My (BFA MT) D submitted her application to Elon EARLY-I want to say 9/29? She received her academic acceptance with Presidential Scholarship in late Dec-early Jan: Before she knew she passed prescreen. She has been invited to Honors Fellows Weekend in March as well. So yes, Elon has separate academic and artistic acceptances-but it is possible to have an academic decision before an artistic one. The Elon application was high on the to-do list for her becasue the way that they reviewed prescreens last year, many kids got shut out: Elon reviewed prescreens on a rolling basis, and filled all audition slots in the Fall.
I had asked them if we could apply Early Action even though she couldn’t do the fall dates and they said no…we had to apply Regular Decision…That was for Acting though so maybe it’s different? She did pass prescreen earlier than the MT kids.
@owensfolks We did regular admission for Elon and applied to the honors program too, but didn’t get invited:( Congrats on your early acceptance and scholarship and Honors Fellow weekend. When did your D audition? My D auditioned Jan 20th. Yours is MT so those are still going on this weekend. So hopefully she will hear soon! Honestly she didn’t feel her on campus audition went well, because they didn’t ask her any questions or make any adjustments - so go figure! Pace gave her early acceptance with honors college and scholarship of $28K - pending artistic acceptance and then she didn’t get a callback in Chicago. So it seems a lot of the schools are different. @samigaga Exciting maybe they will both be there in the same class. When did she audition? We only have one acceptance so far so unless we get others to consider thats where she will be
@ka011 Yes that would be great! She auditioned on February 3rd. We are still waiting to hear from a few others but Elon is at the top right now!
@Janine1 I think all colleges have separate acceptance procedures for BFA students vs. all other college majors. At least the colleges with selective BFA program.
Every college has rules about regular academic acceptance for any major from business to math to English, e.g. high school GPA, test scores and recommendation letters. Once a student applies to the college for say, a major in business, he/she just has to be accepted based on GPA and SAT/ACT. If the student meets the criteria, they are accepted and can start planning for move-in day. For most students this happens by Feb/March.
However, for BFA students, they have to be BOTH academically accepted (see above) AND artistically accepted via an audition process. Being academically accepted to a college - does not mean that you can declare a major in a BFA program (as you can math or business). You have to be invited by the theatre department based on an audition.
Most of the kids you read about here will get their academic acceptance long before the BFA acceptance because auditions run through March and many schools wait till they see the whole pool of applicants before making acceptance offers. It is possible however, for a student to get an artistic acceptance to a BFA program before they even apply to a college and then later on, may not get academic acceptance because of low GPA. But I think that is rare. Mainly because these theatre kids are such hard workers and over achievers that their academics usually mirror their outstanding talents.
Hope this helps.
it depends on the school (this relates to audition based BFA programs)
- Some schools (?most) provide a clear description saying you have to be admitted
To both the college and to the BFA program to attend the BFA program. And often these decisions come separately.
- to make it more complicated, if admitted to the college separately and not the BFA program many schools (not all) will allow you to attend for a BA as you were admitted to the overall School.
Most schools with separate admissions do this. University of minn is an example.
However, sounds like SUNY purchase is not as students may be rejected from the BA in theatre and admitted to the BFA (a poster here had it happen last year).
- and then there are schools that
Offer only one admission in general. You do not get a decision on the school at all until after you audition and it is one decision that comes all together
Carnegie Mellon is a great example of this.
Chapman is also working same way as CMU…my D has friends that applied EA (non-theater) and got an answer in December. The BFA candidates are not being notified until after their audition regardless whether they applied EA or not. I’m curious if those not admitted to the BFA will be given a choice of BA at that point. Hopefully we’ll know this week.
NYU, Boston, and Syracuse are also all or nothing schools
@remartin67 Did you ever contact UNCSA?
I emailed Bill Poole and was told a letter would be going out today. I assume it’s a rejection letter. Sounds like maybe he made it past the first set of cuts but I’m guessing not in the final class. 
Sorry @remartin67 It does sound like he was in consideration for a long time. He may be invited to audition next year (they only ask a small number to do so). Not that he should wait a year -it is just an affirmation of his talent.
There just aren’t enough spots at these schools.
Hang in there. He will will find his path.
sorry @remartin67
Anyone audition for CalArts? I emailed them today to see if I can get an idea as to when decisions go out. I’d like to plan a trip to CA for her to shadow a student but can’t justify it till she gets accepted.
@remartin67 , Sorry about UNCSA.
@remartin67 Maybe it’s a wait list letter? Fingers crossed!
@marg928 My D is waiting to hear from CalArts too. I called last week to ask about visiting, and they said they’ll be hosting an accepted students weekend the weekend of April 8th. We also can’t justify planning a trip there until we find out both about acceptance and financial aid.
@Janine1 USC is also having their SDA accepted students day on April 8th and it’s my niece’s wedding. If we go to CA we will go on the 10th. My D does want to visit LMU as well but I really don’t want to go all the way there for one school!
We literally got the rejection letter as we were walking out for an audition today. But in the same mail he got an acceptance letter to UArts
@remartin67 congrats to your S on the acceptance!
@remartin67 Yes! Congratulations on the UArts acceptance!
Congrats remartin67! My D was accepted there too. We are hoping to take a trip out there soon. We just need to get all of our results. We are still waiting for Temple and it would be nice to visit both in the same trip. If we were so lucky to get accepted to Temple too and have options!