Yes, @Tahuna, your story is different from many on this board! Thank you for sharing and congratulations to you and your son.
Woo-hoo @deelight! You made it to the other side! I’m very happy for you and your D and I have to say I agree wholeheartedly that you must keep an open mind throughout this process. Thank you so much for sharing your highs and lows with all of us!
Just to state the obvious (you can already see it from the lists of schools kids on this very thread applied to) but not everyone feels this way. These are all great programs, but for our D (who is a very serious MT and carefully researched these programs), NONE of these schools made her top three and cost was not a factor in her ranking. Different kids want different things from four years of college (a mere blip in a lifetime of MT training).
@MomCares appreciate your post.Our kiddo ruled some of these out also for various reasons, but not cost.
Applied to these BFAs: Rutgers Acting, Fordham Acting, Minnesota Acting, Wayne State Acting, Carnegie Mellon MT and Acting, Ithaca MT and Acting, Pace, Penn State, Otterbein, Wright State, Texas State, University of Michigan.
Applied to these BAs: Yale, Barnard College, Harvard, Brown, Vassar, Northwestern, and Skidmore
Walk-ins at Moonifieds-- Coastal Carolina and Rider – but didn’t apply to either one after getting home
Passed all her prescreens
BFAs – Accepted to Michigan, Wright State, and Ithaca Acting; Wait listed at CMU, Texas State, and Otterbein; Rejected from Rutgers, Minnesota, Pace, Penn State; Didn’t complete audition/application process with Fordham, Wayne State, Coastal Carolina or Rider.
BS/BAs --Accepted to Northwestern (Acting), Vassar (Theatre), and Michigan (LSA major) and wait listed at Yale, Barnard, and Skidmore; Rejected from Harvard and Brown
D attends a non-PA public high school. She is a very strong student and will graduate with about 35 AP credits. She is active in leadership activities in school but has done just two musicals and one drama all through high school, in addition to workshopping a new play and performing in the role she originated in a small equity theatre all last summer. She has taken voice 1-2 hours per week all through high school and has danced 20 or more hours per week in a pre-professional dance company. We thought she would dance professionally until someone told her she could sing in the 6th grade. She attended two summer camps/intensives – Rutgers Summer Acting Conservatory and Columbia Gorge School of Theatre. She also attended a week-long program at Broadway Artists Alliance. She participated in NATS and Classical Singer Competitions and a local monologue competition.
The piece that I have not shared up until now is that D also auditioned for five schools during her junior year of high school – CMU, Michigan, Juilliard, Cincinnati Conservatory, and Rutgers. She was rejected by all 5. She didn’t have an audition coach. She worked only with her local voice and monologue coaches. We considered this her trial run and she was ready to go. She was 16 but she had strong ACT scores, and enough credits to graduate early. She figured that if she won the lottery and got into one of these schools, she would go. If she didn’t, she would re-tool, add schools to her list, and try again. That’s what she did and it turned out well for her this go-around. D feels that the trial run for her was key to her success. But, honestly, we will never know really what made the difference. She’s older now, obviously more mature. Her voice has changed a lot over the past year. She had a national coach. All these things make a difference.
If we were to do anything differently, it would be to add a few more schools to the list. D had an almost on the spot offer at Moonifieds which led her to not finish the audition/application process with Coastal and Rider and Wayne State. Bad move! In the end, the program ended up rejecting her. I won’t name names but it was a horrible experience! Her voice teacher said, “I believe there is a special place in H#@* for adults who give young ones false hope.” It was a very rough couple of weeks waiting for her first acceptance after that rejection. Fordham is a different story – she forgot to pay the audition fee (OMG)! So, all I can say is that I was very panicky when the rejections started rolling in and the school that had all but guaranteed her a spot rejected her. Honestly, I never cried so many happy tears as the day she was accepted to Ithaca (her first acceptance)! I cried on and off all day. I was like a faucet.
I have this board to thank. I learned so much from all of you. D auditioned on-campus at CMU as a junior. As I sat alone in the room, while she was at the sleeping bag weekend, I googled, “Carnegie Mellon Audition” and up popped College Confidential. I had never heard of it. What a godsend! Then, while we were at Unified Auditions that year, D noticed kids in groups with coaches. I recalled some tidbit I had read about coaches on CC and educated myself more about it. Then, her voice teacher recommended talking with Mary Anna Dennard and so we did. It’s all history now. We’ve learned a tremendous amount in this process. D is thrilled with her results, and she can’t wait to head to the University of Michigan in the Fall. GO BLUE!
Thank you all for sharing your stories with me. You have kept me sane through these last few months. I wish you all the best and hope our paths cross one day out there in this big MT world. Hugs! And please have a celebratory Thin Mint on me when you finally get to the other side!
GO BLUE!! Congrats!! Ann Arbor is a great place and U of M a special place. Please feel free to ask any questions. My S is a 2015 graduate.
Wonderful story, @HappyDancer. And may I add that you have come across as an unfailing source of happy thoughts in the past few months on cc. Good luck to your uber-talented daugther!
I’ve been lurking a bit, @HappyDancer98, waiting to see what your D would decide. Congratulations to your talented, smart daughter!
Wow @HappyDancer98 what a great story…congrats!!!
Awesome @HappyDancer98 - so happy for you and your daughter!!
@tahuna - a great example that the journey may be different, but a happy ending is a happy ending! NYC will still be there when our kids graduate - congrats to you and your son!!
Congratulations @Tahuna! I had a feeling that’s where you’d end up. As I PM’d you, we really loved that program…
@sleepymom, that’s v cool about Jonathon Groff. How lovely for her to have such a great mentor!
To @Tahuna, @soozievt is always reiterating that all you need is one, and sounds like your S totally found his one! Congratulations!
And @HappyDancer98 - aahhh, resolved! You’ve had a longer journey with this (two full years) than most of us and what a conclusion! I’m sure the next four years will fly by with lots of happy dancing & singing & acting for your D.
@HappyDancer98 - Congrats to you and your daughter!!! Michigan is a fantastic program! I agree with @claire74, your comments have been so genuine and encouraging.
Thank you all for your kind words @claire74, @rampions, @SongnDanceMom, @lojosmo, @craz4mtsmom, @deelight, @Twoboysandadog!
One thing I didn’t talk about was “Why Michigan?” I have to say money and location were part of the equation here. D absolutely loved all of the programs that accepted her. Ithaca is awesome because it is very serious about its acting, it works hard to create very unique artists (no cookie cutter here), and it has a fabulous study abroad program built into it. Besides, it was very generous with merit aid. Wright State offers a top notch program, heavily based in acting, at an amazing price. D loved the workshop she attended with Joe Deer and one of her mentors preferred Wright State over Michigan for her. Northwestern is an incredible school in a theatre-rich city, it offers stellar academics, and an equally strong theatre program. There is a reason it is called the “Ivy of the Midwest.” Finally, she was enthralled with her wait list schools – Texas State (what kid doesn’t love Kaitlin and who can beat the cost of this program?), Otterbein (a small, very personal program at an affordable price) and Carnegie (her dream since 6th grade). But, in the end, Michigan offers her the opportunities of a conservatory with the possibility of double majoring (a real option with her AP credits), and it is a short drive from home. Yes, D qualifies for in-state tuition. 
For us, this situation just couldn’t be beat. And, considering the size of our family, with two others in college right now, and three more to go after D, we are very grateful for this good news.
Finally, a big shout out to @MomCares, @MTDadandProud, @MTmom2015, @monkey13, and @entertainersmom for reaching out to me with information about their respective programs. You all helped tremendously. I wish D could go to all the programs! And a big shout out to others who reached out to me via private messaging on this board. I’ve made some new friends and I feel very blessed to have met you all!
Now, I just can’t wait to hear from everyone else from the Class of 2020! In the words of @soozievt, with a reminder from @rampions, “You just need one school.” Let’s hear it, everybody, “AMEN!!!”
Here we go-
Applied to: Pace, CCM, Syracuse, MSM, BU, Otterbein, CCPA, Baldwin Wallace, Point Park, Ithaca, Penn State, Coastal Carolina, Carnegie, Michigan, Millikin, UWSP, Viterbo, University of the Arts, SMU.
Passed all pre-screens except Michigan. (8 out of 9)
Academically accepted everywhere with merit scholarship (except where artistic/academic tied together and subsequently rejected).
Chose to not audition for Millikin right after academic acceptance after reading about cut program-something D didn’t want and didn’t realize when applied.
Walk-Ins at Unifieds: Viterbo, UWSP, SMU, Temple, Montclair (Did not choose to apply to Temple or Montclair after auditioning).
Artistically Accepted: Coastal Carolina BFA MT, University of the Arts BFA MT, UWSP BFA MT, Baldwin Wallace BA Acting/Directing. Waitlisted: Otterbein BFA MT
Coach: None
Summer Programs: Stagedoor Manor 6 years
Training: Voice- 10 years private lessons
Dance- 2+ years on and off & on job “training”
Acting- 2+ years on and off & on job “training”
8 years Professional Performing in Regional/Equity Theatre (2-4 shows a year)
Background: D started singing at a very early age (around 2-3), just something she always did. When she was 8, we thought she might enjoy a local community theatre singing class. Things took off from there. She did community theatre for several years and was hired at 10 at one of the professional theatres in our city. She has worked pretty much non-stop ever since in theatre, film & television. (Though she prefers theatre). She has been in a Non-PA HS and never done HS theatre as the program there is not strong.
D is an excellent student and was originally planning on pursuing math or science in college as she was unsure about pursuing a career in theatre, as so many of her friends locally and in NY struggle, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to struggle. But at the last minute, (end of last summer), she decided that she had to give it a shot and study what she has loved and lived the past 8 years.
We obviously had no real idea of what we were doing and we quickly found out the college audition circuit is nothing like the professional audition world. We had her voice teacher who is great but didn’t know much about college MT, her monologue coach, and me. Honestly, we weren’t enough. In retrospect, while I think her monologues were fine, her song choices could have showcased her more. We filmed her pre-screens at our house which ended up being fine since she passed all but one. We were shooting in the dark with the school selections as we had to get everything done relatively quickly and not much time to research due to her late decision. Where we live there is very little information about the college audition process/schools/etc.
Our first mistake was that she was only interested in MT programs (with the exception of BU) and so she didn’t say when she applied that she would be interested in Acting at any of the other schools. HUGE mistake. As the audition season went on, she realized she would have loved to get into acting at some of her top choice schools, but she didn’t give them that option.
Second mistake was having her attend 3 auditions when she was very ill- bronchitis/no voice. She got sick the day before she left. But we had paid for the tickets already and didn’t know we could reschedule. First 2 rejections right away in Dec. after on campus auditions. (Penn/Ithaca) Received Point Park rejection later from same trip. Those first rejections were very hard as Ithaca was a top choice.
Traveled to Coastal Carolina in January and had the most wonderful audition day. Immediate connection with the campus and faculty and felt she could see herself there.
Attended NY Unifieds (only one that would work for us with D’s show contracts) and auditioned for the rest of the schools (except BW) and did some walk-ins. Felt better about some than others and realized after some walk-ins that she wasn’t interested in applying at those schools. But found a few that peaked her interest. Glad she ended up doing the walk-ins- very worthwhile. Had a wonderful time in NY as it’s one of our favorite places and the blizzard made it kinda fun!
Traveled to BW in Feb and had a good audition day there as well. After that, and several more rejections we got the first glimmer of good news, a waitlist at Otterbein. She is very used to rejection having been in the biz, but the college rejections really got to her. Having that waitlist was really important to her- like she must not totally suck. Then more rejections. We were considering whether she was going to take a gap year and then we got the first acceptance from Coastal. We all cried. It was one of those things where we had such a run of “no’s” that if Coastal had given her a no, when she felt so good about it- we may have just quit everything right there. Having that one yes really helped alleviate the pressure and all the stress and worry. She received more rejections and then a yes from UWSP, a redirect to BA from BW and a yes from her last school, UArts.
While it was great to get a few more acceptances, and while she originally wanted to be in a big city- she has ended up going with her heart and where she felt seen, heard and accepted- Coastal Carolina University!
As I have said elsewhere, I DO regret not getting a coach (though we really didn’t know about them and I didn’t know about this board until after she applied everywhere). A coach would have helped with her song choices and to help us pick schools that would have worked with her “non-typical” musical theatre type. We found this whole process to be extremely stressful and difficult and we are SO happy to be on the other side of it. We are ecstatic that she is so excited about her upcoming 4 years! She is my youngest though, so we will end up empty nesters with her departure-AACK!
Thank you to everyone who I messaged back and forth with during this insanity and who helped cheer us on when we were about ready to give up! You Rock!
Welcome to the other side @stagedoormama!!! Congrats to your D on CCU!
Congrats, @stagedoormama. Sounds like a rough ride at times, but you made it! Good luck!
Congrats to everyone who has made final decisions! xo
@HappyDancer98 Congrats and Go Blue!