thanks madbean & MsMommy. If the big yellow envelope arrives tomorrow we will plan to go to the open house. If no big envelope we will not have any info to share. Fingers crossed.
My D received the open house invitation on Saturday and now we are “patiently” hoping for a big envelope. We live on the east coast so auditioned in NYC and have never visited USC. When the invite came and I saw that it could be a possibility I started looking into flights/hotel room etc. The flight cost alone went up in 1/2 a day! So we are booked on Southwest which we can get a full credit for but hopefully we will be visiting in a few weeks. This is a great forum and it is nice to see all the helpful comments.
Did anyone get the Golden Envelope Yet? :">
WHoops! I meant 
Trying to see if the Post Card Theory is true!
We did not receive anything today. I too am curious if anyone else on here received theirs?? I am stressing a little bit today!!
OK, D just received a HUGE GOLD envelope from USC…she’s not here to open it. Do you think it’s an acceptance?
@MTkellbell Did your D receive the open house invite last week? And yes I think that’s an acceptance!
Accepted into BA Theatre!! Did not receive an invite to open house, but maybe only BFA’s get that postcard?
Hy son did get the postcard last week. There is a big yellow envelope waiting for him to get home from rehersals
My son just got home and opened the package. He was shocked that it was an acceptance and then really shocked that it he got in the BFA program. Wow his mom and I are in shock too. He did not know about the postcard clue.
Congrats to you all!!!
D was accepted! And into the BFA Acting program! So glad we booked the trip to LA. I checked the portal this morning just in case and the decision was posted. D did get an open house invitation last Saturday in the mail.
My D was just accepted into the BA program, though for a Spring term admission (to take the slot of a senior graduating in Dec.) Does anyone know any students on CC that are currently or recently graduated from the BA program so that we can get more info? @MsMommy - thanks for your post that they accept 90 students into the BA program. It would be helpful to know whether there are many acting courses that are restricted to BFA students, whether the BA students have much of a cohesive group (I’m sure not as cohesive as the BFA year group), how likely it is that a BA student would get a role in productions (though I understand that there are some BA-only productions each year, not sure how many). It would also be helpful to learn more about the Spring term admission group such as how many are in this group, etc. Thanks! She received the postcard in Dec. so I’ve kept that date on my calendar…but we are still waiting to see the fin. aid package though we’re not expecting much aid 
D was accepted!! As noted earlier she did receive Open House postcard. Congrats to all those accepted!
@curiousMom234 My D was also accepted for the Spring 2016 term, BA program. I would also like to know the details of class scheduling opportunities, etc. Anyone out there with prior experience? Also, we aren’t expecting any $, so I’m wondering if anyone out there has info about the departmental scholarships which are offered AFTER your freshman year. Thanks to all who respond!
The postcard works! D resisted checking her portal in favor of the big, beautiful gold envelope, which finally showed up today. BA program; fall admit. She can’t make the Open House because, of course, she is in a musical that day and evening. Hope to get out there soon though.
Big big congratulations to all who were admitted. 
I’m breathing that big sigh of relief that I did not lead this year’s parents astray–but every single year since my son was admitted 4 years ago I’ve seen the same reports here and it has always been a very good sign. OTOH, I’ve also seen several cases where an admitted student, for whatever mishap reason, did not receive the postcard but was still admitted. In any case, BA and BFA admittees (Yay) are all invited to the Open House. If your S/D did not get the postcard and you’d like to attend, please call the SDA office and explain. They will put you on the guest list, get you tickets for the Musical (Grease this year) and away you go. It’s a very nice day at USC and you get to see a lot of the actual program, meet all the professors, and best of all–see who else may be your classmate.
Answering curiousmom’s questions:
*Does anyone know any students on CC that are currently or recently graduated from the BA program so that we can get more info?
My S2 is a current senior BA, so I’ll try. I wrote a very long explanation about the differences between BA and BFA curriculum and performance opportunities a while ago. I’ll try to find it again and post a link.
*It would be helpful to know whether there are many acting courses that are restricted to BFA students,
The BFA program is relatively rigid in that those kids take a progression of classes together through the 8 semesters. It isn’t possible to enter the BFA program in Spring, for example, because they would have missed the first semester of req’d BFA courses. That said, almost every other class in SDA is open to both BA and BFA. You can look at the catelog online to see what they take. Even for BFA only reqs, there is often a similar class offered (out of sequence) for BAs who want it.
*whether the BA students have much of a cohesive group (I’m sure not as cohesive as the BFA year group),
They do. However, as you mention, they have more freedom in scheduling their classes so won’t be thrown in with the same 16 kids class-in and class out. There are many opportunities to get to know each other, and performance and ISPs are filled with BAs, not to mention crew assignments for 1st year BAs, who then can bond with their peers some more. In addition, BAs have a lot of freedom with how they fill out their schedules. Many take 2nd majors–and that’s great. It does, however, bleed time/energy away from theatre dept ECs and groups. So it’s a very individual choice.
*how likely it is that a BA student would get a role in productions (though I understand that there are some BA-only productions each year, not sure how many).
Extremely likely. Well, I cannot speak for any individual BA, of course. But all the BFAs do specific BFA showcase plays each semester and that takes some of their time/attention away from auditioning for other productions. In addition, there are a lot of plays and not so many BFAs. In every USC SDA show I’ve seen (several) the leads were mostly (sometimes entirely) BAs. I have also seen 2 BFA shows and I was stunned at the talent, gorgeousness and technique in those ranks, too. It’s a win-win, depending on the individual. I’ve posted this elsewhere, but my son is friends with many kids who are professional actors and they prefer/choose/switch to the BA so they can book jobs and audition for pilots, etc. Pro work is not allowed for the more strenuous curriculum of BFA training.
*It would also be helpful to learn more about the Spring term admission group such as how many are in this group, etc. Thanks!
I’m not sure about this one for SDA. Perhaps others can share their experience. But if they only admit 90 for fall, I’d think the spring admits would be a small group–maybe less than 10?
Good luck to all. I’m happy to try to answer questions, too, if I can.
Thank you @madbean for the very helpful information. I know my D has a lot of questions about BA/BFA. The Open House will hopefully be very informative. I also want to clarify the open house invitation in case parents/kids read these posts next year. My D received a general post card announcing the Open House event in December. However that was before auditions/interviews in January. I think this gets sent out to all prospective applicants? She then received a little bit more formal invitation in an envelope the week before admittances were sent out. I think that was the indicator that she had been accepted. Good luck to everyone on here and hopefully we will see some at the open house!
@CuriousMom234 If I wasn’t a technological idiot I would post the link. There is a post from @rljjr under the USC Audition Experience thread that might be helpful.