@daughtersdreams yes we start off just thinking we will send our kid to the ‘best’ school they get into - whatever that means! I didn’t realize how personal the choice is - I figured they all teach the same thing. But each school has its own ‘feel’ and personality. Some your kid connects with - some they don’t - and sadly some programs don’t return their passion. Boy it sounds a lot like dating! :)) after a few heartbreaks they find the right match!
@Fergie978 I wanted to form a FB group but my thread was deleted due to CC rules
There is a “dance” in this process. During auditions, the schools hold all the cards. They can do pretty much whatever they want. But once acceptances go out, the roles are reversed. The schools would be smart to treat everyone really well during audition time. Even if they don’t end up providing that kid an offer- the good will he/she spreads by telling of a great audition experience can’t be quantified. And if they DO give an offer to that kid that they treated well- it has to increase yield.
@MTMom17, you could start the FB group, then just post “I started the FB group. Search ‘CC MT class of 2022’” or whatever the name of the group is. You can’t post a link, but you can tell people what to search for. (I did that on the Hartt thread - I had found a FB page for the class of 2022, but CC wouldn’t let me post the link, so I just posted the name of the group.)
Yes @momofj5. My d felt the kids were not treated respectfully at one prominent school so she didn’t even want to audition (we made her after the long drive haha) She never even completed the application paperwork afterwards - but better to find out right away that wasn’t the school for her.
I read something the other day about one school being populated by students who would figuratively “put razor blades in your pointe shoes”. I think some places both have and encourage a “winning is all that matters” mentality - it’s true in academics as well as the arts. I would imagine those schools are also the ones who don’t treat students very well in auditions. We were lucky not to have encountered that but we only did the Unified-weekend auditions and all the schools were nice.
Yikes @CaMom13! My D felt that way about a summer camp she attended! It’s interesting having 3 kids go through the process at different times. They had some crossover on their lists and, in some cases, had completely different impressions of the auditors, the audition process and the school. Perspective counts for something. Also, the auditors, tour guides, volunteers, etc. are all humans and can have “bad hair” moments. Unless a school is known consistently for rudeness, best to form your own opinions. D had a friend tell her that a tour guide at a very highly-regarded (and much discussed here) school spent the tour bashing other programs. We have toured that particular school with each kid and did not have that experience.
@artskids - aww, that’s terrible! my D’s best friend did a summer dance camp at a great arts school and came back swearing off the idea of majoring in dance. She’s an amazing dancer - it wasn’t the training, it was her fellow dancers who made the camp miserable. 
We’ve never run into that in Theatre programs but my D didn’t do any summer camps, so we only know the local scene.
@camom13 - Wow! Glad that doesn’t happen at the school we chose! Yes, I agree with MTdreamz - there are two schools that were very disrespectful to my D (Surprisingly, one put her on the waitlist). I don’t expect them to bend over backwards, but politeness or a simple acknowledgement that she was even in the room would have shown that they were good to work with! There was this one school that yelled at my extremely gifted dance to bend over, then when she did, she said, “DON"T YOU KNOW HOW TO ROLL DOWN YOUR BACK?” Like, sure, if that is what you would have said! Then she told her to “Stand nicely” and then said, “DON"T YOU KNOW HOW TO STAND UP STRAIGHT?” Whoa… we thought, well, we don’t want to work with her. But then again, maybe she is pushy. However, when we told the current students said, “Yes, she is like that. She is really crazy.” It’s been a fun process, to say the least!
@Fergie978 I know exactly what school you are talking about…everyone who I spoke to at unifieds had almost an identical experience with that school’s dance call.
@mtmaybe Hmm… maybe? I wasn’t at Unifieds, so I don’t know!
Hmmmm now you’ve peaked my curiosity!
Hi all, I’m a new member at CC but have been reading your posts for the past couple of months while my S went through this process - thank you all for the insight and for sharing your experiences! I never posted because I didn’t feel I had anything to add, but now that he’s done, I thought I’d share his story.
Background: 13 years of dance, all genres but at a competition-focused studio, not a classical ballet studio. He started acting in HS and by junior year, was thinking seriously about pursuing acting or MT. Very little formal voice background other than choir, so he was torn between trying for acting, or trying to leverage his dance background and see if his voice had enough potential for MT. He’s always known he didn’t want to major in dance - he likes speaking, lol. He started voice lessons a year ago and really took to it. Still not an amazing singer, but not bad either.
Just HS shows (straight plays and musicals), no community or professional theatre, because competitive dance takes up so much time and he was committed to his studio team.
Coach: Private coach here in NJ who has a lot of successful students. She was amazing - helped him pick material, did his voice and monologue prescreens for us, and has moved him forward so much. There’s no way he would have had any success without her.
The plan: We knew (especially from reading CC) that the whole process is a crapshoot, so we told him to try for MT and/or acting and be prepared to get zero acceptances, or maybe one, and to major in something else if necessary. He got a quick academic acceptance from Pace with a good scholarship, so his plan was to try for MT and if no theatre programs came through, go to Pace, major in business, and try to do the theatre thing on his own or as a hobby.
Summer Program: Syracuse Summer College Musical Theatre (@mezzomother if your D went this past summer, my S thinks he knows who she is based on the Point Park decision - so glad the kids all stayed friends!)
Schools applied to: Pace, Ithaca, UArts, Emerson, Montclair, Syracuse, NYU-Tisch, Point Park
Prescreens: Ithaca, Syracuse, Pace (all four acting programs and commercial dance, which he tried for just because he really wanted to go to Pace at the time). Passed all. He was lucky to have dance resources for the prescreens, especially Ithaca’s - definitely harder for his friends who had to find a studio to video at, find a teacher to run the steps with them, etc.
Schools he was too disorganized to actually schedule his audition and then all the spots were gone: BoCo, Syracuse, Point Park MT (scheduled PP for BFA Acting at Unifieds instead, didn’t audition at the others).
Auditioned at: Pace (5 different programs), NYU-Tisch, Emerson, Ithaca, UArts, PP BFA Acting. All on-campus except PP (NYC Unifieds - drove into the city for one 8-minute audition. He didn’t want to try any walk-ins.
Cancelled audition at : Montclair (he had booked the last audition in late March and had some answers by then). Also, he didn’t really love the Syracuse area when he went there in the summer (though the loved the program), so I think the “forgetting” to sign up for the audition after he passed the pre-screen was a little purposeful on his part.
Accepted at: UArts, Ithaca, Emerson, Point Park BFA Acting, Pace BA Acting International Performance Ensemble (not MT, which was a huge bummer)
Waitlisted at: NYU-Tisch
After talking to Pace and Point Park about their acting programs (both seem great but he wouldn’t really be able to grow his singing and dancing, just no time), he decided he wanted MT and narrowed it down to the three MT programs. The UArts audition was so warm and wonderful, and he was so happy to get that first “yes” in a week’s time. He liked the option to dance at his level, and of course heard about the great dorms.
Emerson was weird because I thought there was no way he was getting in there after sitting through the Q&A at the auditions. One mom asked if singers who don’t really dance ever get in and the guy said, “Yes. Singing is the most important.” Then I asked if dancers who are newer to singing (not bad singers, just newer) ever get in and he said, “Ma’am, we’re only taking 24 people.” Yikes. But S said the audition went really well, they asked a lot about his dance background, and they were very warm. He ended up getting in and it was a huge shock. He loves the Boston area and really wanted a city. But we had a few concerns about some aspects and he felt connected to Ithaca, so he admitted he was really focusing on the Emerson city setting more than the program (though it’s amazing).
S loved Ithaca from his audition, really connected with the current students and the panel, but knew it was so unlikely, he didn’t want to get his hopes up. Once he got in and was deciding between it and Emerson, we visited again,he met with a graduating senior and observed a ballet class, and he was convinced.
Final decision: Ithaca College MT
Lessons learned: Book the auditions early! They fill up faster than we expected! If you’re not a dancer, get a dance studio to help with the pre-screens so you have somewhere to go.
He’s extremely nervous, but also so excited to get started. Looking forward to connecting with @mandidnam and @MaybeThisTimeBW and the other IC MT parents here. Congratulations to everyone on your successes!
@Jerseymom99 he did pretty well considering how disorganized he was! LOL. Congrats to him. My d has a very good friend who will be a junior at Ithaca and loves it! My d is a dancer also and we weren’t sure if it would have the dance levels she wanted - she passed the prescreen but didn’t get in so we never looked into it more. But she also wanted a city and ended up at a campus in the middle of no where too - although Ithaca is in a beautiful area!
@Jerseymom99 - Congratulations! That’s a great outcome.
@Jerseymom99 - Great story and what a wonderful choice! But funny story - I read your “final decision” just after reading about @DoinResearch’s son’s admissions journey over on the Acting forum and when I got to the part where the Emerson admissions person gave you attitude I thought “Sean Penn is NOT going to put up with that!”. Okay, it’s funny, I promise you, if you read them both. 
Congratulations!
@CaMom13 - Exactly!
what is LIU?
@EVDLLD Long Island University
Congrats, @Jerseymom99 ! Ithaca is AWESOME. And yes, @Fergie978 my D had the same negative audition with the same school at Chicago Unifieds LAST year. Wasn’t on her list this year.