<p>I am a high school senior applying for BFA acting. My list is as follows:</p>
<p>Emerson College, California Institute of the Arts, SUNY Purchase, Coastal Carolina, Pace University, DePaul University, Fordham University, Point Park University, Montclair University, Ithaca, and Salem State (safety).</p>
<p>I wanted to apply early action everywhere, because I am the type of person that wants to just get it done, rather than waiting around.</p>
<p>But...here's my dilemma. I am from the Boston area, and a lot of the schools I'm applying to are far away (ex. california, south carolina, illinois, etc), and what I'm confused about is...are the early action and regular decision audtions the same? Meaning, is it just the application that is early, and then the auditions are the early action and regular decision applicants combined? (sorry this wording is extremely confusing). The reason I ask this is because from what I can tell, all of the audtions for the schools I'm applying to take place at the beginning/mid of February. I haven't seen any audtions before that but I really want to apply early action to all of my schools.</p>
<p>So, I guess my official question is...can I send in my applications to all of the above schools by November 1st (early action), and then not audition until Febraury, and still be considered an early action applicant?</p>
<p>As far as I understand, you can apply early action, but unless they have early auditions (a few colleges do), you will only be considered academically until after the audition. So…you may be notified early of your academic acceptance, but still have to wait until April to hear about theatre acceptance. My D applied to both DePaul and Emerson and had to wait until April for final decision on both (she auditioned in Feb). But, in my opinion, it is still good to get applications out of the way this fall - whether they are considered early action or regular. That way you can just concentrate on auditions. If I’m remembering correctly - doesn’t Emerson have an early round of auditions for EA?</p>
<p>first off, I would recommend not applying to 11 schools. that is way too much and is a waste of money (on the applications).</p>
<p>consider the price of travel when living far from home, especially in California. are you okay with only visiting home two times during the year?</p>
<p>clemme - Coastal Carolina is offering an early decision AUDITION this year on Saturday, November 6. This is an on campus audition. Here is a quote from Ken Martin, the head of the theatre department at CCU, regarding what that means:</p>
<p>"If you audition at that date, we can offer three different answers post-audition. First, we could suggest you might be better off in another program. Second, we could defer the decision until all auditions have been completed. Third, we can offer the student an invitation into the program.</p>
<p>If the invitation comes, the student has three options to answer us. First, they could accept - and the student essentially agrees that they will attend CCU (although there is no contract or signed agreement - we take it on trust). Second - the student can defer their decision. Finally, the student could simply tell us they don’t want to attend CCU.</p>
<p>The University has a rolling admission policy and will begin offering admission to the university at the same time we notify anyone who wishes to be considered for an early decision. We don’t offer invitations until the University has agreed to admit the student."</p>
<p>My D is a BFA MT freshman at CCU and is loving the program. Ken Martin is extremely nice and very approachable so if you have any questions you should definitely contact him. He posts frequently on the MT Forum under kjgc.</p>
<p>And can I add that, for theatre (and especially musical theatre) 11 schools is probably not too many. With an admit rate of 5-8% at the top schools (and all of yours are very selective) you can’t be too careful. If I remember correctly, my d applied to 10 and ended up with 4 acceptances.</p>
<p>Adding to my earlier post that my S submitted all of his applications in October but could only apply early action to two of the non-audition schools on his list. You really need to look up the application process at each of the schools you are applying to in order to determine if you can apply early action or if you must apply regular decision. Each school will also likely have a different notification process as well whether the academic acceptance comes first and the theatre acceptance comes later or whether they both come together. Now that I think about it, Fordham’s theatre acceptance came FIRST in a letter but the official acceptance package didn’t come for another couple of weeks. Then there’s the whole financial aid package as well which may or may not come together with the acceptances. You probably won’t have all of the info from all of the schools until around April 1st anyway so really you just need to break this down into applications, auditions and then decisions. </p>
<p>Still, there is no reason that you can’t get your applications out of the way early even if the schools will not permit an early action application/decision. You can submit a regular decision application before the early action deadline or you could just hold onto it and submit later if you think you may want to add some things. At least getting them done allows you to focus on your audition material as megpmom pointed out. </p>
<p>Emerson does, btw, allow for an early action application and audition on campus…at least they did last year.</p>
<p>Early action and regular decision are different. In general, there are very few theatre programs that offer early action or early decision. Coastal Carolina does as noted above. BU has a binding early decision. If you have not auditioned, then the early action will only be the academic admission component. Depending on the school, the artistic review is from 50 - 80% of the admission decision.</p>
<p>Here is my recommendation. Relax. You have a good list. Decide where you want to go to Unified Auditions (probably New York if you are from New England). You can do six auditions at Unifieds (over a three day period), and choose the schools that are furthest away from your home which will cut down on your travel expenses. After that, set up your other auditions for some weekends in January and February. Ithaca, Emerson, Fordham and Pace are close (drivable distances) to you, and you could do one or two a weekend.</p>
<p>You need to do your applications, set up all of your auditions, work on your monologues (this is the most important piece at this point), and take care of your health. Really, your auditions are just around the corner. You want to be fresh, energized and ready to go in January when everything starts rolling.</p>
<p>Applying to performing arts schools is a vastly different experience than what your friends and classmates are going through. You need to recognize it, try to learn and grow from it as an artist. I wish you much success in this journey.</p>
<p>Thank you EVERYONE for the amazing responses! They were all extremely helpful. My mom and I sat down today to make a detailed spreadsheet for all of my schools that include due dates, fees, etc. Thanks again for all of your help, the process has become much clearer!</p>