Well, I have heard from all of my schools but one and based on the track record and the fact that it’s the most difficult , that’s gonna be a no. I ended up with a few acceptances and for that I am truly grateful. But going to vent a bit now and please forgive me. I came into this process with a realistic approach. I felt like I had the talent based on the feedback I receive and my director’s comments that I have great potential. We hired one of the top agencies to train with, but it was almost always by skype because of my travel limitations from mid america. I enjoyed this process but never connected with my coaches on a deep level. I always felt like they didn’t think I had a good shot and gave me songs that didn’t thrill me. They also didn’t not prepare me with the right monologues for the schools I auditioned for. I worked so hard though, trusting that someone would take a chance on me. I do have some options but I feel dejected and rejected. I am dejected bc I don’t think I was prepared correctly and that I wasn’t able to show what I can do. Several of the schools I went to did not even want to hear my belt song bc it was not modern enough for what they like. Others took a chance and asked me for another song and they liked it better than what my coaches had selected. I do feel that some of the larger coaching groups have gotten too large to give everyone attention, that they are cliquey with the kids who can travel to take lessons in person and have connections. I feel like it was a waste of my money bc what I got in the end, I could have gotten without help. I still don’t think anyone has seen whst I can do and I’m really down. Pardon my frustration and congrats to everyone. I just don’t know where to go from here. My options are not fits for my personality and I’m not wanting a gap year. Thank you for listening. 
I totally know how you feel, as I’ve been rejected from basically all of my top picks! I thought I had a fighting chance, yet still probably came in very unprepared. I don’t think I connected enough to my songs and wish I had better monologues too. I didn’t have a “coach”, but I did have help. I think they helped all they could, but this process isn’t their livelihood like some of these coaching people. I feel now I could approach auditions with a different outlook, but I honestly wouldn’t go through this again. What I think you should do is get to know your acceptances a little better, and do some digging! I believe everything good or bad happens for a reason, and that’s coming from a guy with many rejections. You’re meant to end up at one of the schools you got into, and I’m sure you’ll love it eventually and shine more than you ever thought you could’ve. I view my rejections as a dodged bullet, because I feel some force was keeping me out for a reason. Maybe I would’ve hated the curriculum, the professors, the location, I have no clue to be honest. I know it’s such a bummer, and you feel stuck. I kind of do too, but I think you’ll end up in a place that makes you happy. We’re here for you!
@mtgirl225 Your post title caught my attention based on your choice of the words rejected and dejected. This process is really tough and it is normal to look back with some doubts and “what ifs” regardless of the outcome and offers you may have. My S got a no from a school he did not like at all (after further examination) and still went through a whole process of questioning. Feelings of rejection and doubt are inevitable - yet they are hopefully short lived for you.
You have had to be vulnerable for the last several months and put your options in the hands of other people to decide - on the timeline they want to decide. That’s really not very fun and can leave even the happiest of people feeling beaten down. Senior year can be really hard even without this crazy process. There is a lot going on emotionally and literally. But now the end of the process is near and it is time for you to take back your power and own the rest of the process. I hope that you can leave the “what ifs” behind (while acknowledging they are real and very normal) and enjoy deciding what is the best choice for you. It is the only part of the process you fully control - assuming you can afford the options you do have. Maybe you fall in love with a school, maybe it is just like for now. No part of this process is really final - transferring is always an option (although I recoil in horror at the thought of anyone wanting to do this again - smile). Try to have some fun in the next part of the process and trust that your happy ending could be waiting for you at the end of the road.
@mtgirl225. Your post was heart-wrenching, but know this much…you are early in your journey. Nobody, but nobody knows where that journey will take you, my daughter, or any of the seniors who have braved this roller coaster of a process. But the bottom line is that you’re in and have choices!! As my daughter’s musical theatre teacher (a former Broadway star) said: “It’s what you do and not where you do it”. You’ll have the next four years to grow and if you’re enthusiastic, coachable and patient, you’ll put yourself in as good a position to succeed as kids who end up at the top schools. Keep us informed about where you land!!
@mtgirl225 thinking of you & hoping for the best for your choice of what to do. This is a crazy process and I hope you can rise above it and not feel like you are defined by it because you certainly aren’t! I hope you can try to enjoy the rest of your senior year because you truly only get one high school experience. Your post reminds me that next year when my D is a senior I need to not let this process take over her whole senior year so that she doesn’t enjoy and experience it. College will work out for you and I hate to hear that about the coaches but I am not surprised as I know that all are not created equal . I know some are superb & people have had great success but I also know there must be some limitations to their being able to evaluate someone virtually. I always said if we get someone, which we sorta already have someone in mind, that it would be an in person consultation . But I know that’s impossible for some to do and I know coaches encourage the long distance service which again, I know works out great for some people or they wouldn’t be in business. Have you considered any last minute schools? I know there’s a thread with schools still
having auditions but I am not sure if they still are. We know someone auditioning in April still! Just a thought.
Hugs to you and others who are sad right now and just aren’t posting .
Take a few days to feel bad about the process, then look carefully at the schools where you’ve been accepted, visit them and talk to students there, and in the end I am confident you’ll pick one to attend where you’ll feel comfortable and will get the education and training you desire.
I hope this won’t sound overly harsh, but unfortunately in life we don’t always get exactly what we want. One of life’s great lessons is how to deal with that and move forward. I teach undergraduate students interested in medical school and more times than I’d like I have to advise students that med school may not be in the cards for them. I hate those conversations, the students hate them even more, but in the end I have found the vast majority of students adjust, rebound, and move on to success.
Once you pick a school to attend, get there, and start college I am confident the pain you’re feeling now will be forgotten.
Adding more virtual hugs!! You’ve already gotten lots of great feedback, but here are a couple more things to consider.
First, I think it’s great that you are allowing yourself to feel and share your feelings! One of the most important lessons our D is learning as a professional actor who, even while successfully working steadily, also faces a steady string of “redirections”, is how to feel her feeings and then move on. It’s a skill that will serve you well in life, and one we all continually work to master.
Second, I think it’s also important to step back for some perspective. Many, if not most, of the schools you auditioned for redirect upwards of 80% of the people who audition, and some have admission odds similar to Harvard. You are in very good company, and history suggests there are plenty of kids with no acceptances at all who will go on to do great things.
In many ways wanting to get into top schools (MT or otherwise) is like having a crush on a movie star, while going to the school you ultimately pick is more like having a real relationship, which in the fullness of time will be FAR more meaningful than the crush ever was. Interestingly, even the person who gets to date the movie star often faced rejection from some other crush (the kid at Harvard who really wanted Stanford) and has equal odds of the real day-to-day relationship ultimately working out as the rest of us.
So bravo for feeling and sharing these feelings, and as soon as you’re able start getting more familiar with the options available to you. As others have said, you can flourish wherever you are just as many have done before you, and we look forward to sharing your journey!
I totally agree that it’s is a good thing for you to let yourself feel what you feel. There are many people in this world who are not brave enough to allow themselves to do that. You’ve got lots of excellent advice posted here. For any of the young people (and old) that choose to venture into this field, rejection is the ONE thing you can count on in the years ahead. Some of the supposedly “golden” kids may not be experiencing it at this phase of their path, but they will. How you, and they, deal with it is what will decide how successful you (they) are. Someone in the book “Making it on Broadway” (good read for anyone considering this life path) said something like, “choosing this career is like trying to hike uphill in an avalanche. Do it only if there is no other path you can take.” If you REALLY want this, take all the above advice and figure out what your next step is. Even after that step, there is no guarantee the next 100 steps will be easy. Take your current feelings, acknowledge that they are trying to protect you, then move on. You’ve got this @mtgirl225.
I know this hurts and seems overwhelming. You sound like a girl who is intelligent and aware of who you are as an artist and what you need from a school. I believe you will find your way. Small comfort I am sure, but my daughter was rejected from every school she auditioned for (waitlisted at one). She is currently a sophomore at her safety and thriving. She has had leads in MainStage productions, is getting wonderful training and can’t imagine herself at any of the schools that rejected her. Sometimes what you think is not a fit might actually turn into a wonderful experience. Hang in there, feel sad but pick yourself up, dust yourself off and move forward. <3
Receiving rejections is not easy for anyone! And when you get multiple rejections, especially when you see others being accepted, you can’t help but question things. But don’t let rejections from schools make you question your talent or stop you from going after what you want! The wording in this rejection letter puts it into perspective “The level of talent among applicants this year has been exceptionally high, and competition for the limited number of openings in our programs has increased. As a result, we are unable to offer a place to all of our qualified applicants.” Unfortunately, rejections are the bitter reality of the sheer number of talented students auditioning for very few spots. There are many schools out there that can provide great training and there are many paths to take to get where you want to go. If this is what you truly feel you are meant to do, don’t give up!
You have gotten WONDERFUL advice and thoughts in all the posts so far and so I am not going to repeat the same thing. This is in addition to that wise advice:
There must be a reason that the schools that are your current options landed on your college list in the first place, right? What drew you to include them? Yes, they may not be what you thought were your ideal programs. Very few get into their ideal wish list. How do you know these schools don’t fit your personality? Have you yet to visit? I urge you to go visit…meet the students, the faculty, sit in on classes, eat in the cafeteria, and so on. Start now with the options you do have in hand and not the ones you don’t. I have a strong feeling you could be happy and thrive at the schools that accepted you. This whole admissions process will be behind you. Congrats on getting some acceptances, which is no easy feat in this MT admissions process. Rejections come with the territory, even though an unpleasant aspect of it. Those who succeed move past their rejections and push forward!
I feel you. The places you get into are always extremely surprising in contrast to what you thought you wanted the most. BUT these places can often offer unique things that the other places can’t, and they also see what is special about YOU and your talent and potential. Though it’s hard at first to get rejected from your tops (going through it now, for the second time) these schools who are giving you offers know your value, and are taking a chance on you, and maybe it’s time to take a chance on them as well. My biggest mistake was not visiting all the places I received offers from, just because they weren’t at the top of the list. That can only limit perspective. I am now a firm believer in visiting every place admitted, because you just never know. You might fall in love. You’ll end up somewhere wonderful and you are obviously very talented with a future in MT ahead of you. 
feel better!!
First you have to understand that a rejection does not necessarily mean we do not think you are talented. Every university program is told to enroll X amount of students by their administrators. The faculty then have to figure out how to get to that number and not go way over or under. Let me tell you it is not easy, especially when you have hundreds of applications and you only need 12-24 students.
When hundreds of talented kids audition for any given program, the program heads have to draw some lines in the sand about who will get in that year and who will not. We have some idea of what we are looking for, but the overall talent pool ends up making a lot of decisions for us. For instance, if there are not a lot of legit singers in a given year and if we need legit singers, we will likely take a lot of the legit singers that audition for us to make sure we at least get one or two. If there are a lot of really good dancers in a given year, then we can set the dance bar a little higher knowing that only a small number of students will be able to pass that hurdle but it will help us narrow down the numbers. The list goes on and on and we do not necessarily know what those lines are going to be until we start seeing auditions.
I realize that to the students this may not make sense, but it is what it is. We MUST make difficult decisions about who to let into our programs and we have to come up with some set of standards that will help us bring in a student body that is at a similar level across the board. If we have five level one actors, five level twos, five level threes, and five level fours, the acting classes will probably be ok. If we have 10 level ones, 6 level twos, and 5 level fours, we have a problem. The fours are either going to get left way behind or the ones will get slowed down. How do we classify ones and twos and threes? Well a lot of time the group does it for us. After watching 50 or more auditions, you start getting a feel for what the spread looks like that year and you start to feel confident with your ratings.
So what does all of this mean? The numbers are so large and the process so complicated that the schools are not necessarily “rejecting you,” they are just going in a direction that unfortunately does not happen to include you that year. I have coached high school students who have been rejected from small schools and accepted to CCM. How confusing is that! I personally know the program heads at many of these schools and I have sent high school students to audition at those programs and get rejected. Because I know the program heads I can ask how the student did. I’ve gotten feedback along the lines of “She was fabulous, but I have four other girls in the program that have the same look,” “she was GREAT, we loved her, but our acting teacher is new and he had different ideas than the rest of us,” “I really liked him, but I didn’t get the feeling he was really ready for the academic rigors of our general education courses.” So it wasn’t that the student was poorly prepared or un-talented. They were just not the right fit for that particular audition season.
You may not want to take a gap year, but there have been many times when I have seen students re-audition after a year off and end up being exceptional in the audition room. You can always start at a school and then transfer out if it is not the right fit (that’s what I did when I was in undergrad). It is ok to feel disappointed and all of the other feelings you mentioned. But if you let it eat at you it will destroy you. If this is the business you want to spend the rest of your life in, take a step back, re-evaluate, and try again. A performing arts career is REALLY hard to maintain and it takes really thick skin to survive in this business. Take this experience as the first of many similar experiences you will encounter and focus all of your energy on overcoming the obstacles that are in front of you and making something happen that you can be proud of.
~VT
Great post @VoiceTeacher. I now officially and publicly forgive your school for rejecting my son at pre-screen. Seriously, though, this is great advice for students who are upset with their results. March is such a tough month for the auditioning staff as well as for the candidates.
@VoiceTeacher - that is a fantastic post! This is such a crazy process, so difficult to understand or predict.
@mtgirl225 There are many stories on here that will verify - just because things don’t go as planned, doesn’t mean you can’t be successful with your dreams. Hang in there you.
Thanks and I’m sorry your son didn’t make it through. I hate saying no because I’m 99% sure I would have been rejected at most of these schools in today’s market. I’m also sure that we are passing over kids that are going to go on to huge careers because of their hard work and determination. If I only had a crystal ball life would be so much easier for everyone.
~VT
Thank you all so much for the great advice and encouragement. I do feel better and continue to be grateful for the opportunities I do have. One of the reasons I feel discouraged is because I do not feel that I received proper guidance from my (expensive) coaching team. Has anyone else felt this way? I just felt that they had so many students that they weren’t able to give me the personal attention that the price should have warranted. My parents spent a lot of money! The songs they gave me did not fit what the schools wanted and some let me know that. The places that took the time and asked me for a different song choice, are the ones that I got in!! The monologues were also questioned by the auditors. I would not recommend coaching by Skype only to anyone… I also missed out on being part of the coaching “group”–I didn’'t really know anyone from the large group of students and wasn’t really welcomed into their circle so to speak when I was able to meet them at auditions. It was a lonely experience for me and I am not that kind of person. I think everyone was probably nice for the most part, just very cliquey. I just always got the feeling that the coaches knew who were going to be their 5 star candidates and that’s where their time went. I almost feel ripped off. My regret is not being able to show schools what I am capable of… That all said, it has definitely been a learning experience and I hope to help future applicants by sharing my experience.
You asked if others had similar experiences so I’ll chime in.
My S had a very positive experience coaching almost exclusively by Skype (maybe two or three sessions in person total?) but I suspect it is very different for every person. My S really respects and admires his coach and felt he got everything he needed and more out of the experience. His coach understood my son and they had some honest conversations along the way that were meaningful throughout the process (and I suspect in life). My S did feel prepared by his coach. To people going through this in the future, I would say if you do choose to coach, make sure you are a good fit for another because it is money invested. I always knew I could ask for a different coach if my S wanted - that was made very clear. Thankfully, it never was an issue.
I didn’t personally see any preferential treatment towards anyone. Honestly everyone seemed talented and amazing that I encountered so I’m not sure who the top candidates would even be among the group. Anytime we needed something at Unifieds his coach was available.
My S wasn’t part of the FB group so he didn’t have the same set of relationships with the other kids that some kids clearly had with one another at Unifieds. That wasn’t a thing for him and didn’t bother him. But I can see how that part can be hard. There were times my S said he wished he knew more people at Unifieds. But since he chose not to attend the popular summer camps or be active in social media, it was what it was. I think he would have experienced that sense of being an outsider whether he was coaching or not because there were a lot of people who seemed to know one another.
@mtgirl225 - I hope you share your experience with the management of the coaching entity you used. We did not use a national coaching team when our S went through this process - just local. Perhaps your experience was unique to the specific coach you were teamed up with. The management should be made aware of the feedback you received from adjudicators if your songs/monologue were not relevant to what they were looking for and you were given erroneous advisement. If you were not made to feel welcome in the cohort of students you were matriculating with, that is something they should be aware of as well. If I were head of this coaching agency, I would want to know that not every student was receiving the attention/quality I thought my company was providing. You/your parents are the consumer. While no one can guarantee a college audition outcome, if you feel you did not receive the promised quality, advocate for yourself. Let them know your coach “does not meet standards”.
Ok I love @VoiceTeacher !!! Such wonderful posts!!!