^ I do not have this super power; not even a little bit :)!
I say it all the time- I will freely admit that I am not always so good at DOING it! I think I do D’s rejections last year more personally than she did- how dare any school not want MY baby!! But for those in the midst of that feeling now- it passes. Got a great phone call this week from the kid- where she gushed on and on about how much she loves her school, and how she wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world. So last year’s rejections don’t matter- she is on her path and enjoying the journey.
@logosmo - me either. :((
I think a key Superpower for most actor-parents is knowing that our kids are usually far better at ALL of this than we are. 
Not sure if this is appropriate to ask here, but I will and if it’s not, someone just let me know. I am relatively new user, unfortunately, bc my D is a senior who has always wanted MT for college but never really guided and I didn’t realize how much involved. Bottom line, she has lots of education and experience in voice, dance, not as much in acting, just from her roles which have been many in school, but not a very big or involved program, mostly musicals, a few dramas. She has also done community theatre and has taken dance since age 3, voice for past 5 years, and theatre classes here and there…basically she’s pretty talented, but so are all of these kids! The question is about auditions…she was not asked any questions at her 2 auditions (Emerson and Hartt), except if she had any question herself, which she did and it was answered, kind of a generic question. In the experience of you all, was anyone accepted to any program if they were NOT really interviewed? She is waiting to here from both of these programs, I think they both said April 1st at the latest. Thanks in advance and sorry if wrong place to ask this!
@bellesmom - the answer to your question is “yes”. Kids get admitted to schools all the time without an interview. Generally speaking, a school either interviews everyone, or no one. There are exceptions always, of course. Penn State comes to mind since if you don’t get moved to the interview, you know you have essentially been cut. I am not familiar with Emerson or Hartt since my D did not audition at either of those schools. The question I have for you is this, your D only applied to two schools? If that is the case, I hope she has a safety in her back pocket. Even the most experienced and talented students get rejections from schools. The rejection rate rules this major since there are SO many applicants for so very few spots. For this reason, students usually audition at many schools. My D only auditioned at 9, and that is on the low side. Some kids audition at as many as 20 schools hoping to get one acceptance. in my D’s last audition she was told that 1200 students applied, 120 were called back, and 10-15 will receive offers. These are impossible odds even if you knock your audition out of the park. Not many outside our major “get it”, so we all meet here to commiserate. Best wishes to your D! Keep us posted!
Hi Bellesmom…
EVERY school’s program handles auditions differently. Some schools just listen to auditions and don’t have any sort of conversation with the student. Some have some interview as part of it. Some might ask the student to adjust the material and take direction. So, you can’t really analyze (as tempting as it may be) what an auditor did or did not ask your student to do and whether or not that is a good sign or not. I am not the only one with a kid who has been through this who could give you anecdotes such as my kid got into some schools where she had no discussion with the auditors and got rejected at schools where she did a great deal with the auditors, and vice versa. So, I don’t think you are going to be able to get a feeling on your question that is very accurate, sorry to say. Fingers crossed for your daughter and hopefully she applied to more than two schools in this challenging admission process.
There are many examples on here of people who have gotten into schools without an interview. There are also stories of kids who had wonderful interviews with schools only to be rejected. So try not to read anything in to whether you were interviewed or not. It is impossible to assume what the short interview may mean.
I might recommend, if you only applied to 2 schools, that you consider applying to some other schools who may still be accepting applications and have no audition. Columbia College in Chicago comes to mind. The 2 schools you mentioned to which you’ve applied can be tough to be admitted into the MT program. So you may want to see if there are some other options out there just in case. Most MT applicants will apply to 10 - 15 schools or more because the odds for admittance are not high.
In the meantime, hopefully she will get accepted to one or both Hartt or Emerson and I hope you will post your acceptances here so we can all celebrate with you! Hope you get good news soon!
Another alternative, if you feel your daughter was unprepared, would be to allow her to take a gap year and spend some of her time better preparing for the next admissions cycle. Columbia is a very good suggestion.
Thanks all for the info and advice! I really wish we had looked at this last year! Probably would have applied to more schools as, yes, we have learned the odds are so bad! Anyway, she did apply to other schools, and has acceptances, one non audition (Univ of RI) , but they will have auditions for talent scholarship, so that’s her safety. Also waiting for Univ of New Hampshire MT program, but their audition process was very different, open audition with all students, she was given an adjustment and thinks she handled it well, so the interview/question topic was irrelevant in my question. She actually was very prepared with her materials, we just weren’t aware before the process started of how the process worked and that she should apply to so many schools. But she also wanted to stay in New England so that sets more limits. All in all, as Addicted2MT said, people outside of this major don’t really get it, is so true, even her guidance people gave none, but we did ok. I enjoy reading everyone’s experiences and hope everyones’ good news outweighs any rejections! Thanks again all!
Little Rhody is a wonderful place!
@bellesmom maybe check out the schools that have rolling admissions, I think there are a few.
My D had a rejection from University of Oklahoma (at Chicago Unifieds) and one from Millikin (onsite). We are waiting for news from 3 schools and she has Columbia College Chicago as a safety school. (it is a school she LOVES) Columbia doesn’t usually audition incoming freshmen, but is offering that “opportunity” this year. Any thoughts? Is it a good idea while she is still in audition mode or is she setting herself up for another no?
What is Columbia representing as the value of the audition? Is it for merit scholarship? Or for a particular program?
You seem to imply that it’s possible that auditioning for a school that has already admitted her could cause them to revoke the offer of admission. Is that right, @MTmamabear?
I believe Columbia admits students to the school and then at a later date has the audition for the BFA in Musical Theater program. My understanding is you can still attend the school without being accepted into that particular program and choose a BA degree perhaps.
As far as when to audition, are there benefits to auditioning early such as getting to take certain classes? If so, I would go ahead and audition. But I would check with someone who has experience at the college to know for sure. There may be pros and cons as to when to audition for the BFA.
I would assume that, if she doesn’t get admitted into the BFA, she would still be accepted into the BA.
I wonder if there is an opportunity to audition again next year if one doesn’t get into the BFA this time. If there is, I would think there are benefits to auditioning now.
We had been told in the fall that, next year, Columbia is changing to a pre-freshman year auditioned program.
I don’t think they would revoke her admission, I think this just determines BA vs BFA
I can see not bringing it up if it could be really risky but if there’s nothing to lose, I’d let her choose whether/when she wants to audition.
No from Montclair.
Boo. Sorry @stage2nature! Here’s hoping for good news soon!