THE DECISION: IWU was the front runner for D for a long time. One of my favorite memories of this process was when she read her acceptance letter from them. We were about to see Dirty Dancing in another city, and we were at our hotel pool when another D of mine (D2) texted D to tell her she had college mail, so D had D2 open it without looking at it and show it to D via FaceTime. D started crying and laughing happily, exclaiming, “I got in!” She cried harder when she read her scholarship amount. We both cried and laughed a lot and then went to Dirty Dancing. It was so fun!
But, in the last couple weeks of the decision-making process, she couldn’t get UArts’ program, location, students/social environment, arts focus, and opportunities out of her mind. Unbeknownst to her, she started beaming when talking to people about UArts. Finances came into play, as we knew they would. Both IWU and UArts start at about the same price ($50s) and both initially gave her absolutely fantastic scholarships. Both also then offered more scholarships/grants, both unsolicited. IWU came out a bit more generous. Both offered extensions to come up with final financial offers; IWU lowered more, and then–ta da! May 7th, UArts matched IWU. D was absolutely thrilled–her face was ecstatic all day-- and we knew she had made her decision. Done.
It was harder than we thought it would be to tell a couple programs no. IWU’s program is something totally different than UArts and also wonderful; other programs had great people that D really connected with. But, as in every other area in this process, D isn’t looking back. She’s beyond thrilled to be heading to UArts! In fact, she’s connected with fellow freshmen through their FB page, and she already has a roommate! They seem wonderful, share a lot of commonalities with D besides theatre, yet are diverse and come from all over the country. She can’t wait for the end of August!
I WISH:
–that we had started with Chelsea or another national coach for monologues a little bit sooner. (We had first tried a local coach for monologues. Even if this had worked out, it was still good to have Chelsea’s knowledgeable perspective on schools in relation to my D and to be able to shoot her an email whenever D or I had any questions or wanted to process anything.) It all worked out in the end, but it would’ve prevented at least a month of unease and mounting panic about monologues. This period of unease happened almost right before prescreens (despite our best efforts to get things done early), which likely contributed to my D’s dislike of prescreens.
–that we had not scheduled any auditions for a couple weeks after Chicago Unifieds. D had given all she had at her auditions, and, as I said, had felt super energized by them and the whole Unifieds experience. Then, she sort of crashed for a bit and cancelled her Western Michigan audition, which was scheduled for a week and a half after Chicago Unifieds. She actually could’ve done it as a walk-in at Chicago, but, at that time, she was looking forward to going on another on campus one even though she loved walk-ins and was eager to do them. I think it was fine to cancel it, but a longer cushion of time before that audition probably would’ve meant she wouldn’t have cancelled. In fact, 3-4 weeks after Unifieds, she said that she felt like going to another college audition and that she is going to miss Unifieds next year! (We both might. I totally enjoyed it, too! Chelsea laughed at that and said she won’t miss it, lol.)
–that, during the week of May 1st (Decision Day), we hadn’t moved, had opening weekend of a production for D, Senior Night (should’ve gathered all of those growing up pics long ago), and, starting the week after, had tech for a show I directed and D was in. That might have been a bit much, ha ha, even with the extensions! (Thus, this late post.) We got through it, though! We are now on our way to a hopefully relaxing, fun beach vacation in one of our favorite spots! Whew!
I’M GLAD:
–that we approached this as a fun adventure. Okay, getting all of those essays done wasn’t fun even though D writes well. There was nagging happening there sometimes. D also didn’t like prescreens and couldn’t wait to be done with them. And, of course, rejections weren’t very fun. But, she really liked everything else, and we kept it an adventure. Together, we were excited about so much from researching programs to meeting people to exploring new places to eating great food in new-to-us restaurants to seeing shows to walking all bundled up through snowstorms to talking in detail about auditions (only in private)… We had a great time with each other! This has been a wonderful bonding time, a sort of senior capstone experience together that we treasure. My husband fully participated in the travel part of this and also approached it as an adventure, and he is an involved, supportive dad, which is obviously nice! (He took rejections hard, though, but he spoke to me about it instead of D, thankfully. How could anyone possibly not admit his D? Lol)
–that D had a fantastic attitude. She stayed positive, taking rejections, etc., in stride. Yes, she felt overwhelmed at times and had disappointments, but she moved on and tried to focus on the positives. There were no tears but ones of happiness (not that tears are bad–they’re not at all–they’re actually good --it just represents how she took everything–allowed herself to feel disappointment, but then moved forward). I learned a thing or two from her during this!
–that there are a lot of good programs, even after D established her criterion. With many, we’d research and/or hear the faculty members and say, “That sounds good. I could see you/me there.”
–that D decided not to be in productions or take college classes (as she did her junior year) during audition season. Even though she was anxious to get back to rehearsing and performing, not worrying about other intense schedules was wonderful. In fact, she probably could’ve done without being a show that ended its run the first weekend of November, but that’s ok.
–that we all adopted helpful attitudes towards others in all of this. A hanger strap sticking out of a dress? I’ll get that. You need a charger? We have one. Look lost? We’ll point out the way if we can. Many others were like that, too, and it was great to band together with them! One girl offered a leo to my D when a strap on D’s broke during an audition and then offered to fix it! We saw her another day, and she aptly stated, “I just want to help us all go through this crazy process in the best way possible!” We loved this atmosphere.
–that D double and triple checked to make sure her files were complete at schools. Three schools had issues with this. We even had to send one school her transcript 3 times!
–that I got on CC when I did (fall of junior year) and that D and I started heavily researching programs then. If it had been later, I probably would’ve panicked, and, if I missed out on CC completely, I likely would’ve freaked out, lol! Instead, we knew what to expect, received helpful advice, and connected with people who have been wonderful. It has been a great resource for us both. Thank you all!
D’S ( @stage2nature ) OH-SO-HELPFUL ADDITIONAL TIPS, lol:
Chicago unified tips:
•don’t ask the front desk attendant at the Palmer House for directions to the nearest Chipotle (It may result in a mile-long hike in a snowstorm.)
NYC unified tips:
•your family will not want to eat at a chain restaurant (Chipotle) while in NYC. Plan accordingly.
General campus tips:
•take note on if there is a Chipotle within walking distance of campus.
Obviously, a sense of humor is important through all of this!
We have other stories and “I’m glads,” but a beach is calling me, and you’re probably done reading this novella! 
