I’m just so curious what makes a school reject someone from a prescreen who is clearly talented as they’ve passed pre-screens for more selective schools. It’s mind boggling really. I emailed the admissions counselor at Miami and asked to withdraw the application and he suggested changing it to a BA. I think my D will do that although I really don’t know if she will get in there academically. She has a 1760 SAT superscored (old one) and 1200 new. Not terrible but not stellar either.
What does anyone know about Webster? We applied there because the MT program incorporates a lot of acting. She got in academically and we have an audition set up. She was very excited about conservatory until she looked up academic reviews. She said the reviews on line for the college are not good. I told her the reviews for the conservatory seem excellent! Anybody hear if the conservatory is better than the general academic school?
@marg928 - the whole thing is mind boggling. In virtually every case I have seen of someone getting into an uber selective school, they were also rejected by at least one school school that can be argued is less selective.
I’m having some trouble deciding what additional dance to include in my Ithaca prescreen. I want something that contrasts with the required musical theater dance. I’m considering either a simple ballet variation en pointe or a sad-ish contemporary routine. Which of these would be better for the musical theater program, or is there something else I should do instead?
@marg928, I’ve posted this elsewhere (so apologies to those who have read the gist of it already), but passing prescreens is much like acceptances/rejections from auditions in that you never know what the college is looking for, so results appear random. For example, maybe they have a slew of ingenues already, maybe they need baritones, maybe they already have someone like you/your child… Most importantly, results are most likely not indicative of talent (either way), especially if the person has been evaluated by professionals who know what they’re doing and/or has had some success in the field already.
Long before D’s audition year, both vocal coaches (apart from each other–in 2 different cities–both attached to high quality college programs) warned us that they had seen very talented students fall through the cracks of this process almost every year. They also stressed that this process is not indicative of talent or ability to succeed in this field.
My D’s prescreen was rejected at one program because she looked too youthful for their program, and their program head goes for a more sophisticated appearance. Crazy and seemingly random, but true… Ce la vie. That was hard to take at the time even though the program wasn’t high on her list (although D really tried hard not rate the programs on her list until acceptances), but she ended up at a place she adores. It all worked out.
Consider it time and money saved even though it stings right now; that hurt will pass. Try to look ahead and to remember that this process is random and not indicative of talent. (Yes, I purposely repeated those phrases in this post! 
)
@toowonderful @myloves I also wonder if it has something to do with the resume as well. My D has barely any theater experience except for one HS musical (she danced her whole life). She has tons of experience auditioning for screen in front of casting at Disney and other big time casting directors but none of the schools really know that. I didn’t know if it was something we should put on the resume or not and I couldn’t figure out how to list it anyway.
@stagelibrary I think either of those would be very well received. I think my D did a brief tap combo.
@musicmama123 Webster’s conservatory is well respected and kids we know who go or went there really like it. It isn’t selective academically which may lead to some of the reviews. The presidential scholarships awarded (separate application for this) go to top students and know of some very bright kids turned down for that. So they get a wide variety of applicants across the academic spectrum.
Remember most BFA students don’t take many classes outside of the major. If you like the program that is the main thing.
@musicmama123 - while my S is not at Webster, he is in a conservatory-style environment at Wright State. If you were to look up their academics, you would be far from “impressed”. The Acting/MT kids in the BFA program are in a separate world. They barely have time to squeeze in the required academic requirements - which are not “taxing”. My S is “in” the honors program, but as yet has not been able to get even one honors class to fit into his schedule (he’s a junior). That said, the BFA program is topnotch and very competitive to get into. The faculty are excellent and the learning experiences are enviable. I have no familiarity with Webster, but in general the “conservatory experience” is often quite different from the school at large. CCM comes to mind (my eldest S graduated with a Liberal Arts degree from University of Cincinnati)
@musicmama123 - my s is also auditioning for Webster MT. We have gotten to know the faculty pretty well there my S can not say enough good things about Webster. They have an emphasis on acting and it is a great program, but very hard to get into. Lara Teeter is a life changing person and anyone who gets to work with him should consider themselves very lucky. Like someone else posted, the conservatory is separate and I wouldn’t worry about it. We spent a day at Webster and my S was asked to spend the day at the conservatory. He was really impressed by the program and the quality of people there. They were like a family and were so kind and humble.
@Barrie08 thanks for the feedback. When you look at the curriculam it looks wonderful! We are on East coast so it’s not a school anyone here is familiar with. I think they seem to have a lot working all over in every type of medium.
My daughter auditioned for Webster last year, and her audition with Lara was definitely one of the highlights of her audition season, even though she did not get accepted into the program. It’s very small, and very selective. We’re east coast too, so we weren’t all that familiar with Webster before we started researching schools, but I think more and more people in this area are starting to get to know the program as schools become more and more difficult to get into, and students look further and further to broaden their lists.
Webster is a very well-known, selective, long-established theatre program in the Midwest. It is host to the Midwest Theatre Auditions (aka “MTA’s”) which is the equivalent of Strawhats and SETC auditions for the middle of the country. The Loretto-Hilton Center for the Performing Arts on the Webster campus is also home to the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, the LORT company for St. Louis. This was the first theatre in the country designed to house both a college and professional repertory company. Webster also has a close association with “The Muny,” one of, or possibly the, largest summer stock theatre programs in the US.
Webster is a fixture at Thespian and performing arts high school auditions throughout the Midwest and down through Texas. If you go back through the “Final Decisions” threads and count the number of rejections vs. acceptances reported, you will find that Webster is near the top of the heap in terms of selectivity.
Webster has long been known for excellent acting training, which is at the heart of the MT program. Lara Teeter, the head of the MT program, has a pretty amazing resume.
Happy Thanksgiving, fellow class of 2021, and all that are helping us along the way! Can’t wait to see where our kids will be NEXT Thanksgiving.
Does anyone know when we should hear back from Elon and Emerson’s Early Action auditions??
@EIS0301 - By 12/15 for Emerson
emerson dec 15th
We also went against conventional wisdom and visited a lot of schools before applying, for several reasons: 1) My S has a very full senior year academic and performing schedule, so he would not have time to visit AFTER acceptance; 2) We did not want to spend time and money applying/ prescreening/ auditioning for schools that would not be a good fit; 3) My S based his choices not only on ranking/curriculum but on “fit” which I think many families do not weight heavily enough in the process; 4) We had the finances talk with him at the outset so he knew his max budget and that took some schools off the list right away; 5) We do a fair amount of traveling anyway so just added school visits to some of those trips.
We visited many schools that were rated highly but upon visiting, we were not impressed with the vibe. As a result, S narrowed his list to only FIVE schools (with mutiple programs at each – BFA MT/Acting so 12 programs total) but he was able to put full attention to those this past August/September.
Indiana (IU)
CCPA
Chapman
Coastal Carolina
Drake
Passed prescreens for IU, Coastal and Chapman. Scheduled all five schools around performances (School MT, show choir, improv league).
Worked with audition coach in Aug/Sep
Auditioned IU MT Nov 5
Got a call last week of acceptance to IU!
Cancelling Drake, Coastal
Will still audition for CCPA and Chapman.
AND now we all get to enjoy his senior year with most of the college work behind him!
Coaching: We used Chelsea Diehl/MCA for our S and could not be more pleased with that decision. I also had done a LOT of research beforehand but Chelsea and team helped immensely in several ways:
- Helped S compile a focused list with more realistic choices. His original list was all the normal Reach schools and little else.
- He was confident of his song choices with his voice teacher but MCA helped him select monologues.
- MCA coaches helped him prep monologues and fine tune his songs so he was truly "acting" the songs, not just "presenting" them.
- They did a mock audition to walk through the entire process including possible adjustments and interview questions.
- Their professional wisdom in all these conversations has been SO valuable. Some of it echoed what I had been telling my S, but to hear it from pro's who know the landscape carried a lot more weight for him.
As a result, S was fully prepared and confident. All of the coaching was done via Skype. We paid for about $1,000 worth and did a la carte sessions. TOTALLY worth it because it will save us probably 3x more in applications, auditions and visits that we won’t have to do.
@MTmom70 - are you in getting instate tuition for IU? We were interned in IU, but we are out of state and the cost seemed really high.