@NYYFanNowMTdad Congrats to your daughter! What a great story. I just found this forum and it is very informative. I saw your comment about white girls making up the vast majority of the MT hopefuls. However, I spoke with an MT parent (white guy). He said there are tons of very talented African Americans at the auditions (more than one would think) and that it is more competitive for them than it is white kids as the programs only want a certain percentage of people of color in their programs so the percentages all even out. Do you think this guy is accurate? Another parent told me that there are certain schools seeking minorities as they just don’t get many interested in their schools, but need to have diversity–not sure if this is true either. I’m a numbers person like you so just looking at the odds. My daughter is mixed race (African American/Caucasian) on west coast.
@hikerseattle Truthfully i hate to revisit this topic especially at this sensitive time in our country’s history…,my experience is that all programs are seeking diversity and that’s a great thing !
I did not see what that MT parent you spoke to at Ny or Chicago unifieds nor any on campus audition we attended I cant speak to California unifieds
I did not see any indication anywhere that any school would try to limit the number of people of color. I have actually heard from several program heads that the competition amongst programs for increased diversity is more intense than ever.
At the end of the day I think talent wins out and the audition is what gains a kid acceptance
@hikerseattle I’m going to echo my friend @NYYFanNowMTdad and recommend you not get bogged down in the details you have no control over. There’s enough about this process that your child can control and focus on that will fill all the brain space and time you have and you’ll have plenty stuff left over to fill any new brain space or time that comes open! Truly, what specific demographics a program is seeking in a given year is just going to be a mystery, maybe even to the program itself until auditions start happening and they start to see their incoming class taking shape.
I’ve found it very calming (and you will need as much calm as you can access in this process) to adopt the mindset that there’s a place for everyone who puts in the work, shows up ready, and knows what they are going after. You’ll hear a lot of people saying “trust the process” because that’s not a lie or a platitude – you really need to be able to trust the process. Programs want students who will be trainable and, ultimately, able to contribute in some meaningful way both to their learning environment during their 4 years and to the theater industry after graduation. “Look” and “type” are factors, but they’re really just drops in the bucket.
Encourage your child to do everything she possibly can to get to know herself as a performer, get her quality coaches to guide her repertoire selection so that she has the chance to show off who she is and what she’s capable of, and focus on the aspects of this coming year that are within her control.
Wishing your family all good things – buckle up! It’s a wild and rewarding ride. 
@hikerseattle I think all of the above can be true. That there are schools that limit how many kids of whatever type, including by race, they are seeking and that it is competitive in many different and weird ways. There are also different interpretations of what programs mean when they say they want diversity. One of the best ways to find out is thru the audition process. My D is mixed and received a wide range of reactions and interactions that informed her decision about where to go, some very positive and some weird and stereotypical. Some people automatically assume it means it’s easier for POC auditioners and I will say it’s complicated. The list and options are shorter as there are some places many would not feel comfortable being only one of a few or none at all. Even if those programs want to diversify, not having any current students in their program, and also no professors of color hurts their chances for recruiting a diverse class a lot. Then there’s deeper things to consider like how they think about casting and what shows to put on etc. Many programs have recently put out statements due to current events and those are an interesting opportunity to see who is speaking up in a public way and those who aren’t.
I will say it’s really important for your kid to think about what kind of environment they are comfortable with, both with their cohort of students, diversity of faculty (very few programs have diverse faculty) and the community in which they will live for at least 4 years.
Also, the amount of money they have to give factors in here, too. One program mentioned that they would like to be more diverse than they are, but that since they don’t have a lot of money to give, they find it difficult to attract a diverse pool of candidates. This particular schools is quite pricey by any standard. The solution, of course, is for them to put their money where their mouths are and get the university to chip in some serious scholarship money, otherwise, it’s an endless self-fulfilling prophecy.
@ElizaDoolittle totally agree about money. For our friends who were in that most competitive category they definitely had their choice of where to go from the best. As a parent, I’m willing to pay more for a school that has a more diverse, inclusive program/school/community since we had options, which were mostly within range of each other.
So I’ve spent some time trying to figure out how to respect D’s desire that I not lay out the personal details of her process on the Internet while also paying it forward to 2025. I decided that the best way would be not to focus on personal background or the particular programs, but the Decision framed by the lessons learned along the way. Here it goes…
Prescreens- D was focused on her Spring show and several other performance projects over the Spring and Summer of 2019. As a result, prescreens started late and felt very rushed. The stars aligned for monologues and were a bullseye. Songs on the other hand, she flipped and flopped, and flipped again on what to send. She was so worried about picking something “overdone” and showing range rather than connecting with the song. The outfit, hair, and make up were all what she thought the auditors wanted to see and not who she was. The result was a lot of acting deferments. The advise here: if your kid connects and melts peoples faces off singing a more popular song, even if it shows up on one of those No Lists, that’s the one they should sing. We walked by one room in particular at Unifieds for a school where D was deferred to Acting and heard a student sing a current On-Broadway ballad. So while I have no idea if that led to an acceptance, that kid certainly passed the prescreen with that song from the “Do Not Sing” list.
Early Auditions- Can’t recommend them enough. Early positive experiences will set the stage for the rest of the season and don’t assume they are “practice”. One of D’s early auditions ended up in the running for quite some time despite being an Acting program, simply because of how impressed she was with the program and how strong the connection was in the room.
Material- Don’t be afraid to switch it up. D held on to one song way too long and it was only when she switched it out did we start to see action on Acceptance and Waitlist. The biggest hint came when she announced the song she planned to sing, the auditor gave a puzzled look and asked her to sing a song from a character off her resume instead. When that came in as an acceptance, she knew for sure it had to go.
Unifieds- This was an experience that I will forever remember because it left me completely in awe of my D, and quite frankly, this generation of incredible young people! That being said, before you jump in to this option, really take a look at your school list and more importantly, the kind of environment your kid thrives in. I watched hundreds of kids that absolutely LIVED off the energy of Unifieds. The adrenaline all around you is incredible and everywhere you look there’s are new friends to meet that will instantly cheer you on. For others, the vibe was clearly too overwhelming. While D didn’t shut down, she needed many breaks from the crowd to refocus. It’s funny because originally she wanted to do Unifieds instead of a lot of On Campus in order to not get nerves from getting too attached to a school. In the end, all but one of her best experiences came from On Campus auditions. She was able to settle in and make deeper connections. D is not a chit chat kind of kid. After a while the assembly line of 10 minute auditions were a struggle for her. The lesson: don’t be afraid to go on campus if it’s possible. This may be a moot point if crowd sizes are still limited this winter and schools only do On Campus, but for D, truly the best way to get the feel for the cohort style of a program was during those All Day Campus Auditions for D. Had we done the Gap Year, D would not have done Unifieds again. But that’s based on best environment for her. Which brings me to my next point…
Experiences- YMMV is an abbreviation you will read on here for “Your Mileage May Vary” and I can not express how true this is. The level of subjectivity in this process is crazy considering the emotional and physical investment of these kids and their families. I know it’s that way for all kids when their application hits an Admissions desk, but the percentages here are so small, the final decisions must come down to small things that are truly out of your control. I will say one program on here where you read raves about the audition experience left D with an incredibly cold feeling to the point where she had written them off before we reached the elevator. (I’m certain the rejection was written before she reached that elevator as well). On the other hand, a program that folks have described negatively , D had an amazing connection and left feeling like she would take a spot if offered. Don’t assume that just because you read something negative about a program that it wouldn’t be the best place for your kid and vise versa.
Campus Visits- I would suggest doing them as soon as they are available again. We chose to wait for acceptances and I’m convinced that had D had the chance to set foot on a specific campus after Unifieds, we would be sending her there in the Fall. She tried to do the Zooms and the Virtual Tours, but ultimately D went with a school where she had been able to tour in person. I’ll always wonder just a little if she would have decided differently if we had gotten to that other school before the virus.
Type- We couldn’t take 10 steps at any audition without seeing someone who looks like D. In the beginning, I had strong feelings around this idea of Type. Any school that would say to a kid “we already have enough of You” in our program was a huge turn off simply because I don’t buy that anyone can spend 10 minutes with a 17 year old and know who they are. These kids barely know who they are yet, how can a stranger know in a matter of minutes. BUT I came to understand Type a little different with D’s experience. She noticed the same adjectives being repeated when getting feedback about her performance. I realized that it was those adjectives, not her hair or eye color that were the beginnings of her starting to understand her Type. It wasn’t about the physical (at least not for the programs she would be interested in). She ultimately has found those moments where the feedback repeated from room to room to be valuable in the path to understanding herself as an artist.
Decisions- Ultimately D chose a program based off location, familiarity, and that connection in the audition room. You will read other descriptions of that “feeling” and it’s real. You see it on your kids face when they walk out of the room. That said that “feeling” doesn’t always lead to an acceptance. D committed to a program off the Waitlist so even though she had that connection, felt like she stayed in the room longer than the time frame, etc., it wasn’t a done deal. The acceptance came very soon after she had submitted a LOCI. Huge sigh of relief because she was so adamant that she wouldn’t go to a school sight unseen and we were preparing to take all she had learned in to a Gap Year.
And for the kids who may read in the future who are navigating this all on their own. This would also apply for the parents that may feel overwhelmed by the investment discussed by me and the other parents supporting their kids in this process. PLEASE don’t let anything you read on here about coaches, dance and vocal training since the womb, PA Schools, lead roles in high school give you second thoughts about choosing this path! We met a handful of kids who drove alone through the night to auditions. If that’s you, I promise there will be at least one family willing to fold you in for the day. We met kids who never got cast in a lead in high school that passed prescreens and one was accepted to a “top” program. If you know in your heart you have talent to share, apply to a range of programs, show up ready to work, and be brave enough to be your authentic self. You will find your spot.
Sending so much encouragement and support to you all coming up and gratitude beyond words to the the families that helped prepare us for this wonderful, horrifying, insane, incredible, ridiculous, amazing, and life changing journey!
Great way to share your story and honor your D’s desire for privacy, @Sitzprobe !
@Sitzprobe GREAT ADVICE, thanks for sharing & I have no idea who your D is , so you did good 
MANY CONGRATS !! YOU WERE HERE FOR A LONG TIME ON THE RIDE WITH US AND MADE IT TO THE OTHER SIDE!!!
Thanks @tsamuique and @NYYFanNowMTdad! D is different so different from me in this sense. I needed to talk this out with the world and she just didn’t have that need. She’s going to a fantastic “name” program and she hasn’t even put it on her Instagram bio yet. I’ll definitely be popping in to see how 2025 is doing and to offer support :).
Great post, @Sitzprobe! Lots of really valuable advice in there. Congrats to you and your D for surviving and thriving in this process!
Congrats to you and your D @Sitzprobe ! Thanks for sharing in a way that respects your D’s wishes while being helpful and paying it forward!
@Sitzprobe Really enjoyed your write up. Gave tremendous insight. Couldn’t agree more about the material choosing process. They just get it in their heads about doing something and sometimes it takes a lightning bolt to change that. Funny how you say her results changed dramatically with different material. My D had the same exact experience once she changed 2/3 through the process. Glad the school she chose saw the changed material, or maybe that’s the point. Might not be going there or anywhere without making the changes…
Anyone else want to add a final decision story? They are so rewarding to read after the long journey .
So few this year and so helpful to those following. I hope more are willing to share.
Here we go! First, I want to thank everyone on here for all of your support throughout this season. So many of you helped us navigate through this process. Even though I may not have weighed-in on everything going on here, I read everything and was thankful for all that I learned. It has taken me quite a while to find the time to get this done, but here is my D’s story. She really wanted to share her story with intentions of helping others who go down this road. Please feel free to reach out to me any time with questions that you may have about any of the schools listed below; (I know that I have skimmed over a few.)
Prescreens Passed: Boco, CCM, CMU, Circle/Eckerd, Elon, Emerson, Ithaca, Millikin, Point Park, Roosevelt, Syracuse, Temple, Otterbein, UNC Greensboro, Viterbo, Texas Tech
Did Not Pass: Pace, Penn St, FSU, Texas State
Artistically Accepted: Catholic U, Circle/Eckerd BFA, Temple U, LIU Post, Ohio Northern, Roosevelt, Utah, Viterbo
Wait-listed at: Baldwin Wallace, Miami, Montclair St, Wagner, Western CT, Western MI
Redirects: Belmont to Vocal Performance, Millikin to BA - Theatre & Performance, OCU to BA Music, Ball State to BA/BS Theatre Creation
Withdrew: UNCG, Kent St, Marymount
Rejected MT: U of Arts, Elon, Ithaca, Boco, Hartt, CCM, Otterbein, CMU, Point Park, Emerson, Webster, NYU, Syracuse, Texas Tech
Coach: Yes
Summer Programs: Yes
Background:
I would say that starting around the age of four, my D started to put on skits for anyone who would watch them. She loved Scooby-Doo and would have her friends and siblings create their own episodes. In elementary school, she created her own YouTube channel and they would film skits using her sisters, cousins and neighbors as actors. They are hysterical to watch now. She was also very active in sports during this time. She was a natural athlete who was involved in almost every sport that you can think of. In 3rd grade, she decided to start taking dance classes. Her younger sister loved to dance and after D saw several of her sister’s recitals, she decided that she also wanted to give it a try. In the fall of 4th grade, she auditioned to be a mouse in the Russian Ballet’s “Nutcracker”, and to our surprise, she got the role. It was very unexpected since she had just started taking dance classes. She loved every minute of the part she played in that show that she ended up doing the same role for the next 3 years. In 5th grade, she participated in her first school musical, “High School Musical”, and this experience made her fall in in love with musical theatre. She then started taking voice and acting classes. By 7th grade, she landed her first lead role and there was no stopping her that point! She then started to drop some of the sports that she had been playing in order to completely focus on her true love, singing and theatre. She was fortunate to receive a music scholarship to attend a private HS nearby that had a very strong music program. This opened her up to learning to play the French Horn and participating in several different choirs.
The summer after her freshman year, she attended an August Intensive at a nearby Regional Theatre. She absolutely loved it and she told me that she wanted to pursue a Musical Theatre degree in college. That is when the research started. During the fall of her junior year we attended a seminar at the Regional Theatre on applying to college for Musical Theatre. It was frightening, but they did tell me about college confidential and the wealth of information that is out there. That is when I joined and started following the MT threads. We hired a coach through the Regional Theatre who was amazing. She helped my daughter with selecting her vocal and monologue material. We worked with our ballet teacher on the dance pieces. She is an outstanding chorographer and she knew exactly how to showcase my D’s dance skills.
In August, we started finalizing our list and we began working on the applications. We filmed the pre-screens in mid-September and we started sending them out. We received a few quick rejections, so the we started to wonder if we needed to add a few more schools. We were not sure what would be the right number of schools to which she should apply. Our coach told us that sixteen schools would be enough, but my D knew kids that were shut out the previous year after applying to the same number (16) of schools. She had a friend who was using MTCA that had a list of 21 schools. However, she still felt that she needed to add more. The list grew quickly. She would have kept going if I had not cut her off. Showing a very ambitious attitude I told her that she could do walk-ins at Unifieds. (This decision ended-up being a great thing for her).
We tried our best to spread out the auditions as much as possible. Her first one being in October (Miami) and her last was set for the end of March (MSU). I am so glad that we spread them out because she got sick 3 times during the season and she really did not get into a groove until mid-January at NY Unifieds. We had one early acceptance just before the holiday season from “Eckard/Circle In the Square” and this really took some pressure off of her going into January.
Christmas break was rough. My D’s boyfriend of 3 years broke up with her. She was devastated. As if preparing for her auditions was not stressful enough, she had to deal with this on top of everything. To make things even more painful, they were the leads in the spring musical, so she had to deal with her ex-boyfriend’s antics throughout the entire audition season. They had lots of ups and downs playing out in the background each week.
The auditions started during the first week of January and they kept going until the end of February. As luck would have it, she got sick during our first weekend on the road. She was still very upset about the boyfriend and she really wasn’t sleeping well. She ran herself down. She blew her 2 auditions that weekend (PP and Boco) and this really shook her up. However, she was determined to keep going and shake them off. Her next audition was the following Friday at NY Unifieds. She was a little apprehensive coming off two bad auditions, so we did not have high hopes on that one. The next day she got up and had one of her best auditions of the season at Catholic U and this seemed to get her back into the groove. The next day, she had CCM at NY Unifieds. Unfortunately, she had the first audition right after the dance call. She literally had 5 minutes to pull herself together and audition. It was not the best situation for her. After that, she was determined to do walk-ins. We spent the rest of day running around doing walk-ins. She was able to get auditions with Cornish, Utah, LIU Post, and Western CT. She had a great time at all of them. I highly recommend for future students to take advantage of them while you are at Unifieds. In my D’s case, she did not feel any pressure at the walk-ins. She just went in and had fun which netted her a few acceptances.
The next weekend we did Syracuse and Belmont. Syracuse ended up being a long day for us since my D was the second to last to audition. While she was waiting to audition, we heard from Catholic with an acceptance and this was a great relief for her. Now she had 2 offers under her belt, so she was feeling good. After Syracuse, we flew to Nashville for an audition at Belmont. Our flight was delayed so we did not get into Nashville until midnight and her audition started at 7:30 am the next morning. She did not get much sleep, but she still made it on time to Belmont. My D was fortunate to have an early audition slot. They required you to sing an Aria along with your chosen contrasting MT songs. They also asked my D to sing a pop song.
Next up was Chicago. We spent the entire week in Chicago. We started with Roosevelt on Saturday and ended with Viterbo on Thursday. She really enjoyed her week in Chicago. I would recommend staying on the executive floors even though it is more expensive. They provide a reduced priced hot breakfast (free continental), free coffee and water plus you have your own elevator bank that gets you quickly to the audition rooms. We found it to be a well-organized and less chaotic compared to NY Unifieds. We tried to keep it to 2 auditions per day. However, on Tuesday, we were able to do 3. Most schools worked with us to make the times work. We were also able to do the LIU Post dance call in Chicago (we did vocal/monologue audition in NY). Some schools were open to splitting the audition between NY and Chicago so I would ask if it becomes a scheduling issue.
We left Chicago and flew down to OCU. We considered cancelling it because of the full song requirement. One of my D’s songs is a cut of a duet so that made things tricky. My D was a little worried that she would get screwed-up singing the full song after she had sang the cut so many times before, but it all worked out fine. After that, we flew to Cleveland for Baldwin Wallace. We received great news the morning before we went over to BW. My D got an acceptance from Temple U! She was thrilled! They were one of her favorites. They sold her on the real college experience which is what she was looking for. She had a great time at BW, but she knew that it would be a long shot.
After Unifieds, she started to feel a little burnt-out. She was getting nervous about her high school’s musical and she was satisfied with the options she that were already on the table. Despite being so tired, we still went to Texas Tech and Emerson during the weekend after BW. One of the reasons for this is because we had already booked the flights. She had fun at both, but during the trip back, she realized that she did not want to go to a school that was that far away. I think that all the traveling wore her down. We ended up cancelling a few of the remaining auditions. She only kept Wagner and Montclair St because they were both close to home.
The letters started to arrive in late February. She went into this entire audition process without having her heart set on any specific school. This helped her when the rejections started to arrive. She expected most of the rejections because she knew that she did not have her best audition for those specific schools. The redirects were somewhat disappointing and not always easy to understand. We did laugh about her redirect to Vocal Performance from Belmont. Her vocal teachers tried to talk her into auditioning for VP in addition to MT, so getting into a VP program without auditioning for it was an interesting surprise.
By the first week in April we had heard from everyone. She was fortunate to have received 8 great options, in addition to 6 WLs. Temple was a favorite from the start. She loved that they accepted her just 4 days after her audition. They also reached out right away to schedule visits, which unfortunately, turned into zoom calls between the current student and the prospects. There were also sessions with the faculty. She seemed to connect right away with several of the current students. She enjoyed chatting with them regularly on social media. Roosevelt was a strong contender as well because one of close friends had already committed there. She also met a girl on the road that she really liked who also picked Roosevelt. However, my D was concerned that it would not provide the traditional college experience that she really wanted. Catholic U was in strong consideration. She really loved the program and the faculty there. She just struggled connecting with the students and she was not crazy about the 4-hour drive to DC. She also strongly considered the new Circle/Eckard BFA. She would love to work with the Circle faculty (some she had worked with before), but she had never visited Eckerd and she was not sure that she wanted to go that far away anymore. We attended a few zoom sessions with Ohio Northern. We were very impressed by them at Unifieds, but she did not feel any strong connection with the students that she interacted with. We liked Utah, but she decided that it was way too far, so it dropped to the bottom on her list. She enjoyed her audition with LIU Post, but she really wanted a smaller program, so they fell off the list. We loved the Viterbo program and their faculty a lot. They were one of her favorite auditions at Unifieds. It was funny with them because after she sang, they just wanted to chat with her about her wild card video. They skipped the monologues. It was clear they watched her videos closely which was good to hear. It is unfortunate that we were not able to visit Viterbo. My D has a milk allergy, so we were concerned that her food options would be very limited there. A visit would have helped to ease those concerns, but I have to think that it just wasn’t meant to be.
She came off the waitlist at Western MI in mid-April, so we took a really good look at them. She really liked them at her audition and she liked the size of the program. We did a zoom call with Jay and he seemed to be great. She also did a one-on-one with a current student who she really liked and she felt like she could fit in there. It was a tough decision for my D. She struggled with committing to a school that she had never seen in a state that she had never been to. I told her to sleep on it and we would decide the next day. She woke up and decided to decline the offer from Western MI and to commit to Temple. Temple really did a great job connecting the students and providing forums on a weekly basis for everyone to talk. The connection she made with the students was what sold her. She really felt at home with all of them. We did drive down there during the lockdown to check out the campus and it was exactly what she wanted, a city school with a campus. She is so excited to start there in the fall. A bonus for me is that it is only a 1 ½ hour drive from our house.
Final Decision: BFA MT at Temple University!
I hope this wasn’t too long! It was actually fun going back through our journey.
@modanbsmt001 thanks for coming back and posting. your story is great and shows the ups and downs of this brutal process even with your great results. will really help future classes. it has been a pleasure sharing the journey with you guys. best of luck at Temple we have a friend going into his soph year there who loves it!! CONGRATS!
Thank you @NYYFanNowMTdad for all the support throughout this process. It was fun to have so many companions along with us on this wild ride. My D is thrilled with her decision and feels it is a perfect fit for her. That is all we can ask for. Everything seems to fall into place at the end.