Final Acting Decisions Background - Class of 2022

College Majors Theater/Drama Majors
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Amazing story, @FourStars! SO happy for your D! UNCSA is such a fantastic place!

And again, a fascinating example of someone getting into “elite”, tippy top programs (UNCSA and UMinn), yet not called back at a not-as-tippy-top program (Pace). (P.S. Nothing against Pace! It’s still a top-tier program and highly selective! But it’s not AS prestigious as UNCSA, which is always ranked in the top 5 acting programs in the country.) Likewise, getting into some tippy-top programs, yet not others. It just goes to show, you CAN’T predict what a school is looking for!

Since I’m so behind on this thread, I need to catch up with everyone else!

@artskids, I love your story! So many wonderful choices!!! BU sounds so perfect for your D! (I also cracked up at your last line, about encouraging your youngest to go into engineering! Ha ha!)

@owensfolks, congratulations! So happy for you, especially after last year. And thank you for sharing the story about your son. That was so heartbreaking - I really feel for him. I’m glad to hear that he’s doing better now.

@CaMom13, what a nailbiting story! So glad you got a happy ending at NYU!

On that note, I really have to give HUGE credit to NYU, because they are the ONLY top-tier program that accepts a reasonable number of kids. All the other top programs only have 12 to 20 slots available (with 500 to 1000 kids auditioning!), which means that no matter HOW talented and amazing you are, the odds of getting in are miniscule, just because of the numbers. But because NYU has multiple studios, they’re able to accept well over 100 kids (or maybe even more, I have no idea of the number).

You still have to be very talented to get accepted by NYU, and not every talented kid gets in, obviously! But at least you have more of a CHANCE there! There have been so many stories of talented kids who weren’t lucky enough to snag one of the very few spots at the other top schools, and were worried after a string of rejections, but then NYU came through and saved the day! So kudos to NYU!

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@FourStars the part about the car not starting before the audition early in the morning - wow. That’s a building character moment. Congrats!

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@actorparent1 great point about the size of the programs. I have often wondered what the reasoning is behind such tiny programs? (I mean there are some that only take 8 or 12!). I’m sure there is a rationale – I would love to understand if anybody knows! I would think that even though its fantastic to get that one on one attention and casting opportunities that small programs bring it might also get a little monotonous only casting with the same 48 or 50 kids for 4 years. Obviously many of these programs are top notch and produce outstanding students so they are doing something right, I just don’t understand why they can’t make the classes a little larger! LOL

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@DoinResearch LOL, the car not starting was actually the car door would not open. Frozen shut in Minneapolis, I gather. Or maybe it was an electrical short. Who knows? They bailed and hailed. They took Uber (the apartment was across the river from campus) and arrived at like 8:31 for 8:30 audition slot. I think it is WAY BETTER that I was not there! I might not have been able to maintain my “I will not rattle my D before an audition, I will not rattle my D before an audition” mantra. All of us have these stories, and we all survived and bond over them.

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@actorparent1 - you see the whole story exactly. A mish mosh. It’s so funny because I also sort of perceived those anomalies in other people’s stories. While I tried to read the tea-leaves too, like everyone else, you have to just keep marching forward. I am so heartened to hear so many find a place.

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Great story of you and your daughter’s journey. Your now a Fighting Pickle! Welcome to the family! Your daughter is going to be a really big DILL!

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@FourStars So very happy for you and your D!!

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@jbtcat,the only reason I can think of for tiny programs is if there’s guaranteed casting. If every BFA student is guaranteed one or more roles during their time at college, then it’s understandable to keep the number small.

For example, Marymount Manhattan is one of the few schools that accepts more --they aim for a class size of about 50 in their BFA Acting program (and they accept 100 to yield that 50). So their acceptance rate is 33%, which gives you better odds of acceptance there than at other programs. But the tradeoff is that there’s no guaranteed casting at Marymount, and a common complaint is that some students go all four years without being cast in anything.

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Are they really the Fighting Pickles? I love that! @FourStars - you cast a wide net and ended up with several big fish! Congratulations to your D I am sure she will have an amazing 4 years! She obviously has talent to spare with that many top acceptances and I think the rejections are more a function of the overwhelming number of talented kids applying to each program. As long as each actor gets the “one” that matters - life is good. Your story is wonderful and just reading it makes me tired again! What a ride!

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@jbcat and @actorparent1 - I am going to reply with my thoughts on class size the main thread so as not to highjack this one, lol!

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@FourStars Congratulations lovely fighting Pickles! Such a journey and a wonderful one. Reading this made me so happy.You know I’m feelin’ the love! Very excited :-* !!

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Are you all posting your final decisions here or in the MT thread or both? I started with the MT thread but after much redirection have been coming over there though I read and respond to both. I just don’t know where to post my final decision…

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If you’ve been posting in both sections during your journey , I say post the final decision in both sections!

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I totally agree, wherever folks “know” you, you absolutely should post, so both places. I look forward to it!

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Congrats @FourStars. Excellent choice, from what ‘they’ say. And it’s great that she will get all the MT elements as well.

Great feedback on your d’s auditions.
I wholeheartedly agree, that passing prescreens is not indication of success. Neither (apparently) is positive feedback and being sent into the ‘other room’. These are HUGE take-homes that future parents and kids need to hear. I know it’s not intentional on their part; they obviously see something in these kids and must have enjoyed their auditions. But they cant accept every kid that they enjoyed. And the prescreens… maybe too many get pushed through? Think again, about the numbers. It felt great that my kid passed the ones she did (knowing many hundreds of kids did not), but at the end of the day, she didn’t get into any of those schools. That process teeters somewhere between giving confidence vs. false hope.

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@actorparent1 I did not know this about Marymount (that kids have a harder time getting cast). That’s a pretty big class size (as MT programs go). I guess everything happens for a reason; my d got released from their WL :confused:

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@DramaQueen219, the Marymount info I posted was about the BFA Acting program, not MT - I should have clarified, sorry!

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@FourStars Woohoo!!! Congrats on finding and securing the perfect fit!! Well done, mom!!

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@FourStars, a big congratulations on UNCSA. . We know a dancer who attended as a high school student and someone who attended a Summer Program and they both could not say enough good things about the school. Plus my D’s high school director is very enthusiastic about the program and refers to it as the “Juilliard of the South”. Quinn and Scott did an amazing job at painting a picture of what the days and years at UNCSA would look like. It was definitely on our short list (maybe higher on mine than D’s, though) but unfortunately the feelings weren’t mutual and my D wasn’t accepted. It will be fun to watch cast lists in 4+ years to see which schools the new stars are coming from. I have no doubt we’ll see lots from UNCSA.

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I’m still catching up.
@artskids - thanks for sharing your story and congrats on BU. We loved that program and especially for actors who still want MT it’s one of the most appealing,
@owensfolks - thank you for sharing difficult battle for your athletic son. I am so glad to hear he’s doing better and you are able to talk about it.

Best wishes to any WL folks, still pulling for you,