Programs Applied to: Baldwin Wallace, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, CAP21/Molloy, Carnegie Mellon, CCM, Coastal Carolina, Columbia College Chicago (non-audition BA), Elon, Florida State, Hartt School, Indiana, Manhattan School of Music, Missouri State, Montclair State, Otterbein, Pace, Penn State, Point Park, Roosevelt, Shenandoah, Syracuse, Texas Christian, Texas State, Arizona, Miami, Michigan, UNCSA, Oklahoma, U Arts, Webster
Prescreens Passed/Waived Due to Moonifieds: Baldwin Wallace, BoCo, CAP21, CCM, Coastal Carolina, Elon, Florida State, Hartt, Indiana, MSM, Missouri State, Montclair, Otterbein, Pace, Penn State, Point Park, Roosevelt, ShenCo, Syracuse (redirect to Acting), TCU, TSU, Arizona, Miami, Michigan, Oklahoma, U Arts, Webster
Accepted to: BoCo, CAP21, Florida State, Hartt, Missouri State (BFA Dance), Otterbein, TCU, UArts
Withdrew: Syracuse, Columbia College, Roosevelt, Manhattan School of Music
Not accepted to: Baldwin Wallace, Carnegie, CCM, MIssouri State MT (after initial WL), Montclair, Penn State, Point Park, ShenCo, Michigan, Texas State (after initial WL), UNCSA, Webster
Wait-listed: Coastal Carolina, Elon, Indiana, Pace, Arizona, Oklahoma (all released)
Coach: DCCAP, Dave Clemmons; MTCA ala carte for monologue and acting through song; College Audition Coach a la carte for Moonifieds
Summer Programs: TPAP Blueprint, Florida State MTI, ArtsBridge (Virtual)
Background: Daughter started dancing in pre-school and danced competitively through fifth grade. The dance studio she attended until third grade always had at least one eye on MT (the owner’s daughter was a Rockette and performed in Broadway productions of Cats and The Producers). Every other year the school would put on an MT focused Revue. She was cast as the lead in Peter Pan in her last year there and never looked back. Received first formal voice training from a Manhattan-based voice coach over Skype (the only game in town back then…how quaint) for that show, thanks to the owner’s daughter’s time on Broadway. He still is her “finisher” for any audition material.
In sixth grade, we decided to start her online education, not to “go pro” but to give her the flexibility to be in a variety of shows and give added focus to her training. Got her first paycheck for a show at a professional opera in the children’s choir and was cast in youth ensembles in musicals at regional professional theaters. Filled gaps with “pay for play” opportunities. Attended MT school affiliated with a regional theater, where we first met Dave Clemmons (he was Director of the school for a few years).
High school remained online, so no high school shows or choir competitions. Free time split between training, performing and occasional volunteer work. Went to TPAP before her sophomore year at Dave’s recommendation. She came back feeling she could hold her own with her peers at the intensive. Repeated this experience at Florida State and Artsbridge.
We were able to observe the CAP auditions her junior year and used that as a jumping off point for her own college audition prep. Had her list of colleges set and started choosing and working on material by January. When COVID hit, we decided to hedge our choice to go with the CAP auditions (they were slow to announce what schools would be attending) to also speak with Moo as daughter could attend Moonifieds without using Moo as a coach. Received validation of her college list from Moo and her team. Added some ala carte services from MTCA to finish off her prep team. Ultimately chose Moonifieds over CAP auditions (see know your child below for details on that).
Started in earnest in August on applications and refining her audition material. All prescreen submissions (including for Moonified schools) in by mid-October. All academic applications submitted by each school’s EA deadline. Received feedback in October in a set of mock auditions hosted by MTCA.
Before any in person auditions or prescreens, we got an early taste of the good news/bad news train we just boarded. On the positive side, a program director at one of the schools participating in Moonifieds reached out to daughter directly to tell her how impressed they were with her recorded prescreen. It was all but an offer to go to this school, which is pretty high up on the selectivity scale. Dave Clemmons said he has never seen this program director do this. After that refreshing start, she received a quick no on her prescreen to Carnegie Mellon. Ouch. Let the roller coaster begin. A redirect from Syracuse to Acting was a headscratcher that was an appropriate middle ground to end the month. She declined an audition there when they would not consider her for MT.
Moonifieds in November went off without any technical issues and only resulted in one disappointing result in December when Baldwin Wallace let us know she did not pass her prescreen. With the yin and yang that seemed to occur throughout this process, she received her first artistic acceptance from UArts right on the heels of the BW news. She will be getting a BFA. Releases her safety – Columbia College. All live auditions scheduled for January and February. Took a short holiday break.
January auditions went off without a hitch and another big BFA acceptance from BoCo, but even that came with its own drama (see Don’t Read Into Anything below for details). Allowed her to lighten her audition load by cancelling dates with MSM and Roosevelt (No trips back to my hometown…bummer). Also informed UArts that she would not be accepting its offer.
Hartt comes back with a yes the day before her final audition on February 11. The waiting starts.
March comes in like a lion with acceptances from Otterbein, FSU, CAP21, TCU and MSU Dance (which feels like a way for the school to bring in strong MT dancers through the back door). No’s and waitlists come in throughout the month, giving her a path forward in April to gather more information on each accepted school.
Visits in April to all schools she had not seen before. Mainly campus tours but she was able to meet with directors of each program except TCU as its COVID rules prohibited any interaction between its personnel and anyone outside the university. Long before the visits she had a clear favorite, but she used the trips to stress test her initial instincts.
All schools but one released after she returns from last trip. Over the phone for any who offered her; emails for waitlisted schools.
Final Decision:
Boston Conservatory at Berklee. She hit it off with Laura Marie Duncan in the audition and was about ready to kill the rest of her audition schedule when she got the good news in January. Each of her accepted schools showed her that they really wanted her in their own way, but BoCo really showed it. Talent scholarship, personal contact from Laura Marie from offer through acceptance. Issues brought up by students/parents there now are pretty evident to anyone interested in going there so not much of a surprise when we heard about them. While the school can’t offer the traditional college experience like some of her other choices, having the city of Boston as your “campus” is an excellent consolation.
Last Thoughts:
I will not be coming back to this forum providing sage advice to newcomers. This is not because I do not want to pay it forward (I will…see below) nor do I want to devalue the contributions of those that came before me.
I used this site to gain insight by reading through threads from the past three or so audition cycles. During this past cycle, I tended to contribute (and consume) information for the use only in this cycle. Mainly when information (waitlist and audition decisions primarily) about schools my daughter applied to came available. I realize this is not the only way to use this board, but with this use in mind, I will give my thoughts below on what I have learned through this process so someone who consumes the information like I did can use it as a reference going into their journey. This has a practical side to it as well; Daughter has two younger siblings who will not be going down this path that need my full focus as both have special needs.
Finally, if we have learned anything about MT auditioning these past few years, it is that a whole lot of what worked in the past doesn’t necessarily translate to future years. My thoughts on how to set up a virtual audition room may have very little impact if schools go back to in person auditions next year, just like advice on how to pick up walk-in auditions at Unifieds had for this year’s crop of applicants. Therefore, my thoughts will focus on aspects of the application/audition process that transcend the mechanics of how the process works/will work.
So here we go. If I were new to this process, here are the big things I would want to know:
Know (and listen to) your child – This can be broken down into two categories: talent and personality. On the talent side, get assessments from objective professionals (i.e. with nothing to gain/lose by sharing their opinion) about your kid’s strengths and weaknesses. We all know the politics and sometimes economics that go into casting pay for play and school shows. Even regional theaters’ casting for professional shows can tend to play favorites in casting youth ensembles. If you can afford it, send your child to a summer intensive that pulls its talent beyond your region. They will get a sense where they stand talent wise in these settings.
For personality, start with how to approach helping in the application/audition process. D needs, at times, additional prodding to get through administrative tasks. Just creating a spreadsheet or timeline and pointing her to it would not suffice. A question or two on the status of certain things helped keep the stress levels down by avoiding too many fire drills. The other example came from listening to her. After observing the CAP consortium auditions in 2019, she really felt performing in front of a large group of panelists, and the adrenaline that goes with it, would fit best her strengths as a performer. Enter COVID. She attends a handful of master classes in the Spring of 2020 and the stress of performing in front of a lot of panelists – that she cannot see but knows are there – impacts her performances. We quickly pivot to using Moonifieds for her mass (but individual) audition format. If she had not let us know about her concerns, or we had not listened, we would have allowed a stressor to remain in stressful enough endeavor.
Start early, but not for everything – Freshman year: Train, train train; Set up a Hilton Honors account and start accumulating points on it (Palmer House remains a Hilton property and will host future Unified auditions, if they are revived post-COVID). Do the same for airline miles. Even without in person auditions, they help with travel to campuses your child is accepted to; Visit one (and ONLY one) example of each program type, especially if it is part of some other travel (summer intensive, vacation, business trip). Don’t go out of your way to do this and definitely do so with as little emotion as possible. Dream schools should only exist after your kid is offered artistically to one.
Sophomore year: repeat freshman year prep; observe the audition cycle of the two classes ahead of you. Read this site, Facebook, and talk with any MT friends a year or two ahead of your child. Do this in real time as much as you can as it can prepare you for the ebb and flow of this crazy process. A lot gets lost if asked about these things in hindsight.
Junior year: pick an audition coach if it makes sense in your situation. At a minimum, line up voice and monologue resources to help with selecting the correct material for your child. Start working on that material. Research schools and build a balanced list to apply to.
Senior year: start applications as early as possible to get them out of the way and, in some cases, open the door to schedule an audition slot; If you have been working on material in your Junior year, consider getting prescreen videos out to/scheduling auditions for schools as early as possible (October 1 is a good goal for prescreens; November auditions where possible). This can help scheduling in the busy January/February window as well as get some important feedback on your material. Possible artistic offers early in the process can relieve the stress later on. Early rejections can indicate issues with material and can allow your child to apply to additional schools.
Divide and conquer; Stay in your lane – Daughter and wife were glad to allow me to handle the logistical side of things. I have no ability to choose an outfit or set up a ring light. Enough said.
Prioritize your senior year, at the beginning of the year – If you want your child to maximize his/her/their senior year experience with choir, musical(s), play(s), debate team, etc. I think you have two choices: Gap year or lighten your kid’s coursework in (at least) half by loading up on HS classes in their first three (or four if they can take some HS classes in 8th grade). Your kid will try to convince you he/she/they can handle it all, but something will have to give, especially if schools go back to in person auditions. No need to take all senior year activities off the table, but you do not want to be in the position of having to choose between an audition and an activity your kid could have to back out of. Pick wisely.
Filter out the noise – If you have done a good job of creating an appropriate, balanced school list (adjusted to early news if necessary), what others in the process do, and the results that come from their efforts, do not mean anything in your kid’s journey and should be treated that way. If you or your kid tries to control what you can’t in this process, you are only adding stress (the natural byproduct of controlling things you can never control) to an already stressful process.
Don’t read into anything – until there is something to read – This bit of advice is best given with an example. Kids who applied during the early window at BoCo were told the school’s decision (yes or no; maybe deferral I can’t recall) would be communicated by the end of January. A week or ten days before this due date the school inadvertently sends out an invite to an accepted students zoom meeting BEFORE sending out decision emails. D does not get an invite and. is. stressed. Wife is stressed. I tell them to wait for actual news before jumping off the proverbial cliff. Few days go by and still nothing. On January 28, daughter gets an email from Laura Marie Duncan welcoming her to the program, apologizing for sending her the Zoom invite early, and asking her to call if she has any questions. Daughter calls and tells Laura Marie she never received the initial email. Not in spam, not anywhere. After some digging, it turns out BoCo’s email delivery system had flagged daughter’s account as opting out of receiving mass emails from the school.
I wish anyone who goes through this process in the future the best of luck. It has always been hard and will always remain so. The deeply personalized nature of an MT education coupled with a large (and growing) pool of high schoolers interested in it means the odds at any individual school are never in your favor. There are not enough “up and coming” programs to ever make up for the demand. But by casting a wide enough net into a pool of schools matched to your child’s talent will in the vast majority of cases provide him/her/them the chance to get excellent training in MT. Where they take that training is more important than where they receive it anyway.