I am wondering about Northwestern and MT. I have heard they have a wonderful program. I wonder why they don’t have auditions before admitting students? My daughter would love to go to school there, and is planning to apply. We think she is a pretty good candidate. Her weighted GPA is 5.58 (4.0 unweighted) and her SAT is 1320 (she is retaking it). She is in each honor society at her school as well as a couple of clubs. She has been the lead in both her school’s drama and musical theatre productions and performed in community theatre, too. We are concerned, though, that 1. Her SATS might not be high enough 2. That if she did get in, she might not get into the MT program. I wonder how many kids still get to participate in MT productions if they are not in the certificate program? She really wants to pursue this, but she also knows that gaining entrance to a school like Northwestern is a tremendous opportunity. She would not turn it down if she were to be given the chance to go to school there.
Hi @atypicalstagemom. My S is a freshman in the theatre program at Northwestern, so I will try to answer your questions! First in terms of stats, info from the Class of 2021 is available on the Northwstern admissions page - the average SAT was 1440-1540 and the ACT was 32-34, so her test scores are lower than average. Her GPA is strong. Second, I can’t speak to why the program doesn’t audition prior to entrance other than to say that they are strong believers in training actors who are curious and knowledgeable about a wide range of subjects. Many, if not most, kids have a certificate, minor, or double
major. If you haven’t explored their website, I encourage you to do so as there is tons of information there. Finally my S auditioned for the certificate program in the fall and was not selected but is being strongly encouraged to reaudition next fall. The only imact I have seen is that he hasn’t been able to fit dance in - but that is more about him and his schedule. He has private weekly voice lessons with a voice faculty and was cast in the freshmen musical. Everyone can audition at the quarterly general auditions for all shows. Hope that helps!
@efr9598: I hope you are able to see the freshmen musical this year. My D was in it last year (“13”) and it was seriously one of the most entertaining musicals I’ve seen.
@momzhood We are planning to be there!! It’s Camp Rock this year and it promises to be quite amusing - according to my son!
All freshman - director, producer, tech, choreography, Bienen students play. Just a blast! They’ll hit you up for fundraising. 10 pm Friday is the performance for the drunk college audience. Was-Mu Board attends that one.
So is that the performance to attend - or avoid?!?! I mean if the Waa Mu Board is there, you’d think they’d be on!
Thank you for your response @efr9598 . She has been working hard to bump up her test score. When is the freshman performance? We are planning to catch some performances when we visit campus.
@atypicalstagemom The freshman musical is May 17-19.
@efr9598 thank you. We won’t be there at that time. But we have tickets to other performances. She is really looking forward to it.
@efr9598 Ha ha - just wanted to let you know!
@atypicalstagemom - NU has a fantastic reputation and the facilities are beautiful. Just a small word of caution - scores really matter. My D had a 3.8 UW and a 31 ACT, is the student body president, co-captain of her Academic Decathlon team, gold medals… blah blahblah… had lead roles in 8 shows, got recommendations up the wazooo …and was rejected early decision. We think she just didn’t have the astronomically high GPA and scores they want to see. In retrospect, all is good - she has ended up exactly where she should be 
so no sour grapes here but definitely know that NU cares a LOT about those scores.
NU does ask you to upload videos for acting and singing as well as a personal video where you talk about yourself so in some ways that’s an audition process.
One other thing to note: Northwestern fills approximately half of it’s freshman class through ED. My daughter was WL for Theater this year, and the letter from Northwestern said that they had over 40,000 applications to fill a class of 1,925, with over 1,000 of those being admitted ED.
I’m not sure if the Theater department also admitted half ED, but they only accept 100 into the Theater department each year, so I’m sure many of those were ED as well. I share this to let you know that if Northwestern is your child’s #1 school, applying ED might be beneficial, so if they need to re-take tests, make sure they prepare like crazy and get it done in time, and good luck!