First time to post! I have a junior S and a middle school D who are both very interested in MT programs. My question is how intensive are the training programs of other students? How much dance are they doing? Are there MT programs that only take outstanding dancers? I am struggling with balancing training vs. performing in productions. I am second-guessing myself already and we haven’t really started the audition process. 
Here is a thread of people talking about that very subject.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1866090-for-current-high-school-seniors-and-college-mts-what-kind-of-training-have-you-had-p1.html
@MidwestMTMom - you’ve come to the right place. It’s great that you are here for your junior and middle schooler. Here are a couple of threads from past years’ seniors telling about background training, schools applied to/accepted/rejected, what could have been different. Lots to digest, but gives a good overview of what to expect.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1724734-final-decisions-background-class-of-2019-p1.html
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1616849-final-decisions-background-class-of-2018-p1.html
The same thread for Class of 2020 is also out there and just “ramping up”.
Hi @MidwestMTMom! Boy, can I relate to what your struggling with. My D is in 8th grade and goes to a PA school, and one of her teachers told me about this board last year. I’m not sure whether I’m happy or unhappy about discovering it, LOL – happy because I’m learning so much NOW instead of when it’s too late, but unhappy because I’m getting so stressed out about trying to make sure that the experiences and training my daughter has over the next 4 years will make her a desirable candidate for BFA programs.
We are struggling with the same issue of training vs performance time and how to balance that. We live in a major metropolitan area that doesn’t have many professional theater opportunities for kids, but has a lot of Youth Theaters, plus of course shows at D’s school. Last year she was pretty much in a show the entire school year, and while that was fun and exciting for her, we learned that all Youth Theaters are not created equally, and not all are good learning experiences. So this spring my D decided to take a break from shows for the rest of the school year and concentrate on taking more dance classes. She resisted taking dance when she was younger, but has learned since attending her PA school that it’s really important, so now she is trying to play catch-up, and it is hard. Between private dance, group dance classes, voice lessons, piano lessons (so she can learn to read music and plunk out songs for herself), and her extended school day at her PA school, it’s a very tight schedule, and not everything fits in it when a show rehearsal schedule is added on top of all of that. 
Since we’re new to this too, I don’t have any advice other than to keep reading CC and maybe to check out Mary Anna Dennard’s book “Before I Got In”, which has advice on what your child should be doing to help prepare them for the BFA audition process. Good luck, and know that you’re not alone in this. 
My advice is- don’t stress too much. There is not a magic formula- or a “right” way to handle this. I have seen kids get into great BFAs with nothing but public HS shows on their resume. I have seen people spend thousands on camps/programs etc and get denied by their favorite schools. Are training and performance valuable- you bet. But do what seems right to you- what is your kid interested in- rather than worry about what will get them a spot in a BFA
@MidwestMTMom - For your son who is a junior- you might want to check out a college program for this summer. Many of them have already accepted people - you might want to call around and see who is still taking applications. They are a great way to gauge if a student is interested in the rigors of a BFA.
A wide variety of programs can be found on this thread
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/122525-summer-program-big-list-data-info-keep-adding-p1.html
As too @wonderful says “There is not a magic formula- or a “right” way to handle this.” Here’s another very recent thread on “performing vs. training”. As you’ll see, consensus on the matter is hard to get.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1857363-performing-or-training-p1.html
@MidwestMTMom and @muttsandMT my D is a junior now & attends an arts high school. we have always struggled w/ the schedule and doing shows or doing training . Even though she gets training at school with all her voice and dance, she could stand to take more dance. However there simply isn’t anywhere to fit it in. She tried last year & ended up missing so many classes that she had to drop the class.
I would say from my experience as my D is like so many others, doing theatre since elem school, try to get dance in if possible and as much as you can . It seems to be the weakest link in MT students from what I see at her school, Unless your child started out as a dancer and switched to MT. I just think more dance will make things easier down the road for him/her & could possibly make a difference when it comes down to 2 talented kids who can both sing and act… It could be the tie breaker, ya know? I think it is the reason my D was recently waitlisted at a summer MT college intensive. She belted & acted her way into the final selections and since the school is known to be dance oriented, I think the dance call got her waitlisted. I’ll never know but she thinks so too and she was there lol!
Anyway we are gearing up for this crazy ride next year so it’ll be interesting to see what happens!
And yes CC is both a blessing & a curse :))
Oh my goodness. I am so relieved that I am not the only one thinking about all of this and I am so thankful for the wonderful, honest responses! I will definitely go and read through all of the other threads suggested. Thanks @GSOMTMom, @mom4bwayboy, @toowonderful for the links.
I wouldn’t assume you didn’t get into to a summer program because you didn’t have enough dance. It’s all very random. The audition process for college is much like that too! You think your child might be a good fit, but know there are lots of others who are a good fit too! I do recommend going to a summer program and I wonder if having a college audition coach might be a good idea. It is an extremely competitive process. I also think having a balanced list of schools and be open to going to any school and don’t fall in love with any program. 15 schools seemed like a crazy number to me. My child audition at 10. Two acceptances. Two redirects and plenty of rejection even after being accepted to most the colleges. So hold on and enjoy the ride!