How many MT applications are you sending out?

College Majors Musical Theater Major
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<p>I'll admit that I am "new", but I have spent hours reading old threads and posted info, but have really not found a separate thread for this. </p>

<p>I am a rising senior and have a very "long" short list lol. I want to keep my options open and not be bummed if things don't work out eventually for any of my top choices as they seems extemely competitive and so I have 'safeties' built in as well. I have narrowed down the amount of schools that seem a good match to about 16, but my parents feel that I need to bring it down to 10 period. I like the schools on my list for a variety of different reasons (curriculum, academics, performance opportunities etc. etc.) and so I am having a tough time letting go. </p>

<p>Can any of you share some wisdom as how many schools you applied to/auditioned for? </p>

<p>I am thinking about auditioning in person at my top 8 and doing Unifieds for the rest, but could definitely use some guidance on sensible numbers!</p>

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<p>There is no magic right number. That said, I think 16 is too many. However, for this point in junior year, 16 is an OK tentative list and if you can do some visits and further exploration, you should narrow that list by late August. </p>

<p>The number of schools on a list depends on many factors. I would have to see how balanced your list was vis a vis your qualifications. If you are totally shooting for BFAs in MT and have a back up BA or two, I'd think that 10 schools is in the ballpark (again, without seeing your list or your qualifications). Sometimes when a student is applying to a mix of BFA and BA options, it might necessitate a longer list of perhaps 12 schools. Except in cases where there is a good reason to apply to more (financial aid considerations, etc), I think it is uncommon for most students to NEED to apply to more than 12. I would think 8-12 is the range depending on the list and person. If you apply to more than 12, I feel that your efforts for each application will be diluted. It is important to put your all into each application. Further, more than 10 or so auditions will be very crazy in terms of travel and efforts. Also, if you are so lucky to get into a lot of schools (say 8-9), it would be harder in April to revisit or have time to really focus on which schools are the best fit. The time to focus a bit more is now, while being open still to various possibilities since you never know. </p>

<p>I have two daughters now in college. Each one applied to 8 schools. One of my D's is a MT kid and she applied to 8 BFA programs. Her list was appropriate for her. For my other kid, and for any kid applying to non audition based schools, I would say apply to 40% reaches, 40% matches, 20% safeties. That is what she did with her list of 8 schools. Having the right list is key, however. D1 was admitted to six schools, waitlisted at one, and deferred/denied at one and her schools involved some of the most selective schools in the country, but it was a very balanced list in terms of her odds of admissions. D2 had all BFA programs and was admitted to five, admitted to the BA but not BFA at one, waitlisted at one, and denied at one. The number of schools really depends on the applicant but in ANY case must be appropriately balanced. </p>

<p>So, I think your list of 16 is fine for now but I would suggest narrowing it to approx. 10 but I'd truly have to see the list itself...the appropriateness, the balance of odds...and evaluate it per your background and qualifications and chances, to settle on an appropriate total number. That is why there is no magic one size fits all answer to this question. But in general, 8-12 schools should be right for MOST applicants. Less than 8 is fine for some and more than 12 is appropriate for particular cases. For all BFA type candidates, I think you do need at least 8, however. You could do 8 BFAs and 2 BAs for instance.</p>

<p>Susan</p>

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<p>I applied to 7 BFA MT programs (w/ auditions), 5 BA Theatre Arts programs (non-audition) and 1 general studies program. I am just about to be done with my auditions, but I can tell you that managing 12 applications even without the auditions is a challenge, and with the added stress of scheduling, traveling, practicing etc that comes with auditioning, I completely agree to soozievt's 8-10 for BFAs.</p>

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<p>I've applied for a BM (Baldwin-Wallace) three BFAs, and two non audition BA programs. And even though it's only 4 audition based programs, I feel that it takes a lot of time and money, so I couldn't even imagine 16!</p>

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<p>My daughter applied to 5 BFA's, 1 audition based BA and 1 audition optional (for merit scholarship) BA. Between auditions and preliminary visits to some of the schools, there is no way we could have handled more traveling than that from Dec through Feb without my daughter dropping a show she was in. As it was, she ended up withdrawing her application to the audition based BA which has all auditions on March 4. It frankly amazines me that so many can find the time to attend 8-12 auditions!</p>

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<p>i applied to 4 BFA programs this year, and one audition BA....
i would say that it is really difficult to audition for many schools if you have limited financial reosurces...like moi
but, try going to unifieds...i was unable to do that, but i probably would have been able to try for more schools
well, actually, it's a lot of $$$ to apply to schools anyway...all those application fees! bear THAT in mind!</p>

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<p>The number : we asked for 10 or under. The $$ really add up!</p>

<p>My D had 12 to start, which was whittled down after location and curriculum were considered to 9 (6 BFA, 2 BM, 1 BA (non audition - ulitmate safety) She spent a LOT of her summer doing apps and essays as some of her top schools require lots (and those of you who applied to these schools know what I am talking about:). We fall loaded auditions due to a heavy spring show schedule and did 5 in Nov/Dec and 3 in January. She did not complete the one BA appication after she received her first BFA acceptance(it was the common app and was ready to go)</p>

<p>We did only 3 preaudition campus visits which were either within driving distance OR on the way somewhere else. All others visits were done as part of the audition. Even still, this has been a VERY expensive time with time off work and travel expenses</p>

<p>Application time/ app fees / audition time/ audition travel - it all adds up and should be considered!</p>

<p>MikksMom</p>

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<p>I have to agree with Mikksmom...this is a very expensive process! We were fortunate enough to have tons of frequent flier miles and hotel reward points and still spend more money than I care to add up!! My daughter auditioned for 10 schools (we also cut her limit to 10). She did 4 at the schools, 4 at the NY Unifieds and 2 at the regional auditions in Atlanta. It worked out for us. She has not seen ever school yet. If she is fortunate enough to be accepted to some that she has not visited, then we will take the trip to visit. She did the research and found schools that she liked basically by reading up about them and touring their websites and requesting information. She is happy with her choices and said her final 10 schools were all places she could actually see herself being happy, fitting in and loving school. Now she waits! </p>

<p>I do think you need to have a good variety and definitely more than just a few college choices. Especially if your child is a female. The talent is just incredible out there and the acceptance numbers are scary to say the least. So keep your pocketbook in check, but definitely have plenty of choices too!</p>

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<p>I totally forgot to mention that reason as well...the expense!!</p>

<p>I also heartedly agree with kaysmom that it is VERY important to like MANY schools and explore them all and be open to them all as you never know and it is foolish to fall in love with just one or two. You could be happy at more than one place! Also, that way the disappointment is not so great if a denial comes through.</p>

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<p>I must say I agree with the previous posts. I do want to mention one thing that I wish WE WOULD have done/not done. This actually has to do with "Saving Money". My daughter is now a senior and has been auditioning for the past two months at various schools with the last "Big" audition being this weekend in Boston.</p>

<p>What we did though, was visited almost all the schools in her 11th grade year to take a look, sit in on classes, etc. Well, that is great and we totally enjoyed ourselves but what we did not consider is that we would have to do this all over again when she went to audition for these same schools. </p>

<p>I wish we just would have driven to the few we could have gotten to easily and then investigated and looked thouroughly on line at the rest of them. We actually spent double the money we needed to. She has already received some rejection letters, etc. Well, I think if you are concerned about funds it is a better idea to go to your audition at the school or at some unifieds and THEN if you get accepted to one or more schools, THEN go to take a good look at them. Especially in this business of MT. And, now that there is soooooo much online to see, videos pictures, etc. You can get a really good feel. Not to mention just reading all the good and bad from various people on this website that gives you some great ideas, gives you questions of your own, etc. Anyway, that is my two cents.</p>

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<p>cindystampsu, I agree with you! We did the same thing- visited all the schools first. Not only is the expense prohibitive- by the end of the process I had developed tendonitis from dragging bags through airports!</p>

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<p>Cindystamps4u and BreatheEasy-it is advice like yours that make this site so beneficial:) My D is looking to about 12-16 BFA programs. we thought that by going on visits it would help eliminate some and narrow our audition process. Also, we thought that meeting the program directors may help ease nervous tensions at the auditions, giving one a familiar face. Do you think visits can give an applicant an edge--meaning if 2 people auditions are equally good, do you think the scales would be tip in the favor of the one who make previous contact?</p>

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<p>When we did our first visits, we never actually met any of the people that actually auditioned the students. </p>

<p>We also thought that visiting first would eliminate schools- but we only eliminated one- and actually added a school that we didn't visit first, because after reading CC, we got scared that he needed another "safety"! He applied to 11 schools, but eliminated two auditions fairly early because of an early acceptance- and ended up being able to eliminate three later auditions when he got accepted to his first choice (thank heavens). So, we only actually went to six auditions (no Unifieds) although 11 were initially scheduled- and it was still exhausting!</p>

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<p>soozievt "I totally forgot to mention that reason as well...the expense!!"
Thank so much for your input! I realize that it is really expensive to go out and audition everywhere so I have been saving money for this since my freshman year. At the same time, I will be traveling with one of my parents and I will need to consider their schedule and can't be flying all over the place. At this point, I don't know that I am ready to actualy post my list since I am still evaluating way too many and most are probably on "everyone's list". As you and other parents have suggested, I am trying to come up with a balance between reaches, somewhat more attainable and safeties, while also considering that the programs offer what I am looking for. I love to sing and act, but have a dance background and could not picture myself in a program where I would not be challenged there too. I have decent grades, will be taking my SAT's soon and my SATII's in June. I have done regional theatre, am active at school and in my church, I am holding some perf. arts related leadership postions and I love doing community service introducing the arts to underpriviledged . I am also well aware that there are so many incredibly talent people out there and the competition brutal. In spite of all I am ready to pursue my dream, but I want to be smart about it and increase my odds, so I am working my tail off to have as many AP's on my transcript as I can handle, continue to train to be ready for auditions and, oh yeah, rehearse and perform in some shows too :-). Sounds all probably real familiar...</p>

<p>cindystamps4u & BreatheEasy- I think that after reading your comments, waiting to actually visit until you hear if you get in and/or benefit from when you audition on site is the way I will go about things. I did have the opportunity to (in)formally visit some of the schools I am looking at, I know some people currently attending different schools from summer programs, and there is definitely also a ton of information available on line. I am keeping an open mind, which is actually not hard to do, because most programs have something special that I love about that particular program, it could be the curriculum, the faculty, the size of the program, the location and so my quest continues....agh, off to school now!</p>

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<p>I think you can eliminate schools without visiting if you do a lot of research. This includes online research (not just about MT, but research about the campuses and the schools themselves--even research about the cities they are located in), but the one that worked best for my daughter was that she sent emails with lots of questions to all the schools. A great many of the schools responded and even made an attempt to answer all her questions, point by point. We were able to knock out a few this way. There really are schools that match you and schools for which you are not as good a match. You need to develop a long list of questions you want answered. Over a period of time you can collect the answers without hitting the schools with every single question all at the same time. Everyone's list of questions will be somewhat different. I think my "research" on CC really helped because when my daughter went to make up her list of questions, I helped her and came up with a lot of questions she would not have been able to think of only because of what I had learned reading this forum. If you are polite and show your interest in the school, it is rare to have a bad experience by asking questions.</p>

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<p>We were fortunate enough to be able to visit schools of interest over a several year period, and this did help my son figure out where he wanted to audition. We saw shows, met faculty, toured campuses, and he visited classes if possible. I think going back to campus the second time for auditions also helped once it came time to make a decision.</p>

<p>Surely to a very small extent, it could help with an admission decision if one has visited and shown interest in a school, perhaps with all other things related to the audition and other academic admissions being equal. This is truly assuming you can swing the visits. I agree that it becomes VERY expensive.</p>

<p>In the end, my son applied for 11 schools (2 that were non-audition) and did 9 auditions (only 2 of these being at unifieds).</p>