Katie answered this month’s questions while on her way back from doing 10 auditions in two days. She’s applied and been accepted—and offered scholarships—to a number of schools, but she’s still working to get into their BFA programs for musical theater. It’s a reminder that for many applicants, getting accepted to college is only the first step. Katie’s looking to get accepted into a particular program within the college with its own admission requirements. In her case it’s for musical theater, but students across the country are aiming to get into special honors programs, arts, programs, science programs, and so many other programs that are above and beyond just getting that first acceptance. Read her full interview below.

Meet the Class gets updated each month from September to May. Each installment features an interview about both the facts and the feelings of where the student is in the process.
Interviews may be edited lightly for clarity and grammar. Names may be changed to protect privacy.
Katie ATTENDS A Private Christian HIGH SCHOOL IN Ohio

How are your auditions going? I know you had a lot planned--have you done them all, or are you still at it?

I am writing this on the plane back from Chicago Unifieds. I arrived on Sunday and left after a day of auditions on Tuesday. I had 6 auditions on Monday and 4 on Tuesday. That is an absurd amount of them that I wouldn't really recommend to anyone, but it worked well for me. At Unifieds, there is a concept of a walk-in audition where you pretty much ask the school if they have any open spots then you audition even if you haven't done all the normal college application work yet. I ended up doing a few of these, none of them were true walk-ins because I scheduled them pretty far in advance, but the concept holds nonetheless. The schools I did them for were Drake University, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and Arcadia. This is not the end of my audition season but it did make a good dent in it. It was some of the most fun I've ever had. I loved meeting all the people there and it was great to get to really feel like I was a part of the process.

Any news to share? Have you heard back from any of the places you applied?

I am going to read this as meaning an artistic acceptance, of which I have had none.

Who is your frontrunner right now? If the process ended this week, where do you think you would be?

University of Hartford auditions went really well, and I really enjoyed their school and faculty. If they offered me a place in their program, I really don't think I could say no. This week University of Utah really rose in the ranks. They were absolutely amazing, and I am hoping for good news from them. Both of these of course are hypotheticals though.

Do you have any more auditions, tours, or other college events coming up this month?

I have auditions for North Dakota State this upcoming weekend. Then I have auditions at University of Minnesota Duluth, but I haven't certified a weekend for it yet.

How's it going on the financial aid front? Are schools being realistic? Generous? Disappointing? How likely does it seem right now that your top-choice school will also be affordable?

I have struggled with financial aid a lot. The numbers on paper really don't reflect my life, so it has been a struggle to get good aid. I have done my best to achieve it, but I am really waiting for an artistic acceptance before I start fighting tooth and nail for it. I don't know how likely it is for my top school to be affordable. They have generally pretty good aid, which is encouraging, and I truly hope that the right school would fight for me and help me figure out a solution to the money issue. I guess that's all I can do at this point.

Let's update the list. As it stood last month, it was:

Ball State University

Central Washington University

Columbia College Chicago—accepted, offered honors college, offered scholarship

University of Hartford

Indiana University Bloomington

Minnesota State Mankato—accepted, offered scholarship

Montclaire State

North Dakota State--accepted, offered scholarship

Penn State

Rider University

Roosevelt University

Temple University

University of Central Missouri--accepted, offered scholarship

University of Utah

University of Minnesota Duluth--accepted

University of Minnesota Twin Cities--accepted, offered scholarship

University of Oklahoma--accepted

University of South Dakota

University of the Arts

Western Michigan--accepted

Any changes or updates you haven't already mentioned?

I was accepted to Ball State and offered a scholarship. I was rejected from Indiana. I was rejected from Penn State. Roosevelt is now out of the question. I was rejected from Temple.

Anything else to share I didn't ask about?

I probably will have a lot of rejections this month, and acceptances would probably come later. That is to be expected and not a generally bad sign. I also have a lot of auditions that are still to come. I'm sure that in a month I will feel entirely differently about this process and all that it entails.

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Photo by Angela Elisabeth.