<p>Has anybody heard from Mason Gross, CalArts, SUNY Purchase, or UArts?</p>
<p>momsonfaith, our has D auditioned for U. Northern Colorado, College of Santa Fe (accepted), Mesa State (BA; accepted), Syracuse, New York Conservatory of Dramatic Arts (a 2-year acting school; accepted), FSU, Michigan, Ithaca, Indiana (rejected), Penn State, CCM (rejected), BoCo, Emerson, and Webster.</p>
<p>moviebuff2012</p>
<p>I don't know about the others but UArts is rolling admissions so you could hear fairly soon. We found out in about 2 weeks.</p>
<p>I am just starting to get wind that CalArts and SUNY might be giving calls this week...</p>
<p>Very excited to hear back from UArts!</p>
<p>We auditioned at the 5th in Chicago and got the rejection Saturday. I truely believe that there is only 1 or two spots if any left for the girls. I recommend that anybody considering auditioning next year go to the school and go early. Meet the faculty and talk to people. These unifieds were a joke, in and out like cattle. They didn't spend any time with the kids. I also got the impression that they were all about the singing as they were only allowed to do a 1 minute monologue and were cut off. Well you aren't going to get on Broadway if you can't act! They didn't have an accompanist you had to bring a CD, we had her voice teacher record the songs from playing the piano, well that sounded like crap! I recommend anyone that goes to unifieds for this school buy the professional tracks. You get an accompanist if you go to the school to audition. I asked the chair of the dept why he didn't have a piano and he told me some BS story about the piano not being tuned and they had to do the auditions in the lounge one year. You think they could have someone from the prestigious school do that? Besides you're at the Chicago Fricken Hilton not Motel 6! What do you think they're going to give you an accordion to play? We had accompanist at all our auditions at the Palmer house, cheap bast*rds. They also mentioned they didn't have much in the way of scholarships. Are you kidding me, you're going to pick 1.5 percent of the students auditioning and you can't give them any money! You can keep you're snooty program with your canned accompaniment and shove them. The only school more stuck up than this one was Western Michigan.</p>
<p>For a better quality accompaniment for anyone who plans on auditioning. Use garageband. It's professional and affective.</p>
<p>got the dreaded rejection letter yesterday. Auditioned in Chicago on Feb. 4th. She was happy with her audition, she worked her little butt off for it and it's good to know that she has that kind of drive in her. Our daughter doesn't even know it yet as she got home late from play practice last night. We'll tell her tonight. She's got another audition next friday and I'm glad she got CCM under her belt so she knows what to expect at this next one. But, at this school, they actually talk to the student one-on-one after the audition so they can see what types of people they are. From what I have heard, sopranos are a dime a dozen and they were more looking for the alto range in girls. </p>
<p>Good luck to everyone else. I'll be checking back here to see how you all did!</p>
<p>MTDad777 your post was very disrespectful and very unwanted on this site. It is highly unfortunate that you did not have the best experience at unifieds. Everyone has different experiences.</p>
<p>I'm going to elaborate on a few of the topics you so openly complained about.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Accompanist. Over a period of 2 weeks, the faculty travels to 4 cities to see an estimate of 500 kids. In Chicago and New York alone, they see close to 350. In order to have an accompanist for every single audition, it would require around THREE different accompanist, so they could rotate in and out when they are tired. (Accompanying is difficult, especially from 9AM-6PM.) Other schools may have had their own accompanists, congratulations to them, and lucky for you. However, finding accompanists willing to take on such a task (for any amount of money) is very, very difficult.</p></li>
<li><p>THe Palmer House does not have a full stock of pianos for every school. Just because it is a Hilton does not mean that it has, on site, 50 baby grands.</p></li>
<li><p>An auditor can see within the first 3 sentences of your monologue whether or not you can act. Also, your interpretation of the songs is very important, and also determines your acting ability.</p></li>
<li><p>CCM in itself in one of the top conservatories in the country, not only for musical theatre but for opera, instrumental, theatre production and design, etc. The University of Cincinnati controls how much scholarship money CCM is allowed to give out. The faculty would LOVE to be able to give out more money, but that is not of their control. </p></li>
<li><p>"You can keep you're snooty program with your canned accompaniment and shove them. The only school more stuck up than this one was Western Michigan." That is your opinion, however uneducated and biased it may be. There are many people who jump to conclusions about CCM, and other top schools alike. CCM, Michigan, CMU, Boco, etc. cannot please everyone, and are not the right program for everyone. The audition process is VERY hard for the auditors as well. These top schools see an estimate of 700 kids within a period of 2 months. From that they have to pick anywhere from 15-35 from that bunch. These kids will determine the success of their program. You can agree with me or not when I say that taking on such a task is VERY stressful.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I mean no offense in anything I have written, and I promise you that I have no intentions whatsoever to be rude. It just upsets me that certain people do not take into consideration every detail involved in the audition process and jump to very strong conclusions. </p>
<p>Once again, I'm sorry your experience was not the best. But please, this discussion board is for information about college programs, not publish bashing.</p>
<p>When you think about it, having kids bring accompaniment on CD is a big advantage for the kid, as she/he is surely then accustomed to the way the song is played and so forth. No surprises from an accompanist who is not familiar with the song/less than skilled/a piano out of tune. With all the variables present in any audition, at least a recording of a kid's song is consistent and will be what they expect, right? :)</p>
<p>flhope, thanks for your post. I truly know that your daughter will end up at a school that's right for her. My son received a academic scholarship to University of Iowa. He is also waiting on Penn state, CMU, and Webster.
He had a really good experience from all of these schools just like CCM. It really depends on what that school is looking for. It depends on if you are the right fit for them. One school might think no and another school will think YES
they are what we need. So while we wait on the above decisions, I'll continue to pray that my son gets into the school thats perfect for him. Like you said, we as parents will do all we can for them.</p>
<p>MTDad777,</p>
<p>I’m going to take the charitable view and assume that you are very emotionally invested in your D’s journey to college. Your natural desire to want the best for your D and a desire to keep her from being hurt has colored your post. I feel sure that all of the parents who post on the CC MT forums are very supportive of their children’s desire to be admitted to a good college MT program. However, I think it is important to remember that WE are not the ones who are applying to college, auditioning, getting rejected, or getting accepted. (One of my pet peeves is parents who say things such as, “We auditioned last week. I don’t think any of us 40 or 50 something parents are auditioning anywhere :)! I really wish parents would say my S or D auditioned last week, not WE!!)</p>
<p>You are not the first parent to question whether or not students who audition at one of the Unified Audition sites are at a disadvantage when compared to students who audition on campus. The college reps who post on this forum have said unequivocally that the students are treated equitably no matter where they choose to audition. It would make no sense for a school to invest the time and money to hold auditions at the Unifieds if they did not intend to accept students from those auditions. From the student / parent perspective, it sometimes does make sense to audition on campus. One can see the school, meet current students, and get some feel for whether or not it is a place that one would want to spend 4 years. However, school visits can be done after all of the acceptances have rolled in. The Unified auditions certainly make sense for families who live a great distance from the schools or for those who want to save some time and money by doing several auditions in one weekend. </p>
<p>You complained that at CCM’s Unified audition the kids were herded in and out “like cattle”. It is very common for college auditions to be brief, whether the auditions are held on campus or at the Unifieds. Yes, at some schools the faculty to take time to chat with the kids to help put them more at ease. However, the schools that are seeing huge numbers of kids at their auditions really do not have that luxury. Their only alternative would be much more restrictive in the numbers of students allowed to audition. (My D’s school, FSU, is a school that allows only a relatively small number of students to audition. There’s a waiting list for audition slots every year.) </p>
<p>I sense that you believe that CCM does not spend enough time actually observing students audition to make a reasonable determination of their talent. CCM’s audition requirements are pretty typical of MT programs. They ask for 2 contrasting songs and a one-minute monologue. Some schools ask for two contrasting monologues; I can think of one school my D auditioned for 4 years ago that only asked to hear one song. A few schools that offer a BM in MT ask for more than 2 songs, but they typically only want to hear one monologue. Most students who audition for MT programs only spend 10 to 15 minutes doing their songs and monologues. CCM does have a dance audition to evaluate the 3rd leg of MT skills. There are many well known programs that have NO dance audition. One thing that CCM does that I must laud them for is videotaping all auditions. The videotapes are reviewed by the faculty if there is any doubt about a student’s audition. At most other schools, the entire determination is made on the basis of what was seen and heard during the 10 minute audition.</p>
<p>You have noted that CCM places more importance on students’ singing skills than on their acting skills. CCM is very open about their requirement that their students be good singers. Ideally, they (like all schools that I know of) would prefer to admit triple threats. However, they will and frequently do admit students who are strong in only two of the three MT skill areas. They state unequivocally that the one area that must be strong is singing. If CCM truly believed that acting was unimportant, they would not ask to hear a monologue. If you read their website, you’ll see that they write something to the effect that their students are expected to act when they sing and act when they dance. It’s not enough to have a great voice or to be a great dancer, the students must be good actors. Actor training is a very important part of the CCM MT curriculum. I suspect that you believe that your D’s strongest area is her acting and would have preferred that she got to do either a longer monologue or more than one monologue. When students audition for a program that only asks for one monologue, I believe it is particularly important to choose a piece that has a good arc and shows them at their best. </p>
<p>CCM and other schools that set a time limit for monologues and/or songs do not hide that fact. Your D was told that monologues were to be one minute or under. It is normal for students to be timed and asked to stop at the cutoff mark. Students need to time their material carefully before auditioning if they do not want to be asked to stop. If every student were allowed to perform for as long as he or she felt like it, auditions would be interminable. I doubt you’d be very happy if your D were the 15th student scheduled to audition and the 14 students ahead of her had all run well over their allotted time causing your D’s audition to be a couple of hours later than scheduled!</p>
<p>Re: Rolling Admission. I’m going to assume that you were aware that CCM has rolling admission before your D applied. I do believe that students’ chances are a little better if they audition sooner rather than later at schools with rolling admission. There are more places for your type, no matter what that type is, when none of the spots have been filled. However, CCM does not fill up all but 2 spots for girls before the Feb. Unified Auditions. They’d be shooting themselves in the foot if they did that. They’ve been holding auditions for many years and have a pretty good idea of how many spots in the program should be offered after each audition. Normally, CCM offers about 30 students admission to the MT program. They hope for a yield of about 24. As you said, the odds are not good, however, that’s true of all of the top MT programs.</p>
<p>Re: Pianos at the Unifieds. How many pianos do you suppose any of the hotels that host the Unified Auditions own? I’d bet it’s one or two at most. The hotels that host the Unifieds usually have quite a few schools holding auditions. There are not enough instruments to go around. Pianos are costly to rent and are difficult to haul around. It would be a big hassle for both the schools and the hosting hotels to get pianos for every audition room. You seem to believe that Aubrey Berg was giving you a bunch of B.S. when he said that a hotel piano wasn’t tuned and they had to hold auditions in a lounge one year. I believe every word of it. Unless the hotel has a nightclub with a piano bar, their piano (if they have one at all) is probably not well maintained. I am a pianist with lots of experience working as an accompanist. I must confess to experiencing quite a bit of dread when groups I have played for have traveled. I have had to play on some G** awful instruments. You say that the prestigious school should have a piano technician travel with them to the Unified auditions so that the pianos can be tuned. That would of course take the piano technician away from his regular duties at the school and it would also add to the cost of the school attending the Unifieds. Schools attend the Unifieds to make it easier for students to audition. However, if the cost of attending becomes prohibitive, then schools will simply require that students come to them. Asking students to bring an accompaniment CD to their auditions is the most practical way of handling the piano problem. Personally, I do not understand why anyone would have a problem with using their own accompaniment CD. The accompaniment will be at the perfect tempo, it won’t have any surprises, and it will be familiar to the student. If you bring an accompaniment CD that “sounds like crap”, whose fault is that? My D had a live accompanist make hash of her music at a college audition. I would have been overjoyed had she been allowed to use a CD (or me) at that school.</p>
<p>Re: Scholarships. It would be lovely if all MT programs had lots of talent scholarship money to give, but they do not. As another poster pointed out, the amount of money CCM has to give for scholarships is dictated by the university. CCM does have some talent award money to give, but if you want you child to get a really large-size scholarship, they need to have good grades and SAT scores and garner a Cincinnatus scholarship. Last year a boy whose mom posted on CC got a full ride scholarship. All students who meet the cutoff scores automatically receive the minimum Cincinnatus scholarship. Students who attend the on-campus competition are eligible for more substantial awards.</p>
<p>CCM does have a substantial endowment which allows them to offer talent scholarships, bring guest artists to campus, and pays the entire cost of the senior showcase for the MT students. Many of the MT students do have talent scholarships. I personally think it’s great that the entire cost of the senior showcase is paid for. My D’s school will be paying all of her costs when she and her classmates do their showcases in NYC and LA later this spring. Many programs have to ask the students to pay for the costs of the showcases.</p>
<p>I do hope that the sting of rejection from CCM is beginning to ease. I also hope that your D finds a school that is a good fit for her. I’m sorry that you and she had some misconceptions about what to expect at the Unified Auditions. CCM, like any MT program, has its pluses and its minuses. As should be obvious from above, I do not think that anything that you experienced was outside of the norm for an audition at any top MT program. My D does not attend CCM, however I live in the Cincinnati area and am very familiar with the program. My D did not feel that CCM was a good fit for her, so I have no vested interest in the program. However, I do not like to see any school bashed unreasonably.</p>
<p>And to add to what dancersmom already said, the unfortunate reality of what our children have chosen to do means that many times (and not only at college auditions) they will be fortunate, indeed, to even have 10 whole minutes to show casting directors, agents and so forth what they've got! It's frightening to think about, but true. That said, I am sorry that Mtdad777's dad had such an unpleasant experience at Unifieds. My kid auditioned for a number of schools at NYC Unifieds and was frankly impressed at how smoothly it all went and how adjudicators did their level best to spend time with each kid. So experiences certain do vary.</p>
<p>There were at least 2 pianists this audition season that threw my daughter off track (who shall remain nameless). As much as she tried to continue singing the way she always did she knew that the bad accompaniment was not flattering to her performance at the least. She would have LOVED to have been singing to the CDs she had sung to many times and were familiar with rather than these strange pianists.</p>
<p>Our daughter had a similar experience at two auditions, where the pianists did some unexpected things with one of her songs. She came to the same conclusion as mentioned above - that it was easier to sing to her CD. </p>
<p>I have to admit to having some similar feelings as MTDad777 when my D first started this process. It seemed unfair that kids would only have a few "make or break" minutes per audition. However, if you calculate the total amount of time that's required to audition 800 or more kids, it's apparent that even with just 5 minutes per audition, it adds up to a great deal of time for the auditors. As hard as it is for me to imagine, I suspect that the auditors can indeed tell within a couple of minutes what the talent level is. What they can't tell, and which remains the only part of the process that bothers me, is much about the intangibles that kids have - work ethic, etc. It's the same in other areas as well, such as sports, where scouts may only see a kid for a few minutes, but in that time can tell a lot about their "tools" but probably not much about personality, etc. Unfortunately, it's seems to just be the way things are these days, with so many kids pursuing so few positions.</p>
<p>Specifically regarding CCM, even though she was rejected, our daughter felt that she was given a fair shot, that the auditors were attentive, polite and friendly, and that she did her best. In fact, that was typical for each auditions, whether at Unifieds (Chicago and Los Angeles) or at the individual schools. She never felt like she was ignored, mistreated, or put down in any way. Auditioning at Unifieds had some advantages and disadvantages, as did the auditions at the individual colleges. Of all the auditions though, I think that FSU allocated most time for the acting & singing portion of the audition, and that was a welcome change. However, as noted by dancersmom, this is possible since FSU greatly limits the number of total students they audition (hint for future readers - get your audition date request in early!)</p>
<p>And one other thing we need to remember, the accepted students were given the same amount of time to audition as the students who were not accepted. I know rejection is hard with all the time and money invested and the disappointment for our children. I wish the best for all our kids auditioning.</p>
<p>BrianMT, I enjoyed reading your reply as well as many of the others, so I'd like to reply to your reply :)</p>
<p>MTDad777 your post was very disrespectful and very unwanted on this site. It is highly unfortunate that you did not have the best experience at unifieds. Everyone has different experiences. </p>
<p>***I had a good experience at the unifieds except for this school.</p>
<p>I'm going to elaborate on a few of the topics you so openly complained about.</p>
<ol>
<li>Accompanist. Over a period of 2 weeks, the faculty travels to 4 cities to see an estimate of 500 kids. In Chicago and New York alone, they see close to 350. In order to have an accompanist for every single audition, it would require around THREE different accompanist, so they could rotate in and out when they are tired. (Accompanying is difficult, especially from 9AM-6PM.) Other schools may have had their own accompanists, congratulations to them, and lucky for you. However, finding accompanists willing to take on such a task (for any amount of money) is very, very difficult. </li>
</ol>
<p>**** Auditioning is a lot more stressful for my D and me, you're getting paid and get summers off boo ho! We can't eat, sleep and are generally in a state of panic! Any of your kids auditioning? Maybe you should consider spreading this out a bit more, figure it out, other schools do. I also think we deserve a bit more time seeing that your application fee of 100.00 was the highest we paid for our 6 minutes with you.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>THe Palmer House does not have a full stock of pianos for every school. Just because it is a Hilton does not mean that it has, on site, 50 baby grands.
**** Well you moved the damn audition to the Hilton on Michigan ave 5 days before our schedule time, you weren't even at the Palmer house!</p></li>
<li><p>An auditor can see within the first 3 sentences of your monologue whether or not you can act. Also, your interpretation of the songs is very important, and also determines your acting ability. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>*** I disagree on the acting statement, 3 sentences may help determine whether you suck but not whether you are good or even great. We've been to a few auditions that have you change up your monologue (afterward) to see how you take direction. Two contrasting monologues would be better. </p>
<ol>
<li>CCM in itself in one of the top conservatories in the country, not only for musical theatre but for opera, instrumental, theatre production and design, etc. The University of Cincinnati controls how much scholarship money CCM is allowed to give out. The faculty would LOVE to be able to give out more money, but that is not of their control. </li>
</ol>
<p>*** Well I'm not blaming the faculty dude I'm blaming the school.</p>
<ol>
<li>"You can keep you're snooty program with your canned accompaniment and shove them. The only school more stuck up than this one was Western Michigan." That is your opinion, however uneducated and biased it may be. There are many people who jump to conclusions about CCM, and other top schools alike. CCM, Michigan, CMU, Boco, etc. cannot please everyone, and are not the right program for everyone. The audition process is VERY hard for the auditors as well. These top schools see an estimate of 700 kids within a period of 2 months. From that they have to pick anywhere from 15-35 from that bunch. These kids will determine the success of their program. You can agree with me or not when I say that taking on such a task is VERY stressful.</li>
</ol>
<p>**My comment was emotional and over the top, I apologize for being so judgemental but the couple of people I spoke to from the school prior to the audition were anything but warm and fuzzy. Maybe they were as stressed as you say but we did not experience this with the other schools. The other schools were very friendly and relaxed and actually seem to enjoy the kids.</p>
<p>dancersmom - try for a longer post next time :)</p>
<ul>
<li>The "WE" comment, get over it! I'm paying for all this fun and pushing back my retirement until I'm 80, I can say "We" all I want.</li>
<li>Unifieds or on campus *I believe that you have a chance at the unifieds if a school is willing to spend the time to get to know the student a bit. Webster does a great job auditioning at the Unifieds. My understanding is they see around 500 kids (in total) and yes they have an awesome accompanist with a tuned piano at the Palmer House. Auditioning on campus is even better as you took the time to make the trip, wouldn't you think more of someone that flew in from NY to audition for your school. CCM may not ask or care but my D was asked, why this school, what do you want to do when you graduate etc.</li>
<li>My D is an excellent singer, maybe even a better actor. We got an acceptance letter and a large talent award offer from an excellent school (one on the MT board) that has not even completed their auditions. They are auditioning about 200 sending out 20 and expect about 12-16. Earlier this year she auditioned at Illinois theatrefest and received 21 call backs out of about 25 colleges. Where the heck was CCM since they are so overwhelmed doing unifieds? All they had to do was sit in the audience. There were at least 75 very talented kids from all over the state and chicago area. 10 of her call backs were acting 11 were for MT. My point is I know she has the talent to make CCM and I think the late rushed unified audition and lack of accompaniment derailed her chances.</li>
</ul>
<p>I will add that a CD is better than a bad accompanist. We did run into this once. But 95 percent of the time if you mark your music properly it works out well and sounds much better. Ideally, it would be nice to be able to choose between the two.</p>
<p>MTDad777, you will NEVER have any idea why CCM didn't take your daughter. Instead of focusing on how CCM made the biggest mistake they have ever made and horrible they are, why don't you look at how fortunate your daughter is to have been accepted at another university (which apparently is quite prestigious) for MT WITH a scholarship. You don't know how lucky and fortunate your daughter is to have that opportunity and know that she is in somewhere. </p>
<p>MT is full of rejections. You just have to pick up and move on with your life. Maybe CCM did make a mistake. But whatever. It's in the past. You can't change anything. Ranting on CC certainly won't do anything. </p>
<p>Count your blessings and understand how fortunate you are to have an acceptance already while other kids out there are freaking out that they won't get accepted anywhere. I think it's time that you put things into perspective.</p>
<p>And another thing, while you might be paying for your daughter's college and I am sure you care about her future, these auditions are taking a HUGE toll on her and everyone actually doing them. And this is her future, not yours. So I don't think you have any right to use WE when talking about this experience.</p>
<p>Sir,
Coming from a 17 year old, I find you very immature. I can say with confidence that your daughter does not appreciate what you are doing, and you are only making the situation worse. I understand that its hard not getting in somewhere--take it from someone who it actually has happened to. My feelings are that you are simply not knowledgeable enough about this whole process to be complaining about the littlest things. Piano vs. Tape? It's not the college's fault that your recording is bad. You had all control over that. Plus, they are not evaluating your daughter's CD. I promise. I don't really know why I brought that one point up because I don't have the time to elaborate on others.</p>
<p>In the future, please do not belittle a school that I was very happy to be accepted to. All I ask is that you be very supportive of your daughter, and teacher how to be proud of her accomplishments as opposed to dwelling on the past. Put yourself in her shoes.</p>
<p>MTDad777, it seems that you think I am a faculty member of CCM. Sorry for the confusion, but that is not true.</p>
<p>I am a current student. All of the information I post on here is 100% factual towards the school. I work with the faculty and other students every day and hear about their own experiences auditioning and watching auditions.</p>
<p>I went through exactly what you and your daughter went through. AND I was a part of the unified auditions in Chicago. In fact, 3 of the current freshmen were accepted from Chicago Unifieds. I know what it feels like to be stressed, to feel I wasn't given enough time, and I DEFINITELY know what it feels like to pay a $100 application fee.</p>
<p>I also know what it feels like to pay the $30,000 a year on limited scholarship.</p>
<p>So please, next time you type anything resembling (and I quote) " We can't eat, sleep and are generally in a state of panic!" Think before you do. That quote will be true for my ENTIRE life. School is expensive. This career is hit or miss. I am constantly stressed, not only with the work load of CCM, but with wondering how I'm going to pay these loans.</p>
<p>I really wish you and your daughter the best of luck. Honestly, I do. I just wish people would be a little less quick to judge.</p>
<p>PS-I am really not trying to argue. I'm just trying to set things straight, since CC has quite a reputation for spitting out terrible rumors that are far from true.</p>