<p>Hi everyone! I’m a freshman BFA Musical Theatre major at Coastal Carolina. I thought I’d go ahead and post about the 2010-2011 auditions in case anyone was curious about them (I beat Ken Martin! ;)). Feel free to Private Message me with any questions. And, if you’re auditioning on campus, let me know your name and when and some of the other freshman and I would be happy to show you around and introduce you to everyone when you’re here!</p>
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<p>Dates</p>
<p>On Campus Auditions:
Saturday Nov. 6, 2010 (Early Decision Audition)
Saturday Feb. 12, 2010
Saturday Feb. 26, 2011 </p>
<p>Off Campus Auditions:
North Texas Drama Auditions (Nov. 18, 2010)
Dallas, TX (Nov. 19, 2010) Please schedule an audition here.
Chicago, IL (Feb. 5 & 6, 2011) Please schedule an audition here.</p>
<p>In certain situations, it is possible to send audition material to Coastal via DVD. However, this is not the recommended route and will not showcase the student to their fullest potential. Please contact Ken Martin if you wish to send material rather than be a part of the live audition process.</p>
<p>Your day will consist of the audition and interview, campus tour, two master classes as well as time spent with current students and faculty. We encourage you to stay and see our production that evening. Please contact Ken Martin with your complement ary ticket request. You must have already auditioned or have scheduled an audition to receive complementary tickets.</p>
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<p>If you come to the November auditions, you’ll get to see a fantastic production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”. If you come to the February 12th on campus auditions you’ll see “The Music Man”, and if you come to the February 26th, you’ll see one of the straight plays, “Old Times”. </p>
<p>I am unclear as to what the Nov. 6 “early decision” audition means. Can you explain?
Does it have to do with the college acceptance, acceptance into the specific MT program, or another type of commitment? Thanks.</p>
<p>dadsong, let me answer that. We offer a chance at an early invitation into the program. So, if you audition at that date, we can offer three different answers post-audition. First, we could suggest you might be better off in another program. Second, we could defer the decision until all auditions have been completed. Third, we can offer the student an invitation into the program. </p>
<p>If the invitation comes, the student has three options to answer us. First, they could accept - and the student essentially agrees that they will attend CCU (although there is no contract or signed agreement - we take it on trust). Second - the student can defer their decision. Finally, the student could simply tell us they don’t want to attend CCU. </p>
<p>The University has a rolling admission policy and will begin offering admission to the university at the same time we notify anyone who wishes to be considered for an early decision. We don’t offer invitations until the University has agreed to admit the student. </p>
<p>Thank you - this is very helpful. If you offer a student a place in the MT program at the early audition on Nov. 6, and the student needs to find out about financial aid packages before making a final commitment, do you hold that place for them? And if so, how long?</p>
<p>We work closely with the financial aide office. This is a new initiative this year so somewhat of a pilot program. But we won’t ask for any answer in any way until that picture becomes clear for the student. There will be opportunities after the initial package to gain more merit based aid. But once the initial information is gathered (GPA, Test Scores, our talent evaluation) that information will be given to the aid office. From there, we will meet, and determine an aid package. That will be sent to the family, and we’ll take it from there. This is a really unique approach. Gives the department a tad more say in the talent portion of the package, and still allows the student time to re-take a test or get a point or two higher in the GPA.</p>
<p>dadsong - We found the financial aid office (and all offices!) at Coastal to be very easy to work with. Merit aid at Coastal is spelled out on their website so I found that helpful going in to know what my D would be eligible for in terms of merit aid. Of course this is for the 2010-2011 year but it will give you an idea of what is available in terms of merit aid:
[Financial</a> Aid Office](<a href=“http://www.coastal.edu/financialaid/meritbased.html#CCU]Financial”>http://www.coastal.edu/financialaid/meritbased.html#CCU)</p>
<p>Coastal has one of the best websites for general info and for Theatre. Kudos to them.</p>
<p>Austinmtmom, do you know if the academic scholarships and talent scholarships can be combined? Or can you only qualify for one? (Hope Alexa’s having fun and learning!)</p>
<p>arrdad - For this past year it was one or the other; they could not be combined. I’m not sure if that will be different this year or not. And thanks - Alexa is LOVING CCU!! I believe she is in a mock dance audition this afternoon. They keep them busy but she loves the training she is getting!!</p>
<p>Thanks for the clarification. I suspected as much, because the combination seemed too good to be true. Very glad to hear that your daughter is loving CCU. I always wonder how the kids actually do at their school of choice after following their audition and school selection processes on this forum.</p>
<p>I, too have a student in MT at CCU…LOVING IT, LOVING IT, LOVING IT! Loving it SO much we have to remind her she has parents at home that want to hear from her once in a while! Staying very busy and feeling very sure of the choice she has made…it’s a good feeling all around.</p>
<p>There is a change to the financial aid situation this year. We will - after five years of complaints - be able to add some talent money on top of the other scholarships. The structure really is significantly different from the past and will allow us (the department) some flexibility. There is potential for the truly strong student with talent to come away with a strong financial aid package. Even the worst financial aid package is decent. </p>
<p>I wish that the change could be retroactive, but sadly it isn’t.</p>
<p>I am delighted at the approaches you are taking toward financial aid. In the event that students and families are waiting for financial aid packages and acceptances from other schools, which could go well into March and April next year, would you hold slots for those accepted early decision audition (on Nov. 6) all the way to May 2011? In other words, if you accepted a student early and they “deferred their decision,” how long will you hold their slot open?</p>
<p>Just adding a DITTO to austinmtmom and theatrelvr’s comments about their kids LOVING CCU! College application fees-hundreds of dollars. Traveling for college auditions-at least a few thousand dollars. Having a happy college freshman-absolutely PRICELESS.</p>
<p>I apologize. When I get busy I tend to neglect this board.</p>
<p>If we accept a student under “early decision” we will wait until our package is complete before we ask for the student to render a decision. But they will need to make a decision before the first week in February (assuming the financial aid package is done - if not we’ll work on another date.) If the student decides to say “yes” the position is held. This is a handshake agreement. </p>
<p>If a student chooses to defer their decision until May 1st, the invitation is no long guaranteed. The student simply ends up back in the larger pool and may once again emerge as a top candidate. </p>
<p>What happens is that if we already have someone who has agreed to come, we can begin to build the rest of the company/ensemble with that student as a base. If that isn’t the case, we begin with a blank canvas. Again, it doesn’t mean we won’t end up issuing the invitation again, but I can’t give a guarantee. </p>
<p>I hope that makes some sense. Sorry about the delayed reply.</p>
<p>If anyone will be attending the auditions tomorrow please send me a private message and let me know! We’re excited to meet everyone. I’ll be signing people in and be on the student panel so be sure to say hi! :)</p>
<p>If a student is applying for regular decision (not early decision), are all of the decisions made after the last auditions? or are there rolling admission decisions? Are students who are no longer being considered, notified earlier, or does everyone get notified at the same time?
Thanks.</p>