Congrats @2020mtmom on finding her place AND being the first final story for the class of 2024!!!
Congrats @2020MTMom ! So glad she’s made her decision - must be such a relief for you both!
OK, I’ll go:
Programs Applied to:
NYU Tisch, Ithaca (Acting), Point Park, Shenandoah, Pace MT, Syracuse, Carnegie Mellon, Emerson, Penn State, Hartt, Montclair, Missouri State, Wagner, Webster, Otterbein, Wright State, Rutgers, SUNY Fredonia, Connecticut College, Drew University, Muhlenberg* (*auditioned but didn’t apply).
Prescreens: Ithaca, Point Park, Shenandoah, Pace MT, Syracuse, Carnegie Mellon, Emerson, Penn State, Otterbein, SUNY Fredonia.
Passed: Ithaca (Acting - we ended up not being able to do the dance video); Syracuse (MT, submitted for both); Emerson - redirect to Theatre & Performance BFA; Otterbein, SUNY Fredonia, Point Park.
Did not pass: CMU, Shenandoah, Pace.
Penn State* - withdrew application before they sent their decision on the prescreen and let Drama dept know. So they “rejected” him in January. One of those “we reject you, NO WE REJECT YOOOOOOUUU” moments. Shrug.
We scrambled to get these together. He was mostly prepared with his songs and monologues, but the dance we were scrambling, so we really were grateful for those schools that either did not require a dance video or said they were “optional.” Unfortunately, he did not pass at the two schools that said dance video was optional (Pace, Shenandoah), so maybe in this competitive climate you’re signaling something when you do/don’t send an “optional” video. Who knows.
We wish he’d been a little more prepared on his Shakespeare monologue. He passed Ithaca with it but not CMU. That stung a little, but he got over it.
Accepted to: NYU Tisch
Withdrew: Everywhere except NYU Tisch
Rejected from: n/a
Wait-listed at: n/a
Coach: none. We have a fabulous education program at our regional theatre where he got his acting coaching, and his voice teacher is local. Only started taking one “broadway” dance class this past October and had some private coaching to get him through prescreens.
Summer Programs: no national ones. Did the summer MT intensive at our local regional for 2 summers.
Background: S discovered a love of acting and performing early, but “hung up his skates” at the tender age of 7 after an intense experience with a local education group that was a little “screamy.” He’s a natural performer, however, so his teachers at school would peg him to do things and in the 5th grade his teacher cast him as Lysander in “Midsummer” and he discovered a love of Shakespeare. (They did a 1 hr version.) The following year he did his first musical and milked every moment he was on in that ensemble. That was when my husband and I knew he was back in the game. In 8th grade he joined the youth ensemble at our regional and it became apparent that this was his passion.
Midway through his 10th grade year he listened to a talkback where the actors spoke about their survival jobs, their education, etc, and kept repeating the adage, “If there’s anything else you love, do that.” About a week later he announced, emphatically, “I do NOT want to be a professional actor.” I said, “Uh, ok.” Or something to that effect. So, we spent the next 16 months helping this kid who never stopped doing show after show find his way in “something in communications” which was his new stated, if vague, interest area. We visited multiple schools - tons of college tours - with an eye towards this plus schools with good theatre programs so he could still dabble.
3/4 of the way through his junior year he finds himself straddling 3 shows almost at once. Late April of that year he looks at me and says, “who am I kidding? I need to do a BFA. I want to be an actor.” OKAY. SO. I am clueless. Wish I’d known about these boards back then. For a variety of reasons we really couldn’t start working on his material until August. But we hit the ground running then and he did OK considering.
In the beginning of August we took him to visit his first BFA program, an info session at NYU Tisch. Ahoooga Ahooga! He was hooked. It became his dream school. He wanted to apply ED. I was a little worried because it was the first one he saw --I felt a little like he was the boy let out of a bubble who wanted to marry the first girl he’d met. But he was very clear about the reasons why it was a good fit for him and his rationale was solid.
He also really liked Hartt, where his longtime mentor had gone to school, but it didn’t dissuade him from wanting to go ED to Tisch. Early in the fall we convinced him to tour and audition at Muhlenberg. I wanted him to see a solid BA program before committing to ED at Tisch. He loved it there, auditioned for Charles Richter in October and really liked him, liked his tour, liked the class he visited, liked the vibe. But it did not make him rethink his decision to go ED at Tisch. By then he had visited several other schools and while they each held some interest, he never swayed from wanting Tisch, so he went for it and applied ED.
However, he still had to apply to a bazillion other schools because Tisch’s decision date fell after the deadlines for everyone else’s prescreens, plus any non-prescreen school was best applied to early to get audition slots that worked. SO he spent the fall working on his other apps and prescreens.
We had a great schedule set up but I found myself being vastly more excited about his prescreen passes than he was, and I was the one who was all geeked for the audition schedule and the schools that were interested in him. He’d pass some amazing prescreen and I’d be freaking out and he’d be like “oh, cool.” :neutral: Beginning of December, I finally twig - he can’t get excited about anything else because all he can think about is Tisch. Once I realized that, it was very hard for me to think of anything else either.
Decision week comes, I’m checking the ED1 thread on the NYU board here and I learn on a Thursday that the results will be released that afternoon. My kid is at school, has a rehearsal after school, and then a caroling gig. There’s no way I’m telling him to check his email. I am not holding out too much hope because I know how crazy this process is. I don’t want him to be crushed at school. So, he goes to all of his gigs, I meet him at the caroling, I somehow get through it without spontaneously combusting, and we get into the car where I tell him to check his email, he’s probably got one from NYU. He does, and he sees that the portal is updated. We get home. I ask him if he wants to wait 15 minutes for his dad to get home or if he needs to know RIGHT NOW. Shockingly, RIGHT NOW wins. So we go into the portal and click the link and see the letter. Blank stares. Silence. Then MASS SCREAMING as he, his sister, and I all just whoop and holler and freak out. And call his dad. Who said “you didn’t wait for me?” 
Final Decision: NYU Tisch.
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@tsamuique This is an amazing story. Kid knows in the gut; parent geeks out. So familiar. Thank you for sharing all the great details.
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@tsamuique amazing story thanks & congrats!!
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@2020MTMom - congratulations and welcome to the Molloy/CAP21 family! Your D has chosen well and will have the experience of a lifetime! So many wonderful experiences await!
Awww - poor Dad! Congratulations @tsamuique - your kid knew where he belonged!
Wonderful story @2020MTMom - so glad she found that great match from several great offers!
This is always the best thread. Thanks for sharing your stories - it’s definitely “the kind of news we need now”! 
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@2020MTMom and @tsamuique Congratulations!! Great stories. It must be such a relief!
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Thanks all! “Poor Dad” would like me to add that he is the one who drove S all over the better part of the free universe to all of those colleges. He’s still a little chuffed that we didn’t wait the extra 15 minutes to check the portal
Congratulations @tsamuique !! Wonderful story!
Also, Congratulations @2020MTMom and welcome to the Molloy/CAP21 Family!!
So happy for both of your kiddos!!
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Congratulations @tsamuique and @2020MTMom! Exciting and fun to read the stories!
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So excited to post this and have our decision made. Now the fun part begins!
Programs Applied to:
- University of Arizona
- Illinois Wesleyan
- Point Park
- Penn State
- University of the Arts
- NYU
- Marymount Manhattan
- Pace University
- Montclair
- Wagner (After callback at NYC Combines)
- Molloy/CAP21
- Ball State University (Walk-in at NYC Unifieds)
- University of Utah (Walk-in at NYC Unifieds)
- Long Island University
- University of Miami
- Rider
- Shenandoah
- Rockford University
- Emerson
- Boston Conservatory
- University of Hartford (Hartt)
- Ithaca
- ASU
Prescreens:
Nine total, passed Pace and BoCo for MT, redirected by Rider, Illinois Wesleyan, and Emerson
Accepted to:
Rockford, LIU, UArts, Ball State (redirected to BA)
Withdrew:
Rider, Illinois Wesleyan, Wagner, ASU, and Emerson
Rejected from:
Penn, Point Park, Ithaca, Pace, UofA, Montclair, Utah, Shenandoah, Hartt, BoCo, NYU, Miami
Wait-listed at:
Molloy/CAP21, Marymount Manhattan (withdrew from both lists)
Coach: NONE
Summer Programs: NONE
Background: We are from a small town in Arizona. My D is young for her grade (summer birthday) and is a bit of a late bloomer. She has always been self-directed and had a lot of interests. She started performing in musical theater when she was 11. Outside of community and school theater, she had no training going into this process. We honestly didn’t even know how good she was until her sophomore year of high school when she landed the role of Elle Woods in Legally Blonde at her school and blew everyone away. She won the Best Vocalist award at the ASU high school musical theater awards. BUT…this was a rough year for her. She was bullied and ostracized relentlessly by the older girls who were furious and jealous that a sophomore was given the role of Elle. She was so traumatized by that experience that she never fully recovered. She struggled socially for the remainder of high school, being untrusting of her peers and easily wounded by perceived slights. I wish her drama teacher had been more supportive of her, but he really didn’t get it.
She pushed through anyway, played Miss Dorothy in Millie her junior year and was cast as The Witch in Into the Woods this year, though it seems likely the show will be canceled (it’s currently “postponed”). Her love of theater and her belief in herself has been stronger than the hardships and obstacles put in her way, which is why I know she will have a successful career in this field or any other field she chooses down the road.
We went into this process very blind. We had no idea about summer programs or coaching programs or anything, though we did hire a local voice teacher to help her prep her audition material before sending out her prescreens. We really just figured it out as we went along. We were terribly naïve, but I am exceedingly proud of what she accomplished this year. Her first choice was Pace, which didn’t work out for her, but I honestly believe she landed in the right spot and she and I are both very excited about UArts. She has already made friends with her incoming class through a group chat and received some guidance from very welcoming sophomores in the MT program. I think she landed in the perfect place for her, both artistically, and socially. I believe the culture of openness, acceptance, innovative creativity, and collaboration at UArts is exactly what she needs to grow as a performer and as a person.
Final Decision: University of the Arts in Philadelphia
Congratulations, @NeensMom !!
Congratulations @2020MTMom , @tsamuique , and @NeensMom ! Wonderful stories, so happy for you and your kids.
@NeensMom amazing story congrats to your strong & talented D, we know some great kids headed to UArts that I can tell you about if you PM me
Congratulations @NeensMom !! So happy for your D!
So happy for her @NeensMom - I know it’s been a long, long process and I’m sure she’s going to love U Arts! Nice to see all that had work pay off.
Aw sending you a big hug @NeensMom ! My D also faced bullying and fall out from “friends” when she started to get more serious. Thankfully she has admirably high EQ and found new, amazing friends who are on the same path, talented, supportive and kind! I hope her new circle at UArts builds a loving place for her to nurture her art!
Congrats to @tsamuique and @2020MTMom ! What a journey!
Congratulations @NeensMom ! I am sure many can relate to your daughters story during high school. Thanks for sharing! I am so glad she forged ahead and got into a great program.
Congrats @2020MTMom , @tsamuique and @NeensMom! Love your stories! Wishing you and your kiddos all the best as you start the next chapter!