My Hartt package came in the mail today as well. It was a like a little puzzle!
I wonât be able to check the mail for a few hours so if anyone else gets a letter from UofA or Pace today please let me know what it is!
Is anyone else singing this tune today? . . . âA woman waits for marriageâŠa woman waits for children. She waits for her big Mol (loy) to send some news⊠At 5:00, or 6:00 till itâs 9:00 and thereâs no oâclock to ease the painâŠpain she canât explainâ LOL
D auditioned at UCF this past weekend. Staff said that they would meet Wednesday (3/4) and decisions would go out Friday (3/6).
I am at the point now where we may have already gotten the best pure artistic acceptance that we are going to get - which is fine - D has one she is happy with. Now on to some of the more academic-based programs - anyone have information on Northwestern? I heard they take 150 in their program - which seem huge - but I guess NYU kind of does that too⊠is that true? Also, is there an academic/artistic rating or do they need a crazy GPA and ACT score? D has a competitive GPA and ACT but probably not high enough to get in without artistic consideration - does anyone have insight into their acceptance process? TIA
Finally! Mail came. No Molloy letter so Iâm thinking good things. And then a beautiful surprise happened - D was accepted into the BFA MT program at Nazareth College. Things are starting to look brighter. Sheâs super excited, even though she doesnât know too much about their program (was a walk-in), and thought they were great during the audition process. Very kind. Director of the program did the audition and actually listened and then coached her on a few things and asked her to âsing it again using that noteâ. Must have liked it 
@NeensMom - my D got a rejection today from U of Arizona. Email came that said the portal had been updated. Hope you have better news!
@DivaStageMom
Re: Northwestern: It is a top notch theater and MT program. I know many successful graduates working professionally on Broadway, national tours, Chicago theaters, etc. It is very important to understand that Northwestern is a highly selective university. Itâs acceptance rate in the Regular Decision round is 8.9%. When schools are this selective, it is not enough to just meet the academic standards to get in. A student could have a perfect SAT score and a 4.0 GPA and still be rejected. However, to even be considered, an applicantâs basic âstatsâ do need to be in range! Colleges do not just look at GPA, but also the actual grades achieved in all courses, and the rigor level of the chosen courseworkâŠand in this case, that would mean being primarily an A student, who has taken the most or very demanding levels of courses that their high school offers. 92% of the freshmen class are from the top 10% of their high school class. If an applicant is not in that range, the odds are not good, unless they have some sort of âhookâ such as recruited athlete or under represented minority. In terms of test scores of admitted freshmen, here is the mid-range:
SATs:
Mid 50% R/W: 700-760
Mid 50% Math: 730-790
Mid 50% Total: 1430-1550
Mid 50% ACT: 33-35
If you are in the bottom 25% of that range, the odds are slim to be considered.
Even then, it is not like there is a GPA or test score cut off. The recs, essays, extracurriculars and achievements matter a great deal. But as a basic, a student needs to be in the academic range in the first place. And even then, if applying RD, with an acceptance rate of 8.9%, the odds are very low. Northwestern would be a âhigh reachâ in terms of odds for ANY candidate even with a 1550 SAT and a 4.0 GPA and all AP and Honors classes. But if below an SAT of 1430 or an ACT of 33 and a GPA of about 3.7, and not a very demanding curriculum, or below 10% in their high school class, the odds may be incredibly slim to none.
Congratulations @rickle1! Good luck to all waiting for Molloy. Son didnât apply there but I am waiting to see all kinds of good news rolling in for all of you tonight.
@soozievt - Thanks - and D is in that ballpark - however, we know people in town with 4.7 GPAâs and perfect SATâs that didnât get in because they were just smart white kids - no hook - so I guess my question is if the artistic talent is the hook - you know what I mean? Like a 4.3 GPA and 33 on ACT probably isnât that impressive for Northwestern but then do they evaluate on artistic merit? D submitted a lot of videos etc⊠great resume etc⊠does that count or are they taking the top academic kids - and do you know if 150 is correct? Thanks
@DivaStageMom I donât know the number accepted for theater. You asked if they evaluate artistic merit. If they asked for that material, then yes, but that doesnât mean that artistic merit is going to compensate for academics. There will be plenty of theater applicants who have artistic merit and the academics in the ballpark to be considered for Northwestern.
All that said, however, even if someone has the academic profile to be qualified for admissions to Northwestern and same if they have the artistic profile as well, that doesnât equate to acceptance when a school has an admit rate in the RD round of 8.9%. Very qualified people will be denied, just like for BFA in MT programs that have acceptance rates in the single digits. They cannot admit all who meet their standards. If your D is indeed in the ballpark of the academic range for Northwestern (as I described it), the university is still a High Reach school.
@DivaStageMom When we were at NW for the theatre info session I heard that you can submit an MT artistic supplement and that is a factor that might help you be admitted, but the theatre program is not an auditioned program. The first - I think it was 150?- people to be accepted into the theatre major are accepted and then they close the major. You audition to get an MT certificate at the end of frosh year, to start in soph year. So the chair of the department said to apply early and state that you want to major in theatre because once that major is full, itâs full.
I do not believe that the date you apply to Northwestern makes a difference. It is NOT a rolling admissions school. That said, applying ED to Northwestern increases your odds over applying RD. Maybe that is what the department chair meant by applying âearly.â
@soozievt @DivaStageMom â just to talk a bit more about Northwestern. I got my MBA there back in '00, and itâs crazy how much the undergraduate student body composition has changed. Back then, I think the acceptance rate for undergrads was ~30%. Today, itâs between 8-9%. Similarly, back then, the University of Chicago acceptance rate was ~35%, and now itâs also between 8-9%. I saw an article that said the Chicago universities had experienced the largest âjumpâ in selectivity of any other city of schools over the past 10 years. NU and UChicago were originally opened so that students of Ivy League caliber didnât escape to the East Coast, and rather had a place of similar academic standards to stay, get educated, and then help infuse the growth of the educated class of the Midwest. (and Stanford and Cal Tech did same on the West Coast)
Now Iâm not overly familiar with the BFA program there, but Iâve always found it curious how they can maintain such great artistic quality of the student body, while also adhering to such strict academic standards. Schools of similar academic standards, like NYU and CMU, heavily emphasize auditions over academics to make it work. Not sure how NU does. But Go Cats!
@soozievt - yes I think that may be the case, D has a friend with about the same grades as her who applied early ED and got in - so I guess thatâs why I am wondering if its a possibility?? Who knows - she did put in an artistic supplemental. She has a number of academic reach schools where she submitted an artistic portfolio - itâs crazy because after going through the artistic process of a less than 1% chance in some of these schools an 8% or 15% acceptance doesnât seem that badâŠ
@StanfordAI2019
You wrote:
Northwesternâs program is a BA, not a BFA. As you know, it is not an audition-based program for freshmen applicants, though has an audition after the first year for the MT Certificate program. But in terms of artistic quality, there are LOTS of very talented MT kids who are also top academic students! I know many such types who could have gotten into a BFA in MT program but wanted an academically rigorous education and chose to apply to schools like Northwestern, or Yale, or Brown, for example.
In term of NYU, you wrote that they âemphasize auditions over academics,â but that is not accurate. To be admitted to Tisch, 50% of the admissions decision in academic and 50% of the admissions decision is artistic (audition). So, a student has to have the academics to be admitted to NYU, which has itself become a very selective university (16% admit rate to the university overall).
My D did not apply to Northwestern as she only wanted a BFA program and also preferred the East Coast. But one of the appeals of NYU is that the BFA program was located in an academically selective university and she was a very good student and enjoys the academic challenge. Many BFA in MT programs are not located in very selective universities.
Yes, at CMU, which is a very selective university, the BFA program is more heavily based on the audition, about 80-90% of the admissions decision.
Anyway, there are many students who are very talented at MT who are also very strong academic students. My D was like that and I know many others as well. So, I donât think it is all that unusual. I also know MT applicants who have weak academics. NYU or Northwestern would not be fits for such students.
Has anyone heard anything about when Carnegie will release decisions? Also is it usually all at once or over a few days?
@rickle1 congrats on Naz!! there is a mom from last yearâŠher name escapes me right now, but they decided on NAZ very early in the process so she is an early post on the final decision thread of 2023 & her son is very happy thereâŠ
At Northwestern you better be prepared to deliver on the academics along with your acting, etc. I know a junior in their program and not only was she lead in every show in HS, all state choir, but she had a 4.0 unweighted GPA and over 1500 on the SATs. She also did one of their summer programs. My D did not apply there as she would have needed to apply early to have a chance and she was applying ED to NYU.
@soozievt - fair enough. Not sure I agree with everything you said, but I get the point. My point on NYU wasnât that they âdidnâtâ use academics, but 50/50 academics & auditions is more than â0%â audition, as is the case at NU (pre second year). Agree of course that there are lots of great people who can thrive artistically and academically. However, there is a reason LSUâs football team can beat Harvardâs, because consistently & statistically, itâs hard to get the best in a single thing, when you automatically rule out several people for not being the best in the âotherâ thing. On the flip side, since the programs are all relatively small (except NYUâs studios), you can make the basketball argument. Meaning, Duke and Stanfordâs basketball teams can compete at the highest levels with the highest academics because there are only 12-15 of them (unlike 85 for football)âŠjust like there are ~25 people in an MT entering class, so perhaps they find that many excellent candidates who check both boxes. by keeping it small.