MTCA is different in that they provide direct master classes with MT directors, mock auditions, advice on dress and attend Unifieds to personally support kids. They usually take a suite or room at Unifieds so kids have a place to relax and get advice. They know and talk to directors at top schools and have the chance to push kids. If you do the numbers on the MTCA website of total acceptances versus kids they coached this year, it is clear that most kids had many acceptances.
I am not saying donāt use a coachā¦Actually the opposite. You almost HAVE to in this environment.
I think a coach would have alleviated Dās anxiety ā she would have been better prepared for the ordeal and we would have been spared some of the agony. Had I known such a thing as a MT coach even existed, I would have hired one for that reason alone. I agree with @CTDramaMom ā using a coach may or may not have led to more offers. But I firmly believe it couldnāt have led to a better offer than the place my D landed on her own.
I recognize that I am an outlier - but I think coaches are part of the problem of the BFA process rather than the solution. Which is not meant to criticize people who can and do use them - I am just saying that if the theory is that coaches are ānecessaryā (as @BeBop1 said above and others have indicated in many posts) that indicates a systemic bias which makes it harder for various groups to become a part of the process. After all, while coaches do offer scholarships- I hardly imagine they meet demonstrated need for all applicants. Even if they coach 5, or 10 , or 50 kids on āscholarshipā what percentage of the deserving applicant pool does that represent?
If you take coaches out of the process then you would need to do the same with PA high schools. These kids are coached for 4 years. 
As a longtime ālurkerā on this forum for many years, I have read many interesting discussions about coaching. I only wanted to add my 2c in, which is, I think coaching may help provide otherwise inaccessible training and advice for students like my D, who lives far from professional theatres and training. In no way am I trying to sound like I am whining, we love our community, but developing oneās potential in MT is an extreme challenge in our area.
Everyoneās mileage may vary, but on the subject of standardized test prep, I have seen through my admittedly small sample size of my two children, test results appear to be more dependent on a general interest in reading, and a years long effort to study hard in math class. Prep classes, such as Khan Academy, are beneficial in that they familiarize the students with the style and rigor of the tests. Prep classes to cram in random knowledge do not seem effective.
Thank you, everyone, for sharing your perspectives. Your stories are inspiring and most appreciated. This is my favorite thread every year. Best wishes to all your kids on their journeys.
Yes we could go on and on. The reality is that this process is extremely grueling and very, very expensive. I took it for what it was. You are going to end up spending money. But when your kids get offers they are usually pretty lucrative if your kids have good grades and talent. Mine got over 300,000 in scholarship offers combined. Not all in one school unfortunately but the school she ended up choosing gave her quite a bit. Which helps. We are still paying out of pocket what we would in a state school. But again we see this as an investment in her future.
@bisouu - you make an excellent point, but a large number of PA HSās I know of - including the one my kid went to - are part of public school programs. So there is a geographic, but not financial, advantage at play. I would also say that in my experience (obviously very limited, I had 1 kid who went to 1 school) PA HSās are more about training/performance than they are about the BFA process.
I must say that MTCA is also generous with scholarships for kids who canāt afford them or are disadvantaged. I have read that Mary Anna Denard does this as well.
Affluent people have a leg up and itās not fair but this permeates all areas of our culture. Those who can afford the dance and private voice will have an advantage. The SAT tutoring etc. and on and on.
The coaches are not to blame. In the case of MTCA, many of their coaches are working performers who are able to pass on their wisdom and it helps them pay the bills between Broadway gigs. It is kind of a wonderful set up. Itās not money grubbing people. Itās people who love the arts and care about kids.
This process is out of whack IMO but itās not because of the coaches. Who are generous and pay it forward.
I go back and forth on the coaching thing. I used to be firmly against it. Then this year, having finished the audition circuit with D , not having used any formal coachā¦ I am having some second thoughts. Iāll never know if it would have resulted in more acceptances of course but the amount of acceptances for MTCA students are impressive on the site. One of my daughters top choice schools made a LOT of offers to MTCA students. Now maybe thatās just that the kids were crazy talented anyway butā¦ gotta wonder. I mean they could have advised in material and they do know these college directors. They know what they are looking for and if nothing else they might help craft a more focused list of schools with that knowledge they have . Thereby not wasting time on schools that are way not good for your kid. Plus using the wrong material can kill you imho.
Nowā¦ I will add and this is not to disparage coaches as they are just running a business and there is def a market for their servicesā¦ I know some of them are probably yes, Broadway people in btwn jobs etc and yes itās nice to support them etc. that being said they are not doing it for free, itās a business and theyāre getting paid. Iām sure there are a few scholarships for needy kids but Iām betting itās exactly thatā¦a fewā¦if anyone has bigger numbers on that Iām more then willing to pivot on that statement.
A point I was trying to make, in my earlier post, is that āwealthā in MT comes in many forms, all of which to some extent will give a student a leg up - money for coaching/ summer programs, access to great training locally, connections in the industry, physical proximity to great programs, local PA high schools, or even a public HS with a great drama department. Every student will have some, but likely not all, these factors working for them.
This is just my take on things. D will navigate her advantages and disadvantages and hopefully will land somewhere that checks a majority of her boxes.
Letās get back to those wonderful decision stories.
I was going to post a comment about MTCA acceptances here, but decided that @mommadrama had a good point and decided to post it in āSharing, Ventingā on the Musical Theatre board.
So, if @BeBop1 @theaterwork @EastchesterMom are interested, itās over there.
My Dās final decision story coming soon, stay tuned . . . . . 
I can say that my Dās coach never mentioned Molloy/Cap21 to us during the entire year we worked with himā¦nor LIU/Post @daughtersdreams not sure why but I never asked eitherā¦
Read a neat Final Decision story over on the Theatre board. Letās hear more of those Final Decision stories on this thread!
Changing (back to) the subjectā¦We have a decision!
Background - S is technically my godson and Iāve been very involved in raising him. We share a passion for theatre that no one else in his family has. Heās definitely the black sheep as far as that goes! His mom is super supportive but I know a lot more about theatre than she does, so sheās a great audience member but Iām the one he turns to when working on performance pieces, etc.
No coach except for me (it helps when pseudo-mom is a theatre professional, but boy we still had a lot to learn!) He does have a voice teacher for classical voice, not for musical theatre.
He started late because it wasnāt until the summer after his Junior year that I finally convinced him to look into college - he was convinced he couldnāt go to college due to grades and money - and then because of our show schedules, it was November of his Senior year before we were finally able to start the application process.
Started the audition process for several schools but dropped a couple because he didnāt want to do the dance pre-screen. Heās a good mover but not a dancer and felt he had no chance so why bother. I still wish he would have tried, but funds were also limited for applications, so it may have been better that he didnāt.
Unfortunately, he was told by other adults in his life that he didnāt need to take the SAT or ACT and since I was out of the country at the time, he didnāt do it. He had an artistic acceptance and large artistic scholarship that went away due to an academic rejection from a school that would have accepted him contingent on test scores.
In the end, he had 2 real choices. We were lucky that one of the options was also his first choice school and today (yes, weāre a day late, they gave him an extension until the end of the week) heāll be paying his deposit to Roosevelt
@theotherparent Congratulations!! Thatās a happy ending for sure!
@theotherparent Congratulations!!
Congratulations @theotherparent!!! My son is attending Roosevelt.
Yay for the new batch of Roosevelt kids! We are going out for graduation soon ā CANNOT believe itās four years since we did all this. (BTW, the S has two professional post-graduation gigs lined up, so take that as evidence of the quality and connections that this program offers.)