to only ask for a response within two weeks should not assume that recipients will KNOW that they have those three options. Many will assume “I better hold my spot or it will be taken away.” Witness many posts on CC over the years who ask this question every March or April about “School X is pressuring me to respond and says I must send in a deposit but I haven’t heard from all my schools and am not ready to make a decision; what should I do.”</p>
<p>I agree w/ Soozie. I understand that schools are trying to figure out their numbers and offer open spots to those on waiting lists, but at least in our case, we didn’t feel we could make an informed decision until we heard from all of the schools with not only an admittance decision, but a financial package. When it came down to the end, my daughter had really narrowed it to 2 choices, but unfortunately one of those was the last to notify her-April 28. She did let the other schools that were not on her final list know that she would not be attending fairly early in the game, but could only reply to her one top-choice school that she was still waiting to hear from all of her schools before making a decision. Financially, it was important to us to consider all offers before making a decision. I think it would be better for the schools that push for an early response to make it clear that a response of “I don’t know yet” is perfectly acceptable. Even though we knew my D’s rights, it was a bit nervewracking to make schools wait for us to respond as deep down we kept thinking they might try to take the offers away. Ideally it is a 2-way street: applicants try to be considerate of schools and let them know of decisions asap; schools ask but don’t pressure students into letting them know of decisions asap.</p>
<p>Also, let’s remember that so many colleges NEVER ask students to respond sooner than May 1…their letters only state that they must reply by May 1. If many colleges, including BFA programs, can manage to do that, all should be able to. All colleges are understandably eager to manage their yield and enrollment.</p>
<p>We do let them know the option exists to ask for an extension. In fact, our final “yes” came after the May 1 deadline. If I’m not mistaken many days after. </p>
<p>We tell them at the audition exactly how the process works, and we tell them what the important dates for both the department and the university. </p>
<p>Again, this is done not to pressure the students to take the first marriage proposal. It is intended to break off the engagement if there is no intention of a relationship. </p>
<p>It seems as if people are looking at this like we are attempting to “trick” the student into making a decision. Or worse yet - force a decision. Either would be silly thing to do. Both would result in an unhappy class, and the potential of losing several of the students you thought that had committed - to a later choice. None of these students are committed in any way. (Unlike the NCAA where there are “letters of committment”)</p>
<p>As I think I stated. The goal isn’t really exact numbers. I imagine the vast majority of MUSTH programs are full each year. Without going too deeply into it, the question for us isn’t as much about the actual number of students, it is the ensemble being gathered. Such a dreadfully complex process so often talked about on these boards. We all want our first choices not only because of talent, but because of diversity of talent. I hope that makes some sense.</p>
<p>The goal is never to pressure the student. This is a very difficult process and a very important decision. As you state, it would be lovely if both sides were always forthright. I can’t speak for my compatriots, but I know many of the people in these programs, and I know they share my feelings regarding the placement of students. </p>
<p>I’m sorry to have made it sound like we were only interested in numbers.</p>