Yes -that^^^. For drama too! Thanks @theaterwork!
I agree 100% with all of the above! We were clueless three years ago, and I mean clueless. No coach, no summer intensive, no nuthinâ - oh, and D would apply only to NYC and LA based programs, plus CMU thrown in for good measure. It was nearly a disaster, as every Class of 1018 CCer knows. Yes, it worked out in the end - D is insanely happy at Molloy/CAP 21 and has grown enormously as an artist. But I NEVER want to go through the nightmare that was her audition season again. Word to the wiseâŠbeg, borrow or steal the money and do it right.
@theaterwork touche! And expect push back from your guidance office when you ask for an insane number of transcripts to be processed. After our first, I email the guidance counselor in August - just to give her a heads up :-).
I agree with what all of you are saying about local perceptions. The standard âOh, youâre so talented, you will get in everywhere you applyâ line got very, very difficult for my D to hear. She knew it wasnât true, and was frustrated by the lack of awareness that really, applying for an MT BFA is like applying to all ivy league schools. No audition program is a safety school! She did really come to understand that every program is excellent, and she is working hard to share that view with underclassmen who are expressing an interest in pursuing MT or theater in college. As for guidance counselors, so true about needing to give a heads-up about what your application situation is going to be. My D attends a large public high school, so we met with her counselor in late summer and explained what we were up against, including the number of schools and early application needs for getting audition dates. We built a great relationship that really came in handy as the year unfolded. She came to our rescue on pushing a transcript request through on more than one occasion! Another good piece of advice we got was to get in and fill out all the basic info in the common app as soon as it goes live. Doing that yields a small sense of control/getting started on the process.
Another to point to add to the whole âOh you are so talented, you will have no problem getting inâ thing comes AFTER all the audition results are in. At that point we were so over thrilled with getting one âyesâ, anything after that was considered over the top âwoo hooâ options! Try explaining your thrill and relief to people who almost seem disappointed in your talented childâs results. Ugh! Her PA teacher told me that he knew she would get in one school, he considered that one her âsafetyââŠare you kidding me?? He had no clue the amount of students who had applied and auditioned for a spotâŠand no clue how extremely talented each and every one of these kids are! Luckily, we knew better and were thrilled with her results. Donât expect others in your theatre community to understand how very competitive this isâŠeven if they DID have their choice of top schools 15 years ago. Not the same rodeo.
Yet another point to the âyou will get in everywhereâ conversation: itâs not always about talent. Your child may be the most talented student in the audition room when she visits Top Tier Theater Program for her callback, but if there is a freshman or sophomore who looks and sounds like her, she may be rejected by the school. I think that, in addition to how competitive the field is, is the point that most local teachers/coaches donât understand. One thing we learned is that many of the schools are trying to put together something resembling a rep company, and they canât do that with all leading men or ingenue types.
@heliobike â you got that right! I have noticed that the class photos from the various programs all look the same! When D was an incoming freshman, we were told in parents orientation that every freshman thinks they are a leading man/lady type. Theyâre not, we were told, and the kids would learn that too. But donât worry, they said, thereâs more work opportunities for character actors!
@theaterwork outstanding, reality based advice, thanks! And I know my daughter is very talented, but I also know she is not at all the most talented person in the room at any given time. Sheâs a very strong singer (high level choirs since elem., All State, Superior ratings at all the Solo and Ensemble Festivals, etc.), and she is also a pretty decent actressâŠmore funny than dramatic. She is not, however, a great dancer and this could really be the kiss of death for her. She can learn moves quickly and moves well, but she is usually a beat or two behind the other kids and does not have ideal posture. Sheâs taken dance off and on for years, but she just doesnât have the knack. I for one am pretty much expecting her not to get into any of these schools for MT, and an offer or two will be a pleasant surprise. Sheâs done years of summer intensives, semi-professional theatre, community show choirs, musicals, you name it. And like I said, she is an outstanding singer. However, I have seen the competition just in our community alone and she is not the best one. Is she one of the better ones? I think she is. But not the best and certainly at the bottom when it comes to dance.
@collegemom2000 - my D was not a strong dancer either, and guess whatâŠsheâs in one of the hottest programs out there and just landed not one but two leading roles in summer stock. Donât be discouraged-cast a wide net and go go go!
Woohoo! So excited to be posting on of these about my D. To those in future years, please take her story as terrifying warning on what you can do wrong, as well as reassurance that in the end, you really can find your place.
We put her in ballet at 3, and that kid was so bored by it she would come out every five minutes of every class to hug me and tell me she loved me. We put her in summer rec program childrenâs theatre. They offered her the lead and she turned it down because she would have to pretend to kiss a boy. Gross. She enjoyed the ensemble, especially the costumes. So we figure, this performing thing is not for her, lol.
In 2nd grade, it was the first time we realized she might really have something special. It was the typical grade school choir recital, weâd been going for years, when suddenly our kid walks up front, grabs the mic and does a gorgeous solo backed by the other 60 2nd graders. The music teacher corners us after, saying sheâs wonderful and this was like watching a pbs special. What?!! Ok, this might be worth a second look. Sheâs continues her life of dabbling⊠A little softball, a few years of swimming, joins orchestra and takes up violin. But she keeps adding, not dropping anything. This is a problem. High school comes, and we counsel her to drop some activities and focus, but she was having none of it. Sheâs driven. Sure sheâs an o.k. violinist who wonât continue that in college, but she loves it and they love her. So, she takes it at the same time as her choir class, alternating days. Seriously. Like my very own Hermione Granger. And sure, she wonât have a post-HS career in color guard, but she was squad leader, and spent her time in that all summer and fall, versus summer intensives. And so what if no college will ever know, or likely care, if she graduated with an honors diploma, but darned if that girl did not take extra grad requirements just to get one, stressing out the whole way. Fortunately she had been able to get a jump start on HS classes in junior high.
Freshman year she has an ensemble role in the high school musical run by the PA magnet school, and decided she loves it. The MT bug has BIT!! The next year, she gets the role of Beth in Little Women. PA director says, when did she start singing like that? I donât know, um, always? She auditions for the half-day PA high school magnet program, run by three wonderful and very supportive women, and gets in! So she continues to cram the rest of high school and electives into mornings, and drops swimming, which did help a little. Junior year she was Olive in 25th, and her theatre director tells me she can make it as a career, âeasy peasy.â âI know, thatâs what sheâs going to do,â I say, not knowing how completely ignorant I am. Sweet, stupid, past me. :)) Senior year, she snags the lead in Alice! and has about 80% of the lines in the musical. Thankfully, this occurs during decision waiting season, so is a welcome distraction from anxiety. The lesson here would be, strongly encourage your child to carve out the time to start the prep and focus before senior year. For both of your sanity!
Dâs application story happens in two waves: pre-coach, when she was listening to âeasy peasy,â and having no coach, no real research, no connections who had done this in the past 30 years. Thatâs why the school list is impossibly long. She initially started with one of those âmusical theatre iviesâ lists. We learned a LOT.
Schools applied to: U of M, Ithaca, Syracuse, NYU, Hartt, Baldwin Wallace, Carnegie Mellon, Wright State, Kent State, Ohio Northern, CCM, Otterbein, University of the Arts, Rockford, Viterbo, Columbia College of Chicago, Muhlenberg, U of Akron, Wittenberg, LIU CW Post, Molloy/CAP21, Drake, Seton Hill. She was accepted academically everywhere that didnât tie it to artistic acceptance. And those academic scholarships⊠Sigh. Those stung after rejections and redirects.
Prescreens passed: none. At this time, D had two very serious, very depressing, monologues she had selected, her classical ballad was in the wrong key, and her uptempo was also classical. She was dressed in leggings and a baggy sweater. All were filmed by me with piano accompaniment from her voice teacher, in the PA stage, and the dance portion was in our empty kitchen. She dropped Ithaca before submitting a prescreen due to their involved dance number - it was marching band season, and fall concerts for orchestra and band, and she plain ran out of time.
She had one fall audition, at kent state university. At this time her PA director (incorrectly) considered this school to be a pretty easy admit. There is no such thing. She went in, gave it her best shot, and got shut DOWN in their BA redirect email. As in, no on dance, no on singing, no on acting. Ouch. At this time the prescreen rejections started rolling in. Panic ensued. And of course, the feeling that maybe she is not good enough. Thank goodness for the timing of these rejections, and this board, which I stumbled upon in the fall of her senior year, but had only lightly lurked. I posted about our situation and so many wonderful folks who reached out with support and advice. Shout out to: @KaMaMom , @1998parent15 , and @theaterwork , who reassured me that D still had options. We secured the help of a coach â MCA-- who helped my D expand her school list in line with the midwest/ new England audition bfa she was looking for, along with some non-audition safeties Chelsea reassured my D that she could do it, and that likely her material was working against her. Her first coaching session was the day before thanksgiving, so VERY late in the process. The team there helped D with new song and monologue choices, and what I liked was they gave her recommendations based on their expertise but ultimately she picked her material. Then about five more sessions with various coaches on her team via skype, for song and monologue prep.
It was also about this time that I began studying for my âmusical theatre mom phd,â using this board, a billion websites, blogs, youtube subscriptions, and books. I was determined to help her in any way possible - we would not be making any more mistakes due to not knowing better! I will definitely be paying it forward next year!
On to Ohio Unifieds: this is kind of a mass prescreen to just Ohio schools, for Ohio residents. She got some interest, including one prestigious central Ohio school who had previously rejected her video prescreen, telling her âwe saw something pop in you today that just didnât pop in your video.â Well, if this is not a testament to the help you can receive from coaching, I donât know what is. They invited her to audition on campus.
Meanwhile, D has been completing her additional applications, essays, get to know you videos and pre audition videos, audition request forms and other supplementals for the approximately ten new schools from her coach. So, going into Chicago unifieds, she is feeling more confident and more prepared.
(ContinuedâŠ)
2/2:
She has ten auditions at unifieds, receiving an early acceptance during that week, from SIU Carbondale. She hears a rumor in a hallway that Drake is asking for Shakespeare, and decides to memorize one the night before â instead of her well-rehearsed monologue! She did not feel great about how that went, and afterward decided that if anyone else asked if she had any Shakespeare that week, sheâd just say no 
The lesson here is, even if all your schools just need contemporary and classical songs, one ballad and one uptempo, and two contrasting play monologues, one classic and one contemporary, for good measure, make sure you have a solid Shakespeare and a good pop song in your back pocket. And maybe a Disney song. Because sometimes they ask, and of course you want to say yes. Drake ended up being a waitlist. Iâm still shocked by that one.
Hart audition at unified was never scheduled (she missed the supplemental app - whoops) but got in through some truly epic unifieds events: me deciding to camp out at the door one afternoon, the gentleman who had been waiting since 8 am was kindly offered a spot if his D can be there in ten minutes. Suddenly his D canât make it. I, listening intently, say, my daughter can be here in five minutes. Text her to come down NOW, lady says only if she can be here now because she canât hold it, here she rolls up humming her warm up, and she slides in. I felt like I had won the Olympics :)) The lesson there is, sometimes you can be in the right place at the right time. Go be in that place and wait for the time to be right. D had another funny experience at unifieds: one of the auditors turned her music off partway through a song. D saw it happen, kept going, didnât miss a beat. She says sweetly at the end, Iâm so sorry, I donât know what happened with my music. Auditor says donât worry, I may have bumped it. How funny! D heard another student saying her music was shut off too. The lesson here is, donât assume the worst. Auditors may throw you a curveball just to see how you react. Keep your cool and be as professional as possible.
At this point she drops all her safeties, and decides not to audition at Muhlenberg, Columbia, or Seton Hill. Itâs audition BFA or bust.
D was on a waitlist to audition at BW, until her spot opened just a couple of days before. When she was at #2, and with them being in state, we had already decided we would drive up in case of no-shows. Which there were. So the lesson there is, again, be in the right place, in case it becomes the right time. We would never have been pushy about it, but I see no harm in saying, hi, weâre here just in case our spot gets moved up. Itâs winter, people get sick, people change their minds.
Wright State she was never able to schedule. The lesson there is, get those apps in early, so you can get those auditions scheduled because they fill up!
She does four on-campus auditions within driving distance.
For CMU, she actually takes time to memorize and rehearse a new Shakespeare monologue. But she almost didnât get to do it. Auditor said thanks, and she said, politley, but donât you want to hear my other monologue? He says oh sure, what do you have? She says, Romeo and Juliet. He says (a little leery): balcony? She says (proudly): tomb. He acts interested, she does it, and at the end he says, Iâm glad I heard that. She did not get in to CMU. But the lesson there is, you worked hard to get here, so donât be shy about being heard. You have nothing to lose as long as youâre respectful and polite.
D gets a few redirects. LIU sends her an email saying BA, then a letter saying BFA, then a corrected letter saying BA. Ouch. Otterbein offers BA non performance.
Then the waiting. But she seems to be waiting longer than everyone else for some of these. Hey, whatâs up with BW? Those decisions went out. Please call. But no action by D. So finally she calls. There is a graded paper that didnât get turned in. D and I talk, she says itâs getting sorted out that day, but another week goes by, and nothing. By now Iâm dying. So I call. There is a graded paper that is not turned in. Iâm livid, and read my D the riot act: you will go nowhere in ANY career if you donât follow through, and follow up. There were a couple other moments of dropped balls/list opportunities in the process, as mentioned above. Honestly I lost the perspective that this girl did about 800 steps correctly and on time, and missed just a couple. And I think at this point she was feeling pretty hopeless - only one acceptance, and one waitlist. So what was the point?
I am done, and I tell my husband that he can nag her now, I have officially resigned as chief operations officer of mt applications. And donât you know it, that evening the big envelope from Molloy/CAP21 was waiting in our mailbox the whole time!
I will tell you, I never could have predicted how this process would go. We were so innocent and unprepared! But something that every single person who has done it, and every single school has said, unfailingly, is that you will find your place. You will find your fit. The people who need to see you, will see you. Honestly, my thoughts upon hearing this waffled between âthat sounds like something people who didnât get into their first choice sayâ and âeasy for you to say, your D already has her place.â Iâm so regretful for how wrong-headed I was. As it turns out, the reality is, you have no idea until they see you, and you see them. Until you talk to lots of programs, and audition for them, and visit them, and sit in on classes, and meet students, what you really want in your heart. Your list and priorities change the more you learn. Finding your fit is not just talk, or rationalization, it is real.
D completed her last college visit last week. She loved the interactions between the faculty and students. She loved the coaching she saw, and the focus on acting and building the craft and the artist. She loved the history and commitment to musical theatre. She loved the idea of studying in the place she wants to ultimately work, and making connections and having friends in the city. She loved the warmth and friendliness from literally every person she encountered. She is gleefully, gratefully, enthusiastically committed to be in the class of 2021 at Molloy College and CAP21 conservatory BFA theatre arts!!
Special shout-out to @EastchesterMom for reinforcing everything we are feeling about this program with her Dâs experience!
Thanks again to all of you on this board - Iâm so grateful to have had this community to share with, vent to, and learn from!
@CentralOHmomof4 - crying tears of joy for you here! Welcome to the Molloy/CAP 21 family! I believe in fate, and your story confirms it - things happen for a reason, and your D was fated to join us, just as mine was. Congrats!
Congratulations @CentralOHmomof4 to you and your D! Your story reflects the tough discoveries so many of us made over these months. It will be very helpful to the future applicants who read it!
@CentralOHmomof4 - so happy you guys hung in there! Congratulations and best of luck!
@CentralOHmomof4 ⊠YAY!!! =D> So happy for you and your girl!!
@CentralOHmomof4 What a story, and what a great writer you are! I both laughed and cried reading your story. âShe says (proudly): tomb.â Priceless! Very very happy for your D!
Brilliant post @CentralOHmomof4! I was holding my breath through the whole thing. I think you can keep your MT Mom PhD. Congrats to your D and her perfect fit!
@CentralOHmomof4 Epic post!
@CentralOHmomof4 Thus far, you win the Best Final Decision Post Award! :-bd
Congrats on the Molloy/CAP21 decision!
I have to ask - what school turned off her accompaniment music??? That seems cruel!
MTCA Class of 2017 decisions are posted on their websiteâŠtwo girls going to CMU, one for acting and one for MT. Their results are pretty impressiveâŠagain canât imagine having gone through this without them (or a coach in general). It was expensive but in the scheme of college costs itâs a drop in the bucket.