<p>Say a high school student auditions for a college program, and gets a rejection letter. Does the letter specify why the student didn't get in? I mean, does it state that the student got into the school artistically, but not academically, or vice versa? Does the theatre dept. send the rejection, or does it come from regular admissions?</p>
<p>Those who have been through this, can you help? Thanks.</p>
<p>I auditioned for four programs last year, not highly competitive academic programs - Hartt, Montclair State, Point Park, and Roosevelt. I was accepted at all the schools academically, and rejected artistically to all four. I was given options to change my choice of major at all the schools, but chose not to attend any of the schools, as I believe Montclair was the only one with a BA in Theatre. I was told never to expect any explanations or feedback from the auditors, as due to the pure volume of auditions, it would be merely impossible for them to give personal feedback to each prospective student. I received completely separate acceptance/rejection letters (all snail mail) from the school’s academic and artistic departments.</p>
<p>Thanks, saffron. I couldn’t imagine the schools leaving these kids all wondering if they passed their audition or not, or got thru admissions or not. I’m glad that the theatre department lets them know.</p>
<p>Some are separate, but some are not. Generally though if you are rejected it’s probably pretty safe to assume it was artistic. With a couple of notable exceptions most academic requirements at these places would not keep most students out. I have heard of it happening but rarely.</p>
<p>Actually, I am talking about the bigger universities like NYU, BU, Northwestern, etc. There are quite a few that have high academic requirements and I just think it would be good to know if the rejection letter was because of academics.</p>
<p>My D was rejected from BU, CMU and Northwestern, and I believe she got a pretty standard “Thanks, but no thanks” letter from all three. Academically, she was solid for BU, fine for CMU, and a reach for Northwestern (which, as we all know, does not audition, but takes artistic experience very seriously). From what we all know here on CC, she surely was rejected by BU and CMU because of her audition; at Northwestern it probably was a combination of being less qualified than other applicants in both, although she had a chance. She was rejected academically from another non-auditioned school because it’s a highly selective school and that’s just what happens; she was rejected from an auditioned program where we know she was accepted academically, so that was based on the audition, too. In that case she got two different letters.</p>
<p>In the world of college admissions, there are rarely explanations. It is best just to move on - and to make sure you have great alternatives to the highly selective programs.</p>
<p>If you are interested about academic stats in particular, there is a lot of information about what the stats of their accepted students are. But this isn’t entirely reliable, either - hence all of the “chance me” threads, and the curiosity among academic-based college applicants about why they were rejected.</p>
<p>If a student is sure s/he was rejected for “artistic” reasons (eg the academics were a shoo-in) there still usually is no explanation. So many factors go into that decision - numbers, types, personal taste, etc. - that the student should just move on from that experience, too. Some kids who get rejected everywhere might need to rethink their application process and rebuild their qualifications, academically and artistically, but they still won’t ever have the “answer” to who gets in and who doesn’t.</p>
<p>I wish your child the best and hope you can just chalk up any rejection to the vagaries of fate.</p>
<p>Those are the exceptions. NYU will not tell you why… it’s in or out. I’m pretty sure it’s the same deal at NW, UCLA, UCI, CMU etc. I don’t remember a separate letter from BU although my daughter applied and was ultimately rejected. Her grades were not the issue anywhere but even at BU they made it pretty clear that if the theater dept. wanted you badly enough they would get you through admissions. I believe that’s the case at some others, too. Don’t really remember specifics since grades were not our issue, but I heard more than once at an info session that academics standards can be relaxed for kids they are strongly interested in. Actually, it kind of bugged me.</p>
<p>Thanks EmmyBet! I think you saw where I was going with this. The “moving on” part is what I will suggest to my son if he does get a lot of rejections, but knowledge is power, right? So if he knew he wasn’t getting into these programs because of grades (and he did get in artistically), then he would have to make the decision to perhaps look at training conservatories, rather than colleges. But if he gets into the schools, but doesn’t pass the auditions, that would be another decision to make - stick with it, or perhaps look at other fields within theatre rather than acting. </p>
<p>But this is all mute, since he will get into every program he applies to, on a full-ride scholarship, but won’t be able to attend because he will get discovered walking down the street and become a big star and buy me a condo on the beach . . .LOL! I think he will be better at the whole application process than I will.</p>
<p>Flossy - that’s funny, I’m with you about being bugged. Sometimes the more I know the worse it is! I also heard that some programs “fighting” for kids that they want, but my son was at BU this summer, and there was tons of talk about grades, SATs, etc. needing to be way up there or the kids wouldn’t get in, regardless of their audition. Now, I don’t know if that was a nice way of discouraging some kids who didn’t have it artistically or not, but they told lots of kids that they needed to improve their GPAs/SATs or the university wouldn’t accept them.</p>
<p>Honestly, what could they say? They had hundreds of applicants for a very few places-- they chose the few whose auditions struck them right on that day. The academics factor in, but in most cases only after they’ve chosen based on audition. If you apply to Michigan they screen you for academics before the audition, so you do know. Northwestern has no audition so the numbers, essays, etc. mean more, but still… think of all the people with amazing grades and scores and etc, who don’t get into Yale. They don’t know why they didn’t get in either, and the only answer is that there are many more wonderful applicants than there are places in the class.</p>
<p>As others have said it will vary from school to school.</p>
<p>Where I teach the letters are separate if a student is accepted academically. In this case the applicant will receive a letter from the program communicating the status of artistic admissions. If a student is rejected academically they will not receive a letter from the program regarding artistic admissions. </p>
<p>Sent from my DROID RAZR using CC</p>
<p>Thanks all!</p>
<p>My question was answered by folks saying they sometimes got two letters - one from the college, and one from the theatre dept. That is the info I wanted.</p>
<p>I know that you aren’t told why you didn’t get accepted to one school or another. I wasn’t thinking you’d get a detailed letter explaining that; I was just curious if you got separate answers, or if you were left to wonder how you did at the audition.</p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>
<p>I have heard from my daughter who is in the program that this is true, while the audition is the key, their high school academics are very important in getting in now. It was not a nice way of of discouraging kids to apply, but to highly encourage them to get on the ball…</p>
<p>For any kind of process that requires an artistic adjudication, it’s probably more helpful to realize that it’s not so much that you were rejected as that others were accepted. The difference is not semantic. There may have been nothing wrong with your audition per se, and it’s entirely possible that you could have been accepted if it were a different year, or if you had auditioned earlier, or if it hadn’t been raining, or whatever. It’s not necessarily that others were more talented-- these schools could fill their classes over and over again with talented students. I’ve judged numerous competitions in a different artistic discipline, and I can guarantee not-winning is not the same as losing. Just as not-being-accepted is not really the same as being rejected.That said, when my daughter was rejected from some programs I took it harder than she did. She moved on immediately, and (even though I knew better!) I found myself pondering why it happened.</p>
<p>(And to answer the original question-- no, you never find out.)</p>
<p>Glass harmonica, I think you hit it perfectly. I sat through a parent meeting with a Juilliard admissions rep, and she was asked if the students could find out why they were rejected and what they could improve to try again. She was very kind, but said that the faculty was not looking for reasons to exclude people, they were looking for the people they wanted to teach, so would not be able to offer feedback to those they did not select.</p>
<p>Marbleheader;</p>
<p>You will not receive info as to why you were not accepted - either from the academic side of admissions committee or the audition/artistic side. My son and I were told at a CMU info session prior to audition; “admit is 80% artistic review and 20% academics. . . we focus on the characteristics and artistic skills that a potential student has not on the students who we feel might not be a good fit.”</p>
<p>We were also told by the high school guidance counselor that all of the data (SAT range, average GAP, numbers accepted from your high school, # AP classes) do not add up in the same way when the admission hinges on an audition or portfolio review.</p>
<p>I think that this is a life lesson for a career as an actor. You will go to many auditions. Some will go well. Some not so well. Some you will have no clue about. And the only feedback you will potentially get is a job. In many cases you will never find out.</p>
<p>So, if things do not fall your way with one school, just move on. It is much better in terms of your energy level and state of mind.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! I guess I named this thread incorrectly, as I was not asking if you get a detailed letter as to why you did not get into a school.</p>
<p>Again - I was just interested in knowing if you received a letter (good or bad) from the theatre dept. as well as from the college itself. I guess some schools do that and some don’t. That is all I wanted to know.</p>