If you’ve known someone who’s gone through the college process – an older sibling, a cousin, a high school peer – you might think you have a pretty good idea of the timeline for academic applications. But if you’re surrounded by English majors and Business majors, you might assume you don’t have to worry about this whole application thing until December or January – WRONG!
Everything happens earlier for acting and musical theater applicants
Theater applicants have the dual task of completing all the normal requirements of a typical college application process and at the same time completing a totally different process for the artistic requirements. Because of the time constraints of the artistic side of things, all the academic tasks need to be completed months earlier than normal.
Does this sound daunting? Let’s make it easy.
Here’s a general timeline that lays out when you need to be thinking about the various requirements in the college application process. This blog won’t cover the artistic elements of the process – so be sure to be working closely with your discipline coaches on those timelines and requirements. But if you’re looking for an overview of when you need to do all the academic aspects of the college process, here you go!
JUNIOR SPRING
You might be thinking, “Wait, I thought I didn’t apply to college until I’m a senior?” Well, look at the title of this blog again – everything is earlier for theater applicants! So here are things you can get ahead of in your junior spring to take some of the weight off the extremely busy senior fall.
- Creating your school list
- SAT/ACT prep & testing
- Brainstorming your personal statement
- Collecting prompts for supplemental essays
- College visits
SUMMER
Besides your number 1 priority of staying consistent with your artistic coaching, the summer between your junior and senior year is the ideal time to check things off your to-do list and get ahead.
- Drafting and finalizing your personal statement
- Drafting and finalizing supplemental essays
- Reaching out to potential recommenders and creating a brag sheet
- Filling out the Common App on August 1st!
SENIOR FALL
This is when the rubber meets the road. The highest volume of tasks occurs from September-November in your senior year, but hopefully you’ve used your spring and summer to offload some of that work already, making the fall more of a breeze! Here’s what you’ll be focusing on:
- Finalizing letters of recommendation
- Requesting transcripts
- Completing applications
- Completing FAFSA & CSS Profile starting October 1
SENIOR WINTER
Hopefully by this point, all of your application responsibilities are behind you! Now you get to focus on your work in the audition room. There’s a chance some application tasks will come up throughout your audition process because of things like walk-ins, but by that point you’ll be an application-filling, essay-writing pro!
If you’re looking for specific guidance on things like essays, test prep, and school list, MTCA has a coach for that! Our supplemental disciplines are wholly dedicated to helping families tackle the academic and organizational sides of this process. Email admin@mtca.com to meet these coaches and get started!
Lea Sevola is an actor, singer, and dancer from Randolph, New Jersey. She has performed across the country and internationally, with credits including Vivienne in Legally Blonde (U.S. National Tour) and Sarah in Present Perfect (Workshop, New York City), where she worked alongside Broadway’s Mauricio Martínez in a new musical by Jaime Lozano. Internationally, she portrayed Wonder Woman in Justice League Live across four Middle Eastern countries.
In addition to her performance career, Lea is a passionate educator and academic. She tutors middle and high school students in humanities, standardized test preparation, and college readiness. As an SAT/ACT and essay prep coach for MTCA, Lea works to ensure students present applications that are as compelling academically as they are artistically. She is a proud MTCA alumna.
