<p>Hello! I will be applying to SoC as Theatre major, but for a long time, I've been hearing the myth that only around 100 students who apply to SoC as Theatre majors are accepted. To what extent is this true? I've already been bumped down to Regular Decision by my parents and guidance counselor and I'm starting to become nervous about my chances, especially with this myth going around...</p>
<p>You are mishearing. It’s that the program only has 100 spaces. Divide by the yield rate (so if the yield is 10%, that’d be 100/.1 = 1000, if it’s 75, 100/.75 = 133.</p>
<p>@arbiter213 – I not in Admissions, so I don’t have an official answer, but D is a Theatre freshman this year and I’m pretty sure she said they ended up with 125+ Theatre majors this year because the yield in that major was unexpectedly high. I don’t know if/how that might impact the number of people admitted next year, but I’d think it might mean they’ll admit fewer in anticipation of a higher yield than for the school as a whole?</p>
<p>I have also heard that they attempt to admit 50 males and 50 females, which would presumably make it FAR more competitive for girls than for guys.</p>
<p>@MomCares- I didn’t mean to suggest those were the relevant numbers, just explaining how yield works (and that 100 is the goal). Thanks for clearing the direct application up and providing the more specific numbers. I had also forgotten about the gender divide.</p>
<p>@arbiter213 - I totally understood your point, and was just adding the info that they seemed to have a higher-than-anticipated yield this year, which may or may not impact the coming year’s admissions. I’m also not sure how seriously they take the 50/50 gender divide. It would be interesting to get some firsthand info about all of this.</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard, very seriously- it’s particularly important since there are generally more male than female parts in plays.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the information, guys! Hopefully being a guy will help me out a bit.</p>
<p>@arbiter213 – Having a D in theatre, I certainly notice the preponderance of roles for males! If you ever write a play or musical, fill it with female roles, ok?</p>
<p>@drewski94 – Hope D has you as a classmate at NU next year – best of luck!!</p>
<p>Becoming a playwright might be one of the few careers with worse prospects than what I’m already doing right now ;)</p>
<p>Could be worse… could be a female wanting to be in musical theatre. ;-D</p>
<p>Well then I’d probably be pretty and could, worst case, tend bar. Plus my sort of bar tending leaves you in a lot of debt :P</p>
<p>Is the time you spent posting in this thread billable, arbiter? :3</p>
<p>Only against myself.</p>
<p>drewski-I have a son who is a soph in the theatre program. If I am remembering correctly, there are about 92 majors in his grade and they are divided along the lines of 2/3 girls, 1/3 guys. 50/50 may be the goal, but I don’t think they’re just going to take 50 guys just to fill up the program. I have never heard numbers about yield, though. May I ask why you were persuaded NOT to apply early?</p>
<p>momof3sons,</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. My parents are uncomfortable with Early Decision because of past experiences with my older brothers. Also, even though I’ve had my heart set on Northwestern since sophomore year of high school, there are other schools I like, and they’re afraid I might regret the decision. Lastly, I’m interested in double majoring across schools, and they’re worried I might find some problems at NU (even though I’ve done TONS of research and figured EXACTLY how to work it out)</p>
<p>Our D was also interested in a Theatre double major, and she didn’t find ANY other schools where it was either as common or as possible as it is at NU. She knows of only one guy double majoring with MT at UMich (though she has lots of friends there), and it’s taking him 5 years.</p>
<p>Is there another specific school where your folks think you’ll find it easier to double major than at NU?</p>
<p>As parents, we were also worried that our D might regret applying ED since she wouldn’t get to choose between all of the schools she was accepted to, but D was more concerned that she’d regret NOT applying ED if she wasn’t admitted to her top choice (NU) later. ;-D</p>
<p>There are lots of good schools, though, so I’ll bet wherever you land it will be great! Hopefully we’ll see you in shows at NU in a couple years!</p>