<p>Cheesehead Mike, I heard similar things about the head of Emerson MT last year as well.</p>
<p>Cheeseheadmike, my D had an almost identical experience with Emerson last year. She said the auditioner (and I don’t know who it was) was downright mean to her. But my friend’s daughter had a different auditioner and a good audition experience at Emerson. So just keep in mind that if your daughter had had a different auditioner, she might still be feeling really good about Emerson, and you’d be unaware of this person that she clearly didn’t click with. That is why I recommend going back and spending as much time as possible at your acceptance schools, meeting as many faculty as possible, talking to as many kids as you can, and attending whatever classes they’ll let you. See if you FIT and if you feel you click with the program’s people and general vibe. No matter HOW reputable a program, a bad fit can make for a very long 4 years!</p>
<p>I wish Emerson could just get out of its own way. I’ve been defending their program because nobody here posts about it though I have absolutely no connection to Emerson other than I used to live in Boston and think it is a wonderful school with amazing facilities. I cringed when I read cheeseheadmike’s account but quickly looked up who the MT head is and realized it isn’t the same person as it was in 2012 when my daughter applied. I don’t know anything about the current head. I hope he is reading.</p>
<p>Be that as it may, sometimes schools just don’t get out of their own way at the front door, but that doesn’t mean that that once inside, you wouldn’t love it. But sure, you have to go on something and I know my own son eliminated a school this year because he had the world’s most boring tour guide (that he was willing to forgive) but then they kept badly misspelling the name of the country where his father is from in every presentation and brochure while at the same time bragging about it as a study abroad destination if you wanted to study theology. What made this particularly ironic is that my son is a terrible speller so if it bugged him, that’s pretty funny. It was as he put it, “death by 1000 cuts of glass.” </p>
<p>I do have a good friend whose daughter eliminated NYU Tisch this year because the people at the performing arts college fair she attended early on were not helpful at all. Cringed about that too because that is where my daughter is an MT. I can imagine it but I would expect better from NYU. It made me sad because those particular folks at the front door would have had nothing to do with the experience once inside. Keep an open mind if you can.</p>
<p>Great advice, Calliene. Fit is so important; I predict a whole new round of travel once we get a few acceptances. </p>
<p>My D is actually laughing about her audition today. She’s one tough cookie!</p>
<p>If such problems are ongoing at Emerson from year to year then there may very well be a poisonous culture there. It would be no fun to spend 4 years wondering where you stand and watching over your shoulder. </p>
<p>I know that different auditioners might have different attitudes, but part of their job is to represent their schools. On that front they should have a united approach to conducting auditions and it should not matter who you audition for.</p>
<p>At that point I don’t care about their reputation or track record for success, I am not sending my kid (and my money) into a meat grinder.</p>
<p>My D will be auditioning next Sunday for Emerson…it will be interesting to see what she says when it’s over. She is auditioning for straight acting so not sure if there is any overlap.</p>
<p>Thank you cheesehead for the honest heads up. We’re headed to Unifieds this am and my daughter’s first audition is this afternoon with Emerson. I showed her your post so she wouldn’t be blindsided right out of the gate. She may not have him as an auditor, but just in case, I’m glad she’ll know it’s not personal if her first audition is with him. </p>
<p>@cheeseheadmike We were at the audition yesterday too, and my daughter had a similar experience. The Emerson director did a sing-song exaggerated impression of my daughter to mock the way she delivered a line in her song. It was mortifying. She takes direction well and has had other wonderful experiences with auditions. Emerson was the exception. How students can respect a director who mocks them is beyond my comprehension. </p>
<p>Edited to add: We have a friend who attends Emerson and absolutely loves it. Her audition experience last year was great. So my D’s experience yesterday along with @cheeseheadmike’s D’s should not stop anyone from auditioning! But I do think it’s fair to give a head’s up. My D is also handling it just fine, but the guy said some pretty horrible things to her, so be prepared and hopefully others will have a much better experience. 
</p>
<p>I was tired and I forgot! Puma…no donuts at Otterbein. From what I hear there is a great bakery nearby but I never made it there. </p>
<p>And…the fashion report. 3 blue shirts guys. All the girls were adorbs, mostly in dresses. My favorite was a winter white dress with a turquoise belt, off white hose and turquoise shoes. She looked great and memorable IMO. </p>
<p>It is wonderful that so many folks are reporting the details of their auditions. The notes on Emerson can better prepare the students to really be ready for anything; I know we always mention this to our kids, but so many faculty and staff are welcoming and warm, that it can really through a performer when the opposite happens. So any tips can be helpful, positive or negative. I know we were grateful years ago to know about a timer used at one school, and we “paid it forward” to future auditioning students who then went in better prepared as well. </p>
<p>MTMajorCook, we’re so pleased your son enjoyed his day at Otterbein! My son and another MT classmate really enjoyed getting to chat with the students and families. Several parents asked my son about his and other students’ choice of Otterbein vs other schools. I know he would be happy to put your son and others in touch with classmates who would be happy to elaborate on the exploration and decision making process. </p>
<p>Best wishes to all of you for the remaining auditions!</p>
<p>I know there is already a review of Wright State on here, but I just had to add what a great experience this was for our D. She took the master class on Friday & when we picked her up & went out to dinner she could barely stop talking to eat! She was so impressed w/the teachers she worked w/in her classes! She was already sold on the school! Sat was her audition & she did the dance first, she’s not a dancer so she’s always worried about this, but felt good on this one. Then she changed & did her audition, she was so much more relaxed than she had been before & felt good about her songs & monologues. Then Joe (head of the MT dept) asked her to do one of her monologues again w/Marya-another faculty member in the room & someone from the master class that my D was gushing about. So she did it again w/Marya as her partner & felt so excited about it! They asked her a bit as she was leaving about where her town was & had a few chuckles. She also made friends w/some kids in the class on fir & that made it all even more positive. We were also impressed w/the conversation w/the faculty & students. Keeping our fingers crossed!</p>
<p>Then we came home to a rejection letter from Rider. She was bummed, but didn’t feel good about her audition there so she wasn’t expecting to get in. I just hope Wright State wants her!!</p>
<p>This is so hard!!</p>
<p>My S loved the acting coach too he said “she is exactly the right kind of crazy” LOL I am glad your D enjoyed her day! Fingers crossed!</p>
<p>Sorry about Rider and you are right this is really hard!</p>
<p>I echo what abparent said . . . if you all need a current-student-at-Otterbein-perspective, let me know and I can put you in touch with my daughter. </p>
<p>So…Chicago Unifieds. D has had four auditions here so far. She went to Roosevelt (on-campus Saturday) and had such a great time. The students who were there assisting were totally awesome. Ray the MT adjudicator was terrific and told D he loved her audition. The dance with Louie (I think that’s his name) was also a ton of fun, D said. </p>
<p>Sat afternoon she did Emerson, and I mentioned what happened there above. </p>
<p>This morning was Syracuse. Since D did their summer MT program, she was quite familiar with them. Ralph Zito (program chair) was super accommodating to the parents, answering questions forever, and the audition was really efficiently run, with half the kids dancing while the other half did songs/monologues. The adjudicator for the song/monologue (D only did one each, I think), had her poker face so D couldn’t really read her, but thought she did well. Adjudicator asked her to try singing something a different way and was affirming about the result. A nice audition.</p>
<p>This afternoon was NYU. D really loved this one, which was a bit of a surprise – she liked visiting the school last spring but didn’t really connect with the program back then. Today she really felt like all the adjudicators had very cool vibe and she was digging it. I was thrilled to hear this. Chris (the admissions guy) was really great in how he explained how things would go. There were three distinct parts. </p>
<p>The monologues portion was about 15 minutes including a short interview, which D loved. She was asked to try a monologue a different way, and she did so, and the adjudicator stopped her with a smile and said “that’s all I needed to see.” They had a spirited conversation (question asked was "Have you ever been out of the country? D said yes, and adjudicator asked “what was a memorable moment that stood out from that trip?”) </p>
<p>The singing part was about 5 minutes. D sang 2 songs and that was about it, no interview here. </p>
<p>The dancing was next for her (students rotated, so there’s no real way to know if you are going to dance or act first, for those who are wondering how to dress going in, but there is time to change). She LOVED the dance portion. It was quick and involved some free dance time. The whole NYU audition took up the entire afternoon. </p>
<p>That’s it for now!</p>
<p>So far so good at The Unifieds Zone (The U.Z.)!</p>
<p>CCPA dance call went well. The D said it wasn’t diffcult and Mr. Perez said to think of it as a free movement call. She said he was very funny. Indeed I heard a lot of laughter coming from the studio. Every CCPA person seemed to be so kind! Funny story: we went to get something quick from Dunkin and then I hailed a cab. The cab driver was super nice and chipper on a Sunday morning. When I gave him the address, he said “oh, that’s just a block away.” LOL! That’s okay. Better safe than late!</p>
<p>Emerson - I met DoReMiMom and her lovely D! HEY, GIRL!! We were a bit concerned about how the day was going to go after yesterday’s reports. We wondered if there would be a different auditor. It turns out that the head of MT does all of the regional auditons. RUH ROH! The dance call was first and there was an info session for the parents. The person checking in the students and running the info session is an Emerson alum who was so nice and answered the many questions thrown her way. I believe the auditoners had their own info session. After the questions, I left to go get The D’s dress, brought it down to the checki in room and went back upstairs to work. She seemed to be gone a super long time and I was slightly concerned. I have a scrappy kid and no telling what would happen if she was treated as others were yesterday. She finally made it back to the room and couldn’t say enough how nice he was. She said that he did matter-of-factly say that he liked the cut program because it’s better to let kids know early that they just aren’t right for MT. She said that the dance call wasn’t very hard at all and when she showed it to me, she was right. <em>I</em> could have done the combo with ease! They had time to change after the dance call and the order for the individual auditions was on a volunteer basis. She was 6th. She did an uptempo song that the auditor seemed to enjoy and asked if she had another. She started the 2nd song and he stopped her about two lines in to give adjustments on performing it as if it was a conversation. She got excellent feedback about the correction. Then she decided to do a different monologue based on his song correction and he gave great feedback about that, as well. No complaints from her at all. Today’s experience was so positive for her that she has gone from “I just want this to be OVER” yesterday to “I’m SO EXCITED for the rest of the auditions” today. Let’s say that yesterday just wasn’t his day because he was fine today.</p>
<p>And that’s it for Sunday’s report here in The U.Z.</p>
<p>I’m so glad your D had a good experience, GSOMTMom! Maybe he was having an off day Saturday. </p>
<p>Or maybe someone at Emerson reads CC and suggested to him that he try to be a little nicer before he drove everyone off! And i don’t really agree with his cut program philosophy - I think juries at the end of each year to make sure a student is making progress are fine, but in a cut program they have to axe a specific # of kids regardless of whether they are progressing or not. That means that they might end up having to cut a deserving kid because they only have a certain number of spots. If they feel they can’t tell if a student will make it in MT through the audition process then to my mind they aren’t doing their job. Obviously a mistake can be made, but juries should take care of any real egregious errors on the part of the auditors.</p>
<p>Sorry for the rant - the Emerson cut program was a peeve of mine last year! Anyway, it is great to hear about all the happy kids at Chicago Unifieds. Can’t believe it will be S’s turn next year! Hope everyone gets good news soon!</p>
<p>GSOMTmom- I’m really glad to hear that your D had a good experience with Emerson. I like to think that people are fundamentally decent, and I hate to see kids get bullied. </p>
<p>And speaking of cut systems, it is the system at Millikin called the “hurdles” that made us cancel our audition with them. We know of a student who was cut after her junior year because she got on the bad side of a professor. She didn’t even attempt to start over anywhere else. She was done with MT at that point</p>
<p>On a bright note, D participated in the Roosevelt dance call this afternoon and loved it. Tomorrow she hits the ground running.</p>
<p>My S and I drove in to Chicago this evening to have dinner with wife and D. I got to spend a few minutes in the PHH lobby watching scores of MT kids buzzing around like bees, and Chicago looked beautiful this evening, especially along Michigan Ave. Very exciting.</p>
<p>BAL to all.</p>
<p>I just did a little research on the MT head at Emerson. I’m wondering if perhaps he was in teacher mode? He is very highly rated by his students but known to be tough. (See rate my professor etc.) Also,read his credentials. Acting the song is truly his thing and his standards are high. He is also an auditor for the SETC auditions. He has been at Emerson for a while but I know was not the MT head in 2011 when my daughter auditioned. But she didn’t audition for the head… for all I know, she did audition for this man. I asked, she doesn’t remember.</p>
<p>I’m not a fan of anyone being mocked and I am beyond sympathetic for the stories reported here. Wondering if it is possible that there was some useful advice for remaining auditions being handed out that was hard to hear and also may not have a thing to do with whether or not you will get into Emerson? He might have just been doing his teacher thing and trust me,there are plenty of teachers in this field who will push you just like that in class. And no, you might not always love them but if they know what they are talking about, you will respect them.</p>
<p>My daughter was told by somebody from U of OK that she was singing one of her songs all wrong because it was inconsistent with her type. He sort of messed with her head and challenged her to fix it. She fixed it based in what he said and she would tell you and I’d agree, that the new version of the exact same song was better by far. That’s the one that she took on the road to all subsequent auditions. I think this auditor did her a favor. </p>
<p>And folks… every program has a cut system. It’s called grades. If you are not doing the work or are not capable of doing the work… they will find a way to show you the door. I would not ding a program that has a fancy name for it like, hurdles, juries etc. Every college does it and I’d avoid one that doesn’t because it means your student could be bogged down by being with peers that are less committed and the chaos their lack of preparation causes in class it is a major time suck.</p>
<p>WRIGHT STATE: D went to the Master Class on Friday and had a wonderful experience with the faculty. She was very impressed: esp. with the acting and the two vocal coaches. She was grateful to have been part of such a constructive class in such an “up close & personal” setting. Thumbs up.</p>
<p>On Saturday, it was nice (and comfortable) to have the Q & A in the auditorium with the faculty and current students while the students did their dance call. Everyone took time to answer questions completely. I must say, I find it a little odd that the faculty doesn’t sit in on the dance call. (In every other on-campus audition…including her older sister’s auditions 2 years back…the adjudicators have been in the room to see what the students can do. The dance teacher that taught the combo was the only one evaluating.) They also had 2 separate rooms for the vocal/monologue auditions; so obviously, the faculty does not see each student. And when I asked if they “taped” so that the remaining faculty could see, the administrator said that “they had been doing this long enough”; so I imagine they trust each other’s judgment when it comes time for selection. I suppose it is not unlike “unifieds” where not all faculty is present. </p>
<p>All in all, it was a pleasant day…and kudos to the Wright State students who went out of their way to make everyone feel comfortable and answer questions honestly. </p>
<p>Good morning everyone! Reporting from The Unified auditions in Chicago…had a good start on day one and had the awesome pleasure of meeting GSOMTMom, who I must say is fantastic! I won’t duplicate the info she reported for Emerson but I’ll share my D’s experience. Also, as a side note, I met another parent who had many nice things to say about the male auditor and how he couldn’t have been any nicer. My D’s experience was a good one too. She said he was very complimentary about her song and told her she sang really well. She did say he doesn’t appear to be a warm and fuzzy type so I’m wondering if he had an off day on Saturday and was more critical than usual. Day one done and it was quick and painless. She has 3 today so I’ll post info afterward. </p>