May 1st Deadline

I have seen several comments on here about schools not honoring the May 1 deadline, so I did a little research. Turns out the National Association of College Admission Counseling who enforces the deadline is being investigated by the Department of Justice Anti-Trust division and therefore has suspended enforcement of compliance with the May 1st deadline. Search the internet for “NACAC’S CODE OF ETHICS AND OTHER POLICIES” and you will find the page with the official statement.

This was news to me and I imagine many others. So it seems like this year may be a bit like the wild west. Interested to hear how those of you who are faced with this issue are handling it.

~VT

For one school, I emailed the admissions office directly after consulting with NACAC when my D was asked to commit by March 15 by the theatre dean. Admissions confirmed the offered scholarship would still be available as long as she committed by May 1.

Yikes! Had no idea- and this is obviously super important for this year’s auditioners! Thanks for sharing!!

@VoiceTeacher this is not correct. The May 1st deadline has not been eliminated/suspended. Here is further verbiage from NACAC about this issue that was posted back in Fall 2018 and was confirmed to me as being accurate and current:

"Based on our understanding, the DOJ’s review is focused on elements of the CEPP that:
(1) Prohibit colleges from offering Early Decision applicants exclusive incentives not available to
students applying under other admission plans;
(2) Limit colleges’ ability to recruit students beyond the May 1 National Candidates Reply Date,
including limits on the recruitment of students who already have committed to attending a
college. It is our understanding that the Department of Justice is not interested in eliminating the May 1 reply date, but is concerned about our ban on recruiting students who have already committed to another school; or
(3) Limit the recruitment of transfer students.

How would this affect auditioning students?

@theatremom10 this is what I found from Sept. 2018

"In a special action, the 2018 Assembly approved the following motions related to the Code of Ethics and Professional Practices (CEPP):

The Assembly agreed not to amend the Code of Ethics and Professional Practices (CEPP) for one year or until the investigation by the Department of Justice Antitrust Division is resolved, effective immediately.

Delegates agreed to a moratorium of enforcement for Section II. A-Application Plans for First Time Undergraduates in the United States: Guiding Principles and Rationale; Section II. B-Admission Cycle Dates, Deadlines, and Procedures for First-Time Fall Entry Undergraduates: Guiding Principles and Rationale; and Section II. D Transfer Admission: Guiding Principles and Rationale for one year or until the investigation by the Department of Justice has been resolved."

The line that covers the May 1st Deadline is Section II.B.3, which is part of that moratorium.

I emailed them to get some clarity. Thanks for sharing that other statement.

~VT

I read that exactly the same as you did VT. There is a moratorium on enforcement, so if they aren’t enforcing those sections of the code of ethics in which the May 1st deadline is included, it gives schools leeway with their dates.

@VoiceTeacher thanks for your response. I am a college advisor and have consulted with the higher ups in the organization. If you look at what I posted, which is from an internal memo, you will see that the elimination and/or lack of enforcement of the May 1 deadline is not the case.

Here: “It is our understanding that the Department of Justice is not interested in eliminating the May 1 reply date, but is concerned about our ban on recruiting students who have already committed to another school;”

It is the ban on recruiting students after May 1st that is in question and is where the lack of enforcement lies not with enforcing the May 1 deadline itself.

@theatremom10, that’s not the point. The point is that they themselves say that they’re not going to ENFORCE the deadline this year, which means that schools are free to ignore it. Even if the rule is in place, it means nothing without enforcement.

@actorparent1 There is no direct statement from NACAC that the May 1st deadline is not being enforced.

Here is a link to a document that was sent to NACAC members and was given to me by those in the know: https://www.nacacnet.org/globalassets/documents/advocacy-and-ethics/statement-of-principles-of-good-practice/burgeletter_membership9_2018.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1whuoBh4IDue0jcYEeGO_gyEQxdSO3A-qBwD1oSkTeQZszyw4QZjc-Htk

The few schools that are ignoring the May 1 deadline this year have been doing so for numerous years in spite of complaints. I have dealt with this as a college advisor and it makes for a very uncomfortable situation when a student and their family must ask for an extension or for the school to honor the May 1 deadline. This is why the May deadline exists and is being enforced. If NACAC was not enforcing the deadline this year, I would know about it

I heard back from NACAC, here are the important bits from them which aligns what @theatremom10 said. The response said there is a moratorium, however, the expectation is that members will not take advantage of the situation and will continue to honor the tradition that has existed for decades. The email also said they will follow-up on complaints and encourage schools to honor the traditional May 1st deadline.

I also talked to someone else who mentioned that while the MT department may say that they need an answer before May 1st, it is not necessarily endorsed and may not be supported by the university’s admissions department. So if a pre-May 1st deadline is problematic for you reach out directly to someone in the admissions department and if that doesn’t get it resolved, contact NACAC.

I fully understand why they want an early answer. A lot of us have all accepted the same kids and don’t want to lose students from the waitlist if others have already made up their mind but haven’t made it official. But as a student, you do have the right to wait.

~VT

I haven’t seen any indication that schools have change their deadlines, nor parents of kids in other fields being pressured to respond early (and believe me, if parents of accepted kids to my older daughter’s college felt such pressure, social media would have exploded, but this is not a big performing arts school) Is this affecting specific fields more accutely than others?

Thank you @VoiceTeacher for reporting back.

@VoiceTeacher get your facts correct before putting people in a panic. Seriously, do you have any idea how stressful this process is without posting false information about deadlines. Your post prompted me to have my son email Missouri State to ask for an extension to the April 1st deadline that they had sent him, which I would never have had him do if I thought the May 1 deadline still applied.

I would venture that VoiceTeacher, as a faculty member in a MT program, knows very well how stressful this process is for students and parents. VoiceTeacher has been on this forum for years and has always endeavored to help people through this process, and wouldn’t willfully post “false information” to try and cause panic.

I would also offer to everyone stressed out by pre-May 1st deadlines that it’s totally okay for your child to write these programs an email asking for an extension (even if you think the May 1st deadline applies in their care). These programs ALREADY LIKE your child–they’ve offered them admission to a very selective major out of a pool of hundreds of applicants. Asking for a little more time to make a decision is not going to make these schools go “oh, never mind, I don’t want to spend four years with this student anymore.”

Let’s all take a breath! You are all in the home stretch.

@onepercentmom , so did the school rescind the offer of admission once your son emailed them?

With all due respect to @voiceteacher and many thanks to the many, many valuable pieces of info and advice he’s shared through the years, I think this post is interesting in light of the drama we had here on CC not long ago about misinformation being spread about programs (specifically the misinformation that the head of BW may have been leaving that program). Many of us saw the thread on her FB page in which high-profile coaches and college theater employees were bashing the parents of CC for posting information that wasn’t accurate. Although it’s true that people should be sure not to post inaccurate (or incomplete) info here, maybe this will help those college professionals who were mocking CC parents see that, just like VoiceTeacher, the parents on here share info out of a good place in our hearts and we want to help each other.

I am confused about what inaccurate info has been shared as I don’t see any. My read of the thread:. @voiceteacher addresed concerns he had seen that schools would change the May 1st deadline and discovered that NACAC was discoraging schools from doing that but that it was possible due to the moratorium. In fact, two parents on this thread noted that their kids had been given response deadlines earlier than May 1st (March 15th and April 1st) so it seems that some schools have chosen to take advantage of the moratorium. So I would suggest that if your child is in the situation of having been given an early response deadline but needs more time, it is advisable to reach our to the school’s admissions department.

I agree with @PhilipM - the info @VoiceTeacher gave was still accurate. While they are still encouraging and advising schools that they should honor the May 1 deadline, technically the NACAC has decided to not fully enforce sanctions for violations. The only real recourse schools would face if they impose an earlier deadline seems to be public shaming.

I would definitely advise reaching out to admissions at the school to request an extension for anyone who has been given an earlier deadline that you feel you cannot meet. Do what you can to get in writing that they will honor May 1.

I’m not sure that there is any reason to be so negative on this board, but if you feel the need to do so, perhaps a PM is the appropriate place to do it.