<p>Hi everyone,
Hope it's not too early to begin sharing our experiences about the 2013 audition season. My son has two early auditions done and heading into eight more during the months of January - March. He decided to not do Unifieds as he felt like he would hate the chaos...he likes taking them one at a time. Fortunately, we are able to maximize travel and minimize school absences. He has auditioned for CCM and Point Park; pre-screened at Pace, Michigan, Shenandoah, Illinois-Wesleyan, Coastal Carolina - has passed three of the five.
Just wondering what's going on out there with everyone else? Anyone begun this crazy process yet? Looking to commiserate!</p>
<p>We’re taking something of an opposite approach from mcpcwhite’s son. My son flatly refuses to travel around the country looking at colleges, pointing out that the acceptance rate to the auditioned BFA program is incredibly low, and he doesn’t want to fall in love with any school unless he’s been accepted there. I can’t really disagree. It’s very different from the application process for most kids, isn’t it, where you can make an educated guess about admission based on GPA and test scores, and determine what your “safety” and “stretch” schools are! The main thing is that short high-stakes audition.</p>
<p>So he did an early audition at Shenandoah and was accepted a couple of weeks later, which takes a lot of pressure off. (He had to audition on campus because that’s what they require, but he still refused to go on a tour – though now he’s willing to go back for one in January.) </p>
<p>Ithaca College comes to the Washington DC area, so he’s auditioning for that school in mid-January with a recorded accompaniment. Then it’s off to Unifieds in New York, where he’s auditioning for seven more schools: Carnegie Mellon, University of Southern California, SUNY Purchase, Boston University, Emerson, Rutgers, and Syracuse.</p>
<p>When and if he is accepted to any of them, we’ll do our college visits.</p>
<p>I think the stress and chaos of Unifieds will be much less of a problem now that he has an admission at a program he likes.</p>
<p>Best of luck to everyone starting the audition process. After preparing for so long it will be over in a flash. My D actually really enjoyed auditioning. She did the Unified route also, and loved the fast pace, the energy, and the fact that she got it all over with in a 3 day period. Everyone should do whatever works best for them - Unifieds, or auditioning at schools- and just remember to relax and have fun. Each school will be looking for something different, and since most of us can’t read minds, it is best to be yourself, do the best you can do, look like you are having fun… and then go home and congratulate yourselves for being amazing!</p>
<p>I actually see the benefits in both approaches - whatever works for your kid’s personality for sure! My son has pre-screened at Shenandoah and been invited to campus in January - that’s actually our next visit/audition scheduled! Good luck to everyone. So glad I found this blog.</p>
<p>I tried to respond to a PM from another parent, but CC won’t let me respond since I don’t have enough posts yet – so to that parent – please email me at mcpcwhite@******** and I’ll be happy to discuss the prescreenings we’ve done!</p>
<p>ANDDDD it won’t let me give my email address either 
Sorry!</p>
<p>Hey, mcpcwhite, we are one of the many families who are trying to audition on campus as much as possible, so feel get in touch when CC lets you send PMs. My S’s doing straight acting and has had three auditions so far–we resume travelling in mid-January and he’ll have five more auditions before it’s all done. He also has four non-audition schools, three of which should be academic safeties–he hasn’t visited those, but he has at least seen all the rest. He’s loved auditioning on campus, and his sense of direction and purpose has really sharpened during the process. We’ll be at NYC Unifieds to do one audition (on Friday afternoon), so perhaps we can compare notes then. Meantime, good luck and enjoy the ride!</p>