There are thousands of kids vying for 20 or so slots at each of the top programs. I have no doubt that personal connections can and do make a difference in trying to distinguish among all those kids. But sometimes the connections can be subtle. Our family knows of only two kids from our city that were accepted into Top 3 programs. When we did some research, both had family connections to the departments that accepted them. So maybe it’s a matter of who you know, and not just coaching. Talent clearly matters but if there are 100 super talented kids and 20 slots, other factors might come into play. We signed up for this process but it is clearly broken.
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Thank you @DramaLlama18 for letting us know. I have made a note put “please note: Beware - “Ides of March” may last from Feb 20ish through Ivy Day” in my Final Decision post.
I have commented more than once, that this journey is not only about our children, but us too. We have every right to be ticked off about every perceived injustice. This process is long, hard and let’s face it, sucks on so many levels. This is the Sharing, Venting and Discussing board and I am making no judgement on anything that’s been said up to this point. But I am asking, as a C/O2025 parent, that we remember this is our legacy for those thespians that come after ours. This is not just a “parent” board, but one where 15, 16, 17 and 18 year olds come for reassurance for when it’s their turn. Just something to keep in mind when posting. Thanks for your consideration. 
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College Audition Project (CAP) also offers coaching scholarships. I believe Moo does as well. Erika Henningsen of Mean Girls did a free college audition seminar for students with need. There ARE resources out there for folks who want to use them.
Gossipy, unverified articles, especially those who single out a specific school, are a disservice to our kids’ hard work and accomplishments during this process. If you’re gonna go there…then just remember you can’t get upset when your kid’s school is the focus of unflattering opinion and conjecture. You can never please 100% of the people 100% of the time. 
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Agreed and those are my thoughts. My D will be fine but had I known about all of this in advance it would have been so very helpful.
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AT the end of the day, it’s about a ton of talented kids vying for a tiny number of spots. Really no different than the academic kids vying for HYPSM. Each yr there are literally hundreds of kids with 4.0s (all AP / honors) and 1600s who DON’T get in. Many of them are sports captains or Class Presidents, Model UN, etc. The difference between them and those admitted may be unrecognizable. Those that were denied think it’s not fair (and it’s not). But think for a second. If that kid did get in they took the spot of another equally qualified kid. Why would that be any more or less fair. We went through that with S for academics and D for art. S is about to graduate and had a great experience, found the right place for him when HYP said no. D is at a great program for MT and will get great training to advance her skills (after she herd no from many top schools and yeses from other great programs).
They just don’t have the space. We can argue all day that there are issues regarding male/female, white/ POC, etc. In MT you also need to throw in type. How many sopranos, alto sopranos, etc. There just aren’t enough spots. If you look at the top 30 programs (just picking a number) and say they average 25 per class, that’s 750 kids out of what, 10,000 that apply. The numbers are pretty similar percentage wise to getting admitted to HYP. Your kids need to view it that way and be amazed when they get a yes. Casting a wide net is key. If a top student only applied to the Ivy league and Stanford / MIT, there’s a very good chance they’d be taking a gap yr.
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You are right and I take responsibility for jumping on the bandwagon. I will make every attempt to verify if the kids from Cal are from the same coach. Thanks for keeping me in check.
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I appreciate what you’re saying, but our kids need to be educated about this process. They need to understand that this process is flawed. Their chances of getting into a top school are affected by their physical type, their voice type, their talent level, yes…but also maybe their coach, the fact they are not the daughter of Madonna or Felicity Huffman, and other factors that may be beyond their control. They need a balanced school list and, as others have said, they need to understand that their college acceptances and rejections do not reflect their worth or their potential for success in this field. I think every kid goes into this process thinking they’re getting into a top school when that’s just not realistic. For many reasons, including those being discussed here today. I think it would be helpful, not harmful, for future applicants to be educated upfront so they have reasonable expectations. It’s unfortunate that there are three UMich students being called out, and my heart goes out to them because they are certainly talented. I wish the discussion could have started in another way, but I do think this discussion is an important one to have.
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@soozievt The Fund is much needed and a wonderful thing.
Also maybe you are not aware that CAP ( with Dave Clemmons) and MTCA , the coaching company you mention, all have private auditions for their students. There may be others I am not aware of.
Hi @Notmath1
Yes, I knew that CAP w/ Dave Clemmons has private auditions as does College Audition Coach (Moonifieds).
I do not believe Trifecta held college auditions, just workshops or master classes.
I am NOT aware that MTCA holds college auditions. I didn’t think so. They hold workshops and master classes, yes. They hold mock auditions for practice. I do not believe they hold official auditions for admissions like the 2 others just mentioned. If I am wrong, please someone correct me. That would be something new.
They hold Baldwin Wallace private audition days.
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@OnBroadway and @Skymomla and @mythreelulus among others. My post was because I am completely exasperated. I want to thank @mtcollegedad for noting that this is anonymous blog post - not even an article in a creditable publication.
My exasperation comes from a couple of places. One is that we can only know FACTS. We’ve already determined that half of it was not credible due to the fact that 11 out of 24 admitted students are BIPOC. Clearly the person who wrote this doesn’t have their facts straight.
Why does it matter? Because other people will be combing this page next year and trying to learn about the process and the schools. College Confidential gets a bad rap as a place of gossip mongering among parents. It would be nice to present clear accurate info for future applicants and their families.
Look back at your posts? Are you speculating? Do you have any evidence? Please post it. Just because someone said something in the room to your child, doesn’t make it “code” for “you are not working with our coaches”. People say many things in the room. Some students get a lot of love in the room, only to find out they didn’t get in. Some get a so-so feeling and it turns out they are accepted. I don’t know what your point is, but maligning a well respected program with no “facts” is just something that I think needs to be called out. I notice that the same people have started a new thread, devoted just to this article. “Circulating article on University of Michigan…” where I come from, we call this stirring the sh@%t.
I certainly agree that we should care very much about equity in the arts but the way to do that is by getting involved. I can’t say enough good things about TCFA which I mentioned earlier and @soozievt referenced above. Supporting them and others like them would go a long way towards positive steps in diversity and equality. I also agree that no matter where you go, hard work and a positive attitude and work ethic are what count the most. Best of luck to all of you and your kids!
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Just to say that the Michigan issue isn’t necessarily about kids getting private audition days or access to coaching, it’s about the unlikely odds of the only three kids from the entire state of CA coming from one coaching company. I think this is a different kind of advantage we’re talking about here.
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In any case, I think it is sloppy to post a so-called “article” with no link to its origin or author. Thus it is someone’s personal blog or letter being passed around, and not as legit as a published article with a link and an author’s name.
Again, follow your dreams, work hard, and focus less on what others are doing. It’s a very competitive process and not being admitted to a particular program is not a statement on your talent or worth. Once more, lots of kids, including my own, got into BFA programs without ever having met a faculty member before they got in the audition room at the college’s official audition. I’d worry less about what perceived advantages others had. I believe the programs accept students whom they feel can succeed and must turn away many others they also feel could succeed. It is the nature of it and one must remain realistic. If you have talent, drive, put in the work, and get some training, you can succeed. The name of your program is not what determines your future. You do.
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Agreed. Hopefully some future families will be informed and aware of the process. It is a sad situation for all involved.
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I think some folks don’t want to focus on that but it is the bottom line.
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I think it’s time to move on. Anybody watch the NCAA hoops matchup of MT titans - FSU v. UNCG?
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When I did my pool selection, I chose schools that I had heard of their MT programs. I wonder how well I will do!?!
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In recent years, I think most MT programs (hereinafter programs) get ten times the amount of qualified applicants (I’ll call that the “talent” hurdle) than they have spots available while most of the remaining programs will have more than enough qualified applicants to choose from; it stands to reason, then, that many factors will come into play in deciding which of these qualified applicants will make the cut besides talent. Do others feel differently?
I think they’re assessing whether their class looks diverse (to the extent to which they have options), whether they project the class / section chemistry to meld well (which is probably complicated to accurately determine but doesn’t mean they wouldn’t try), and other factors that they deem will help make their class “unique.”
For many universities, financial means is a factor too (e.g., whether the student requires financial aid or not) and that may trickle down to departments. Less selective institutions are probably preoccupied as well as to whether the students they accept will actually attend. Some schools put a premium on overall academic rigor and performance, but that seems to be a limited amount of programs.
I would love to be a fly on the wall and mind reader when they discuss and make decisions regarding these young artists. I would love to hear the conversations that go on, how they go one way or the other with an applicant, but alas I lack these transformative capabilities.
Yes, talent is the most important factor, but my guess is that most programs see that in spades; it’s the weight of the “other” stuff that comes up that is interesting to speculate about, and I imagine that one factor can reign supreme in one instance only to give way to another factor at a moment’s notice (i.e., it’s a fluid situation).
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Michigan (hopefully not too soon) and Illinois are good choices as top seeds. Hartford not so much. I saw TSU made it only to find out that’s Texas Southern (not State) University.
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I know this is a side discussion on sports (so moderators please forgive me) but I did read that six players on the Cincinnati Bearcats’ men’s basketball program have recently put in for transfers. Since that team is akin to the size of a MT program, that seemed like a lot.
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