So…if D is applying to quite a few schools, like about 10 -12 now it looks like… Should she literally just start knocking out the apps starting in August? Sept? Should she just have a goal to do like 1-2 at time or what? Lol. I just am logistically thinking did your kids that just went through this just take a weekend & say “we’re knocking out two applications this weekend” etc? It just seems overwhelming to get it done in a timely manner…and then schedule the audition after applying…I know some schools will take the common app. Maybe we should knock out the regular app schools first?
Think you could tackle it in pieces.
Essays
Knock out a common app essay. (Came out in July last year)
Knock out a one page why she wants to be a performer/future goals.
(She will need to be able to verbalize this in interviews as well so this is a work to edit over the fall as it shapes)
Then nearly every school will ask for a “why you love their school” essay. (These start to blur so if you time them out it may be better)
Each application has its nuances but if you have the essays set you will fly through them.
Often you have to request your audition preferences so have a plan for those.
@1998parent15 are the essays and so forth all submitted online as an attachment etc to the app? Sorry to sound clueless but this is our first & only kid to do college apps! And so many! Yikes! I know it’ll make more sense once she gets started. Right now she’s just trying to determine which schools to tackle first but yes perhaps in July she’ll start an essay & maybe can just tweak it for the different schools…
Yes - the essays are submitted with the common app. I think we only had one school that wasn’t on the Common app. Our goal was to have my D completely done - prescreens, applications, everything by October 1. That way we knew we’d have our choice of audition slots. She sent her last prescreen on October 22nd. So we almost made it.
Yes - you tweak the essay for the school, but different schools want different essays so it’s not as easy as just writing one and tweaking it. What you can be doing now is making sure she has all her material going so you can film prescreens over the summer. That way, when the common app opens she can worry only about that.
And I don’t mean to sound like a downer, but you might want to consider adding some schools. 10-12 sounds like a lot outside of the theater audition world, but it’s actually kind of small.
@4gsmom thanks, yes I realize that may not be condidered enough schools. Luckily our list is not perhaps as traditional of a list of a lot of people on CC. Quite a few of her schools draw more from a regional pool and aren’t nationally known programs. We only have a few of the schools that everyone applies at (Baldwin Wallace, Montclair and wright state)
10-12 can be a fine number of schools depending on how you have made your list. If you have 10 super reach schools- that could be an issue, but if you have a variety of programs and safeties, it can be fine.
As for applications/essays… Again, it depends on your list. My D only had 1 non-common app school, so that was easy- she had the basics done by Sept 1. But, b/c her schools were academically competitive- there were LOTS of extra essays- and that took time. As for the “why ________” - that was where visiting schools before applying was really valuable to us. Much easier to talk about a school you have seen 
Don’t forget to start planning your pre-screen videos early too!
@theaterwork the essay attack method we used was doing everything in a Google doc. That way when my daughter declared something ready for the grammar check, it was easy. And I could track where she was at. She could also grab from old essays pieces that worked. And on the way to auditions she could refresh her memory why she loved each school.
The common app has a common info section then has tabs for each school that will include the essay if required or “extras”. You can technically submit a new essay each time you submit by school or edit the existing one (that has changed over the years). You cut and paste it into a window and make sure formatting doesn’t go askew. You can print preview. It goes “live in July” so she can start putting in info. The activities section is tricky with limited space. Maybe 1/2 our schools used it.
Places like Montclair and Roosevelt open a portal for you to upload an essay a few days after you submit the general info app. Hartt had a series of short answers and essay that can be done in an online webpage. Wagner had extra short answers on the Common App tab. Some were optional or choose your own topic and some we mailed. It’s really all over the place. Again we had a family Google doc with a to do list by school.
D started her applications in late August and did 1-2 per week through October. I had to sit down with her weekly for a couple of hours, usually on Saturday mornings, to help keep her on track and make sure the next set of applications got started. The majority of her schools were NOT Common App schools, so it took some time to fill out all that basic information over and over. There were also Theatre Department application forms, some Theatre essays/statements, Honors College forms and essays, Presidential Scholarship forms and essays, Naviance updates, additional reference requests (some schools required additional artistic references), etc.
Once you get rolling, you have to check and re-check the status of all the applications (both academic and artistic) through the various portals and as well as reading through all the emails that come in, and this can take a lot of time as well. I had to go through all the emails with d to make sure that she paid attention to all the details (sometimes subtle) that she tended to miss - carefully reading emails does not seem to be a strong skill in today’s text-message youth.
It can take a lot of time, so starting early really pays off.
Something we didn’t do, that I’ve seen here multiple times since & would have made things easier: set up a dedicated email address for college applications/correspondence.
We did that @MTmom2017 and it was a HUGE help. We did [ourlastname]college@gmail.com We both had access to it and only used it for college related things (common app, Getacceptd etc…) Helped tremendously keep things organized and not allow anything to slip through the cracks.
In addition to @MTmom2017 's advice to set up a dedicated email, unless your kid is super-organized and completely capable, make sure that you, as the parent, can log in to that email. I know parents this year who had no idea about several important emails (regarding auditions and financial aid) that their daughter received from her colleges because the parents didn’t have access to that email account.
I’m a project manager by profession, all about making a plan, checking progress, resolving problems, etc. So naturally both my kids who have gone through the application process refused to let me come close to helping with their apps! My D forbid me from even reading any of her essays - I’m too “business” for her taste. Ironically, my bachelor was in music. Go figure.
Separate email is a good idea. We had to constantly pester both kids for info. Use of Google docs is too. At our kids HS they helped them through the process, English classes spent time on essays, etc. But beware they operate on “normal” college time, not the accelerated timeline you need for auditions. So plan accordingly.
We also kept a notebook with all of the passwords for each school so that I could check portals/emails too. It’s a lot of work but we are disorganized and somehow made it through! The separate email was a big help, also kept a file of all of the essays together for tweaking and be forewarned, there are a lot of them that pop up after you finish the common app general essay (they are “questions” for individual schools which are actually mini essays). We started as soon as the common app became available and finished by mid oct.
D spent the summer working on audition materials for prescreens and finalizing her list of schools. Then she made sure that for each school she knew the application requirements and how many essays she’d be required to write. luckily most of her schools were common app. That was all done by August. However she held off on writing the actual essays until school started. The first unit in her Senior English class was on college essay writing. So they spent all of September doing writing workshops. This was a great help and she felt more confident that her final essays represented her well. We did get tripped up on the recommendations and did some last minute scrambling. Make sure you know which schools want academic vs artistic recommendations and how many. And who actually qualifies to give an artistic reference.
D set up a new gmail account that she used only for college apps. I had access to it to make sure we responded in a timely way to the colleges. She worked on her essays in her English classes junior and beginning of senior year and tweaked them for each college. We had an excel sheet that listed relevant information about each college. (deadlines,recommendations, tuition, housing costs, bfa or ba, etc). One thing that we didn’t do was keep track of all of the portals. We should have made a list with all of the logins and passwords. D was responsible for that information and in hindsight I should have insisted that she share that with me. It would have made it easier for me to verify that all the information had been turned into each school. I had to keep asking her to check and at some point she became overwhelmed. Google Docs is a good idea! We didn’t use that app and I 'm sure that would have made it easier.
One thing I would have done differently would be to have my daughter ask for recommendation letters during spring of Junior year. This was a significant cause of delay in getting applications completed in the fall. You will need up to four references: college counselor, academic teacher and 2 artistic (great if one of those is also on your high school faculty). Some reference writers will ask you for a list of specific background information, which is a good thing but takes time! Also, realistically, not all recommendation letters are created equally. Two people who adore and support you may not convey your specific talents equally well on paper, and having the time to review letters that you are allowed to see may help you choose which to send where.
@SpchTchr57 in the letters are you saying you already knew the schools you were applying to & you asked the teachers etc to send the letter to the school or to you? Don’t they have to go to the school directly from the person doing the recommendation ? Like are you being the “middle man” & getting the letters given to you?
@theaterwork we have gotten recommendation letters given back to us-with the teacher’s/counselor’s signature over the envelope seal. If I have my choice, I prefer it that way-because we KNOW when it’s in the mail.
@owensfolks did you getmore then one copy then? Like multiple letters from same person?