@toowonderful we had a terrible tour of Syracuse the weekend of the Duke/Syracuse basketball ball game. The only building we ever even went in was the building we went in to start the tour. That helped my daughter to decide not even to apply. Though a lot of her friends chose attend. I agree with you on the larger picture!
@Ducky312 - one of the only threads i like to follow on the parent’s forum (a place overall that can get REALLY intense and seems to be under the impression that anyone who isn’t a STEM major is wasting their time) is the one about colleges that move up or are crossed off a list after visiting. A VERY strong theme is the tour/tour guide making or breaking a kid’s decision to apply.
And I will freely admit that happened to us at Emerson. We had a tour guide who I am sure has many fine qualities, but speaking to groups wasn’t one of them. She was listless, and un-engaging (whole thing seemed so canned, even the "jokes’). So despite the fact that Emerson met a lot of D’s criteria (urban environment, focus on arts, strong academics), she knows people who have gone there an LOVED it, and it had some of the best facilities we saw at any school (dorms were great, theaters were gorgeous) it did not make the final cut from D onto her application list.
@JerseyParents Thank you for your latest post. As I wrote at the end of my post to which you were responding, I discovered after I wrote it, that you are a parent of a kid in the arts (I think your son is a singer/songwriter). Thus, I then inferred that I may have read your initial post in error. The interpretation could have gone either way. Thanks for clarifying what you meant and indeed you are a very supportive parent of students pursuing their passion in the arts in college. Wishing your son all the best in his journey. My MT graduate also has a career as a singer/songwriter, in addition to her MT career as an actor.
My D could care less about the larger school. She’s in a conservatory-style program in HS, so she’s accustomed to just doing her thing, with her people, all day and all night and all weekend. It’s important to her to take, or at least observe, classes to see their teaching style, the vibe of the kids, if their ballet instruction is advanced and offers sufficient technique and critique, if the vocal teachers share her philosophy on development and training, if the acting instruction is adequate, etc. None of the programs are perfect in every area. So at that point you have to judge if the pros at a particular program outweigh the fact that you may have to supplement your dance classes or some other deficiency. It’s all about choices. I always said that the programs are like Christmas trees: No two are alike, and they all have an imperfect side. So, you have to keep standing them up until you find one you can work with. And in the end, once you make it yours, you always say, “that is the best tree ever.”
@toowonderful We had the EXACT same experience at Emerson.
@freddieggirl, as someone who, along with her family, takes a looonng time picking out Christmas trees (and not always going for the most “perfect” ones–a few times they have looked like modern art trees, lol), I love your analogy!
@freddieggirl - I totally agree that my daughter would have come to love the conservatory element inside the school, and the focus of the larger university (which did not match her) would have faded away. But the teenager had trouble getting over that first impression
@toowonderful same experience here with Emerson! Maybe were were there the same weekend 
@freddieggirl Your approach will give you lots of information and wish we had been that detailed:). We always went with the planned program of the schools. After hearing your post if I was to redo I would schedule a separate visit day on our own without other students and pick out classes to go and sit in. That probably would give you way more information than what we gathered.
@sbc Part of it is that we come from the classical voice world. And you would never commit to a vocal performance program without first taking a private voice lesson there and finding someone you love. If we really had all the time in the world, we’d be doing that for MT too. But we’re doing what we can.
@freddiegirl I totally agree! Our S is a classical voice major in his junior year. He would never have chosen the school he did without the opportunity to take a couple of lessons with a professor and work with their opera/choral director. It is a shame that our MT/acting kids don’t get the same type of opportunities in the college visit/audition process…at least at most schools we’ve experienced. I think it might make a difference.
Observations in hindsight from an oldtimer: A lot of what I believed going into this process turned out to be way less important post-graduation. One of the best observations I gleaned over the past five years was from seeing my sons work in regional theatre and summerstock productions with kids from BA and BFA programs all over the country. Bottom line, there are programs giving kids amazing training all over the place – and many of those programs weren’t even close to being on our radar. If your acceptances lead you to programs other than the big name schools, you can still make it in this world – and perhaps at a lower price tag, which certainly helps you have a little safety net when landing in NYC or LA (or?) after graduation.
Also, the advice higher in this thread about asking where alumni are working, whether or not students got representation from showcase, what kind of networking opportunities students have, plus what if any relationships the school might have with nearby regional or summer theatres – are all good questions to ask.
Another observation – this CC board is a small world. I have been floored by genuinely how few of the parents I met at my boys schools or their summerstock programs even knew about it. (Here I was thinking it was the be-all, end-all.) This place is but a subset of highly-motivated parents and alumni parents (and some students) but it is not the whole world of college MT and T parents. So when you are asking about trends and experiences, there are many others out there who can share – the various accepted student FB groups and/or coaching groups (if you have them), alumni from your PA high schools, and the college/department reps themselves may be able to put you in touch with current students and parents who can shed light on your decision-making process.
Lastly for now: Beware also of what I will call commitment bias – Obviously here on CC, we are all more likely to recommend our own programs, because it justifies our commitment of time, effort, money. (That goes for students too.) So you get a lot of responses here like “yes, the program my son goes to is amazing” (I’m guilty of that, too and I genuinely think they were!) Meanwhile negative reviews may come from unnamed sources or from parents/students who leave programs. All of that is OK, but must be weighed against that inherent bias. I agree with wise @halflokum that the truth lies in the grey areas, so try to do as much observation as possible – and not just on CC. Once you’ve narrowed down your acceptances and financial aid/finances, do whatever visits you can swing and you / your kid really will have a gut feeling for what’s best. Sounds pat, but it’s true. And having had two kids go through BFA MT, I will say, kids left both their programs every year for a variety of reasons, so there are rare instances where what you thought was the right fit isn’t. You can only do the best you can with the options and information you have. Try not to drive yourself crazy over it.
Peace and love. There is light at the end of the tunnel. You’re almost there…
Loved that post @MTTwinsinCA !!!
@momto2artists - on the other hand, if I am correct, there are no “unifieds” for classical VP majors. A very talented girl at my HS has been going through the process this year (quite successfully, has offers from three great conservatories) and she has had to travel all over for auditions - and now again for accepted student events. I can’t imagine it would be easy to audition for the large #s of programs that we talk about here if we all had to go to every campus!!
As a single mom we were on a VERY limited budget. We had one shot to visit all the schools on the east coast and that was during my spring break as a teacher. It was the last week of March. We still hadn’t heard from UofArts, Hartt, Purchase, and Fordham. We did not want to visit schools unless she was admitted. So we only went to visit her safety. I think it’s really unfortunate that these schools do not notify sooner.
So true @bisouu,
Depending on when you get a list made, where in the country you are located, costs and time for travel, other work family commitments,when notified of acceptances, etc. etc. this all really impacts all the decisions on how to do this process for all of us.
My D’s CCM portal updated. MT rejection. Not unexpected, and glad to finally have an answer.
I’m with you @bisouu…I would love to visit Point Park since they gave her a nice merit scholarship but I can’t see when I can possibly fit that in…
@KelviVan So sorry. But, yes, at least now you know and can move on with other choices/decisions. @toowonderful You are correct. To my knowledge, there are no “unifieds” for classical voice. But, we may have missed something in my S’s process 3 years ago. We did visit quite a few schools and make second trips for auditions. Honestly, our D’s audition season this year was very similar. With the schools she was considering and our available schedule, going to unifieds really didn’t benefit us from a travel standpoint. So, she did all her interviews/auditions on campus except for one video submission. Had we applied to more schools, unifieds would have been a must.
The campus visit issue is a struggle for us at the moment as well. We are still waiting on 5 schools and living on the West Coast these visits are costly and time consuming. We traveled so much for auditions that the idea of more travel now is pretty unappealing for my D. She is finally getting caught back up at school and there are a lot of things coming up for her in the next few months leading up to graduation so she is just very unenthusiastic about the idea of more travel. But I really feel like some campus visits are going to be necessary to make a final decision so I’m kind of pushing her to consider it. We shall see!