And even if you do all that PP suggests, your DC may not make it. DE is a selective, competitive school. Knowing the numbers does reinforce this actually, and helps families know what to expect.

Agree that love and hustle but average beats out talented and bored, but sometimes the amount of enthusiasm doesn’t make up for lack of talent.

Doubling down on the notion that numbers don't tell you the whole story, while they may be interesting to know. And to the point of "why" people get in , as opposed to how many, some helpful tips whether it's DE or an audition-based college program at the major schools:

1. Stop focusing on the audition. Instead focus on the art itself. As a parent, that means put as much energy into a child's artistic aspirations as you would soccer or lacrosse. Good materials to work with, strong encouragement, discussions about the work, free time to create. As a student it means dialing up the passion -outside of school. Writers write and love writing. Filmmakers love films and try their hand at filmmaking with the tools they have. Wannabe curators visit museums, love and can discuss what they love. If you are just good and not "blow you away" spectacular (and most are not), the passion is the dealbreaker.
2. That said, then focus on the audition. Do EVERYTHING you have been asked to do (most do not). Then come with more. Come with the unexpected. Show that you are a creator not just someone who does the minimum. Sing the required songs but when you have a choice, stop with the same old Alicia Keys/Whitney Houston tropes (unless of course you sound like them). Be different. Show that your range of knowledge and love for any discipline is deeper than the audition requirements
3. If you are trying a non-performing discipline, #1 is twice as important as #2.
4. If all you do is prepare for Audition 1, the callback will reveal that you can't deliver on demand
5. Don't be a jerk to your fellow audition-mates (seems obvious but not so much)
6. Love and hustle but average talent beats talented but bored all day everyday

My child auditioned and passed for visual arts. Besides art classes in elementary school, and one semester in 6th grade, dc has not had any art or drawing classes. They’ve always enjoyed art but never to the point that they wanted extra classes or anything, so I was pleasantly surprised at how good their portfolio pieces were. DC spent about a month on the five drawings, and besides being provided with good drawing materials, dc did all the drawings on their own. I guess it goes to show that natural talent is a real thing, and perhaps is what the school is looking for (along with interest/dedication).

Full disclosure-DH and I both have art/design backgrounds but we’ve never pushed our interest in art/design on our kids-except to maybe force them to an art museum once in a while. The only benefit dc has from having artistic parents is access to quality art supplies. I wasn’t even able to offer tips because dc was/is so sensitive about their abilities that any comment would have been taken as a personal slight and dc would have been so, so offended. It was maddening. But it turns out, dc did fine on their own.

I know of at least two people who hired art/drawing teachers to help with the portfolio. Both kids were admitted.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In just this thread it's been said there's about 20 students accepted per discipline. Around 160 per freshman call (on average). That has risen a small bit each year as the school adjusts to the new building. But the school size is the school size, so I'm just not sure why how many students audition is relevant to the fact that every freshman class is about the same size. Remember that the number who come in and the number who are accepted is not the same number, accounting for yield. They might accept 30% more than actually attend. People get lost to the lottery, families move, make other choices...
Isn't the more useful question for someone planning to try next year, "How best to prepare?"

Why rely on averages and “might accept” percentages when we can share actual numbers? I’m not sure why sharing information is so offensive to you. If it doesn’t seem useful to you, why comment?

And yes if any parents want to share how their students prepared for successful auditions, that would also be wonderful information.

I agree that some basic information on the number applicants v's the number of spots per discipline would be interesting to know.

My child auditioned and passed for music, has been playing that instrument for 8 years, loves it, and plays very well. Preparation for audition was 6 moths learning and practicing an advanced piece.

Congratulations to your child!! And thank you for sharing this helpful information.

Would you be willing to look in Acceptd (schedule / timeslots / expand) to see how many students signed up for Instrumental Music auditions and callbacks?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In just this thread it's been said there's about 20 students accepted per discipline. Around 160 per freshman call (on average). That has risen a small bit each year as the school adjusts to the new building. But the school size is the school size, so I'm just not sure why how many students audition is relevant to the fact that every freshman class is about the same size. Remember that the number who come in and the number who are accepted is not the same number, accounting for yield. They might accept 30% more than actually attend. People get lost to the lottery, families move, make other choices...
Isn't the more useful question for someone planning to try next year, "How best to prepare?"

Why rely on averages and “might accept” percentages when we can share actual numbers? I’m not sure why sharing information is so offensive to you. If it doesn’t seem useful to you, why comment?

And yes if any parents want to share how their students prepared for successful auditions, that would also be wonderful information.

I agree that some basic information on the number applicants v's the number of spots per discipline would be interesting to know.

My child auditioned and passed for music, has been playing that instrument for 8 years, loves it, and plays very well. Preparation for audition was 6 moths learning and practicing an advanced piece.

Anonymous wrote:The whole family interview sign up is screwy. Yesterday there were 5 days of interviews with 13 people signed up. Today it’s down to three days of interviews and 7 people signed up. So I don’t know if that means days/times that have passed are no longer visible, or if they removed some days.

This is for Visual Arts. Which doesn’t make sense since according to accepted, 116 people auditioned.

The whole family interview sign up is screwy. Yesterday there were 5 days of interviews with 13 people signed up. Today it’s down to three days of interviews and 7 people signed up. So I don’t know if that means days/times that have passed are no longer visible, or if they removed some days.

Anonymous wrote:In just this thread it's been said there's about 20 students accepted per discipline. Around 160 per freshman call (on average). That has risen a small bit each year as the school adjusts to the new building. But the school size is the school size, so I'm just not sure why how many students audition is relevant to the fact that every freshman class is about the same size. Remember that the number who come in and the number who are accepted is not the same number, accounting for yield. They might accept 30% more than actually attend. People get lost to the lottery, families move, make other choices...
Isn't the more useful question for someone planning to try next year, "How best to prepare?"

Why rely on averages and “might accept” percentages when we can share actual numbers? I’m not sure why sharing information is so offensive to you. If it doesn’t seem useful to you, why comment?

And yes if any parents want to share how their students prepared for successful auditions, that would also be wonderful information.

I think people are trying to figure out how competitive it is to get into. It looks like it's quite competitive considering they will leave spots open if they don't have the talent to fill them.

In just this thread it's been said there's about 20 students accepted per discipline. Around 160 per freshman call (on average). That has risen a small bit each year as the school adjusts to the new building. But the school size is the school size, so I'm just not sure why how many students audition is relevant to the fact that every freshman class is about the same size. Remember that the number who come in and the number who are accepted is not the same number, accounting for yield. They might accept 30% more than actually attend. People get lost to the lottery, families move, make other choices...
Isn't the more useful question for someone planning to try next year, "How best to prepare?"

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just received invite to family interview via acdeptd

Once you’ve passed the deadline, will you share the number of students who signed up for interviews in your discipline? This is the only way we can add transparency to the process.

Transparency about what? What would that tell you?

Number of students who auditioned vs number who passed the audition, by discipline. For future applicants to understand what they can expect. DESA does not release this data.

You know the number who auditioned. You know the number who get in. Of what matter is the in-between partnas a statistical question? The people who do not get in are the same people either way, no?

Neither of those numbers are available, actually. You know the number who filled out applications on My School DC and the number who matched in the lottery. If you look through years of DCUM messages, the question of how many audition, get callbacks, pass auditions, and get in is asked over and over again. Having everything tracked through Acceptd gives us the chance to share this info.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just received invite to family interview via acdeptd

Once you’ve passed the deadline, will you share the number of students who signed up for interviews in your discipline? This is the only way we can add transparency to the process.

Transparency about what? What would that tell you?

Number of students who auditioned vs number who passed the audition, by discipline. For future applicants to understand what they can expect. DESA does not release this data.

You know the number who auditioned. You know the number who get in. Of what matter is the in-between partnas a statistical question? The people who do not get in are the same people either way, no?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just received invite to family interview via acdeptd

Once you’ve passed the deadline, will you share the number of students who signed up for interviews in your discipline? This is the only way we can add transparency to the process.

Transparency about what? What would that tell you?

Number of students who auditioned vs number who passed the audition, by discipline. For future applicants to understand what they can expect. DESA does not release this data.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If student passed auditions in two disciplines, do you know if we sign up for family interviews for both or just top choice?

You have to make a decision prior to the interview.

We did. I emailed them with DC’s first choice but still received invites to both disciplines, which is why it’s confusing. I guess I could sign up for both (with 1st choice first) and see what happens. I emailed them again today to check so maybe I’ll hear something back.

Likely just an oversight someone in admissions did not catch. The departments do not have access to the lists of other depts