Congratulations @JavaJo !
Congratulations, @JavaJo, and you are most welcome in our Molloy/CAP21 family!!
Congratulations @javajo and @MTdaughter99! Boy, reading your stories I started to have some PTSD flashbacks about this last year and my D’s auditions! Both of your D’s ended up with great options and chose a perfect fit - I am so happy for them!
@DramaQueen219 LOL yes some of the stories are so familiar! I’m just happy that for both our D’s it was a happy ending!
@MTdaughter99, Congrats and welcome to the BoCo family! My MT D (currently a junior) is getting experience in stage management, comedy improv and songwriting…so while the MT training is fabulous in itself, its nice to see the exposure to other fields that can help her post-graduation. I LOL’d with the “Jazz Cat” reference…we’ve joked with D about which bowl game or NCAA basketball seed the “Jazz Cats” are playing. hehe.
@MTdaughter99 and @JavaJo - Congratulations!!! Sounds like great fits.
Background: My (NY) S was in his first musical in grade 5. Started to consider applying to college MT programs fall of grade 11. He attended several voice/acting workshops at BAA mid-Junior year to help solidify the decision. He also did several programs, including MCA’s, and master classes in August, before grade 12 to prepare for audition season.
Parents questioning if your kid is a viable candidate: We wanted to be sure that he could/should do this, knowing it’s an expensive/exhaustive process. Ok, so he’d gotten some local praise, maybe won a best supporting actor in grade 10 (out of a pool of surrounding HS actors?!?) The BAA workshops helped test the waters – on his ride home after showcase, a NYC manager called him (huh what?!?). We chose MCA – because I felt that the feedback would be honest and straight forward whether this was a viable option for S. Now we were ready to invest the family’s time and $; giving S full support.
Voice: 8yrs choir; 6yrs special choirs; 4yrs semi-private voice at school; private voice 5 yrs; private MT voice coach for audition season and continuing – MCA was instrumental in advising on what S needed to improve upon for auditions, with a knowledgeable MT VC; 6yrs state level adjudication; 5yrs all county choir; NY All-State Choir alternate.
Dance: HS 2yrs daily performance dance class; weekly adult classes in tap, ballet, and modern dance summer before auditions and during audition season (and continuing!); baseball athlete through grade 7, just to give folks an idea of paths!!
Acting: 22 musicals/plays during HS, MS, elementary, and in Community Theater; 12 leads, 4 support, 6 ensemble. Strong cultural arts in our public school district, although this is the first year (Senior year!) any type of theater class was available – IB literature and performance.
Summer Programs: 6 summers at our school district, a five week musical theater production; dance heavy, so S was exposed to all forms of MT dance, including tap.
The Numbers: 18 applications, 9 prescreens, 18 auditions for 17 schools, 7 offers, 2 WL
Programs Applied (MT): Arcadia, BoCo, CCPA, Emerson, Illinois Wesleyan, Ithaca, JMU, Marymount, Molloy/CAP21, Montclair State, Pace, Rider, Rowan, SUNY at Buffalo, SUNY Fredonia, Syracuse, Wagner, Webster
Safety Schools-never applied to due to early acceptances: Hofstra, Tulane
Applying to all SUNY BFA MT programs were a given. The other choices met reach and target level programs. The list included a variety of larger universities, smaller LAC, conservatories, and regional options.
Prescreens MT: Pace, Syracuse, Ithaca, Rider, SUNY Fredonia, Illinois Wesleyan
Passed: SUNY Fredonia, Illinois Wesleyan
Redirected to Acting: Syracuse, Ithaca Resubmitted for: Pace Acting / BA IPE / FTVC
Offers: Arcadia, Molloy/CAP21, Rowan, SUNY Buffalo, SUNY Fredonia (Acting), Wagner, Illinois Wesleyan
Wait-listed: Emerson, Syracuse (Acting)
Rejections from: Montclair State, Pace, Marymount, BoCo, JMU, CCPA, Webster, Ithaca
Coach: MCA-Chelsea Diehl and her team at My College Audition, just AWESOME!!!
Final Decision: Wagner College
Behind the scenes: In our community, there is some knowledge about the process of auditions. In the last 2 years from our public school, we’ve had 8 grads enter performing arts programs (and another two alum currently on Broadway). I note this, because, I knew that a coach was still needed. S needed support artistically, not otherwise available. Although, we have a solid performing arts district, music performance auditions, which the district is most familiar with, aren’t the MT/Acting auditions of today. My S is a disciplined performer – he is not a strong reader, so searching for monologues was a bit overwhelming. All his monologues that MCA helped him with worked very well throughout auditions – no changes needed. He DID add songs from those that MCA identified for him. MCA’s feedback enabled us to find the right MT voice coach. His MT voice coach then explored and pushed S to find more songs for his repertoire, which benefitted him throughout auditions. He switched up as needed, based on how he was feeling the song or on the feedback from the schools as to what they might be looking for (for example, storytelling songs).
Early auditions worked really well, he did his first at JMU in November. Arcadia and Rowan were both in early December – yielding acceptances before winter break. With choices in hand, a BFA at a smaller LAC; and a BA in larger university, pressure heading into NYC Unifieds was significantly less. S spent 4 full days at NYC Unifieds, didn’t want to do any walk-ins. I’m a planner, so the audition schedule was set as early as possible (knowing walk-ins were unlikely). In full honesty – be prepared! Given all the rigmarole with applications, essays and essay questions, multi-layered due dates, multi-application platforms, pre-screens, declines, resubmits, redirects, etc., there were bumps in the road to rejigger auditions; some minor (and not so minor) moments of panic; and far more driving than I wanted, because of frustrating audition dates not being concurrent for schools close to one another…sigh.
What I hated the most: Pre-screen videos. Limited dance training meant he needed an instructor to help prepare him for Ithaca’s routine, design a routine for the other schools that required a video submission, and actually record it properly – full body. We should have started this process day 1 of the dance studio’s fall session. I stressed out about the videos being done correctly for submission and about finding time in his/instructor’s schedule. Live and learn. Song videos were not as stressful; thankfully his regular VC’s schedule permitted practices and sessions to record, re-do, as needed. LIGHTING was the weirdest challenge, since we recorded in our home early evenings during the fall. Just something to think about. What I loved: Keeping track of everything – I’m a data/research geek, lol!
Last thoughts: Always Stick with the Plan! S asked about cancelling his final audition at IWU, because it was the farthest school, last minute weather rearranged our audition weekend flight, and it had already been a long process by early March. He had some acceptances, including artistically to SUNY Buffalo MT (although was still waiting on academic), so in theory this made some sense. My approach was “stick with the plan” – we laid out the plan, modified as needed, but committed to it in hopes of landing choices and enabling him to find the right fit. I am glad we did! SUNY Buffalo was the last puzzle piece, with academic acceptance on 4/18…I cannot begin to express my level of anger about this. UB has zero clue about performing arts admittance. This really stung, upon audition UB’s program rose into the top for him. Their facilities were the best of all the schools we toured, he really liked the students, the program, and the program heads. FYI: Apparently UB’s Theater Dept. is just as frustrated with admissions! As a NY resident, this really hurt – at 1/3 the cost of big name/big cost programs. But it was just too late for S to evaluate against his other options. For the final analysis, we were right to “stick with the plan”. He had a really tough choice to make among several awesome programs – with IWU, Molloy/Cap21, and Wagner. Besides meeting students/faculty, I strongly recommend sitting in on a class, touring the facilities in depth, and seeing a show at each school. For my S, this is what helped him finally determine his best fit.
Thank you to all the contributing drama mamas and papas on CC – you all do a great service in lifting the curtain to shed the spotlight on the production behind the turmoil of this process!
@#booknerdmom Congratulations on your final decision. I am sure your son will be very happy at Wagner! 
Wow - your S is lucky to have you and your “plan”, @#booknerdmom - 18 auditions to keep straight! So glad he landed at a school he will love, I have heard nothing but good things about Wagner.
@"#booknerdmom congrats on choosing Wagner! Welcome to the Seahawks family! I hope your son loves it there as much as my D does!
Congratulations @"#booknerdmom" and @MTdaughter99 - so very happy for you and your kids! So fun reading everyone’s unique journeys! Thank you for sharing.
Congrats @JayCee17, @MTdaughter99 and @JavaJo!!! I loved reading all of your stories!!
Today is going to be a good day, and here’s why … because my D committed to a BFA MT program (sorry, I couldn’t resist the DEH reference ;))
WOW is all I can say. This was a crazy, stressful, yet joyous year, and I’m grateful that we came out the other side happy with the end result.
BACKGROUND: My D took dance classes from 2nd -4th grade. She took her first theatre class in 7th grade. She’s taken vocal lessons for a few years. She attends a regular, non-performing arts, high school, but they have a strong drama department. She participated in high school shows and local camp shows but she didn’t decide musical theatre is what she wants to do until the end of 11th grade.
MY D is very academic. She has high grades and ACT score. I mention this because it was important for scholarships! While admissions depend on what goes on in the audition room, sometimes good academics help with the financial end of things.
SUMMER PROGRAMS: Local camps.
COACH: D’s local vocal teacher.
PROGRAMS APPLIED TO: CCM, Syracuse, University of Miami, University of Central Florida, Point Park, Emerson, Ball State (walk-in at NY Unifieds), University of Tampa, FSU, University of Florida, Florida Southern College (video submission), Pace, Elon, Ithaca, Viterbo (walk-in at NY Unifieds), Molloy/Cap 21.
PRE-SCREENS PASSED: Syracuse, Pace, FSU, University of Central Florida (Did not pass Elon or Ithaca)
ACADEMIC ACCEPTANCES: everywhere where academic acceptance was separate from artistic acceptance. Received substantial scholarships everywhere as well.
ARTISTIC ACCEPTANCES: Viterbo, University of Miami, University of Central Florida, University of Tampa and Florida Southern College. She also received an acceptance letter (and scholarship) from the American Musical Theatre Academy after they saw her perform at the Florida State Thespian Competition.
WAIT LISTS: University of Central Florida (she was originally an Alternate, but was admitted a week or so later), Ball State (She was wait listed, then later redirected to various theatre options and invited to apply for the BFA MT second semester).
FINAL DECISION: University of Miami, 45 minutes from home! She will live on campus and I’ll get to see all of her performances! #happymom
Overall, my D and I enjoyed our time together immensely, we made great memories and had a lot of laughs! In the end I believe she landed exactly where she’s supposed to be.
Great story @#booknerdmom! CONGRATS!!
It worked out very well for D and for you, too, @MTMOM17 – congrats! There’s nothing like being in driving distance so you can catch all the shows!!
BIG Congratulations, @MTmom17! Your journey seems to have been as enjoyable as the end result! Glad your D ended up in such a great program and location - ideal for you both!
Yay @MTMOM17 !! So happy to hear, and it sounds like she landed exactly where she is meant to be!! And lucky you that she is so close to home! I’m a bit jealous as we will be 17+ driving hours away from our D. :(( 
Congratulations to you all!!
@MTMOM17 Welcome to UMiami! I’m so glad your D decided to commit. My S enjoyed meeting you both last week. I’m sure our paths will cross sometime in the next few years!
@#booknerdmom - Congratulations! i loved the planning and spreadsheets too! @MTMOM17 - Congratulations. I am totally jealous as S will not be close (at either of his two short-list choices)!
Thanks all and @LBSMOM, we met your D at accepted students day, hooray! Happy that we will also be able to attend performances, when they happen!
@MTMOM17 It’s funny going through this crazy process, then they land practically in the backyard! Wouldn’t it be nice if we could’ve just applied to the one without all the other requirements?!!? :))