Congrats @MTDad27 !!! That is awesome!
Congrats at @MTDad27 !
Congrats, @MTDad27 !! BoCo was high on my daughterâs list, too, itâs a great program.
We have BoCo and Miami left to hear from. We are expecting rejections and sheâs started to let herself get excited about where she thinks sheâs going to commit. Phew, itâs nice to see that the light at the end of this tunnel isnât an oncoming train. 
@StanfordAI2019 Thanks for your post about the double-no day (yes those are the worst, especially when the previous day was a WL at her third choice school) and about Northwestern. We knew NU was a long shot but, ironically, the academic odds there are better than the talent odds at many of these other programs so we were hoping against hope.
Anyway, my D loves Chicago and also got rejected from Roosevelt. She got into the BA MT program at Columbia but rejected from their BFA MT so she is not very excited about that optionâat least compared to other programs now on her menu.
So, as I am sure it is for any of your kids if they have choices), it now looks as if it will come down to:
- program type: BFA Acting (no yesâs from BFA MT programs) or BA (none of which are exclusively MT but some of which are performance-oriented and, of these, some have some MT options). Of course, even within either category (BFA or BA), the content varies so this is a hard sorting to do.
- quality of program (everyone has a different opinion and we are comparing apples and oranges when we try to make comparisons across different types of programs)
- fitâshe has no clue and cannot do any revisitsâand
- location (she loves Chicago and NYC but will likely have âbetterâ options (in her opinion, in terms of content and focus) in other places.
To be clear, I am NOT complaining. This is a person who had NO choices a little over a month ago and who now has several good ones. I just donât have a clue how to help her choose. NU would have made it an easy choice. Oh well. Onward.
@allfour1 @DivaStageMom Northwestern is a no-audition for admission but no guarantee of MT because, as @allfour1 points out, the MT audition only happens during freshman year.
@AbigCurveBall Sorry about NU. We find ourselves in a similar spot: choices but none of them are what she set out to get: 3 BFA Acting, 2 performance-oriented BA (but neither really MT), and 2 waitlists. Hard to know how to advise since her goal was BFA MT and that is no longer on the table. Seems silly to do a gap year when one has âgoodâ (whatever that means at this stage) choices and no guarantee that next year will yield any better options, but hard for her to get excited about any of her choices (3 of which she has NEVER VISITED) and hard for us to invest a ton of (really scarce and getting scarcer) resources in this situation. Let me know if you have any epiphanies on next steps!
@AnxiousNovice Can your daughter look deeply into her BFA Acting program options to discern if there are any opportunities to take voice and dance? Any chance to be cast in musicals? If the answer is yes, these are good options for someone pursuing MT. I know several people who have a BFA in Acting who have gone onto professional work in MT.
@soozievt Good advice, which we have also gotten from others. Challenge so far is that it is hard to discern between what folks say and what is real. I donât want to bash any programs here so, if you donât mind, I will message you directly?
@AnxiousNovice guidance we are hearing from reliable sources is that there will be a lot of waitlist movement this year, and while that may happen even in the summer, one option is to make an enrollment deposit at your childâs best non MT school, then if a waitlist at MT happens, you will lose the enrollment deposit, but you can ethically drop that school and take your waitlist option. It sounds terrible, not least of all the betting on something that may not happen (though is likelyâwe have learned that even last year at a much desired MT BFA school most first year kids were wait list kids). Also losing a deposit is not cheap, I know. At this point my child has visited none of the schools on his active list, save one, where he is unlikely to get in and unlikely to want to go. So hard!
@AnxiousNoviceâŠI would not go by what people say who have not attended the program themselves (or their kids have not attended). If you donât know any current students or alum, ask each program for such contacts and ask these questions specifically of these folks. Also, I would ask the department itself about availability of voice lessons and dance classes for Acting majors and if Acting majors can be cast in musicals.
@allfour1 Good advice, which we will likely follow. Plan to do all the "virtualâ accepted day stuff first. And my D is setting up calls with current students and program faculty/directors so she will likely just pick the program that seems best, even if she has no real sense of fit or location. Good luck to you as you figure this all out.
@soozievt Including you here to avoid fairly duplicate posts. Thanks for advice. My D is already doing what you suggest (conversations with current students and department faculty). It is just hard to get excited about a program (or be confident about oneâs choice) without ever having been there and based only on curriculum, opportunities for musical casting, and availability of voice/dance lessons. Nonetheless, it looks like the best we can do under the circumstances.
Congrats, so exciting @MTDad27! What is this âBoCo financial aidâ of which you speak? ?
@MTDad27 Was this a call for regular decision you got today??
@MTDad27 Whereâd you go?? We have questions, lol. Was the portal updated as well? Email or just phone call? Congrats!!!
Some ppl have received calls from BOCO to tell them a MT official acceptance is coming 3/29.
Congratulations @mtdad27! BoCo is in top 2 of my sonâs acceptances right now and provided we can make it work financially, I strongly suspect that is where he will land.
@soozievt - first âstuck at NUâ - was a little of a joke - like its a top 10 school so not a bad place to be stuckâŠ
But according to this girl - a current student - all training is competitive - she got into the certificate MT program along with 12 other girls - she qualified for private voice lessons - some od the 12 did not - she got into the acapella group many donât - she isnât a dancer - but many dancers donât get into the dance program (she didnât have a lot on that but apparently there is something dance you also compete for) She likes the program because she is getting into all the training she needs - many who donât end up double majoring - or changing majors altogether.
So while its a top program and I am sure people like her are getting TOP training - my d could go there and just get theater - which I am sure is fantastic - but not performance training - not really what she wants. So an interesting option if she had made no other performance programs - but not the best for her.
Does anyone know if today was the first day for BOCO calls?
Itâs mysterious because BoCo doesnât usually call for BFA MT - itâs email and portal update. Generally. And everyone all at once.
Thank everyone!
@DramaLlama18 - Yes, I have heard that BoCo does not give much financial aid. We knew that going in but hope itâs at least competitive with other options. We will see. LOL
@NeensMom - yes she applied regular decision and auditioned at Chicago Unifieds.
@runnernyc - she got an email yesterday asking when they could call her and then they called her today around noon. The portal is not updated with anything yet. They said she will get her acceptance letter within a week.