<p>How many BFA Musical Theater programs should a white male apply to? I know a most of this depends on the programs you're applying to, talent, grades, looks etc. But is there a general recommended number?</p>
<p>Another aspect to consider is your budget and time to travel to auditions. We live in Northern New England and my son’s school is not generous with school days missed. He will be doing 7-9 auditions at Unifieds (NYC and Chicago) and he will be traveling to three campuses, two of which will require at least one overnight stay. I would have preferred more on-campus auditions, but it wasn’t doable.</p>
<p>Seems like in the last few years there has been such an increase in applicants its also necessary to increase the number of schools you apply to. I don’t think there is a magic number and I don’t think they should apply until they thoroughly research the school. My S would love to attend all 10 of the schools he applied to, he didn’t want to love one school too much and face that level of disappointment. He was also realistic about the odds of getting in so that’s why he chose 10. We are very fortunate that all 10 are within driving distance too.</p>
<p>Hope this doesn’t sound pedantic, but it’s more than a question of how many programs total–you’ll want to encourage your son to apply to a range, including at least one or two non-auditioned programs that would be academic safeties that he’d feel good about attending. Financial safeties too, if that applies! My son (acting, not MT) included only a few high-reach tippy-top programs, a few that are super competitive but not as terrifying as the others, an academic reach or two, etc.–we came up with categories, in short, and made sure he applied to a few from each. He was a middling high school student so a few schools were eliminated because we were pretty sure he wouldn’t have the academic stats. His total was 11, 4 of which did not require auditions. His acceptances: 3 non-auditioned, 3 auditioned (two of which were in his personal “top tier” 3 schools). Hope that helps!</p>
<p>I’ll add to Times3’s categories, that it can be helpful to have one or two early auditions where you have a reasonable expectation of getting your decision early. After my son got admitted to one school in December, we immediately dropped his applications to the schools he liked LESS than the one he had already heard from. That cleared out the schedule to a much more manageable level. </p>
<p>We also had in mind a couple of schools with late application deadlines. If my son had been denied admission to the schools that gave notification early, we were prepared to submit applications to the schools with late application deadlines. One such school is University of the Arts in Philadelphia. It looked like a terrific program but he wasn’t sure about the very urban environment, but since it had a late application deadline, we always had it at the back of our minds.</p>
<p>If your early auditions result in getting the dreaded denial letters, it is of course discouraging, but it’s also an opportunity to regroup. “Was I fully prepared for the audition? Are my monologues as good as they can be? Or should I reconsider my monologue choices?”</p>
<p>I second prodesse. My D is applying to 14 for acting, and one is a non audition safety. Some are tippy top reaches and others are slightly less selective.
She has applied to U Arts and auditions next weekend. If she gets an acceptance there, because they have rolling admissions, she has 2 schools at the bottom of her list she plans to drop. We also plan to do a couple walk ins at Unifieds.</p>
<p>Rider (Westminster College) in NJ also has rolling admissions and a December audition date. It is a 30 minute train ride from NYC and a good theatre program. It is so nice to have a decision early (if it’s a yes, of course), takes so much pressure off!</p>
<p>My s just visited Rider last week, and he was told that even though he has a December audition, he will not here until February which is new this year because of the increase in applicants.</p>
<p>SField - DARN IT! I scheduled auditions somewhat based on rolling admissions and how quickly I’ve read on this site a decision is sent out. Rider is up next for my S…looks like we could’ve waited.</p>
<p>MTMajor Cook, I agree. While he was observing an Acting Class, I sat in on an information session, and the Director of Admissions stated that if students apply by November 15th, they will receive a decision by December 20th except for MT students, they will hear in Feb. because of the increased number of applicants this year. He is applying for the Theater Performance and they told him the same date applies.</p>
<p>So glad my D and I will have time to really look at different programs and put together a good list over the next couple of years. It appears from the advice here that a sound approach is to have a prospective list that includes schools that would be dream reach, within reach and safeties? I’m also thinking, at least for my D, with her vocal emphasis, it would probably be a good idea to have a mix of both BFA options, BM MT options and VP options. </p>
<p>Since we live in Southern California our ability to travel extensively might be limited, although we will travel to a couple of schools if there are any must audition schools on her list that don’t attend LA Unifieds. And though I know her heart is sort of set at the moment on going out of state, I’m going to insist she consider some in state options like UCLA, UC Irvine, Pepperdine and CSU Fullerton. I know at this age traveling far from home seems oh so enticing, but when the reality sets in as she will still be only 17 when she begins college her feelings might change.</p>
<p>I’m curious to know how others went about researching programs and compiling their lists? And I was also wondering if there are options for VP auditions at LA Unifieds?</p>
<p>My son applied to 15 schools this year. Now-- of those 15, 6 require prescreens and he’s already heard NO from 2 of those, YES from 2 of those, and we’re still waiting for the other 2. All 15 are audition programs-- we have no non-audition safeties, and that was a personal choice of his. His school list contains a very varied mix of public/private, big/small campus, well/lesser-known programs, etc. We are also expecting a few academic NOs because of his less-than-stellar grades and test scores. But, his college list has been well thought-over because of his academics-- No Michigan, NYU or Elon, etc. Campuses that he visited and didn’t like were taken off the list. </p>
<p>Our hope, come next March/April, is that he has 3 schools that have accepted him and he can choose from. We’ll be keeping our fingers crossed.</p>
<p>SU88BFA, I see you’re from Virginia. Are you in Northern Virginia?</p>
<p>Rats, sorry for the Rider misinformation!</p>
<p>austinmt-no worries, I think it was only decided recently because S met with an admissions counselor a month ago and he said Dec 20th he would find out, so it was a shock to us.</p>
<p>We went through the application process last year and my S applied to 10 schools total with several pre-screens which were successful and three schools in the UK. We kept whittling schools down though due to the cost of the applications and the auditions as well as schools that don’t offer much financial aid. He had a mix of audition times starting in November and the final audition was the first week of March. We ended up bowing out of unifieds though and withdrawing two of his applications once he had received his top acceptance. He did, however, continue with two more auditions after that fact, just in case…
As SU88BFA said, we did not even apply to some of the academically more challenging schools as my S had solid but not stellar grades and test scores. He was accepted academically to the schools he applied to and received 4 artistic acceptances to the 8 he auditioned for which we were very happy with. I will say that through the process I would periodically panic that he had not applied to enough but, in the end, ended up withdrawing apps as acceptances came in.</p>
<p>prodesse-- No, I don’t live in NoVa. I’m about 3 hours away from you.</p>
<p>I think everyone panics that their child (or they didn’t) apply to enough schools! The panic usually sets in sometime between the last audition and when the first artistic acceptances come in! My advise is to take a deep breath and make one final review in late December of your master calendar and school list. My son did not do unifieds last year because he really wanted to get a good feel for the program and campus. It made for a very hectic January and February travel schedule! If we were to do it over, I think we would still go to each college but also add NYC Unifieds in for good measure. You never know what hidden gems are out there!!!</p>
<p>I’ve applied to eleven schools, all auditioned based. I’m a character actor white male with a high tenor 1 voice. I’ve applied to three with prescreens, yes from pace, no from pennstate (dance isn’t so great for me) and idk about Ithaca yet. I’ll let you know how it goes but most men I know are auditioning to ten schools</p>
<p>Break a leg, MTfreak96–my S is auditioning for 10 schools too, all audition-based (straight not MT). The number is just chance–it’s the schools he’s interested in. I’d like him to audition for two more schools I think he’d like, but he’s resisting. I’m definitely reaching the point of mild panic that there’s not enough schools, MT17WSU.</p>