<p>Got some info from SUNY New Paltz yesterday. I’ll update again when I get more.</p>
<p>At this time, they haven’t scheduled their on-campus audition weekend yet. Likely in March.</p>
<p>Although their website says that individual appointments are possible, we were very strongly urged to do the on-campus date. Also, although their website also says DVD submissions are acceptable, we were also very strongly urged to avoid submitting one. I was told that the on-campus audition weekend is basically THE option for auditioning.</p>
<p>Also I was told that their website is being restructured and that it’s not a reliable place right now to get information. She said to call the theatre dept again in a week to get their audition date decision.</p>
<p>So I’ll post again if and when I know exactly how they’re doing things this year. On the other hand, if their official weekend is too difficult for us, I may try to talk to the dept head (as opposed to the dept administrator/secretary) and see if they’ll let us come for an individual appointment when it’s possible to travel. We certainly do want to avoid any DVD auditions, but we can only go to NY once this winter (D has 2 NY-area non-Unified schools, and I’m trying desperately to do them in one trip), and there are some weekends that she just can’t go because of important other commitments (or at least really tough choices - I know college in many ways does come first, but it would be sad to miss her Senior Winter play, or the State vocal competition she’s been in every year). I’m just staying hopeful that we can work things out.</p>
<p>I think it is pretty poor if by mid November, a school has not set their audition date! This is due to the very reasons you just gave in terms of travel arrangements and fitting together a student’s various other audition dates for other colleges. The only thing I can remotely imagine in this case is perhaps those who audition for SUNY New Paltz come from a small radius geographically to New Paltz, rather than a broader region or nationally. Still, I think it is wrong for a school to not have these dates in place at this point in time. I would say this is even more imperative in that they only have ONE audition date, leaving even less flexibility in scheduling.</p>
<p>Thanks, Soozie. They said “probably next week” they’ll know - and I said, “Are you sure? It’s Thanksgiving week. Will your office be open?” She did say there would be people there on Mon and Tues, at least. It was clear that she wasn’t getting the point that we had to travel from a distance; I remarked that we’d be there the weekend before when our school has 2 days off, and that we have a private appt at Adelphi (which is being VERY helpful, as well as having 2 official dates of its own), and she said, “Well, it just wouldn’t make sense for you to come just one week before we’re having our official audition day. You might as well just come the next Saturday instead.” It did seem like she thought we could just pop over whenever we wanted.</p>
<p>Next week when I call I’m definitely planning to talk to someone else. I’m just hoping she wasn’t the official voice of the program.</p>
<p>New Paltz is definitely scheduling their audition weekend March 5th and 6th. They again informed me that they do not make individual appointments for any reason, and they do not recommend submitting an audition by video. Also, for New Paltz, you can’t schedule your audition appointment until you have received an academic acceptance from the University. This is different from most schools where they merely have to have received and/or processed the application.</p>
<p>So we’ll wait to see if she is accepted, and make our decision then.</p>
<p>What is with UCLA? Does it always require folks to wait until January to sign up for auditions? </p>
<p>“Due to the UCLA winter break campus closure, the Theater Department has postponed the date for when applicants can schedule their interview/audition appointment. Please visit this webpage beginning January 7, 2011 to schedule your interview/audition appointment time.”</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, three weeks ago, it read “due to the UCLA fall break campus closure.”</p>
<p>They’ll get over a hundred students at each audition anyway. UCLA seems to strive to make the whole audition process as stressful as possible. However, my D signed up for the earliest slot available and, as it happened, it was her first. It was very intimidating but after it was over, my D knew she could survive anything and relaxed a lot more on the next one.</p>
<p>I am sorry to hear you’re having trouble with a school, too. Good luck, good luck! I guess this whole process is indeed a learning experience in more ways than we sometimes anticipate.</p>
<p>At our house we’re biting our nails a bit, waiting for CMU to send D’s ID so we can schedule her audition. Last year there were posts that by now their entire audition season was pretty much full. Anyone know how their slots are filling up now? We’re hoping for a time in Chicago.</p>
<p>EmmyB- We were in the same boat as you with the CMU ID. Got it on Saturday. You can check online to see if there are open slots in your city. It looks like the acting slots are wide open from coast to coast as of today. Good luck!</p>
<p>nifty - you are my hero! Thank you! I went to the website but can’t seem to find where the actual individual slots are, just the dates they’re offered. It is such a relief to hear that they haven’t filled. I just hope it doesn’t take forever to get our ID. She only applied a week ago.</p>
<p>Update on New Paltz: I’ve had a lovely exchange with the head of their dept, who says they can be extremely flexible as needed in scheduling individual auditions. He even suggested Skype as a last-chance alternative. We feel much relieved and much happier. I hope people are looking at this school among auditioned BAs - the theatre program, the location, and the university itself are all just wonderful.</p>
<p>Hi Emmy, my D applied to New Paltz however, have not scheduled audition yet. Actually, I thought you don’t audition until you hear from the school Did you visit school? She is waiting to here from her ED school first. I heard wonderful things about NPaltz.<br>
Do you know when they notifiy decisions? Thanks</p>
<p>maggie, I’ve been so wrapped up in trying to get her application completed and deal with the audition scheduling that I never even asked what they do about decisions!</p>
<p>It is true that they won’t schedule the audition until you have an acceptance from the University. And even though we missed the EA deadline by a hair (scores weren’t in on time), they did say that they’ll process everything on a rolling basis right away after they notify the EAs and that we should hear sometime in January. </p>
<p>The reason why I needed to deal with their audition even hypothetically is because we travel from a big distance and really need to do our NYC auditions in one long weekend, which unfortunately can’t be their “official” weekend. We really appreciate when any school that doesn’t travel itself will accommodate private appointments with kids who come from far away.</p>
<p>The Dept head was very nice about giving us an idea when he might be free the weekend we will be in the area, and if she gets into the school we’ll call him and confirm the appointment. Beyond that I don’t know what will happen!</p>
<p>There is a New Paltz student who posts on CC sometimes named whitty; you could PM him if you can’t get an answer from the school.</p>
<p>Today we got my D’s “audition invitation” via e-mail from Montclair State. Nice timing, since she got her app in the day before the deadline (12/15). She can whip up her theatre application quickly, and then the audition can get confirmed for Chicago. She’s left a lot of space for them so it should work out reasonably.</p>
<p>Also this past week she got accepted to New Paltz academically, and we confirmed her audition date there in February. They are being very accommodating for our travel needs.</p>
<p>Soon she can multitask a little less and just focus on audition prep (that is, besides school and ECs and concerts and etc., etc.).</p>
<p>We’ve got her audition scheduled with Montclair State in Chicago, too, and they were very nice about it. They only offer you a date when you sign up with them online, and then they assign you a time. It was too early for us, and they were very nice about moving her back a couple of hours. </p>
<p>D is thrilled, because she has a very nice schedule for the three days, at the times she wanted AND in the order she wanted. </p>
<p>We did decide to stay at the Palmer House, because one of her auditions is at 8 a.m. there. I think especially that morning we’ll be glad we paid a little more.</p>
<p>Whew! A few months ago I wasn’t so sure we could make this work so well!</p>