<p>I have a better method Mak Tay. You hold the envelope right on top of a light bulb and you can read so much more than holding it up to the light. You just have to be careful not to ignite the envelope and burn the house down.</p>
<p>When there is an acceptance, you go out and buy balloons of the school colors of the school. Then you attach the acceptance envelope to the balloons. Then get the camcorder ready for when they walk in. That was your excuse for opening the envelope...you needed to know if you had to go buy balloons. :)</p>
<p>MomOfAPrincess -- great idea! Of course, as we continue to wait . . . and wait . . . and wait . . . I just hope we ever have that opportunity! </p>
<p>In the meantime, these have all been quite fascinating discussions. But where the heck are any notifications?! It SEEMS like months since anyone has had anything new to post!! We've had a few admissions in the past week, but not too many. Has no one even received any new rejections? Personally, I'm anxious for ANY news at this point! I'm starting to wonder if I need to contact the schools and say, "Umm . . just curious, have you lost our address?" :)</p>
<p>My D says that according to the Musical Theatre group (?) on Facebook there are posts of acceptances at Point Park this week. Not sure if any of your S's and D's look at that. Apparently everyone is very supportive when there are rejections, and very excited for each other when there are acceptances.</p>
<p>tiffw, Look at the acceptances threads at the top. There is quite a bit of activity there recently.</p>
<p>"You hold the envelope right on top of a light bulb and you can read so much more"</p>
<p>We're so sad! I've even tried using a laser! Light bulb does indeed seem to work best though.</p>
<p>I remember that, last year, there was a flurry of posts by parents discussing the whole question of who opens those envelopes! :) Some parents said that their kids wanted the parents to go ahead and open whatever came and call or text or email them at school, and other parents said that they wouldn't dream of opening their kids mail. (Those parents probably were using the hold-against-the-lightbulb method, right? ;)) I'm in the kid-needs-to-open-her-own-envelopes camp, but the other approach works well for some people. (Reminds me of those old situation comedies where someone like Lucille Ball would try to steam an envelope open with a tea kettle.)</p>
<p>I'm very lucky, my kid is away at residency school and her mail comes home.
Ha! if she wants to know - I have to open them. Works for me.</p>
<p>My D has said she wants to open them alone! I will definitely do the lightbulb trick. And I love the balloon idea. I could hide them and then bring them out!! Really dramatic for her! She is acting but all these threads are really helpful. She just asked me tonight about her letters. </p>
<p>I could peek at my son's letters for college, he never noticed but she is much more observant. This is going to be a long 3 weeks!! I hope we don't have to wait any longer.</p>
<p>But we are trying to enjoy every minute. There are worse things to wait for in life.</p>
<p>We were not clever enough to use a light bulb, when the one came that we were really waiting for (and by the way it was a thin envelope) we just held it up to the window, couldn't really tell anything so it just sat on the kitchen table like a big pink elephant. My husband and I would walk by reguarly, pick it hold it to the window, put it down and walk on. Of course that night they were having a tech rehearsal at school so he was very late. He grabed it ran into the other room, it was quiet for a few minutes then the whooping started. He was very clear that HE would open it, not us! I wish for all of you the joy of whooping!</p>
<p>My D received rejection letters last week to CCM and Penn State. I haven't given her them yet since she had an audition with NYU the next day and Emerson tomorrow so I'm giving them to her after. After receiving these I feel a panic that she won't get in anywhere and then what do I advise her to do. Has this happened to anyone in prior years and what did you do? She has 7 MT programs left to hear from.</p>
<p>Just as a happy aside to this depressing thread; my D and I attended the Spamalot production last Friday and we had a super time laughing out loud. We drove from Boston in 4.5 hours straight and had to race three blocks through time square to pick up our tickets before the box office shut. She had a good laugh at her out of shape mom. Clay Aiken was the "highlight" of the show. (hehe) After, we sat at the diner across the street and watched the throngs of grandma "Claymates" waiting for Clay. The waiter noted that it is very sad that he attracts the throngs of fans; while the "true stars" had maybe three people standing outside after he left. If Clay can make it, my daughter has to keep her hope alive.</p>
<p>karenteic - please don't panic, CCM is so competitive, they typically only accept 10 girls and see something like 800 (650 being girls) auditions. Penn State is quite competitive too and just may be another one of those "just not meant to be's". No need to take either of these rejections as personal. </p>
<p>With 7 MT programs left to hear from, I am kind of assuming that your D is applying to a mix of schools, some highly competitive, some not so much, and hopefully she has a safety school in the mix. It is totally natural to question things though; I think we can all sympathize, this process is so unpredictable.</p>
<p>Hang in there, I am sure good things will be forthcoming :).</p>
<p>I am getting so anxious!</p>
<p>All I can do is try to pour all I have into one last audition I have next weekend.</p>
<p>aaaahhhh can the time just COME!?!?</p>
<p>karenteic, remember, all it takes is 1 acceptance! You have 7 more schools to hear from and if her list was a well diversified mix, odds are she will have an acceptance to a school that will provide a very gratifying experience for her.</p>
<p>Thanks to all the supportive messages....I'll try to put any more rejections that she gets out here because I know a lot of you are scanning this to say...yeah, I didn't get a rejection letter and others are. Keep the hope alive!</p>
<p>I'm scrambling to find some just-in- case schools to propose to my daughter. I wish some of the rejections would have come sooner so we would still have some flexibility on deadlines. Any ideas would be appreciated...I saw some good ideas on Musical Theater Nightmare thread. </p>
<p>Any ideas on schools with a high acceptance rate for regular theater that might have a MT minor or component without an audition that are rolling? Wouldn't that be wonderful to find one of those. I don't think I can afford any more audition weekends - but would love to send out some last minute applications.</p>
<p>columbia college chicago has rolling admission, accepts 97% of applicants and their app deadline is early june. they have a BFA in MT and Acting</p>
<p>My D applied to 10 programs 8 schools, half of them MT and half VP, she was accepted to 1 of each. All audition programs. Was very stressful. She ended up chosing MT and is at a school that is not mentioned much here, but she loves it and has had much performance oppurtunity and feels it is as good as any program out there. So hang in there and something will work out. The last two schools she auditioned for accepted her. She was accepted academically everywhere but one.</p>
<p>I'm of the opinon that if you've done your homework (and this board is a great resource) and you've picked a diverse number of schools 8-10 and you do not get in it's time to seriously reconsider your major. Now that's a bit harsh and it is mean't for the students that expect to make a living performing after college. If you want to teach, look at other opportunites within the performing arts industry or just have fun fantastic! The reality is, do you want to shatter your childs dream now or do you want to spend a 150K getting them into a program with little or no cuts to later find that they are not good enough? If this happens to my D then we are going to look at the in-state school programs with an emphasis on getting her a good education so she can make it in the real world.</p>
<p>MtDad...Didn't you post this?</p>
<p>"We got an acceptance letter and a large talent award offer from an excellent school (one on the MT board) that has not even completed their auditions."</p>
<p>Obviously this isn't going to happen to your daughter in this position with that kind of acceptance. </p>
<p>As for someone giving up their dream because they were rejected to 8-10 MT programs, I think that would require an individual analysis. Remember they told Tom Hanks to give it up as he'd "never" be an actor. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>There are people ready to hit Broadway and make it after high school with no college. </p></li>
<li><p>There are people ready to get into MT programs after high school. You are right, it's possible they don't have "it" and never will..it's also possible they do have it but applied to schools where their particular type wasn't needed.</p></li>
<li><p>There are people not ready to get into MT programs at 17 but given 4 more years of training can make it. Or given another year of training can reapply and get in a MT program. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>As getting into CMU, CCM and Michigan doesn't indicate a guarantee that someone is going to succeed in this business...I don't think being rejected is an absolute indicator that they won't succeed. During the audition season I met a very talented boy that was accepted to Michigan and CMU...rejected at Pace. Others have been accepted to CMU and rejected at Michigan, Emerson and CCM. Do the rejections mean they don't have the talent to make it? I don't think so. </p>
<p>I know several freshmen and sophomores at Columbia College. One has already started making money doing film work. Another is in his 3rd callback for a new TV pilot for a major network. I respectfully disagree that acceptances or rejections to a college MT program alone indicate whether someone should give up what they love.</p>
<p>And then, of course, there are the many, many successful performers who started out with BA's in theater/acting (or even other majors) from non-audition schools and then went on to take advanced training or pursued other paths to a successful performing career.</p>
<p>I also don't get the reference to "getting them into a program with little or no cuts to later find that they are not good enough". There are many top notch BFA programs, that produce working graduates, that do not have a "cut system" within the actual meaning of that term (as opposed to periodic jury reviews). In fact, looking at the list of schools at the top of the Board, most of them do not have an actual "cut system".</p>
<p>As has been said in many threads, by working professionals who are in a position to know, there are many paths that can lead to achieving the goal of performing professionally. Just because you have been rejected by audition based BFA programs doesn't mean the dream is unattainable. Our role as parents should be to support our children's pursuit of their dreams, not dash them on the rocks of cynicism. Along the way, we should assist them in acquiring the tools they will need to have flexibility and options in their lives, but this is true regardless of whether they get into a BFA program or not. And even those who get into one of the "top rated" (whatever that means) BFA programs need to have a plan in place to generate sustainable income once they graduate because odds are that working as an actor isn't going to cut it for many years to come.</p>