Updating files after EA deadline?...

Parents Forum
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<p>hey parents,</p>

<p>My son submitted an EA application with the due date of Nov. 1. Just yesterday, he received word that he is the recipient of a university-sponsored award that designates him as the top male math/science student at his rather large high school. Only two students were selected from his school, one male and one female. Do you think he should send an update to his EA school regarding this award, especially given that his stated field of interest falls under this category? If so, what is the best way to do this? I think if we rely on snail mail, it may be too late for the application review, if it is not already. Thanks for your input! ~berurah</p>

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<p>I would definitely update. Send an email, make sure that your son's DOB, SSN is included for easy location of his file. Good luck!</p>

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<p>Thanks so much Marite! I always look forward to hearing from you! ~berurah</p>

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<p>First off, CONGRATS to your son! That is a great achievement. </p>

<p>I agree with Marite to send an update and then due to the date, he should go with email. </p>

<p>Last year, when my D was an applicant for EA, and was deferred (I realize that is a different situation), she did write an update letter in January with new awards and activities. True she did not get admitted in April but I know that such a type of update letter is recommended and they do welcome them. </p>

<p>Now, funny to read your post today because my younger D, currently an applicant to colleges, just got word of a national award she got. Five of her apps are already sent and the sixth is going in the mail today. She was able to update her "resume" on this app and the two still to go. In her case, she has to bring a theatrical resume to her upcoming 8 college auditions and that will be constantly updated. But her application materials do not have this award on it (it is in her field) or some other "selections" that have occurred since her apps went in. I have suggested to her to write an "update" letter to the schools where the apps are already filed, mostly due to this national award but she can include the other regional ones too. I think this is good practice and I share it to let you know that we are doing what you are thinking of doing, though it is not as much about an EA issue. Well, actually come to think of it, she has one EA app in. I forgot about that. She should send that update ASAP. So, uh, I am glad I read your post because that did not occur to me. Her audition is at that school this weekend. </p>

<p>Good luck to your son and many congrats again for that recognition he earned.
Susan</p>

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<p>Soozie:</p>

<p>Congrats to your D!</p>

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<p>I would send the email Marite suggests, and also send it snail mail, just to make sure it actually gets in the file. My son did this to a couple of schools, with the email saying it would also be sent snail mail, and the snail mail letter saying it was a follow-up to the earlier email. </p>

<p>Congrats to your son and Susan's daughter.</p>

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<p>Susan,</p>

<p>Thanks so much for the congrats and for your support. We will definitely go ahead and send the update.</p>

<p>It sounds like your daughter is extremely accomplished in theatre! I have three daughters who do musical theatre, but they are not nearly as accomplished...it is mostly just a hobby for them, but I'd sure like to "talk" with you sometime about pursuing this area as a college major or minor. We are fortunate to have around our fairly remote area some very interesting opportunites available for those who are into musical theatre. I would LOVE to know more about your daughter and what she had done! And I wish her the VERY best of luck at her upcoming auditions!</p>

<p>over30--I think it is a great idea to follow up the email with a snail mail letter! A simple little thing to give a bit more security. It's so hard to imagine all of the papers getting into all of the proper files when there is SO much paperwork going through any one office! Thanks for your great suggestion and for your congrats! ~berurah</p>

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<p>Berurah, I would be happy to discuss musical theater stuff with you. I also live in a rural area. I do not know that my D is so "accomplished" but she is surely very passionate about this field and has been since preschool. For her, it is more than a hobby but is her intended college major and life's work. This is not an ordinary major that you pick once you get to college. It could be if you do a BA in Theater in a liberal arts program. But she is going for musical theater specifically and applying to BFA programs which you apply to directly, many of which are at liberal arts colleges/universities. They are conservatory type training which culminates in a professional degree. Besides doing applications like everyone else has to do (6 1/2 down, 1 1/2 to go!), she must audition to be admitted. This involves several songs (specific criteria), a couple monologues (criteria again), and dance. The admit rate at many of the programs is anywhere from 5-9%, difficult odds. A kid who knew for sure she wanted to do this, would go for this kind of degree. Otherwise, if theater is a hobby, a student could either do a BA in theater or even attend a college where they major in something else but where there is an abundance of theater opportunities on campus (this is true at my older D's college, Brown). </p>

<p>Your daughters will know by the time they are this age which route is best suited to their goals. My older D has done a lot in the performing arts, including musical theater. But for her it was more of an interest along with many other interests and more of an extracurricular thing, not her intended college major or career ambition. She does enjoy it. I miss seeing her on stage in fact. She is very supportive of her sister in this area though. She recently traveled all the way home from college to see her sister in a production and she is talking of also traveling home from her winter ski team camp to see her sister in a musical she wrote and is directly presently. She loves it too but right now is not performing. She just told me on the phone from school she will be attending two musicals at Brown this weekend, one of which was written by a boy my younger D spent many summers with at theater camp. </p>

<p>Shoot me any questions you would like. What is it you wanted to know about my D specifically? It sounds like your girls are enjoying theater where you live. How old are they? Are any of them in a show right now? </p>

<p>I never would have known that I would have kids so into this but I must admit, we really enjoy watching the performances and listening to Broadway soundtracks in countless hours in the car. While I would support any endeavor my child had, it is more fun for us to be on the sidelines or in the audience in theater than if my kid were into wrestling or some other thing that does not interest me as much, lol. </p>

<p>While I get to be a "stagemom", I also wear the hats of soccer mom, tennis mom, dance mom, ski race mom, band mom, etc. I just have to remember not to tell my ski racing daughter before a race "break a leg!"</p>

<p>Susan</p>

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<p>I have so much I'd like to write to you, but it is late now...look for a note from me tomorrow (12/1)!! ~berurah</p>

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<p>Hi Susan,</p>

<p>Your daughter definitely sounds like she has a very intense passion for musical theatre! It is, I think, a field that draws and fosters passionate people. </p>

<p>My own daughters became involved in musical theatre quite by accident around three years ago. It was not something I had ever done nor was it something that I even knew existed in our area. One day, my middle daughter's best friend took her to an audition. I have to laugh now when I think back and realize that I didn't even know she was auditioning for a show! My daughter typically spend LOTS of time at that friend's house, so it was not unusual for that family to take her different places, out to eat and such. It was only a couple of days later when we got a call saying that my daughter had made the show that I even knew she had auditioned! <em>lol</em></p>

<p>The friend's mom did all of the hauling to rehearsals and even the costume acquisiton, so I actually had nothing to do with the show until I showed up for the first performance. I practically hit the ground. I had NEVER seen such an immensely talented group of young people ANYWHERE!!!!! The show was "Children of Eden", and my daughter was just in the children's chorus as a child/animal, but I was absolutely stunned.</p>

<p>Now ironically enough, my oldest daughter was the one who had demonstrated any interest at all in theatre, even if it was just with school stuff. She had had the lead in her fifth-grade play (woo...) and just loved acting/singing but didn't know about out-of-school opportunities. So, when her younger sister made a part with the young people's theater, my older daughter decided to try too. And thus began what has been a fun, exciting, time-consuming, and exhausting endeavor of the past three years.</p>

<p>I also have a 9-year-old daughter who has really taken to this hobby. I know this will sound kind of bad to say, but I am pretty objective as far as my kids go...my youngest daughter can't sing a note...she's practically tone deaf! <em>LOL</em> BUT, she is amazingly cute and has that "sparkle", so she has become quite the darling of our local dinner theater. Last fall she starred as the youngest daughter, Bielke, in Fiddler on the Roof, and she just finished a stint as part of the children's ensemble in "The Music Man". She has all but been promised a part in the upcoming production of "Sound of Music" this spring. The stage manager has fallen in love with her and the owner of the place adores her too, so it looks very, very promising for that! </p>

<p>The reason why I don't think that any of my daughters will pursue this as a career is simple...We have six children and one income, and sadly, despite doing the very best we can, we have not been able to give our girls all of the things they would need for that: dance lessons, voice lessions, drama camps, etc. We have done dance lessons when we can, but our income will not allow us to have them in all of that stuff all the time. </p>

<p>The only one who I think would have liked to have choosen m.t. as a college curriculum is my oldest. She by far has the most raw talent and has managed to accomplish quite a bit completely on her own. My middle daughter is and has always been interested in a career as a physician (she's 13), and my youngest daughter...well, who knows!?</p>

<p>Both of my older girls recently finished a production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" with the local young people's theatre. They had a BLAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They have also done the following shows in the past few years: "Honk!", "Bye Bye Birdie", "Fiddler...Roof" (concurrently with my youngest but at different theatres), "Les Mis", "West Side Story", and "The Pajama Game". </p>

<p>My oldest daughter plans to audition for the upcoming H.S. production of "Honk!", and both of my older ones will audition in January for "Grease".</p>

<p>We are exceedingly fortunate here to have at our fingertips some really wonderful theatre opportunities for the size of our area. We have several children's theaters, the dinner theatre, quite a few community theatres, and even a Broadway equivalent which you have probably heard of. In fact, I think it would be a MARVELOUS opportunity for either of your daughters. It does five Broadway quality shows each summer and the director goes all over the nation (specifically to U.of M. too!) auditioning young people, usually accepting about 20 company members out of thousands of auditioners. He typically brings Broadway actors in to fill the principal roles.</p>

<p>Have you ever heard of Nick Saverine? He actually was here and directed the last two teen shows my oldest daughter was in...she adores him and he loves her too.</p>

<p>Had to majorly <em>LOL</em> at your listening to Broadway soundtracks in the car. My girls are OBSESSED too!!!!!!!! Oh, we can't even get in the car without "WICKED" coming with us. I have to admit, I'm hooked too!! We are also prone to bursting into song around our house at any and all times, which causes quite a bit of embarrassment for my three boys. But, my six-year-old son LOVES "Joseph" and "Les Mis" and can quote lines from each. I had to laugh, too, when my oldest son came back from a recent Scholar's Bowl competition and said that he was the ONLY one who knew the answer to this trivia question, "Which character was it in 'Les Mis' who went to jail for stealing a loaf of bread?" We all got a real kick out of that, and even his sponsor said, "Now WHO got that question!?!?!?!?!?" ha ha</p>

<p>Sadly, I am not much of a stagemom....not my style, but I sure love seeing ALL of my daughters on stage...now, if only I could convince my sons to try out....</p>

<p>Can you tell me about what kind of stuff your daughters have done, what opportunities you have where you are, and anything else you'd like to share? Thanks so much, Susan! ~berurah</p>

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<p>Wow, you amaze me! Six kids and you do all this stuff! Incredible. You and Jamimom top the cake in this regard. I understand your point about the money but some experiences can be had for little or no cost as you have seen....school shows, community theater and such. Your girls have already done a real lot! I see a few shows in common there...West Side Story (my D was Anita), Joseph (mine was Narrator), Bye Bye Birdie (mine was Rose), and Grease (mine was Frenchy). Am familiar with the others you mentioned. My d was cast twice as Amarylllis in Music Man but never ended up doing it. She has done over 40 shows to date. I am not sure her favorite roles she has done but I think she might have said Anita in West Side Story, Little Red in Into the Woods, The Leading Player in Pippin, Dorothy in Wizard of Oz and Ti Moune in Once on This Island. She has played many lead roles, but also supporting roles and ensemble in both adult and youth productions. I think she will likely be Ado Annie in the school's production of Oklahoma this spring. She tends to get the belty type singing roles and the comic roles. She recently was Lilliane La Fleur in Nine and that was her third Chita Rivera role, maybe a pattern? </p>

<p>I don't know where to begin with this, lol. Like you, I have NO background in this field. My kids were exposed to a variety of activities/hobbies when young. This was just one of them and it took off. Both were in professional productions around kindergarten and it just kept going from there. Who knew that for one child, in particular, it would become her life's ambition. Her nursery school narrative evaluation speaks of her "on Broadway some day"....so IF she ever makes it, she will have to thank her nursery school teacher for that prediction, lol. While both kids did a bunch with this, along with other extracurriculars, my younger one started to do more and more and by middle school was dropping her other activities, particularly all her sports as the commitments to theater became greater. The older one likes this area equal with other things. </p>

<p>For now, I will just focus on the younger one's experiences. Growing up, she has done school shows (starting with musicals in second grade), community theater, professional theater, college theater, and summer youth intensive theater camp shows. I would say she has had a balance of performance experiences, along with training. My kids have always been into music. She has studied piano since age seven and actually is accomplished in that area and she finds that this skill really coordinates with her singing/theater work as she knows music theory, can sight read music, can arrange music and can accompany others and musically direct. She took flute for five years but now her second instrument is guitar. She used to do band but now only does jazz band both as pianist but also as a jazz vocalist. She does chorus at school and select choir. She much prefers Broadway music though. Even so, she has auditioned and been selected for regionals and All States for voice and for jazz. She actually won the All State Scholarship Award last year for classical voice (not her thing really,lol) and for jazz, only vocalist and other awards of that nature. She did not begin voice lessons until seventh grade. I guess she was a natural singer and people assumed she studied voice but she did not. Now, however, with training, her voice has improved in various ways. She has always taken dance since she was in kindergarten. She takes jazz, lyrical, ballet/pointe, hip hop, and tap. She is also in a tap repertory dance troupe and a jazz repertory dance troupe. She loves to choregraph and really got into being the choreographer for the tap dance troupe (that my other D was in too). She has a very creative side in this way. While there is no acting training here per se, she was in Acting Master classes in her summer theater program (more on that in a moment). However, this year, she has an acting coach who actually teaches in NYC (as does her voice teacher, both are on faculty at a program in NYC but live in VT a few days per week too) and she is working with him on preparing her monologues for college auditions (first one is this weekend). While we do live in a rural area and I drove a LOT of miles, I am grateful that she has been able to work with what we think are superb piano, voice, acting and dance teachers. </p>

<p>I would say that the biggest thing, however, is the summer program she has gone to for six weeks for the past seven summers (one year went nine) and is going back for her 8th summer for three weeks this year. That program is Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center which is located in the Catskills of NY. To say she loves this program is a huge understatement. I would say that this program has been one of the most significant influences in her life. There she takes classes in all aspects of voice, dance, and acting. She also is in two musicals each summer there and the level and quality of the talent and productions there is quite amazing. She also has been in their select cabaret troupe that performs off campus for seven years, the highlight of her summers. It is one thing when your kid gets the roles locally but our eyes were opened wide when she went to this camp at age nine and among what seemed to be the best of kids from all over the country and other countries, she was getting leads. We were stunned. We had no idea what we were dealing with. But moreover, that camp is filled with kids like her who are very passionate about theater and she has made lifelong bonds with kids from all over. Many of these kids are now in BFA programs and many are auditioning for them right now like she is (and those other kids are so good so it is very competitive, though they all support each other!). </p>

<p>Another thing is that when she went there the first summer, she started being contacted by agents and other kids had them and she begged to go to NYC and get one too. As a birthday present, we took her, but we live six hours away. She does have an agent in NYC but I sorta lay low with it due to logistics as her life is HERE and she is always in a show here. If she ever got something, it would not be easy. She came close on a few things there and I think overall the audition experiences on Broadway and the like were good and I did not have to do the job afterall, lol. However, the first time she auditioned there, she actually did get cast for a professional job but it was the perfect job (in my view) for us being out of state. It did not adversely impact our lives. She was cast to do what was a childrens' opera that only had two cast members, her as the child lead and an adult soprano as the adult lead (this woman has been in several Bdway shows and is incredible). The pieces were performed with symphony orchestras on stage. She did these roles for three years, but just about twice per year, involving a long weekend in some city where we were flown and put up (and she was paid....though she would have done it for free, lol), and a day long rehearsal each time in NYC (they make ya learn it FAST there, not like community theater where you rehearse for months, lol). It was an incredible experience. The hightlight was performing with the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center. She was to perform at Lincoln Center, her first NYC job and was in all the publicity in NY but at the last minute, the orchestra went on strike and she never got to do the show and she had outgrown the role by the next year as she was already 13 by then. It hardly involved any time and she never gave up any of her local stuff to do it. </p>

<p>Right now, another thing she is into is creating her own shows. She did one last year and is rehearsing her second right now. Both time, she wrote her own musical revue and is producing every aspect of putting that on. She has loved the creative side of this. She also is directing, musical directing and choregraphing and performing in it. She came home from it yesterday talking excitedly with how great it was that day and the feelings she gets when seeing other kids take her ideas and run with it. She could spend all her time on this if you let her. Last night at 11 PM she was at the piano arranging the music to lead today's rehearsal. She is a very driven kid (both figuratively and literally, lol). Because it is a rural area, I drive a LOT. She just finished an adult production 50 miles from here. At least her cabaret show right now is at the school. </p>

<p>Getting into the BFA programs is very very daunting to me. She may have what it takes but so do SO many kids and the odds of getting in are quite slim. Each school she has applied to have acceptance rates between 5-10%. Yikes. I dunno. I hope she gets into some! So much is riding on the auditions! I could NEVER do it. I hope she sees that her getting a national award this week in this field (not the only one who got one) at least puts her in the running with kids beyond our little world on a dirt road in VT. Still a long ways to go.....</p>

<p>(she is not unique this way.....if you know any other kids really into musical theater, they are just like her)</p>

<p>Her life is the stage.
I used the word "stagemom" for myself but did not mean it the way it is sometimes used which has a negative connotation. It is more that I have a kid who does theater and I am just the support person for what she wants to do. She lights up the stage and it is a joy to watch but if she never did theater, I would not care. But she SURELY would. She thinks theater is her reason to live. 'Nuf said ;-)</p>

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<p>Thanks for the GREAT post! I will reply more fully later, but for now I just wanted to let you know that I didn't mean anything negative by the "stagemom" reference!! I apologize if the comment came off poorly.</p>

<p>I guess I feel lame sometimes in that I am not the most forceful advocate of my daughters in this endeavor. I'm sure you are more than familiar with the politics surrounding m.t., and many times, the difference between making a principal role and making chorus is a simple connection, at least around here.</p>

<p>My daughters are grateful for the support I've shown them, but sometimes I wonder if they didn't wish that I were a little more proactive on their behalves. That is all I meant. It was a remark made out of mommy guilt. <em>lol</em></p>

<p>Please forgive me if there was any offense taken because none was intended! ~berurah</p>

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<p>Berurah, oh, don't worry, I did not think YOU meant that about "stagemom" but I was saying I feel similar to you in that I just support what they enjoy doing but there is not that other stagemom stuff in me so much. It is not like I had always hoped I would be on stage or something, lol. I was not commenting on you but more on the connotation in public. </p>

<p>You are one person who should not possibly have GUILT! Your girls are involved in all these shows and you have six kids! I don't know how you do it. </p>

<p>Yes, there are politics in theater and often a lot of that is in school theater or community theater. While politics might exist here, it is not really who you know so much. I mean I surely do not have any connections. But politics might arise, for instance, if another parent complains that they don't want the same kid to have a lead more than one time, stuff like that. Here there are not that many connections. But obviously in any theater endeavor, if you have done a show there before and they have worked with you, that might be an edge over an unknown, and I have seen that from all sides too. </p>

<p>Your daughters seem to be making out quite well. It almost sounds like there are more theater opportunities where you are than there are here. What state are you in? Here there are more adult productions in summer but my D is never home to do those. This summer, she is only going away for 3 weeks and she MAY get into a professional production of Bat Boy, fingers crossed. They normally just use adults and they bring actors in from NYC too but she submitted her resume to the director of this professional summer theater who is also the director of the musicals at our school (does not teach at our school but is hired to direct the musicals...has been on Bdway) and there is a lead teen role in that musical and he recently contacted her about it and I hope it happens for her but am not sure yet. She loves that show. </p>

<p>Susan</p>