Typically, you apply to the school acadmically and once they have all or a certain amount of your application material, they allow you to submit a prescreen (varies by school ). Like any other application, you need to submit the app fee, the fees to send the college board info, etc. Then they send a message ( a few days, a few weeks, etc.) to submit prescreen. Depending on the school and it’s academic admissions process, some will admit before you even send the prescreen. Others will admit while you’re waiting for results. I think this has to do with the lack of academic rigor required by a lot of these schools (for regular admissions). Few programs view artists (including CMU) through the same academic lens as traditional applicants. Two reasons for that may be: 1. The talent level we’re talking about (think D1 athlete) requires a TON of time dedicated to the arts - almost like having a full time job after school, yr round. Not a lot of time left for anything else. And, 2. Lots of these programs are conservatory style where there is little done outside of the major. Very different than the typical college course distribution. CMU works this way too, although they are one of a small list (of 21 schools) that haven’t replied academically.
Essentially, D has been admitted to many of her schools, several with scholarships, and she won’t audition until Jan / Feb. She won’t know if she was admitted into BFA program until early March. So completely backwards process if you ask me. No point in applying to the school if she knew she wouldn’t be selected via audition into the BFA. Why not do that first? Chicken and egg thing I guess.