@123Mimi my daughter is applying to BFA’s for dance. She has all but 1 application in and swears the other will be ready by this weekend. We haven’t seen the essay since it is a private and not on the common app. Our bigger issue is that each school has their own supplemental application with essays, prompts, video uploads, resume uploads, head-shot uploads, recommendation uploads, etc, etc. The list of things to do is endless. They need to be done in order to receive an audition spot. And be considered for scholarships. So haphazard about this. We fight everyday.
Oh I hear you @123Mimi ! I have struggled right along with my D on the essays, and like you, I’m not thrilled with the final result. But in the end, I’ve had to resign myself to the fact that this is her essay, her application, her journey, her life. I’ve done my part by guiding and offering advice, constructive (and sometimes not so constructive #-o ) criticism, and support. Probably more than enough of all the above to be honest. But in the end, it’s all on her, and that part is hard, for both of us. But she is taking it on, and she has demonstrated that she knows the consequences if this admission cycle doesn’t go the way she wants: gap year or community college, neither of which are what she wants to do, but she gets that those are her “worst case scenarios” of this process.
For me, I have to just start the letting go process. So hard. So very hard. But I’m getting there, little by little. May we all survive this crazy year! 8-}
I’m not so sure about my D’s essay either. She focused on a particular problem that she has. It definitely has her voice and her personality, but I’m not sure that focusing on a problem is the way to go, especially since its an ongoing thing. I told her this, and she added a paragraph at the end about how her mom thinks she should make it more upbeat, but this is what she wanted to talk about. 
So we’ll see how that goes over!!
“she added a paragraph at the end about how her mom thinks she should make it more upbeat,”@GertrudeMcFuzz That made me laugh. This is all so crazy. From the ACT super scoring to the essays after essays to the interviewing and now auditioning. It feels like it we can make it there we can make it anywhere.
Article about Essay process.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/read-me-students-race-to-craft-forceful-college-essays-as-deadlines-near/2017/10/28/0384fcae-b808-11e7-be94-fabb0f1e9ffb_story.html?utm_term=.d88e545184b5
This application process is almost over clenching teeth !
DD and I sat down this weekend to do a final review of her Common App, UCs, and CSU applications. FOR 5 HOURS STRAIGHT (!!!), we went line by line, read prompt after prompt, essay after essay, re-confirmed class/grade by grade, re-selected majors on the fly, submitted SAT scores … took out my credit card out and made the first payments towards college :-o
Exhausting!!!
My kid’s response last year to a marathon session like that – at the end she squeaked, “Dobby is free!”
The first app is the hardest to get submitted. Gets easier after that. Kind of like childbirth I’m told.
I think I have already gone nuts! My D is fine. I am actually so stressed about the deadlines for applications that I am annoyed that she wants to do her homework and prepare for tests. I think she may lose some audition opportunities and I have to make peace with that. She applied to schools without the common app cause she whipped out a perfectly fine “why I want to be an actress” essay but the ones with the comm app and pre screens won’t be getting her application this week (or maybe even the next) I just want her to push through and get them done. But she is taking breaks, hanging with friends, attending school, showering and studying. Goodness. I think I have identified the problem: it is me.
I had to re-read this thread so that I would not feel alone. Major strain on the relationship right now, trying to balance caring guidance with independence. I’m really fretting over the lack of preparation for interviews, while I don’t expect kid to have the interview skills of an adult, I am trying to encourage the importance of taking the perspective of a college and preparing to tell his story in positive ways. Dealing with creative teenager who needs to be authentic has really been hard this weekend.
Thank you for this thread. I am just done. My son is done. I am trying to control what I cannot control and it is frustrating as heck.
I stepped back and gave her space and sure enough with that space she found her voice. Her comm app essay is really good now but it took me first being honest about the first draft I read not working. Then her regrouping. Me backing off. Then her figuring out how to get my input in a way she could handle. I had to let her be in control of this. And really she wants my help but in a new way. @liveonboca and @DoinResearch I’m right there with you! This is not easy for them or us. And I guess we are all scared a bit: of losing each other, of expanding out, of missing each other.
@123Mimi My actor son has shifted from BFAs to LAC with theater programs. With that shift (IMHO) I think kid needs to temper the “inner young Sean Penn” during the interview, and Sean Penn just wants to be Sean Penn. (Using Penn as an illustrative example, not to be taken literally) I think it’s possible to maintain ones authentic voice while sharing information that might help a LAC understand there’s a smart kid under all that quirky persona. @liveonboca on the inside, I’m done, too. I’m pushing out the next interview, and I’m going to go 10 days without any guidance, see if we can regroup. Deep Breaths.
@DoinResearch does he have to do interviews? maybe not doing interviews is better for Sean? I have the opposite situation – after a year visiting and researching LAC by daughter decided to pursue BFA so really she’s now doing both.
@123Mimi That’s exactly where I was this morning, maybe better to have no interviews. Honestly, for BFA, he’d be fine I think - the uniqueness is an advantage…I’m sure I’m overthinking this. Again, these are teens, and perhaps I’m applying “adult job interview” perspective into the process that’s not needed. It helps to know there are many other parents living this experience.