<p>Re: Post 19:
It surely does not HURT to acknowledge the acceptance upon receipt. I know I don’t think that and I didn’t read NMR to imply it either. And I don’t think acknowledging the receipt is to get on anyone’s good side. If accepted, you are already on their “good side.” :)</p>
<p>But I also don’t see this as being about manners. Good manners is to reply to EVERY college that accepted or denied you by May 1 to let them know one way or another. At that time, you can thank the schools that accepted you and let them know you have made another choice, etc. </p>
<p>I don’t see any purpose or need to acknowledge a letter in the mail that says you are accepted before you have made your decision. Colleges accept thousands of students and I can’t imagine them expecting receipts that these acceptances were received after they were sent (though should expect replies of the applicants’ decisions).</p>
<p>As far as coaches’ involvement…my honest opinion is that coaches should not be contacting schools (other than letters of recommendation). I know of one or two coaches who do talk to their students’ schools. But the majority of kids, including mine, did not have a coach talking to the schools. I am not an artistic coach but am an independent college counselor and one tenet independent college counselors have is to not be in touch with their advisees’ colleges. I have NO contact with my students’ colleges. That is the role of their school guidance counselor only, in my view. Again, I am not talking about letters of recommendation from a college coach. I have to agree with NMR, that it is unusual for a private coach who is not from the child’s school to be in contact with admissions or theater dept. heads, even though I know of one or two who do this. Hopefully the colleges realize that the majority of students do not have coaches who contact them. But I would hope a coach would not divulge their students’ other colleges or acceptances without permission.</p>
<p>snapdragonfly, I don’t think you can go by how many weeks past an audition until you are notified of an admissions decision. Many colleges notify ALL applicants at ONE time on April 1 or late March, both acceptances and denials. SOME colleges notify on a rolling basis. Many of my daughter’s colleges notified everyone around April 1 or shortly before that (for example…NYU, CMU, Emerson, Syracuse, BOCO). My other daughter who applied to regular colleges (not for MT) heard from ALL of her schools close to April 1. That is how admissions works at a huge number of colleges, except those with rolling admissions.</p>
<p>While my daughter did not acknowledge offers from MT programs, it certainly doesn’t hurt anything. Once my daughter made a decision, she did write a thank you to the school that she accepted, and wrote e-mail’s to the others at which she was accepted thanking them for their interest but declining the offers. I remember at least a couple who sent follow-up “surveys” asking where she had decided to attend and why she chose that program. She made her decision relatively late as she was a transfer and so didn’t receive her final offer until very late April. By that time, she had already narrowed her decision down to just a couple, so she notified the ones that she knew she would not be attending much sooner so that they could pass the spot on to someone else. I believe that in each case she sent a general thank you e-mail to admissions, as well as a more specific e-mail to the department or department head at each school.</p>
<p>Well, as we say ‘round these parts, no use beatin’ a dead horse with a stick.</p>
<p>Bottom line: if you or your son or daughter wishes to write a thank you note to say “I am honored to be accepted” before May 1, that’s really nice. And if you or your son or daughter is accepted to a program before April 1 and knows for sure that he/she won’t be attending, it would be particularly gracious to send a note saying thank you, but I won’t be coming to your school, so that others on the waitlist can move up. But it’s not necessary to do this and not everyone does it.</p>
<p>We are not very experienced at any of this, but I have suggested to my daughter that she respond with emails to schools when she receives letters or emails with decisions even if the letters are just offering her BA Theatre opportunities.
She even wrote an email to one school that rejected her because she wanted to tell them something that she had really liked about their audition process. The email she received back was great.
I think my D does better in auditions and with this whole college admission process if she views the college admission people and theatre department people as “real people” who want the best for the students who audition. They may not have a place in their programs for her or in the specific program she wanted, but I think the rejection stings less if she is at least able to see the process from their viewpoint.<br>
There is alot to be learned in this audition process and only part of it is the name of the particular school where she will go.</p>
<p>I think some of us are saying that applicants SHOULD contact their schools whether accepted or denied, but do not need to do that until they have made a decision. They don’t truly need to acknowledge receipt of the admissions notification itself. Communicating and being gracious can happen once they have decided and then let the schools know, along with any messages they may wish to include in that communication. There really is no need to contact the schools twice (once upon receiving their admissions notification and weeks later with letting them know their decision).</p>
<p>How many people are typically on a waitlist?</p>
<p>It depends upon the school. Each schools have a different figure they keep on the waitlist.</p>
<p>This is somewhat unrelated, but if I’m sending a thank-you e-mail just for the audition experience, even before I’ve learned the outcome, should I send it directly to the head of the department, or to the general theatre office of admissions?</p>