If you upload videos to acceptd and have to pay a fee, do you have to pay it for every college you apply to? Along with a normal application fee or not? Also, if a school doesn’t attend UNIFIEDS (speaking of- how can you find out about which do?) do you have to fly to the school? Does that mean that I might have to fly to multiple places multiple times next year? Is this all during school and will I have to miss a ton of school? Also, how common is it to be asked to audition in person? Like what percent of auditioners are usually called in person? I am just very confused about the whole process and don’t really have any family members to help me out with research. THey said they will come with me and pay for it but not do research.
Q. If you upload videos to acceptd and have to pay a fee, do you have to pay it for every college you apply to? Along with a normal application fee or not?
A. Most programs require an application fee to audition for Theatre Programs. This fee is in addition to any fees required to apply to the college. So, the answer to both questions is basically YES, however, not all programs require an audition fee and a few colleges offer free applications.
Q. Also, if a school doesn’t attend UNIFIEDS (speaking of- how can you find out about which do?) do you have to fly to the school?
A. Yes, you have to travel to the school to audition for programs that do not hold off-campus auditions, such as Unifieds. However, some/many of these programs do accept video auditions for students who live far away and can’t make the trip - but the programs that accept video auditions usually recommend against sending in a video unless it is your only option. Finding out which schools will be at Unifieds is not exactly easy. For schools that are members of Unifieds, you can check the list at the Unifieds website:
http://www.unifiedauditions.com/universities.html
However, many other schools that are not “official” members of Unifieds also hold auditions at the same locations or in hotels nearby (for instance, at Chicago, there will be roughly double the number of schools present as are on the “official” list). To find those schools, you have to go to each individual school website that you are interested in to see if they hold auditions at Unifieds locations. If you search through this forum for “Unifieds” threads you can find partial lists of programs that attend Unifieds. Since this varies every year and it is difficult to actually compile this list, you cannot rely on these posted lists with any great degree of certainty. The bottom line is, check the website for every school that you are interested in and see when and where they are holding auditions.
**Q. Does that mean that I might have to fly to multiple places multiple times next year? **
A. Yes, if you want to audition for programs that require on-campus auditions. To minimize travel requirements, you may want to consider only auditioning for programs that do auditions at Unifieds.
Q. Is this all during school and will I have to miss a ton of school?
A. Yes, this is all during regular school and you may miss some school days, depending on how you schedule your auditions and travel.
Q. Also, how common is it to be asked to audition in person? Like what percent of auditioners are usually called in person?
A. I think you are asking about how many students pass video prescreens. This will vary between programs, but off the top of my head the numbers that I recall seem to be between something like 20 and 60 percent. Not every program does prescreens, for those programs every student will audition in person unless video auditions are accepted and you go that route (which, as noted above, it generally not recommended unless it is your only option).
Almost every program has a detailed description of their audition process along with various recommendations. Go to the website for every school that you are interested and read about how to audition. Because there is no standard process for every school, you need to research the audition process and audition requirements for every school that you are interested in. It is a lot of work, and, unfortunately, there is no way around it.
I strongly recommend that you read Mary Anna Dennard’s book, “I Got In.” You can order it from Amazon.
You may also want to consider hiring an audition coach. Mary Anna Dennard and MTCA are two national coaching services that offer consultation via Skype. There are others. As an example of what is available, Mary Anna has a series of online videos for $500 that walk you through every step of the process including an example audition hosted by Kaitlin Hopkins from Texas State and an example dance call.
@BeccaW444 - @EmsDad has posted some terrific advice. To add to the confusion, be careful with what you read on school websites now through August. Some schools have already updated their information for the upcoming application/audition season, others have not. Just be sure to look at the dates to verify that what you are seeing is for THIS application year. Some will list it as 2015-16 APPLICATION process and others will list it as 2016-17 SCHOOL year - or Freshman entering Fall 2016. Essentially all websites should be updated by September 1. And don’t be afraid to contact live humans at the programs you are looking at. I know my own teens/twenty-somethings think EVERYTHING can be done by texting, but it’s surprising how helpful the program staff at most college Theater/Music departments can be. Let them know what you’re up against. They would love to hear from a “real” HS senior, rather than from a parent “posing” as a teenager. 
You might want to PM @MTmom2015 (I THINK?!) for her super duper spread sheet to help you organize all this. It’s a daunting task. Keep asking questions.
Maybe you already know this, but also be aware that many college Theater/Music departments have a website separate from the general “Admissions” information for the college/university at large. Sometimes this is on a “conservatory” site - like College Conservatory of Music (CCM) as opposed to University of Cincinnati Admissions - or “school” site - like University of Michigan School of Music, Theater & Dance. To get application/prescreen/audition information you will need to go to this “program-specific” websites, but you will ALSO need to keep up with the general “Admissions” information when it comes to applying to the college/university. For some programs this is one streamlined process, for others you essentially have two processes going at once - or in some cases sequentially. If you want to ask questions on CC regarding a specific school/program that is listed at the top of this forum, you might post those questions on the school-specific forums.
@BeccaW444 - in your opening post you said your family was willing to go to/pay for auditions, but not willing to help with research. Do you have a supportive school guidance counselor (or other person) who is knowledgeable about the specific needs of getting into a performing arts college program? Many HS counselors are not familiar with the accelerated timeline for getting the applications in - generally way ahead of what “other” HS seniors need. If your counselor is not familiar with PA admissions, you might want to contact him/her now - or as soon as the office opens for the upcoming school year - and discuss how critical your deadlines are. If the counselor has not helped students get into these kinds of programs before, s/he may think you are crazy. In general, almost all of your materials will have to be submitted by November 1, or December1 depending on the school - and even earlier (early/mid October) for very competitive schools. This may be about the time that many of your classmates figure out that they actually NEED to apply. At many high schools, this is “crunch” time for the counselor. You do not want your application materials lost in the “sea” that will be washing over his/her desk late-October through December/January when your classmate start to “wake up” to the process. Sorry, if you already know this, but for many of my son’s classmates it was too late when they - and the counselor - figured this out.
Oh okay. This makes me nervous. I sort of have people- my theatre teacher has done a lot of research and knows a lot but i hate to bother her. and my mom and dad don’t really much. So what are all of the things that i need to be done before i apply:
Essay
Recommendations
Submission videos
what else?
You will need a Theatre Resume. You can research these online or read “I Got In.”
It really helps to have a copy of your transcript. As I recall, several theatre departments required that d either bring a copy of her transcript to the audition or send it in beforehand. Some required d to upload her transcript into GetAcceptd when she applied to the theatre department and uploaded her videos. In those cases, the transcript did not have to come from your high school, so we didn’t bother to have it “certified” or anything, we just scanned it, uploaded it or sent it in, or brought a copy to the audition (whichever method of delivery was required). This is addition to the transcripts required for regular school admissions, those have to be sent from your high school.
You will need to write several/many essays depending on the number of schools on your list. Most of the essay prompts are similar, so you can reuse paragraphs or whole essays from school to school. I recall that my d had to write “Why I want to major in theatre” essays or something like that for several schools in addition to the regular admission essay(s).
As mentioned in other threads, it helps to have a notebook with printed copies of the regular school admission and theatre application/audition process for each school. That way you can easily review and track all the requirements. Some people use spreadsheets to help track and manage the process, especially all the dates and deadlines. Unfortunately, as noted in the previous posts, some schools still have not updated their websites for this year, so you have to be careful that you get the current information for this year (you can usually tell by noting if the audition dates posted are for last year).
When you apply to a school (for the regular school admission process), you set up a login account. After logging into your account, you can begin work on an application and then save it for completion later if you get bogged down or need help. Hence, you can get started now for some schools or in early September for the rest and see what they require.
For those theatre departments using GetAcceptd or DecisionDesk, you can do the same thing: create a login, start your application, and save it for completion later.
For theatre departments, you will need to go website by website and note everything that is required.
@BeccaW444 , I bet you wouldn’t be “bothering” your theatre teacher. He/she probably would love sharing his/her knowledge and knowing that you are passionate about it, too. I think it’s pretty common for some teens to think they’re bothering others by asking questions and discussing things, but they’re not the vast majority of time! Besides, it’s good to get used to asking and asking; you’ll need to do that increasingly this year and next. (This was definitely the case with my D. Last year–the summer before her senior year–she sort of dreaded asking people for things sometimes. Now, when she knows she needs something or wants advice, she just asks away, without even letting me know or asking if it’s ok to ask that person whatever. It’s been a growing year for sure!)
And, keep asking us! We’ll try to help the best we can.
I second the advice to start by getting a coach if your parents will pay for it. Coaches certainly aren’t mandatory, but without parental help especially, a coach would really help make this colossal undertaking more manageable and way less stressful. The coaches know this stuff inside and out and they can recommend schools that would be good reach, match, and safeties for you. If you live anywhere remotely near NYC and could travel there occasionally I would recommend MTCA, but both MTCA and Mary Anna Dennard (and there are others, but those are the ones most well known) will skype.
@BeccaW444 - one thing you might want to get rolling now - in addition to the applications - is your letters of rec. These days most of them are done through direct email links from the admissions website. I don’t know how common this is, but my S had a few glitches with these b/c some of his “recommenders” had email accounts that “screened out” in-coming admissions emails as SPAM. Sometimes it took weeks to get that ironed out. If your recommenders will be writing lots of recommendations, they may appreciate getting a head start on yours before the school year is in full swing.
And as @EmsDad recommended, you’ll need copies of your transcript. Unless your school district is still in the dark ages, your counselor should be able to send that to you as a digital file that you can then forward and send as needed. When S did this two years ago the counselor did not “know you were able to do that” and had to get some coaching from a counselor at another school on how to send the file to a student. If you cannot get a digital file try to request several hard copies to have on hand.
And yes, keep asking LOTS of questions. The knowledgeable adults in your life - and here on CC - will be glad to aid and support a student who has the guts to go through this on her own.
If coaching is too expensive, get Mary Anna Dennard’s book, “I Got In”. I think it is under $20 and can be ordered online. It will walk you through all of the steps and will be a great resource for you as to what to do and when.
You got some great advice from @mom4bwayboy about getting in touch with your recommenders early in the process. At d’s school, the teachers all asked for a complete list of all recommendations required, how/where to submit them, and the deadline for submission - yet another task to get working on.
You may also want to ask your recommenders for an 2-3 extra letters of recommendation, sealed in envelopes, to help solve last minute recommendation issues or to bring if required to last minute extra auditions that you may do. As I recall, d had to bring letters of recommendation with her to 2-3 of her auditions.
I had 3 kids ask me before school ended last year, and had my 1st “request for your recommendation” email via common app on August 1st. (A girl who had already asked, a real go getter) For parents of juniors- I strongly recommend lining up letters at end of junior year if you already know the teachers you would like to use. For those with seniors- have your students email teachers NOW (most of us are already in BTS mode and checking our emails) or if they would prefer to ask in person, do it within the 1st two weeks of school. This is not an area where you want to be scrambling.
We just discussed this with our D on the way home from her pre-colleg program. I figured we aren’t likely to get uninterrupted hours to make lists in the next few weeks so might as well take advantage of being captive in the car :-). My S had his recommenders lined up at the end of his junior year but for some reason, one never wrote the letter so my S ended up in the fall needing to ask a teacher he hadn’t intended to ask. Luckily, he was not in bad shape since the others were very timely. The academic recommenders book up quickly; good advice to move on it quickly!
“…you’ll need copies of your transcript. Unless your school district is still in the dark ages, your counselor should be able to send that to you as a digital file that you can then forward and send as needed. When S did this two years ago the counselor did not “know you were able to do that” and had to get some coaching from a counselor at another school on how to send the file to a student. If you cannot get a digital file try to request several hard copies to have on hand.”
For some reason, my school would only email transcripts to in-state schools. Otherwise, you had to pay $7 for a physical transcript and mail it yourself. I applied to 16 schools, and not a single one was in-state, so I paid $112 total for transcripts. Pretty unreasonable.
But just goes to show why getting started now is so important. You never know what bafflingly ridiculous obstacles you’ll run into.
^ lol, @HannahMTheatre, we can warn about a few of them, and rest-assured, there will be many, but there are always surprises. Go in expecting chaos, and when things go smoothly, be delighted. ;))
And since many theater kids cast a wide net of schools, don’t forget that sending ACT/SAT scores will be a cost after the 1st few (is it 6 schools?)
We saved some money by checking to see which schools needed ACT scores officially sent separately (which obviously costs money) and which only needed them included on the official transcript. (D’s composite score, section scores, and superscores were included on her transcript.) It just took some quick phone calls to admissions.
Check if your HS includes test scores on your transcript. Many schools in our state have stopped the practice.