Boston Conservatory (Boston) - admitted (audition), did not enroll. While this one is on the radar for most people for musical theatre, I mention it because they have a very cool contemporary theatre program that is building an outstanding reputation (at least with me!). Great location in a great college town, too.
UCSD (La Jolla, CA) - video audition optional, which he did. son admitted, not enrolled. We loved the flexibility of the program and the relationship with La Jolla playhouse. This is a BA. Like all the UC schools, not an easy admit for an out of state student, but our son was admitted here, wait-listed at Santa Barbara (no audition or video), and rejected from UCLA (audition) and Irvine (no audition of video).
UCSB (Santa Barbara) - son wait-listed, did not accept wait-list position. Even though we are east coast, this one was on the radar because both my grandparents went there. They have a BFA program that students audition into at the end of freshman year. A nice potential option for someone who thinks theatre is the thing, but who might want to try a couple of other things too before jumping in with both feet.
UC Irvine (Orange County, CA) - son rejected. Visited a couple times. They have a number of excellent facilities and are in the LA area. Like UCSB, students audition into the BFA program at the end of freshman year.
University of Denver (the Mile High City) - Son admitted (no audition), not enrolled. Look on the web because they have some really nice scholarships for theatre majors. My mom went here and Denver is my hometown. I have to say, I was a little sad when my son turned down their generous offer of admission and excellent financial aid.
Knox College (Galesburg, IL) - Did not apply. This one was on the radar until he was admitted to VCU (see below). They have a unique program where they put together a theatre company every three years and all the students do is produce and perform a show. It is like getting a professional experience while in college. I think of it as being a little like Interlochen, but much more comprehensive and more student-driven.
Kenyon College (Gambier, OH) - Son admitted, did not enroll. We were very positive on Kenyon. We visited twice and it was our number one BA pick among those that accepted him. It was the last school he said no to before enrolling elsewhere.Excellent facilities, strong tradition, many other students interested in writing. My sense is that there may be a lot of writers at Kenyon looking for actors to perform the things they write. There appeared to be a ton of out of classroom acting opportunities.
Loyola Marymount (LA) - Son admitted late, did not enroll. They have a wonderful early admissions program. Wish we had done that because it was very hard waiting until the decision came in sometime in late spring. Another great BA option and awesome that it is right in LA. Faculty appear to be working professionals. When our son auditioned at UCLA, the guy said he also taught classes at LMU.
University of Miami (Coral Gables, FL) - Did not apply. I put this one on the list because I almost went to Miami myself. Sent in the deposit, but ended up elsewhere for legitimate reasons. Anyway, having walked away from Miami (and the two football teams that won national championships over the next 4 years) after having committed in 1987, I felt like I owed them a shot at my first-born. Mom had other ideas and in our family we have two rules: 1) Mom is always right and 2) When mom is wrong, see rule #1. Wonderful campus. Well-resourced. I believe they have been committed for a long-time to building a world class university in every program they offer. If it is not already impossible, this is one of those schools that will get increasingly competitive down the road.
Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, VA) - Admitted (audition), did not enroll. Definitely do the early early application date and audition in early December. If you do that then you find out before Christmas (i think we heard on the 15th or 16th). If you can get a good one in hand early, it sure makes the rest of the process easier. By Christmas, son had already been admitted to VCU Performance Track, Denver, and LSU (I will always be thankful that they were first! I can still hear my son’s voice when he called to say that he was going to college - Thank you, LSU). This allowed us to aim high throughout the rest of the process. And if nothing else had come through, he would have been very happy to go to an excellent school like VCU - and my wallet would have been happy, too. This may be obvious, but I will just point out that after this whole process, I am sure he would have been happy at several of the schools. It was really splitting hairs to get to the final decision. I will always cheer for the VCU Rams because they made our life easier senior year by offering such a great option so early in the process.
I will also throw in a second for both Drew and Illinois Champaign/Urbana. A student from my son’s high school who was high school class of 2017 went to Drew and loves it. Her mother is a school drama teacher so I think they had a good idea what to look for. My son worked for 3 years with one of the faculty members at Illinois and learned a ton. We had wonderful impressions of both of these schools. My son applied to neither. Upon reflection, Illinois may have a very early application date. Check into that. We may not have applied because we missed the date.
Finally, the information is elsewhere in the final decisions posts, but to save you the trouble, our son enrolled in the BFA Acting program at Syracuse and is very happy after 1 week. Yeah for that! The other schools he applied to are generally on most people’s “look at” lists: Minnesota (admitted to BA), Depaul (pre-screen rejected), Fordham (admitted academically, but not to theatre program), JMU (admitted academically, withdrew prior to audition). Loved Fordham, too. Maybe it could have gone on the under the radar list, but I think most people know about it and it is in the heart of NYC right across the street from Lincoln Center. We spent several months last winter talking about going to Fordham and mastering the Denzel tear (Denzel went there). And he pretty much had it mastered on the day they rejected him from the theatre program… Luckily, Syracuse came in about 2 hours later.
Reminds me: March 16th was a big day. Over about a four hour period our son got rejected from Fordham theatre, admitted to UCSD, admitted to Syracuse (literally dancing in the street as I drove home from work), wait-listed at UCSB, and admitted to Kenyon. If you would have asked me the day before to rank his chances, I would have ordered from most likely to least likely this way: Fordham, UCSB, UCSD, Syracuse/Kenyon (tie). The admissions played out exactly the opposite…
Just writing this post makes me realize that there are so many good options out there. The key is to APPLY TO LOTS OF SCHOOLS because there is no rhyme or reason to this process. We received plenty of surprising admits and rejections. It makes no sense. Cast a VERY wide net. I believe our son applied to 16 schools.
And I just realized this is my post #100 (well it was #100 until I edited it). Probably a good place to stop and move on with the rest of my life. We will see. Good luck to everyone!!
