@mthopeful2022 - Same experience with both Pace and Point Park. Can’t trust everyone!!! Congratulations on your final decision!
@actorparent1 @HopeinMT D did not get aid, either. We appealed and still got nothing. She may end up with a little bit of talent money but we’re not counting on it!
Thanks, @artskids! I’m sorry people didn’t get aid! But hearing that does make me feel that we DID make the right decision after all in not applying to BU, because the Net Price Calculator said we wouldn’t get any aid, and we wouldn’t have been able to afford full price.
Sorry to hear on no aid for some. My S (or should I say his parents) was very fortunate. He decided that he preferred the one school that did not initially provide any merit aid. (He is an extremely good student with high SAT scores at a very competitive high school). We appealed the initial lack of merit awards and were lucky enough to get pretty sizeable annual scholarships.
Programs Applied to: Baldwin Wallace, Coastal Carolina, Missouri State, Montclair, Ohio Northern, Shenandoah, Texas Tech, University of Arizona, University of Central OK, OU, Wright State, Molloy/Cap 21. All of these were at Moonifieds.
Prescreens: None, except for the few Moonifieds auditions that were live pre-screens.
Accepted to: University of Central Oklahoma, Ohio Northern, and Molloy/Cap 21.
Rejected from: Baldwin Wallace, Coastal Carolina, Montclair, Shenandoah, University of Arizona, OU and Wright State.
Wait-listed at: Missouri State (removed herself from waitlist after making final decision)
Coach: Mary Anna Dennard. We got off to a very late start with this audition thing and didn’t have our consult with her until September.
Never heard from: Texas Tech. Nothing…no waitlist, no rejection, nothing. Really?
Summer Programs: None
Final Decision: University of Central Oklahoma! My daughter first met them at the Dallas Summer Musicals workshop last August. She auditioned for them at Moonifieds and really felt welcomed by the entire staff. We traveled there in December for a MT Shadow day and she felt like this school was a definite fit. She received her acceptance by email a few days later and made final Decision in March. My daughter said this school felt “right” from the beginning. As a bonus, their tuition waivers brought the cost down to about what we would pay for an in-state school.
Awesome story @Isaboo! Congrats!!!
Congratulations!!!
I guess that I cannot put this off any longer. Am I the only one who expected to feel happy at this point in the process, but really feels sad? Don’t get me wrong, my daughter is excited beyond belief and I am so thankful that she had choices in the end. I truly believe that she found the perfect fit for her. The sadness is for me because I didn’t realize how much a part of my life all of this has become and my part in it is finished now. Well, onward and upward…
Background: My daughter started dance alongside her sisters when she was very young, probably 4. She did various types of dance until she started a musical theatre class when she was about 8. At this point it was all for fun, nothing serious. We were living in NY at the time. When she turned ten, we moved and she was introduced to a family at church who participated in a summer theatre camp. We signed her up so that she could make friends in our new town and that was the birth of her love for musical theatre. After camp, she auditioned for the community theatre musical (she was 10) and has never stopped performing since. She has definitely been in more than 30 productions, I lost track at some point. After about 3 years of community theatre performances and some classes she landed her first lead as Pinkalicious in the musical version. This part opened a door to an invitation to be a part of an audition only travelling regional choir. She auditioned and got in. She continued shows and choir for about a year when we met her voice teacher at a choir performance. She auditioned my daughter and took her as a student so her private voice training began. This was in 8th grade. Her voice teacher introduced her to the world of competitive singing and starting at the end of her 8th grade year she began competing regionally and nationally in both classical singing and musical theatre. We had initially discouraged my daughter from considering musical theatre as a career path. We tried to encourage her to enjoy it as a hobby or to consider being a music teacher or vocal coach. During her ninth grade year she came to us and said that she could not imagine doing anything else with her life. She had considered teaching but believed that if she never tried to follow her passion she would come to resent her students and always wonder what if. That was the beginning of our quest to figure out this whole process. My daughter had let dance go in favor of singing and being in shows so our first step was to reintroduce dance. She started with a jazz class and intense private ballet until her current dance schedule which includes ballet six hours a week, musical theatre dance, jazz, and tap. She continued and increased her private voice training and added an audition only acting class and show choir.Whew! I think that is the basic story.
Coach: We did not use a coach. we definitely could not have afforded a coach! I served as coach and guidance counselor and whatever else she needed in addition to the help she received from her voice teacher and acting teacher.
Summer programs: local summer theatre camps and being in community theatre shows took up most of her summers. No money for the college level programs after all of her other classes. We did attend DSM College audition prep weekend in August before her senior year. This experience made all the difference for us. She tested out her material with instant critique in front of 10 college panels 9 of which were schools she eventually applied to. Unknown to us, this served as a prescreen for a few of these schools and she was able to skip that step. In addition, each school spoke about their program, what they were looking for etc. They even commented on audition attire and this solidified her audition clothes and material for the entire season.
Programs applied to: Arizona State, Abilene Christian Univ., Ball State, Baldwin Wallace, Central Michigan Univ., Texas Tech, WTAMU, Illinois Wesleyan, Point Park, Ithaca, Hartt, Rider, TCU, Texas State, Wichita State, Oklahoma City univ., Univ of Oklahoma, Univ of Central Oklahoma, UWSP, Viterbo, Sam Houston State, Roosevelt/CCPA, Webster, Univ, Nebraska Wesleyan, and LIU.
Prescreens: Abilene Christian, TCU, Univ of Oklahoma, Ithaca, Texas State, Rider, Illinois Wesleyan passed all of them.
Walk ins at Chicago Unifieds: Coastal Carolina, Baylor Univ., Dean College, Drake Univ., Ohio Northern, Five Towns College.
My biggest advice is START EARLY! We were able to get in an October audition at Univ. of Central Oklahoma which garnered her first acceptance by the first week of November which allowed us to breathe a sigh of relief. She had two friends that went through this process a couple of years before her. One auditioned for over 30 school with not a single acceptance, took a gap year and repeated the process getting into only one program. The other did not get in anywhere and decided to go to a local school for vocal performance. We could not afford this the first time and definitely couldn’t repeat the process so that plan was go big and go with a safety program if you don’t get in anywhere.
Cont.
Academic acceptances; All that separated from artistic with some really nice merit scholarships. If you need money for school, grades matter!
Acceptances: Abilene Christian, Central Michigan, WTAMU, Hartt, Rider, Wichita State, Oklahoma City Univ., Univ. of Central Oklahoma, UWSP, Viterbo, Roosevelt/CCPA (MT/voice), Webster Univ., Nebraska Wesleyan, LIU, Baylor Univ., Dean, Drake, Five Towns.
Redirected: Illinois Wesleyan, Ball State, Texas State, TCU, Coastal Carolina, Ohio Northern
Never auditioned for Sam Houston. It was scheduled for March 2nd and my daughter was exhausted and had several acceptances at that point so we cancelled.
Never auditioned for Arizona State because of the lack of responses from the admissions dept about questions that we had.
Never heard from Texas Tech. Received several letters/emails saying they were interested in her but never heard one way or the other. Auditioned 11/6 I believe. Not happy with them!
Rejections: Ithaca, Point Park, Univ of Oklahoma
Waitlist: Baldwin Wallace
It was a crazy year of squeezing in auditions while she was in several shows and normal senior stuff. We completed several fall auditions around her fall musical which yielded a couple of acceptances making the stress a bit more bearable. We filled out a million scholarship applications, which in hindsight, were mostly probably a waste of time. They often announced the winner before she even auditioned. We flew out to Rider to audition the week before Christmas because she was up for a trustee scholarship. She did not get it but loved the experience and Rider remained a top choice until the very end. Our other fall auditions were Univ. of Central Ok., WTAMU, Texas Tech, Illinois Wesleyan, Wichita State, TCU and Rider. We started the new year at two on campus auditions for Texas State and Abilene Christian. Then we were off to Chicago for unified. Two auditions on the way: OKCU and Central Michigan and 17 including walk ins at unifieds. We followed that up with on-campus at Univ of Oklahoma and finally Baldwin Wallace. It was challenging as she was in a show with a lead in Jan and Feb so we were always a bit stressed and rushing. We did make a lot of memories and spent more time in the car together than I ever imagined.
Final Decision: Webster Conservatory.
It was a hard final decision and came down to OKCU, Rider, Hartt, and Webster with the possibility of Baldwin Wallace looming as well. She just loved Lara Teeter and all of her interactions with him, the curriculum is intense but exactly what she was looking for, they have a professional equity theatre on campus that the kids audition for and work crew in as well as a relationship with the MUNY and the ST Louis Shakespeare festival. We visited for the 50th anniv of the Conservatory and the show was phenomenal. There were 6 other perspective MT/Acting students there and 5 of them committed that weekend. I am sad for me, as she will be far away, but so happy for her! Thanks to everyone here, this has been a journey I will never forget and no one here understands!
What a story, @belleforbroadway! Many congrats, and may your D break legs at Webster!
Thanks @EastchesterMom !
Wow @belleforbroadway that is A LOT of acceptances! Congratulations! You had so many great schools to choose from, how wonderful!! Yeah!!
@belleforbroadway Congrats on the final decision! It has been great sharing information with you! Good luck to your daughter!
@belleforbroadway - Wow! That’s an impressive list of acceptances! Congratulations to your D and to you for making it to the other side of decision day!!! I’m very happy for you.
What a fantastic story with wonderful acceptances @belleforbroadway!
PS you are not alone in being happy and sad at the same time. I’m right there with you!!!
I am worn out by it all so glad it’s over - but my D was sad. She missed the traveling and meeting people from all over the US. It is so cool how fast they befriend each other because of the common background and goals. She seems to know people where ever she goes! And these days they stay in touch and will probably meet up again some day!
Congrats @belleforbroadway !! Webster is a fantastic program! My D really liked Webster and Lara Teeter as well, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be. 
Anyway, my D has a good friend who also committed to Webster! She too was really taken with Webster- I’m sure your D will thrive there.
Congratulations @belleforbroadway !! Lots of phenomenal choices for your D. I’m sure she will love Webster. I’ve learned so much about it from these boards that I wish my D had considered it. Sounds like a fabulous program.
And yes @belleforbroadway I also agree that I am happy and sad that this part of the journey is over. Maybe that’s why I’m still on this site every night looking for those wonderful success stories. :-*
@JayCee17 I am on these sites daily too. I will probably start lurking on the Class of 2023 boards!! I have a current Sophomore daughter and 7th grader who want to pursue this field so I will be VERY ready by their time!