How many apps????

College Majors Theater/Drama Majors
1

<p>So, I am beginning to think my Guidance office thinks I have some kind of problem. I know that "normal" people only apply to about 4-6 colleges. But...I think I will end up closer to 10-12. Every time I drop a transcript form at the office I get a look like..."you have more". But I have several audition and a few non-audition schools. </p>

<p>I really like most of the schools I am applying to it and the amount of money I get will end up playing a factor in my choice.</p>

<p>Do I have too many????</p>

<p>I figure only another theatre major can really answer this question!!!</p>

2

<p>Many of the students on this forum who are pursuing a theatre program apply to that many. Many of the theatre students that I know personally apply to that many. It is a personal decision and, as long as your parents are on board and able to help you with application fees, I say go for it! Just make sure you have a mix of schools, so you will have some good choices at the end of the process. It is a very competitive process, as you know.</p>

<p>Break a leg and best of luck!</p>

3

<p>D applied to 14 schools. She dropped 4 after an early acceptance, and a few weren’t auditioned…but yes, guidance thought she was a lunatic (and they are kind to lunatics fortunately). I think you’d have to be superhuman to do more than that, but…I’m sure many have!</p>

4

<p>My son applied to nine, which included one with close to a 100% acceptance rate. People said he should have applied to one or two more. He was only accepted to three. If you feel comfortable applying and auditioning for that many colleges, you shouldn’t feel “crazy.” In the era of the Common Application, 8-10 applications has become pretty normal (five was the norm when I was applying) for regular degree applicants. I’ve heard of BFA aspirants applying to 20 or more. I’d say 8-12 is manageable, if you have a good range of options. If financial aid is a major concern, you might want to look at a few more. Audition logistics get complicated, and I wouldn’t recommend over-scheduling.</p>

5

<p>10-12 sounds like a conservative amount if you are applying to auditioned programs. I made my daughter apply to 13 schools (“made” because I did really insist on the last few at the 11th hour, after reading so many horror tales on this forum!)</p>

6

<p>My D, too, applied to 13 schools. She had two lists: auditioned and non-auditioned. The first group had reaches/slightly less reaches, and the second had reaches/matches/safeties. She applied EA and rolling as much as she could, and she had some answers at the end of the fall, but only from non-auditioned schools. So we went through the whole process with all 13 schools. She got into 7, was rejected by 5 (all reaches) and turned down one waitlist (we’ll never know if she would have gotten in).</p>

<p>By spring, she was much less interested in some of the schools than she had been in the fall. But it was very important to her to have lots of choices, and I decided it was important to me to let her have choices, even though the application/test score fees probably cost me an extra several hundred dollars. </p>

<p>I probably would have discouraged her from adding any more schools (she did do a walk-in at Unifieds, but never applied there - it was just to warm up), because there is a point where you aren’t going to increase odds, and you are increasing stress and cost. But 10-15 schools for this kind of kid is absolutely typical. </p>

<p>In retrospect, “should” she have applied to the reaches, since we could have predicted that she was going to be rejected? I certainly wasn’t going to tell her not to apply to those schools - who was I to say it wasn’t even worth trying? You never know. Some kids would rather not have the rejection - my kid wasn’t happy being rejected (she got 4 of them in ONE day), but she survived. </p>

<p>I did at one point suggest that she tell some of the EA/rolling schools she had decided against that she definitely wouldn’t be going there - since it was well before April 1, we figured she was giving someone else a spot. That was why she turned down the WL at one school. But she achieved her goal of having lots of options. Her decision was stressful, but it meant the world to her to go through the hard process of choosing her path.</p>

<p>It really was no extra work for her guidance dept to send out a few more pieces of mail, or for Pete’s sake press a button on a computer! The stuff they sent was the same if she had had 1 school, 5 schools, or 20. It’s just crabbiness for someone to make a kid feel bad about keeping options open. Clearly they have no idea what it means to be trying for auditioned programs. Might as well just ignore it.</p>

7

<p>
[quote}By spring, she was much less interested in some of the schools than she had been in the fall.
[/quote]
</p>

<p>Also true of my daughter! I’m glad she cast her net widely.</p>

8

<p>Wide net being cast from our house too. My S is planning to audition for 10 schools and apply to 5 non-audition programs, 3 of which <em>should</em> be academic safeties. The auditioned schools cover as wide a range of (theoretical) competitiveness as we can muster–he’s well aware that none can be considered safe–and he’s definitely tried to find as much evidence as possible for goodness of fit, in hopes that the perception of fit will work both ways. To the original poster, don’t worry about your guidance office–do what you gotta do, and good luck! :)</p>

9

<p>OP, you are in a different position than most from your school. You are applying to audition programs–so there is no way to calculate your chances of acceptance to those, and you are also in need of FinAid, and there are always surprises when the packages are sent out. Different schools may have widely different offers. You need to cast an even wider net to have academic safeties, financial safeties, and maybe a Theatre non-auditioned BA/BFA safety, too. And still have room for those reaches that look great. So smile and nod as you bring in your requests to the GC’s office. Best of luck.</p>

10

<p>Even my daughter, who is a tech kid, is applying to 13-14 schools. From what I’ve read here, she may not need that many since she is technical, but for us, it’s all about the financial aid. We have to keep all our options open. I’m sure her GC and the one who prints the transcripts are tired of her, but oh well, that’s their job. (And…I’m a teacher, so I have no problem saying that. LOL!) OP, I think your numbers are about the average for most folks on this board.</p>

11

<p>Just to reassure kids on this thread who are NOT applying to a dozen schools - if you have a safety or two that has the program and the cost that appeals to you, it makes total sense to apply to the safety and then maybe 6 or so reaches/auditioned programs. If you know are satisfied that you can get the degree you want and aren’t particularly picky about location, campus life, etc. (in which case you are very lucky!), you can keep the numbers down. There is a thread in this forum of non-auditioned BFAs, most of which are fairly reasonable to get into academically, and many of which are very affordable public universities, so finding that one safety isn’t terribly hard. The numbers add up the more criteria your heart’s desire includes. Again normal, but not necessary for everyone.</p>

12

<p>My D is a junior but we plan to apply to 15 next year, 13 of which are audition. Your number is fine. We are all throwing a big net with the hope of catching a couple of fish! With such a big number though, we should be careful and get our requests for transcripts and recommendations in early… And maybe bake a batch of cookies for the guidance office when we are all done!</p>