Class of 2024 MT Artistic Acceptance Notifications: How/When/Where

College Majors Musical Theater Major
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The Big List from late March 2019 and all 2019 information is in [BRACKETS]. Things may be different for 2020 - when you update with 2020 information, please remove everything in brackets and note the 2020 date in your update. Thank you!

Updated Hartt

American - [Notifying 3/18 via snail mail]
Arizona State - [3/14 and rolling via email]
Baldwin Wallace–[Fall early auditions have been notified. Will notify 3/7 via email for those who auditioned after Nov.]
Ball State— 2020 rolling - email and calls to accepted students. Email for rejection or deferral to another arts program, a few weeks after audition.
Baylor - 2020 rolling - email
Belmont - [some yes and no notifications already rolling. Everyone should know March 1st via snail mail]
Boston Conservatory— ED on January 31, 2020 via portal, RD no later than 4/1/2020.
BU - [March 23 via email and portal]
Carnegie Mellon—[Plans to notify 3/7 via Acceptd direct to portal (or just check the portal), all at once]
Catholic - [rolling]
CCM— [3/9 has notified yes’ - email notifications for those still in the pool weekly throughout Feb and March]
Coastal Carolina University- [emails started 3/6, trying to notify everyone by 3/15 - may be spread out over several days/week]
Drake - [have seen at least one acceptance 3/14 - not sure if they’re rolling or all at once?]
Elon - [all on the same day, expected to be 3/15 this year]
Emerson— [3/14, email directing to portal, all at once for both artistic and academic decisions.]
Five Towns - 2020: Rolling, many acceptances/scholarships given on the spot
FSU—[Acceptance calls made 2/27, there is an alternate list - look for notification letter next week.]
Hartt - 2020: Rejections and some acceptances already rolling out.
Illinois Wesleyan - [notifies via snail mail, some yeses reported last week of Feb.
Indiana (IU Bloomington) - Notifications started 3/5 via Acceptd]
Ithaca - [Starts notifying typically last week of February/first week of March vis portal - notifications have started]
Jacksonville University - [3/17 email to check portal]
JMU - [March 1 EA. 3/13 for RD applicants via MyMadison portal.]
LIU/Post— 2/10/2020, rolling, snail mail and email
Manhattan School of Music— 2/24/2020
Marymount Manhattan - 2020 update: They try to send email notifications to check portal within 2 weeks of the audition, sometimes much sooner. Digital auditions will not receive decision until sometime in March.
Michigan—[February 28 acceptance via phone call; portal change for others - notify all at once]
Minnesota Duluth - [email from head of the program - rolling?]
Millikin - 2020 update: acceptances rolling, snail mail
Missouri State - [rolling, via email]
Montclair - [Rolling notifications, they’re still auditioning through 3/23]
Molloy/CAP21—rolling starting 3/1/2020, email
Muhlenberg - [decisions for ED 1 in Dec, ED 2 by Feb 28, and RD by March 19 - posted on portal]
Nebraska Wesleyan - [rolling - still auditioning up until April 1.]
Northern Colorado—[rolling]
Northwestern— [3/21 email directing to portal, all at once]
NYU— [3/28 via portal, everyone, all at once]
OCU —[rolling now, via email]
Ohio Northern - [rolling]
Ohio University - 2020 Update: Confirm rolling notifications for this year - last year - rolling notifications - have head of a few acceptance phone calls thus far
Otterbein - 2020: Rejects sent by email, others still under consideration notified also
Pace—[3/1 has started to notify, phone call for accepted students and/or snail mail, rolling more calls 3/7]
Penn State - [starting updating portal 2/14; started notifications for accepted students 2/26]
Point Park—[3/13 Emails to everyone, all at once, snail mail to follow up.]
Rider - 2020: Rolling and can be as quick as a few days after audition - [Portal change beginning 2/11/19. Definite Y to be posted on the portal and mailed out before 2/21; Committee meets 2/21 to discuss remaining applicants and then everyone else notified 1st of March 2019 via snail mail]
Roosevelt— 2020 - said trying for 3/15 - last year they started notifying 3/15 email was sent out to check your portal
Shenandoah—2020 around 3/2-3/6 via phone call (for acceptances); email for waitlist. Last day of auditions is 2/22, then will decide and call before their spring break 3/6.
SUNY Cortland [1/30/19 email]
Syracuse—[3/15 via email (not MySlice), decisions were sent in waves last three weekends of March last year]
SMU - 2020: rolling via email
SE Missouri St-[Rolling, via email]
TCU - [Notifications started 3/5 via email]
Temple— 2020 notifying now, rolling - portal update for academic and artistic admit, email for artistic admit (some have not gotten email for artistic, just saw portal change)
Texas State—[phone call to accepted students, rolling once auditions are complete, they meet each weekend and send notifications the following week.]
UArts—[starting about a week after audition; snail mail, rolling]
UAB - [email notification]
UAZ—[Rolling notifications have started 2/28]
University of Miami—[3/22, via portal, all at once - navigate to the letter under “student center” and then “message center.”]
U Central Ok - 2020: Greg expects offers to go out around 3/6
University of OK - [changed to prescreens and auditions this year - notifications will be a few more weeks - 4/1?]
Utah—[notifications going out now (early March) via email mail and then rolling]
UC Irvine - [3/22 via portal]
UCLA—[3/22 via portal, all at once]
UNCG - [Everyone should know March 15 “give or take a day” phone call: 3/11]
UNSCA - [Rolling out now through the end of Feb - calls to accepted students, email direct to portal for “no” decision.]
USC - [3/21 will mail notifications, with portal update 3/24]
U Wisconsin Stevens Point - 2020 email to all auditionees between 3/7 - 3/13
Viterbo— 2020 via email, rolling now
Wagner - [3/9 rolling now - there have been some calls - more to follow]
Webster— [snail mail acceptances go out around 3/8 (info from this year) - some calls have been reported for “yes”]
Western CT State—[2-3 weeks after final audition day on March 2nd, all at once; snail mail 3/11]
Western Michigan - [3/20 - notifications rolling calls for acceptances, email for anything else]
Wright St - [discontinued rolling admission this year. Last audition day was 2/24, has started notifying 2/26]
Xavier — [Emailing acceptances now - 3/1]

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Yes, I meant to put UNCSA in the ‘no’s.’ That was her first audition at Unified’s, so didn’t do a ton for her confidence. I wish they wouldn’t do on spot callbacks. Letting them fly blind with a false sense of confidence at least allows for more effective auditions after the fact

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@oneette – thanks for the thoughts. Yes, she picked her monologues last year, working with the instructors at Carnegie Mellon’s summer program, so I know the selections at least work for…them. Maybe not others. Plus, she had a vocal coach and acting coach too. Spare no expense of course. Good luck at Texas Tech! We got a ‘no’ there, but they were incredibly nice about it. I know SEMO and Missouri State both have great programs. But, I’m actually from Missouri and don’t want her to go to school there. Personal thing. Realistically, knowing that CMU, Pace, Boco, TCU, etc. are just too competitive (even though she made it to the end), my D would like to get into either CAP21, Webster, or Hartt. All very competitive as well, but if she could land one of those, she thinks it will all be worth it.

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@Onette is Hartt sending notifications through snail mail only?

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@NeensMom , S had portal change for Hartt about a week before the snail mail arrived, so you could check that. He did December audition but I would think same thing would happen for later auditions.

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@NeensMom We finally heard from Hartt today via email (we auditioned in Dec). It sounds like people are finding things out different ways from them.

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@NeensMom They are also using email as well. They may be doing both to cover themselves and the snail mail just hasn’t arrived yet.

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@StanfordAI2019 You may be right – the material that she worked on this summer may have worked for them but not others. I know that, based on feedback and reactions from workshops and several sets of auditions, they have tweaked and changed their material several times. One of the songs the young man chose for pre-70 turned out to be highly overdone this year (even though we had heard it wasn’t previously), so we put together some new selections in early January. The monologue he chose was golden all the way through, but was dramatic. His strength is comedy, so we added a very-hard-to-find-not-overdone-age-appropriate comedic monologue also. After every audition, we discussed what they thought about how the material was received and made adjustments accordingly. And, I also made them flip some things around at Unifieds. Sometimes, doing the same material over and over makes you feel a little less “fresh” and you need to shake it up a bit!

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Hi everyone…infrequent poster here…my daughter went through this back in 2017…so not so long ago. I am going to write something that might be controversial. I firmly believe that people do not need to apply to so many schools. If you have applied to 30 schools, thats fine and certainly your choice. I am writing this for people who are new to the process. Families of sophomores and juniors who are reading the boards now. I am glad that I didn’t read any of this until we were deep into the audition season. I am sure it would have given me a lot of stress and unnecessary worry.
Yes, it’s true that we had an extremely successful experience but I have watched several kids from our area navigate this and do really well with multiple acceptances.
@StanfordAI2019 it looks like you already listed 6 acceptances! I really do believe that if a MT candidate compiles a good list with several reaches, some middle tier schools, some lower tier with large class sizes and a few non-audition schools, they will happily have some options. I find the escalation of applying to schools, just crazy and crazy making and terribly intimidating for kids who want to go into this field. (The whole apply to 20 schools for 2 acceptances in not even remotely close to what I have seen, and I am not just talking about my daughter. And I mean that kindly and honestly. With a good list and a good guidance in crafting a list that’s right for your child and their abilities, they truly will have options). Also, I know that more and more kids are applying to MT but there are also more and more new programs every year. I am actually amazed by all the new programs that have been created (Wish there were as many new jobs upon graduation! But that’s a whole different subject…).
Anyway new families don’t be intimidated, it’s doable and for families going through the process…yes, March is the hardest…but think of all the memories you have made!

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@singoutlouise thank you for coming back, I remember following your story & being super impressed with your daughters talent AND success.

im not going to disagree with you, but I would like to add some color commentary…all opinion no facts…after reading every venting thread & final decision thread from the past 5 years ( multiple times) I am still not confident I could categorize reach/fit/ mid tier/ safety or whatever…schools I thought were mid tier & fits for my daughter resulted in NOs ( some after audition some after pre screens) . schools I thought were a reach were passes on pre screen or in one case an outright acceptance…so Im not sure given the chance how I would do things differently.

did we apply to too many? 100% yes. did we act out of fear? 1000% yes…

we had too many top tier schools many of which required pre screens & they " self weened our list w NO" but had I eliminate some of the elite 3 I would have missed some yesses…school I thought were a good fit end up no on the pre screen or post audition…

I researched AD NAUSEUM, we had a coach, I feel like we did it all " right" but still applied to nearly 30 schools & im not sure if I had narrowed it down that I would have chosen the RIGHT ones to take off the list… just my 2 cents.

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I have watched many kids go through this process over recent years and have actually found the 20/25 applications for 2ish acceptances for girls to be pretty close to on the money. And I’ve seen overconfident kids take gap years because they didn’t apply to enough schools. And it may be that these kids had very top heavy lists, but they picked the schools they felt they would be happy attending.

I’m not trying to add to the panic, but this has been my observations. If you want to apply to less schools, make sure your list includes a number of mid/lower tier schools. If you want to shoot for the moon, you are going to have to have a pretty large list.

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I’m going to follow up on what @singoutlouise posted, because I agree with her and she was brave enough to say it. I’m a parent of a daughter who went through this process 15 years ago to BFA in MT programs. Now, before everyone chimes in, “but things have CHANGED A LOT since then!!!” …I get it, and actually am a college counselor who has been advising applicants to this field the past 17 years and so I am VERY familiar with the process. While there are more applicants today than 15 years ago for this field, there are WAY more programs available than when my D applied. So, the numbers applying to specific programs are about the same as they were when she applied. I remember the numbers from then and know them today. The acceptance rates then were also about 2-6% at many of the programs. At the time, my D only applied to BFA in MT programs and she didn’t want to attend a BA degree program (I don’t advise this to my students and always have them apply to two non-audition academic safety school options). She applied to what would be considered top tier programs. She applied to 8 schools. She got into 5 programs, and Priority Waitlisted at 1. Her friends in this field from throughout the country also had options. Today, if SHE were applying, I’d recommend applying to up to 14 schools for her list. I think that would yield one or more options for HER. I do not think anyone needs 25, 30, or 40 schools. Nor do I think 30 schools are necessarily good fits for a person.

But here is the thing…not all applicants are equal. What works for one kid isn’t the same for another. We can’t say that girl X can apply to 14 BFA in MT programs and yield 4 acceptances, and that girl Y will get similar results! I understand that all these applicants are passionate about the field and have some talent. But their talent is not equal. For one thing, some have talent in all three disciplines, voice, acting, and dance, and some don’t. Some may shine in their high school setting, but have never been tested beyond that pool of students to know if they are competitive for a BFA degree program among a national pool of talent. I think it really helps to get some sort of assessment of a student’s artistic skill set from someone in the field who is familiar with the level of talent that it takes to get into a selective BFA in MT program. Another way is to have some benchmarks of some type on the regional, state, or national level, or have been among a national group of other MT peers to see where you stand. I know all our kids are talented, and as parents, we think our kids are each amazing. But going into this process, I felt my kid had some benchmarks on the regional, state, and national level to know that she was a competitive applicant. I didn’t know which college programs would accept her, but I felt out of the 8 she applied to, all top tier programs, she’d yield at least one acceptance (and she did much better than that). Today, I’d feel the same if SHE applied to 12 programs. But that doesn’t mean the same number or same list for all kids. A well balanced list is essential, but the list has to fit that particular applicant. I would not recommend the same MT college list to each student who wants to apply! Their chances are NOT equal. There are some very competitive applicants who I feel confident will get a couple of acceptances and some who have a smaller chance. If the student has the RIGHT list (doesn’t mean a LONGER list), then they should land somewhere. I have rarely seen a student totally closed out of acceptances. But the RIGHT college list for an applicant is essential. And that is not the same list for each kid. And it is not necessarily even the same number of applications for each kid. However, I rarely see a need for more than 15 applications if the list is appropriate to the applicant and IF the applicant is truly in the running. A desire to do this is not the same as having the level needed to get in. Yes, VERY talented kids get lots of rejections!!! But if truly competitive for a BFA in MT program, they tend not to be shut out entirely, even if they have a well balanced list of 14 schools.

Further, there are many wonderful BA degree programs where someone can pursue this field and have professional success down the line. Again, the right list is essential. I have seen unrealistic students and parents who reach for schools where they don’t really have a chance, where they are not competitive,…I see this not only with BFA applicants, but regular (non-arts) college applicants as well. And I also see BFA in MT applicants who totally discount the academic piece of admissions, and simply seek colleges that offer MT and that is their only criteria for college selection.

The one thing that HAS changed since my D applied (besides how many more BFA in MT programs there are!) is the addition of pre-screens. I think if you hear back from some pre-screens early enough and have a bunch of denials, it is not too late to add some schools that might be better odds, though “odds” are surely hard to assess when most programs have such low admit rates. But there are some programs that don’t have as competitive of a talent pool applying. They may be more regional in nature, or newer, or not top or middle tier so to speak, even if their acceptance rates are low. You can’t just go by acceptance rate.

Please feel free to apply to as many schools as you like, as everyone is different. But I echo @singoutlouise that if you have a well balanced list, and if you are truly competitive for a BFA in MT degree program, you don’t need a mile long list to yield some results. A truly competitive applicant should not need more than 15 schools to get into a BFA in MT program, if their list is well balanced AND appropriate to them. The formulation of the college list is a CRUCIAL part of the college admissions process. So, much follows from that. An unrealistic, inappropriate, or unbalanced list is going to be detrimental. And again, getting an assessment of one’s artistic skill set beyond their high school by someone who is familiar with the level needed to get into BFA in MT programs can be very beneficial or if the student has obtained benchmarks outside the school level.

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I think 20-25 applications was right for my daughter. We applied to a few top tiers, some mid-range and a few “safety” schools (they still required auditions, but she figured if she couldn’t get into any those, she might not be pursuing the right career). She has two acceptances so far, none from a top tier school, but still waiting on those. She is pretty happy with her LIU Post acceptance, and if she doesn’t get any more (which we both think she will) she will contently go there. In the end, she decided not to follow through with the callbacks she got from Texas Tech or Wagner at the Combines or her on-campus audition at Arizona State. Of course, she only did this because she had at least one acceptance from a school she preferred over those schools. She had a very rough prescreen season, with only 2 passes (Pace and BoCo) but she felt great about all her live auditions at NYC and LA Unifieds so we are optimistic. We also consolidated all her auditions to Unifieds (other than in-state auditions) because we could not afford to travel around the country to audition on-campus.

I say all this because we never could have afforded to submit twice as many applications. We also couldn’t pay for professional audition coaching, workshops, professionally done prescreens, or anything of the like. Other than her HS theater experience and her voice teacher, she was on her own to make this work or not. So for anyone else in our financial boat next year, my advice is to make a smart list, go to Unifieds, and let your kid “make it” or not now, rather than going overboard to get them in anywhere. This career path is unbelievably difficult and I would rather find out that she isn’t suited for it BEFORE she invests over 100k in a BFA program than after she does and then can’t find a livable income in her field of choice. So that’s my 2 pennies. :slight_smile:

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I agree that a well balanced, tailored to the student list is ideal, but I don’t think that a lot of students have access to the information necessary to make such a list. I can tell you that our high school counselors had absolutely no knowledge of theater schools years ago when my oldest child went through the process. The kids who have guidance from people like Soozievt and Onette are very lucky, many kids/parents are figuring it out for themselves. Bottom line do what you are comfortable doing and what you can afford to do. The coaches that we’ve dealt with have said 20/25 schools for girls. If you feel the need to do more, do more. If you are comfortable doing less, do less.

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Great stuff y’all. I love the comment about applying to programs 1000% out of fear. So true. I have 4 kids, and my ‘oldest’ is going through this process now, which is probably one reason we are overdoing it. However, I know that in 2 years, we will do the same for my son, in a totally different field. He’s probably good enough to play D1 soccer somewhere…but it’s close. Can’t wait to transfer this hyper competitive proactivity to the world of collegiate sports. I’m sure it will be totally different…but in many ways the same. Right now is the hard part. Up until now, we’ve all had some ‘control’ over the process. Control meaning – we can select the number of schools to apply to, help prepare for and attend auditions, etc. But now that audition season is (basically) over, all the power is out of our hands…and we wait. We wait for a lot of news, most of which will probably be bad, mathematically speaking. In my opinion, if your kid passes many pre-screens, especially at major schools, then they ARE GOOD ENOUGH TO BE THERE, but question is …are they good enough for one of the ~20 spots. I guess we’ll see. Break a leg everyone!

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@NeensMom - I am glad your approach is working for you and I like your advice, especially about having a “smart list”. Every family is different but I personally cringe when I see parents bending over backwards to get their performer in “anywhere” because it is a large investment - in terms of time, effort and yes, money. Right now it feels as if any yes is a good yes but the student will be spending 4 years of their lives in the program they select and if the school isn’t a fit that’s a potential waste.

The only thing I would disagree with you is the take away that audition results at this age truly determine if you have what it takes to succeed professionally. The schools all say they are screening for raw talent but many of them are really looking for training as well. Not all artists at this age can kill every audition. Some kids that rock their auditions do so because they’ve been carefully groomed to do so. Some talented performers (esp those at PA High Schools) will be ignored because they aren’t the top talent coming out of their schools. Others (usually from non-PA High Schools) won’t pass muster because they’re inexperienced in the audition process. I think parents and performers need to be realistic about what message they get from auditors and auditions but I also think that “no” s at this stage should be taken as what they are: indicators that the performer is not a top-choice fit student for that program. No more, no less.

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Of the people who applied to 20-30 schools, how many of the schools were actually visited? Did you visit before you were accepted or after? My S only ended up applying to maybe 10 schools. Some of the schools he only applied to because he had an application fee waiver. Some of the schools he applied to and was academically accepted into, he decided not to bother auditioning for. Of the 5 schools he has visited so far, 4 were on the On Stage Blog’s Top 25 or Top 30 from the last 2 years. Right now we have one scheduled visit and audition left, with the possibility of one or two more. Many of the “Top” schools were not even in consideration due to costs, not scoring high enough on the ACT test (Michigan), and some due to our getting started on the process late. Since we didn’t find this group until November or December and we had no clue about the process, we missed out on application and or audition deadlines for some schools we would have loved to have put on our list. We set a $30,000 per year max, based on average cost of tuition, for the schools on our list. So that obviously cut our list down a lot to begin with. Not long into my son’s visit at one school, he absolutely knew the school wasn’t for him and didn’t even want tot go back for an audition. This was only the second school he had visited. Another school he loved after his first visit and had the school towards the top of his list. He went to the school for another visit and his audition, and upon hearing more about the program he decided that the school was not for him. That was the first school he visited during this process. After visiting 2 schools by early November, my son decided that he wasn’t very interested in applying for schools that he probably wouldn’t be able to visit. My son has been very mature during this process, as have all of your kids I would imagine. I know my son has had to pull the reigns on me a time or two along the way. He has started to grow tired of this process and has decided he doesn’t want to add any other schools to the list, even if we can figure out a way to get them scheduled. He said it will just make his decision harder. I post this because I wonder how many of US PARENTS have taken over this college audition process? Obviously we think we are doing “what is best” for our kids. We all just want to make sure they can get in the “Best” school and get the most scholarship/aid money they can get. But have we made this process easier or harder for our kids?

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@depejohnson - I’m not in this year’s horse race (TG) but I would say it’s a mixed bag. Some parents obviously come into the application process with years of charts and stats, ready to “win this thing”. But for every pushy parent-coach there’s a exasperated parent who would love to be more hands-off. Many time their kid has their eye on only extreme reach schools so they’re here looking for help in casting a wider net. Ultimately I think both sets of parents are just trying to help their kid navigate treacherous and uncharted waters. I don’t think I’ve EVER heard here (which I have heard frequently away from MT) that the student won’t “make the effort required” or wants to “mail in” their applications. Even the most helicoptery of MT parents are working hard because they’re having to do so to keep up with their ambitious and motivated children.

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My D applied to 29 schools, some were eliminated early because they didn’t have the exact BFA MT major she was looking for. Once she got a BFA MT acceptance she was happy with, she dropped about 10 schools off the list ( some were BFA Acting, some had MT concentrations and two were a BFA dance programs. ) That put us down to 19.

We had 5 prescreen rejections so that lowered our number to 14. 3 audition No’s so far - down to 11. Elminated 2 more and cancelled auditions because the more we got into this the more she realize a conservatory was not for her. So now down to 9…

Have 3 BFA MT acceptances and have 6 waiting on results. Out of those 6 - 2 will likely be No’s as they are part of that elite level where acceptances are 1%, 2 we think will be yes’s but are unlikely to choose there because the more we got into it the more she realized that the size of the school mattered and they are just too small, 1 more we are hopeful for a yes and think her chances are good and that will be in the mix in the decision if that is the case. The last 1 she still has to audition at.

So, for us - 29 schools applied to get to 3 definite yes’s and hopefully 1 more that will be in consideration. 29 seems absurd, but when your kid can only image doing this it is hard to not cast a wide net!

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@StanfordAI2019

“if your kid passes many pre-screens, especially at major schools, then they ARE GOOD ENOUGH TO BE THERE, but question is …are they good enough for one of the ~20 spots”

I would modify that to say “are they the right type for that school that year for the ~20 spots”

At Chicago Unifieds, Vincent Cardinal said that if they could, last year they would have given 250 students a place at Michigan, they were that talented.