How are people already getting accepted to so many schools when auditions are still ongoing? Just curious how that happens. Is it because some programs take 60-80 people and some take 10?
^ Some schools have rolling admissions; some accept a few along the way.
@Dankadon, the recent posts on this thread are talking about ACADEMIC acceptances. In order to get into an MT program at most schools, you need to pass two hurdles: 1) you need to get in academically; and 2) you need to get in artistically (via the audition). The academic acceptances often come out before the artistic acceptances. Many kids get in academically and not artistically … some (but not nearly as many) get in artistically but not academically. You need both.
For the people talking about academic and artistic acceptances, this is for EA schools and schools with rolling admissions. No worries…still lots of slots left.
@monkey13 - thanks! Ok, yes I know about the double acceptance. It just seemed like they were talking about acceptances into the theatre program(s) and that was mystifying me!
@Dankadon The schools my D has been accepted to for MT advised us a couple of weeks after her auditions. They do not take a lot of kids but I guess make decisions each go round of auditions.
@Dankadon I think that how many Rolling admissions schools handle it is they will give out acceptances and rejections, but also a number of deferrals. The deferrals allow them to evaluate a larger group towards the end when they have a better idea of the total applicant pool.
Another thing to remember - most schools have to accept far more people than they can actually take to get to the final class numbers that they need. Your son or daughter might get into four or five programs, but they can only go to one!! There are a VERY few exceptions (schools) who will likely have 100% yeses to their offers.
I was given a thread recently that lists the offers/class size but most schools don’t list the number of offers – would love a list of offers made but I dont’ think it is available. I know NYU, Marymount Manhattan, Boston Conservatory traditionally make a lot of offers.
Not all school over accept.
Some schools like Montclair will initially only send out their set number of acceptances to keep the size/balance of class that they want. Then when one or more people decline the offer for something else they’ll replace with a similar type from a wait list.
Other schools do over accept, like Roosevelt university. When I toured the school someone asked how many they’ll accept. They said they normally have a class size of 25 (per major, MTVoice/MTDance/Acting), however they accept more than 25 in anticipation that a couple will decline the offer.
There’s pros and cons to either method, Montclair can have a lot of control on class size, but maybe exact size isn’t as important to Roosevelt and they’d prefer not to work off a wait list.
Is there information of how many auditioned and how many got in for each school?I would think that would make you feel better knowing what you were up against or make you feel prouder to have been say one of 1000 who auditioned for 10 spots.
When we visited Ithaca earlier this Spring, we were told they usually make offers to about 33-35 for 16 spots. However, when they did this last year, too many people accepted and they had to almost double the class size! The person I spoke to said they would likely make fewer offers this year.
Here is a link somone provided me a few months back – it is helpful:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1733121-mt-admit-rates-number-of-applicants-2015-class-size-2014-or-2013-number-of-offers-if-known-p1.html
I’ve said this before, but University of the Arts auditioned over 800 MT and Acting last year, hoping for a class of around 24 MTs. (I don’t know how many Acting. I do know that most of the auditioners were MT, as usual). They accepted a bit over 50 (again, I don’t know the breakdown). About 50 accepted their offer and are freshmen this year. It was unprecedented, but UArts has been handling it really well; studio and all class sizes are still tiny, and I’m impressed by the personal attention D and others have received. It also didn’t seem to affect casting. Freshman at UArts don’t audition for fall shows, but they do audition for spring shows and may be cast in one show then. We were told last year that many freshmen aren’t cast, but some are. That held true this year, too; D is in a show, and so are some of her friends (including two who frequented this forum last year and sometimes still contribute–hello, you two! 
).
D hasn’t heard how this will affect numbers accepted this year.
At Unifieds this weekend Syracuse said there were approximately 750 or so applicants (and I’m not sure if this included drama and MT or just MT - have forgotten - both were auditioning at the same time at Unifieds - way more MT) and they put through 55% of the prescreens. From that actual audition pool they will make about 50 offers in hopes of a class of 22 or 24. What I’m not sure about is if all 50 are straight up acceptances, or if 50 acceptances actually means, say 30 acceptances and a further waitlist of 20. I think it’s the former, but not positive. Which at the time sounded wonderfully more than the usual, but not really if you base it on the actual number of 750 - it’s still the way less than 10% deal, it’s just that those of us hearing it had already “advanced” to the next round.
Ithaca did not give out the “how many passed prescreens” number, but I believe their totals and number of eventual admits were similar to Syracuse’s.
Pace on campus Friday said they took 1500 pre-screens, had 750 call backs and take around 26. You realize it’s eaiser to get into Harvard or Yale than get into a BFA MT Program, right??? X_X
Just for fun, here’s some dirty math. There are 60 schools listed at the top of this forum. If Syracuse/Pace are typical, each one gets (or considers post pre-screen) about 750 applications. That makes 12.5 students are available to accept offers from any particular school (750 for each school divided by 60 schools). That leaves 3.5 spaces left in each program (assuming typical program size of 16). So, in total, these 60 schools have more spots than there are “qualified applicants”. And that doesn’t include the many, many schools not on the 60-school list. Down and dirty math and a lot of outside factors (such as CMU’s 2000 applicants), but I like those odds!
The other thing to consider is that all these people didn’t apply to all the schools so the math gets super sketchy and the odds are pretty bad.
Some schools take so much more and some so less. Otterbein takes very few each year while Roosevelt takes a total of 75 between MT/Acting.
But just like being an Ivy League applicant there are plenty of things you can and should do to sway the odds in your favor. If you consider a chunk of applicants to a particular school are an average joe or below, i.e. Doesn’t read CC or do massive preparation research. And a chunk of applicants to a school are just trying for fun and might not have any serious talent or knowledge of rep, and are just bad at singing/acting. Also, lots only apply to a couple schools not understanding how risky that is.
So if you are working with a voice teacher, follow Mary Ann Denards Vlogs, read these forums, and have a balanced list of schools, then you are probably ahead of a good portion of 750 applicants. Of course there are exceptions, I have a friend who didn’t know much about this process and only auditioned at Pace, as well as some in state colleges, she got into Pace.
I believe at one point @EmsDad had done some hardcore math/freakenomics number crunching about your odds to getting to an auditioned BFA program and how many one would have to audition for.
I’m guessing that many programs will be even more selective about their acceptance numbers this year. As has been posted about other schools, Wright State also traditionally “over” accepted students (32-ish to yield 24-ish MT/Acting) and last year almost every one of the students accepted joined the freshman class. They used to do rolling acceptances and this year for the first time they are waiting until the auditions are over.
University of Michigan stated that they received close to 1000 applications and are auditioning 400 after artistic and academic screening for 24 spots. Plus they stated that there are twice as many females than males. .CCM is seeing 800 applicants for 18 spots.
Confirming info from @mom4bwayboy post- Wright State did indeed say that would make less offers this year and did not have to go to the waitlist last year. In the past, some students were notified that of acceptance before the last audition ( we know of a couple for certain). That is not the plan this year, as we were told March. Same from Point Park- we know of two who found out a couple of years ago that they were in a few weeks after the audition- we were told back in December that it would be March for everyone.