<p>While not quite the same, at CMU Pre-College, often one or two kids get an offer of admission at the end of the summer. I know that happened this past summer for this year's audition/admissions cycle. So, those two slots were filled before anyone auditioned (who did not attend the summer program). Most summer programs do not employ this practice of offering admissions in summer for the coming admissions cycle.</p>
<p>Sports recruitment is not really at all a similar situatioin to what happens with MT or straight drama prospective students. We have been in the position for many years to know students who are auditioning for college theatre programs. Hundreds of them over the years. I can't think of even one who attended an event like those being discussed in this thread, yet all of them, every single one, was accepted to at least one well-respected theatre program. We have never known of any high school student being 'recruited' or actively sought after, and again, all have been accepted to college programs. </p>
<p>There have been previous discussions here on CC about these conferences, etc., and about students receiving offers. From what I can gather from many discussions, it's still not a common occurrence, given the number of kids attending, and often it is an initial offer which is dependent on an application being submitted and approved. And, I'd just have to comment, if it's NOT being offered in that way, is this really a school which you'd want your child to attend? One which doesn't even pretend to consider academics, letters of recommendation, essays, test scores, artistic resumes? One which is making offers, on the spot, long before the audition 'season' begins? I guess I don't understand why a college would do this. There certainly is not a shortage of kids auditioning in the traditional way, as all of you who have gone through it, very well know! Schools don't need to recruit. There are far too many talented kids out there, so the schools are in the position of being in a position to fill their slots many times over. One related comment, which is not really relevant to this discussion, but one which I've been told by more than one person - apparently some of these schools include the numbers of kids they see at these conferences/events in their totals for how many auditioned for them in a given year, which is not something that should be done, in my opinion.</p>
<p>I honestly don't think that this 'recruitment' happens all that often and that the number of offers made is very small. And, as Susan said, most colleges do not attend these conferences, let alone make offers on the spot. I wouldn't spend much time worrying about how this may put your kids at a disadvantage. There are so many things to worry about in this process! Don't look for more to add to the list. :)</p>
<p>cartera45,
-Your comment sparked a vision of darkly clad, sunglassed recruiters unobtrusively slipping in back rows of dingy H.S. theaters around the country, seeking the NEXT BIG BROADWAY STAR!</p>
<p>soozievt,
-Thanks for reaffirmation that this practice is (as of now) not affecting the audition process. Hope it stays that way for future students.</p>
<p>I agree with AlwaysAMom that this is a very very very slight piece of the entire picture of BFA admissions and again, I don't know anyone who got in this way and I know many kids at all the top BFA programs. I have to agree with her as well on something she brought up that was on my mind when I heard that some got offers of admissions at these thespian conferences in North Texas (read here on CC in the past) or at the one in Lincoln, Nebraska, and that is why would a college admit someone solely on an audition without any formal application of much more information, including academically, background, transcripts, recommendations. I realize that auditions are a main component of BFA admissions but we are also talking about being admitted to COLLEGE and there is more to predicting success in college than simply an audition. The student has to be able to succeed as a student at the college. </p>
<p>Anyway, these events sound worthwhile for their own sake (though I had never heard of them before I got on CC and nobody I know has attended them), but I would not put a lot of concern or stock in these events for admissions purposes. Most who get into a BFA program get in the usual way. Again, not all well regarded BFA programs even attend these events. Some (not all) programs that attend are not well known schools. If this is a concern for you, opt to apply to colleges that don't attend these events. However, I don't think this is much to worry about at all anyway.</p>
<p>Proceeding as planned.</p>
<p>As AlwaysAMom said, I'd REALLY have a problem with a school that made an offer that was not contingent upon application submission, transcripts, etc.</p>
<p>sualabama-</p>
<p>I'm using my daughter's log in (mine NEVER works-st8gemom). Anyway, my daughter was also in TMM and was your daughter's roomate in Kenosha! My D is going to BoCo....just can't figure out how to post it...
Also, she received a couple of offers after the college auditions at International Thespian, but not from the schools she really wanted.</p>
<p>st8gemom, congratulations to your D on her acceptance to BOCO. :)</p>
<p>Hi Chelex! AC loves CT! Congrats on Boco!!!</p>
1 Like
<p>One way that events such as the state and national thespian conferences are valuable is that they provide opportunities for smaller schools, schools that operate on a very tight budget, and schools with regional draws to see more students and for more students to find out about them. While not necessarily being among the "well regarded" programs, these schools provide valuable options for many kids interested in performing arts. Perhaps this is particularly so in the mid- and mountain-West, where schools such as Mesa State, University of Wyoming, and others get a chance to see kids from surrounding states at one event. With the distances involved, there's simply no easy way for many kids in this part of the country to visit a lot of schools and experience many performing arts events outside of their own, often small, communities. </p>
<p>Plus, in my opinion, any event that exposes more kids to more of the non-Ivy colleges is a good thing. </p>
<p>If we're talking about whether the audition process is truly as fair and open as it would seem, then rather than being concerned about colleges cherry pick students at these kinds of wide-open, come-one-come-all state and regional events, I'd be interested in hearing if any of this sort of thing goes on between colleges and individual performance groups (community theatre troupes, etc.) or performing arts schools. Is there any indication that colleges scout certain schools and already decide to take certain students well before open audition process begins? I find this to be an interesting question given that most of us spend a lot of time looking at how many students a school accepts, and using that information to make up the list of schools to pursue. If a school accepts 20 kids total but has already decided on half of those prior to the start of scheduled auditions, then that certainly throws a wrench into a lot of our calculations!</p>
<p>flhope, as the parent of a kid at a pretty well respected public arts high school with a good track record, let me reassure you that, to my knowledge, no college acting programs scouted kids ahead of time or had behind-the-scenes sort of talks or agreements that certain kids should be looked at. I watched very closely as 15 very talented young actors struggled and worried and sweated through the college auditions process, with varying results. Some got into what are considered the top programs and others did not. Some had a number of acceptances and some had only one. Perhaps others coming from private arts boarding school programs might say otherwise, but this is the report from a respected public arts school in the East. :)</p>
<p>The only programs I recall being at our State Thespian auditions that are at the top were OCU and Webster. There was another one called Wesleyan but not sure if it was Illinois - seems there is more than one college with Wesleyan in the name. Mainly they were small colleges not as competitive. OCU and Webster I know did the callbacks encouraging students to come audtion at their campus - actually I think if you go to the OCU site they had a form to set up in advance the audition during the Thespian conference but only for those in Acting, not MT. </p>
<p>The conference gives to each of the schools a sheet with the student's name, GPA, SAT/ACT. So it's not that the schools are completely in the dark about those academic factors - but again we are talking about small non-competitive programs.</p>
<p>My son participated in a similar conference in Florida. It included auditions at some of the schools listed at the top of these threads as well as a number of smaller and lesser know schools. There were call backs at the audition and a number of other kids from his class/theater group were there as well. He had three call backs. One school accepted him based on this audition and all he had to do was make a formal application. They also offered a generous scholarship after the admission process was complete. He also was not called back by a few of the better programs. He did a "real" audition for those schools either at unifieds or at the school. He was admitted to one and rejected at the other. The school who admitted him awarded their largest scholarship even though he didn't even warrant a call back at the conference audition. I think these conference auditions are for the most part a tool to allow the schools to see a broader range of students, and maybe see a few who might not ordinarily audition with the school. Other students in his class had similar experiences, including some offers of admission.</p>
<p>My D also did auditions at her State Thespian her junior year. She received lots of callbacks from both the smaller and larger colleges. She received multiple letters, offers and interest from state colleges, and some nationally such as Evansville and FSU. She decided not to audition for them however. A couple of her very talented friends who needed to stay in-state took advantage of this opportunity and it paid off well for them. She has an awesome drama teacher who made this happen. Find out and encourage your teacher and school to join in at least the state level. The kids have to do multiple things to become a member but it is well worth it. Start their freshman year if possible!</p>
<p>NMR - Thanks for describing how you've seen things work for the kids at your daughter's school. It's good to know that that's one "conspiracy theory" that I don't have to worry about! I'm in paranoid mode today. I think someone's raided our mailbox and snuck off with my D's Webster letter... :)</p>