Congrats on the decision @motherofC
Congrats @motherofC! How awesome to be done!
Congrats @motherofC! Welcome to the land of the Raiders. Your D will be in good hands.
Congratulations!!
Wasnât initially going to share BUT thereâs a mom on this board who helped us tremendously so in the way of paying back and moving forward maybe this will help someone else down the road here we go!:
Applied to: CMU, CCM, Pace, Otterbein, Texas State, Oklahoma City University (OCU), Point Park, Boston Conservatory (BOCO), Univ of Arts, Cal State Fullerton
Prescreens: Pace, Otterbein, Texas (passed all 3)
Academically accepted to: Pace, Texas, Point Park
MT/Final Acceptances: Pace, CCM, OCU, Point Park, BOCO, Univ of Arts
Redirects: CMU, Otterbein, Texas and Cal State Fullerton
Background: Dancing since age 3- all styles. Voice and acting since age 7 or 8, has performed professionally in both NY and LA but is now a student in a preprofessional performing arts boarding school focusing on musical theater. Gets comprehensive training in all areas at school in conservatory program including stage craft, production etc. Very blessed to have had the opportunities she has had, is on scholarship at the boarding school. Financial concerns would be an issue in college search. Was fortunate be named National Young Arts Winner 2015 and participated in Miami and LA events and is nominated for Presidential Scholar for the Arts and is representing Young Arts at the upcoming Kennedy Center Acting Festival next week in DC.
Summers: Did not focus on many summer programs, did YMCA leadership training one summer, volunteered as junior musical theatre coach for local performing arts camp for two summers but did attend on scholarship the Vineyard Arts Program in Cape Cod and LOVED it one summer. Participated in the Fernando Jones Blues Summer program in So Cal on scholarship and loved it. Thatâs about it.
Coaching - Scott Harlin in LA, for prescreens (musical director), school faculty for auditions
Lessons Learned:
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She will land where she is meant to be.
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As a parentâŠtry not to look sideways but always forward and try to keep calm. The kids have enough stress on them in this process, adding your own baggage to their plates only makes it worse.
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College visits - start as early as you can. I have my youngest who is now a sophomore and we have just started visits this spring break and we met eighth graders on the tours!
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LISTEN really LISTEN to your kids- they are trying to tell you what they want. They may not be able to articulate it all that well but in their hearts they know what they can handle and what they are comfortable with.
Final Thoughts: When it came down to making her final decision she was torn between two really strong programs albeit very different ones. It took her quite a while to decide which direction to go. We utilized input from every angle and person including industry experts as well as school personnel. We also went back to what it was that she wanted to get out of the next 4 years of her life in general NOT just in musical theater! In the end my daughter decided that her new home would be at OKLAHOMA CITY UNIVERSITY! We could not be more satisfied with this decision, She will be a musical theater major in the Wanda Bass school of music pursing her Bachelor of Music degree with the possibility of adding a double major on vocal performance! We look forward to a wonderful new beginning and an exciting four years filled with new opportunities, new friends, great activities, challenges and dreams!
Best of luck to all of you and the class of 2019!
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Congrats @learnin! Great lessons. Great program.
Our story may or may not be relevant to many on this board but for those with kids deciding between BA and BFA I hope it will be instructive. My D has been in MT for 6 years, all of it outside of school. She has performed professionally, in community theater, and in youth theater. She is one of those kids who has had a full school life and a full MT life and the two did not really overlap. In fact, many of her school friends didnât even know she did MT until she decided to âcome outâ when she was in a production of Carrie because the coolness factor was high enough in her mind. Kids! Anyway, we started down the path to a BFA MT early in her junior year and started coaching with MTCA that spring. At this point she was interested in a conservatory-style program in a major metropolitan area. She created her list with help from MTCA and it included one non-audition safety with a strong theater program.
In August of this year she came to me and said she was having second thoughts. She was afraid that a conservatory would limit her both socially and academically. Her school life and friends have always been very important to her and she didnât want to give that up. She had also experienced what I would call an âintellectual awakeningâ in the time between April and August. The one non-audition safety on her list became the start of her new list and we started to look at liberal arts colleges that had good BA programs and/or performance opportunities and would allow her to double major.
I supported her decision but inside I thought âwhat are you doingâ, you have been building towards this BFA and an acting career for your entire life and you have had a lot of success in our mid-sized market. The decision was harder on me than her, which is a little sad but you all know what I mean. She assured me that she was not giving-up performing and that this decision would not make her less of an actress or less successful. It took me a while to internalize the message but I did and I believe it. I think she will be a better actress as she expands her mind within the liberal arts curriculum.
FINAL DECISION: She will be attending Pacific Lutheran University where she was awarded significant scholarship money for merit and for talent. She continued working with her MTCA acting coach and I canât say enough great things about him (Ryan Quinn) and MTCA in general.
The moral of out story is: we have to let go and let the kid take the lead. She knew what she needed more than I did. I had to put aside the idea that she was âwastingâ all her talent and experience and trust her to make the right decisions. She is in the perfect place for her and I canât wait to see her on stage in PLUâs beautiful, new, state-of-the art 600 person theater.
Great story, terrific mom @evilqueen . Congrats!
Congrats! Love Pacific Lutheran we just toured there with our son and were very impressed!
Congratulations learnin and evilqueen !!!
@evilqueen - Our Dâs journey was very similar, and coming out the other end of college I can reinforce the reality that many kids know far more about what they want/need from college than all the mentors and parents combined.
We look forward to following her in the coming years!! 
Thank you everyone!! @MomCares if my daughter can have a quarter of the success of your amazing daughter I will be thrilled.
You are very kind! It sounds like your D ia already off to a fantastic start, and also knows her own mind, which I love. Iâm also jealous that sheâll get to stay near to you, in such a beautiful part of the world!
Congratulations to all who are reaching the end of your school searches!
Initial Applications (10 auditioned-for and 1 non-audition): Baldwin Wallace, Ball State, CCM, Elon, Hartt, Indiana, Ithaca, Oklahoma University, Penn State, Syracuse, UC Irvine (non-audition safety)
Added after early rejections: Otterbein, Shenandoah
Video Prescreens: Baldwin Wallace, Elon, Indiana, Ithaca, Penn State, Otterbein, Shenandoah â Passed all video prescreens.
Live Prescreen: Oklahoma University (was not invited for a callback to campus)
Academic Acceptances: Oklahoma University, Indiana University
Academic Rejection: UC Irvine (supposed to be her non-auditioned for safety â LOL!)
Artistic Rejections: CCM, Elon, Indiana, Ithaca, Oklahoma University, Otterbein, Penn State, Syracuse
Artistic/Academic Acceptances: Shenandoah University BFA MT, Hartt School BFA MT, Ball State BFA MT (off the WL)
Waitlists: Baldwin Wallace (removed herself from the WL 4/6), Ball State (offer on 4/10)
Summer programs: CSSSA, Interlochen Musical Theatre Workshop (2 summers), BW Musical Theatre Overtures
Coaching: No college coach. Local monologue help.
Initial Decision 4/5/15: Ball State University BA Theatrical Studies
Final Decision 4/10/15: Ball State University BFA MT
I have been looking forward to writing this post for the last three years. Phew. What a process!
What we did right:
- Visited total 11 schools (full day tour, meet with faculty etc.) between sophomore/junior year and junior/senior year. Place and feel are very important to my D and we eliminated a few top programs after visiting campus and meeting with faculty. She had visited all but 3 of the schools she initially applied to.
- Know what you want. My D did not want to be in a stand-alone conservatory and she did not want to be in New York City or Boston. Also, she did not to be anywhere that was hot â that took out the Florida schools. She wanted a college campus feel â the bigger the better. But, she was torn because she also wanted a kick-ass program. Shenandoah was a tough one because she loved the program but eventually declined the offer since the school is so small. Balancing those desires was a little tricky, but at the end of the day, she found the perfect fit.
- All of her applications and prescreen videos were in and done by September 2nd. She added two in December and submitted those then. This, to us, was the key to a very nice fall semester. She was able to focus on her last school musical and enjoy life before auditions began. Oh, and get the SATs and ACT out of the way junior year if possible.
- Took a lighter senior schedule â D decided to forego AP classes and take a lighter senior schedule and this really helped especially during February when she missed more school than she was there for. Also, she intentionally put off her last year of PE for senior year knowing that they offer dance â she is able to dance at school four days a week.
- Summer programs: These helped D understand that there is a much bigger pond out there and a ton of talented kids all over. It gave her a hint of how competitive this process would be. D did the California State Summer School for the Arts between freshman/sophomore years and Interlochen the next two summers. Between junior/senior years she also did Baldwin Wallace Musical Theatre Overtures which was a great program. She turned down MPulse to do the Overtures program. That gave me heartburn, but it was the best decision for her.
- Completely open about the entire process. For us, we decided that we would be completely open throughout the process â both on CC which is my domain and FB which is Dâs. I know this is a very touchy issue, but it really worked for us. It took away some of the perceived stigma of multiple rejections. Letâs face it: at most of these schools, 95 kids are rejected for every 5 that are accepted. D was in very good company with those who were similarly rejected. If we helped even one lurker realize they arenât alone, we did something good.
What we would do differently:
- Her list was a little short and a little top heavy. We probably should have explored some other programs that werenât in the top or next to the top tiers.
- We should have been more strategic on her early auditions â she auditioned at Elon in October and Penn State in December and was rejected from both, within 24 hours, right before Christmas. That was the hardest part of the audition season, at least for me â D rebounded far more quickly than I did. I felt as though I had been punched in the gut.
- There was one song that she did that may not have been the most successful as it was a definite character song. I feel like this may have held her back, she says she wouldnât change a thing. It is easy to second-guess everything.
Final Thoughts:
This was such a collaborative effort with my D. I was schedule maker, logistics organizer and she did all of the applications, essays, and, of course, the artistic preparation. We had a great time traveling together and I am so happy that she has ended up exactly where she should be. This is a precious time together â make the most of it.
Even though I knew intellectually how competitive this process is, NOTHING PREPARED ME FOR HOW COMPETITIVE THIS PROCESS REALLY IS. I think this year on CC we did a better job of sharing the disappointments along the way and I hope that this helps future parents and kids prepare for the process. My thoughts reading CC over past years is my kid is not going to be that kid with no offers â and, up until February 21st, she was a kid with five rejections and no offers. It is way more common than we think. Those were dark days and I have to thank the friends I made here on CC for the support, humor and the understanding of what it is to go through this process. I met some really nice people along the way. Thanks for sharing the journey.
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Beautifully shared story @Divamamacita. I hope you return next year to share your gracious wisdom and incredible journey with the Class of 2020. Congratulations to you and your daughter!
So glad your story had a happy ending! Thank you to both you and ur D for sharing not only the ups, but also the downs of this journey. Best wishes!
Diva, you did a very brave thing sharing the disappointments. You brought light and companionship to a part of this process that can be ego-destroying. Congratulations on your Dâs âHappily Ever Afterâ - until the next part of the story begins.
YAY!!! So happy for you both @Divamamacita !!
And thanks for your friendship too ⊠what a crazy ride it has been! Cannot wait to hear how she thrives at BSU!!
Your story is so inspiring and has helped me in many ways. Thank you for sharing.
@Divamamacita, I absolutely loved your summary. Thank you for your openness. Frankly I have been alarmed and disappointed this year at the number of people who have kept all their info to themselves, or who have come on only to say, "My kid got into _______ school (pick your top tier). IMHO sharing the good and the bad is the best way I can think of to give back to CC for all that each of us have learned here. And we say over and over that a rejection is nothing to be ashamed of, yet not sharing the whole story makes me wonder if people do feel that way. Yes, it is a free site, and yes, people can lurk, reap all the benefits, and never contribute a thing, but I hope that is not the direction CC is headed. Iâve been rooting for you and your daughter, Diva, and I am so thrilled that she has a happy ending. Congratulations!