<p>I was just wondering how many schools were on your final list. We have 19 and I am wondering if that is really too many? It took soooooo long to make the list.....trying to balance everything out and I don't know if we could cut it down, but I just wanted to get a feeling of how many schools other MT students were applying to. We figured out all of the audition dates, so that is not a problem, all of the application fees on the other hand.....</p>
<p>My D who applied to schools 2 years ago had 13 on her list. 19 seems like a lot of schools to do applications for. How many of these are audition schools?</p>
<p>My D1 applied to 9. Accepted to 4. (although my memory is a little foggy now that I’m helping S2 start his search).</p>
<p>I have 7 schools on my list. that includes 2 safeties, 2 academic reaches, and 3 ‘artistic’ reaches. only 3 are audition schools right off the bat, but all of them (excluding one) require an audition for the musical theatre minor/certificate or to stay in the program once enrolled. Like you, this is my first time going through all this, but I would highly recommend narrowing your list down. I had a LOT of schools on my list over the summer, but I did enough research that I was able to cut many schools off my list. My strategy in this process is to make sure that I would be happy at and able to afford ALL of the schools on my list, that way I always have options and won’t be let down. If you narrow your list down a bit, I think you will take a great load of stress and craziness from your schedule/application/audition process 
good luck to you!</p>
<p>Six schools on my list. Until just a few days ago it was twice that. Then, a combination of going on to the Common App website and thinking “when in the world am I going to find time to write all these essays?” along with an insight that I would be 100% happy with any school of the six I decided on, I was able to narrow it down.</p>
<p>In case you haven’t looked them up, there are many past threads on this topic. Here are a few of the more recent ones:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1208256-how-many-schools.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1208256-how-many-schools.html</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1170200-please-check-over-our-college-list.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1170200-please-check-over-our-college-list.html</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1152177-so-many-colleges.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1152177-so-many-colleges.html</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1153973-hello-new-cafe.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1153973-hello-new-cafe.html</a></p>
<p>Plus, one of the all-time favorites also covers this topic to some extent:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/477658-preparing-apply-information-h-s-juniors-seniors.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/477658-preparing-apply-information-h-s-juniors-seniors.html</a></p>
<p>D, a senior, has 12 on her list and we feel like we’ve struck the right balance. There’s a chance we might add one or two more (if they don’t have a supplemental essay requirement that’s not already been written - these are driving her nuts!). After she got honest with herself about what she really preferred in a program (regardless of the reputation of the program) it became much easier to narrow it down. I also think at a certain point you get diminishing returns - and besides the cost - it’s a lot of work to keep organized and prepare for who wants what in an audition - and to remember authentically when you go into the audition why you really want to go there!</p>
<p>One of the hardest things she did was take out some of the most competitive programs because she thought they probably weren’t the perfect fit for her. We did this partly because she had misgivings about the fit and partly because we knew she needed to have some bigger or more local draw programs for balance. </p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>Due to unexpected financial issues and parental pressure, I applied to five schools: one safety/close to home (for theatre and accepted), one laughable (as an advertising photography major/first major on the list, but I was already offered a scholarship, free application and was accepted), one dream (where I ended up), two possibilities. The last three were all audition-based and I was accepted into the first three. I didn’t realize at the time that my two possibility schools, I was only applying to the BFA programs and would not be added to the application piles for the BA programs if rejected. Big mistake, that! Not one I regret, having gotten into my perfect school, but otherwise.</p>
<p>My D is applying to 10 that have auditions (1 with a pre-screening dvd),and one non-audition. I think the key question, after noting whether all the applications are possible, is how many auditions would there be? 19 would probably be way too many-- I would think more than 12 would be rough but I have no experience.</p>
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<p>In my opinion, yes, that is far too many. With a properly crafted list, after much research, no student should have to apply to more than 8-10 schools. The chances of admission do not increase with an ever lengthening list. In fact, I would imagine that the law of diminishing returns would be the result.</p>
<p>I’ll chime in. I don’t think there is a magic number of schools that can be applied to every case. I’d have to see the balance of the list and appropriateness of the list for that particular applicant. Each person’s circumstances and odds, etc., are different. </p>
<p>That said, for MOST applicants seeking either primarily a BFA degree or primarily a BA degree, 8-12 schools should work. My own kid who wanted a BFA in MT applied to 8 schools. I have worked with some kids who still are not sure if they want a BA or a BFA and in those cases, in order to have enough options/chances for each degree, they have applied to 12-14 schools. But I cannot think of ANYONE who NEEDS more than 14 schools. And if primarily seeking one kind of degree, then nobody really needs more than 12 (ie., if want a BFA, then applying to no more than 10 BFAs and 2 non audition BAs would work). It is a matter of having the right list that is appropriate for that individual, as well as a balanced list. </p>
<p>Thus, yes, 19 is far too many schools. There is no need to have 19 schools. If one is a viable candidate and has a list of schools that are appropriate to their qualifications, then having more than 12 or more than 14 is not going to be necessary. Not to mention that the efforts put into each application, essay, audition, and demonstrating adequate interest in each school will be diminished. I have never had a student apply to more than 14 schools and every student got into college.</p>
<p>If your child is seeking a BFA in MT, then my feeling is that 8 BFAs and two non-audition BAs can work or 8 BFAs, 2 audition BAs, and two non-audition BAs can work. At most, 10 BFAs and two non-audition BAs would be more than adequate. If a student has such a list and gets in nowhere, then their list was not appropriate to them. The key is an appropriate list, not the length of the list.</p>
<p>We were advised to be sure that you “love your list”. With that mantra in mind, we found the work was not adding dream schools to the list, but identifying the safety school that you could love too. The safety school hunt took a long time but now that we have one that could be “loved”, the list got cut way down. If I had to do this all over again, I would have built in more campus visits to potential safeties before entering the application phase where time gets pretty precious.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for all of your input. We will look over the list and see if we can pull a few off. Maybe some of you may have a suggestion? Here is the list - it’s 18, not 19 :)</p>
<p>OCU
SUNY Buffalo
Elon
JMU
American
Florida State
Wright State
Muhlenberg - non auditon
Otterbein - prescreen dvd first
The Hartt School
Emerson
Point Park
Ball State
Webster
Texas State - prescreen dvd first
Coastal Carolina
Univ. of the Arts
Ithaca</p>
<p>We would appreciate any input. I know that the list will have to be specific to my D, but does anything jump out at you?</p>
<p>My D has 14 on her list including one non-audition safety and one non-audition slight reach school. Also including 2 that require a pre-screen.</p>
<p>We were shooting for 12, but decided to allow for the possibility that she might not be called back from the 2 pre-screen schools, which would drop her list down to 10, and went ahead and kept 2 additional schools for a total of 14. </p>
<p>I will admit that there are a couple of them that I’m not 100% sure are perfect fits, and we were rather surprised to find that the “dream” schools we thought would end up on the list did not make the cut. Because of that (fewer “super competitive” schools), she probably could have taken a couple more off the list but she was happy with it, so we left it alone. Thank goodness for Unifieds! If it weren’t for that we would DEFINITELY be taking more off, but we sort of figured that if we were going to be there anyway, why not redeem the time and do a few schools that might not otherwise have made the cut.</p>
<p>I sent you a PM nymom94.</p>
<p>nymom…is your D a very strong dancer? Be aware that she would need to be for Florida State. </p>
<p>Be aware that OCU is different than the others as it is a BM degree.</p>
<p>I think it is too hard to evaluate a person’s list without knowing a lot about their academic and artistic qualifications and criteria for college and program selection.</p>
<p>Yes, she is a strong dancer and OCU is on the list because she did their summer program, knows the director from the summer program and really liked it there. We realize it is a BM. She is academically strong - 101.43 weighted average (all honors and AP), 28 on the ACT. I know it is hard to critique someone else’s list, but I thought maybe something would jump out at someone and they could give me a reason to consider taking a certain school off the list. Thanks everyone for your input.</p>
<p>Elon loves strong dancers too!</p>
<p>Does your D know each of those schools pretty well? Can she write down several facts about each school? Can she articulate a list of reasons why each school is on her list? Can she list pros and cons for each school? If she can’t provide a list of reasons for a particular school, perhaps that school can come off the list.</p>
<p>something that helped me narrow down my list tremendously was considering location. I ended up taking several “top-notch” schools off my list because they weren’t in urban locations. personally, I’m a city girl and I feel I would get more opportunities for performing if I studied in an urban location. everyone is different, but that is perhaps something to consider. in the end, one may find that they want the exact opposite of my preferences - but it all comes down to research, research, research ;)</p>