It was one of those buzzfeed lists based on ? The poster made a thread with just the link and then added the link to a bunch of other threads. No comments or anything. I wondered myself if it was something they made themself.
@LBSMOM I wish my D had thought about BA too, and/or just acting but she didn’t even consider it. We bagged a couple of auditions just because the odds were too high. She’s talented but has had no training as in summer programs, acting classes, and we certainly were not able to spend money on a coach. The whole process has gotten so competitive, it’s hard for just a regular kid that loves MT but doesn’t have the resources. I really had no idea. We are thankful she has an offer! At least now she will get the training and an education.
When my D woke up this morning, I said “happy first day of college auditions”. She told me I am crazy. I’m going to tally how many times in the next 12 months she says that 
There has been a discussion about whether coaches are necessary or increase the odds of acceptance over on the “Final Decisions” board. I was going to post this there, but thought it would be better to put it here so the “Final Decisions” board can get back to its focus.
So, in the spirit of curiosity, here are some numbers from MTCA website.
DISCLAIMER: These figures don’t really “mean” anything. It is NOT my intent to prove or disprove the value of a coach. I just thought it was interesting to look at the acceptance numbers. Draw from this what you will.
I counted 193 student photos on MTCA’s page.
Acceptances listed: 460 MT and 248 Acting and 29 at NYU Tisch that was not broken down to MT/Acting.
(Also a scattering of others like BM or VP or Theatre Performance that I didn’t count.)
That is an average of 3.8 acceptances per student. Plus the non BFA ones so lets round up to 4 per student.
Since I don’t know how many schools each applied to, there’s no way of knowing if the acceptance rates are higher than average. If a kid applied to 10 or fewer schools, that’s a pretty impressive acceptance rate. If they applied to 20+, than it’s probably around average for a well thought out targeted college list.
There are 119 schools listed.
Of the “Top” Schools (Drawn from 2 different websites - subjective, but it’s a starting place.), there were 100 MT and 54 Acting acceptances- Plus 29 at Tisch that weren’t separated by MT or Acting.
Acpt MT / Acting
BW 8 / 8
CMU, 1 / 1
CCM, 3 / 0
Ithaca 6 / 8
BoCo 33 / 1
Penn State 5 / 3
Shenandoah 11 / 4
Milikin 3 / 4
Elon 7 / 5
OCU 5 / 11
UMich, 5 / 6
Roosevelt 13 / 3
NYU Tisch - 29 (both?)
Acceptances at some of the other programs that are the more talked about on CC:
Accpted MT / Acting
Chapman 0 / 3
Coastal Carolina: 6 / 2
MSM 18 / 0
Marymount Manhattan: 29 / 9
Montclair 10 / 3
Otterbein 5 / 2
Pace 6 / 6
Point Park 12 / 12
Syracuse 11 / 6
UMin Guthrie 0 / 5
Flor State 1 / 1
Rider 43 / 11
Noticeably Not Listed: Molloy/Cap21 :-/
I guarantee you that the MTCA kids are pretty much ALL applying to more than ten schools. And that some had many acceptances while others had 2 or 3. Also, I’m pretty sure auditiors don’t know for sure who is coached. I mean, my daughter had a coach, but we didn’t put it on her resume. And while her coach is familiar with the programs, it’s not like she’s reaching out to them on her students’ behalf. That would mean an awful lot of reaching out in the case of a group like MTCA with almost 200 students.
I know a few MTCA kids I met during Northwestern Cherubs, but I didn’t really have any professional coaching? I didn’t even know of people who did until I did IHSA or Cherubs. My best friends who did theatre with me and I all ended up in good MT programs (me at NYU/Tisch, girl at Columbia, boy at Syracuse, girl at UMich, girl at Northwestern) and none of us had hired coaches.
@daughtersdreams Don’t forget Hartt - 30 MT/ 5 Acting : ) Oh and Cap 21/Malloy was listed - 14 MT and 1 Acting. And in support of CTDramaMom’s comment I can vouch for the fact that most of the MTCA coached students are likely applying to 20 plus schools. They understand how fiercely competitive this process is, especially for girls and they do counsel casting a wide net. And they are not propping these kids up to any schools in any way. In fact they make it clear that they would never call a school to promote a specific kid - how could they choose one student over another? That is not how they operate. They prepare the kids, they support them, they cheer for them but they do not intervene in the process on behalf of their clients. I will say that the key to the success of their students, many who get multiple acceptances, is very thorough preparation, an understanding of how to match students with programs and material and helping them be the very best they can be when it matters the most.
Does anyone know of MTCA and other coaches accept everyone that comes to them? Or if they have someone come to them that they don’t feel would make it into an MT or Acting program would they counsel them toward a non-audition BA or something else? Just wondering if their 95% success rate is skewed by this at all.
@waitingforlife That’s a good question. I don’t know if they would turn someone down, but I do believe they are honest with students and parents. At my daughter’s initial consult she had submitted a resume and questionnaire in advance and had to come prepared to sing a ballad and belt song for assessment purposes. I do think that they will provide honest feedback and appropriate guidance based on their experience in this arena. There is a heaping dose of keeping people grounded and realistic in this process which is why the preparation and understanding your strengths and weaknesses is so important.
@waitingforlife I don’t think they turn anyone away…
I cannot imagine them ever turning anyone away. From our experience and friends I’ve known, MTCA respect’s the individuality and the journey of the kid. They are artists, educators and performers who enjoy what they are doing and giving back.They have an amazing amount of knowledge which is very valuable and you can use them as much or as little as you need. Being fully prepared can lower the stress for everyone. They operate from a kind place from the top down. I come from an arts background and I never would have let my daughter work in a corporate or cookie cutter organization that’s all about the money. They value individuality and process.
My daughter used MTCA back in 2014 and I asked Ellen if they ever turned anyone away and her answer was No.
@waitingforlife Neither MTCA nor MCA turn away students who want coaching. I believe that’s even in the FAQ on their websites. One reason they can confidently accept whoever comes to them is that they don’t guarantee their coaching will secure you a spot in a BFA program (that would be silly) and the other reason is that the students coming to them are pretty serious about this and have almost certainly been involved in theater - acting or singing – for at least a couple years in high school with some success. So, the coaches know most of the kids have some talent already or they wouldn’t be looking for coaching.
You’ll see on these coaching websites that there are a lot of options for customizing what kind of coaching/training program you want/need. Some will need extensive voice coaching, some will need more acting training. Some will just need to refine their audition skills. Success is mainly up to the student - he/she must follow through and do what it takes.
Jumping in here tentatively again…my daughter is pretty private so I have shied away from posting her lists, etc. out of respect for what she would want - but I really do appreciate the community here. We live in a New England town under 2,000 - with more cows than people. My daughter goes to a New England boarding school (as a day student) which happens to be in our town. It is not a PA high school but has excellent academics. We did use MTCA but in a limited way - you can set a budget for yourself. I was pretty against it initially and worried about things like having a canned coached kid. But that is not the way it is at all. We used it for acting because even though she has been in dramatic productions she had never had training or taken a class. So they helped a lot with the selection of monologues. We had a few voice sessions but mostly just to discuss song selection and get her cuts professionally made. She did the majority of her vocal training with her voice teacher. She has danced since she was little so she felt that she was competent and able to do all the dance calls but she would tell you she is a singer (and an actress) first. I think I finally agreed to coaching because I didn’t want to feel like “What if…”. We came up with her list of schools together. She had a 11 and they were all pretty major players. MTCA wanted us to add more which is actually probably good advice. But my husband and myself are very academic and we would have wanted her to go to a Vassar or a Wesleyan and we kind of felt like go big or go home. If it hadn’t worked out - we would have pushed for a gap year and perhaps next year she would have applied to some of our (her dad and my) liberal arts choices as well as reauditioning. For us the whole “you only need 1” just doesn’t make sense. But everyone is different and I respect how MTCA wants people to cast a wide net.
So I think everyone has their advantages. My girl would have loved to have grown up in New Jersey or Connecticut! We only got to do 1 MTCA mock audition and because we are far away we could never do the master classes/ dance classes etc. She would love to have grown up where there are Performing Arts high schools. We can’t even find a musical for her to be in this summer - and she had to give up doing the one musical put on for her senior year due to auditions. But I think she has done really well! And I hope she eventually comes to appreciate her country childhood!
Whatever the path and reasons for it, @singoutlouise , it seems things have turned out very well for your D. Nice job!
@sopranomtmom You are right. Sorry. It was listed under “C” and I was looking under ‘M’. I thought it was strange that it wasn’t there because when my D auditioned I know there were MTCA kids there.
Thank you - I am exhausted - and I am so glad I never have to do this again! I know some people go through this with multiple children but my next one is all math and science - which should be a walk in the park!
I think the coach might have been helpful to ME. Instead I was the coach, which would have been fine if I knew what the heck I was doing!
@singoutlouise Many congrats to your D on her college process and results. I don’t know where you live, but it is interesting to read that you live in a New England town of under 2000 people. My MT daughter also grew up in a rural town of 1700 people (in Vermont). Like your D, she had a lot of voice and dance, but not formal acting training prior to college. And there were no performing arts schools in our state. My D now is a professional in the field, and while she came from the middle of nowhere to NYC, she is not the only one we know who has done that. Cool to read your D will be doing that too. I didn’t realize her background.
@singoutlouise I love your story. We live in a rural unique community 4000 in Coastal NC without any theater other than a small community theater which my D discovered in 4th grade from a babysitter who was auditioning. Everything is 45mins- 1hour away. There is 1 performing arts high school 3 hours away, our high school caters to athletes, not much in theatre. We used MTCA for monologue selection and coaching also.They also told us to cast a wider net. She had her favorite “big schools” and they suggested adding more middle tier schools. She did 12 auditions and 4 walk-ins at Chicago all together. She had 2 safety schools that had theater programs that weren’t well known and academic admission at UNC Chapel Hill. I thought they helped us prepare well, we didn’t get to take advantage of all their classes, but did fly in for a mock audition. We are grateful for all their prep and support, but it is definitely the student who has to put the work in to get the offers. We had no idea how competitive the process truly would be. My son is 9th grade and interested in school of math and science, I’m with you I think that will be an easier process! God Bless and good luck to your daughter!