<p>I am so thankful to have found this forum. This was reenforced last night as I was selling tickets with another theatre parent at our kids' production of 'Twelfth Night'. Her daughter, a senior, was playing Viola and has been extremely active in HS theatre and performs with a small professional theatre company. I asked the mom what the D was planning to do next year for college, etc. She replied that she was going to be attending ______ University and was going to be majoring in theatre. This is a university not too far from us with a pretty good (audition based) theatre department. So, I asked when she did her audition. The mom looked at me with a blank face... "Audition?" I told her that for that particular school, the BA and BFA programs both require an audition. Then she gave me the deer-in-the-headlights look. She had no clue. "Wow. I guess we'd better look into that..." I am floored that in this day and age, and with all the information available at our fingertips, people still don't know (or take the time to find out) basic information. </p>
<p>Anyway, thanks CC MT forum... you are an invaluble resource with helpful and friendly contributors. We will be well-informed next fall when and (knock on wood) will not be surprised by anything that comes our way. :)</p>
<p>I concur… A classmate of my D’s auditioned for just one program. Luckily for her - it’s not one of the highly competitive programs - but if she’d just asked my D - she could have at least advised her not to use a big “do not sing” song - for which she is not even the right type. D didn’t even know she planned to audition until it was over. </p>
<p>I second the “thanks for being a great resource”! D and I definitely felt more prepared this year after following this board for the past 2 years… </p>
<p>I haven’t had a situation like that, but I am getting a bit tired of people looking at me strange when I talk about how difficult this process is. They say “But this is your second child–you should have this college thing down by now!” Ha ha ha. Yeah. And then they think it’s because I’m sad my baby is leaving–empty nest syndrome. Hello, people, I haven’t had time to think about THAT yet! :D</p>
<p>And CC has been a life saver. We would be in a bad place without it. I keep surprising my D, too, with the stuff I know. Like at Unifieds in Chicago when she went to do her Penn State audition, all she had in hand was her CD and resume/headshot.
I said “Where’s your book?”
“Penn State needs pre-recorded music. All the emails said so,” she said. “I don’t need to take it in.”
“I heard they have an accompanist,” I said, “so you might want to bring your book in.”
Sure enough, they had an accompanist. Afterward D says, totally incredulous and knowing she’d have gotten flustered if she walked in without it, “How did you know that there would be an accompanist? Nobody said anything to us about it ever.”
I just shrugged. “I read it on CC.” Boom!</p>
<p>Thank you, awesome people!</p>
<p>Hear hear! Every day I check the MT boards on CC and every day I learn something useful. </p>
<p>When our D informed us last summer that she wanted to pursue an MT BFA I though, OK let’s pick out a school and apply. I was shocked at how little I knew about the process. What shocked me the most was the competitiveness and the long odds of getting a spot. “Pick a school and apply?” What a knucklehead I was.</p>
<p>Luckily, I stumbled across the CC MT message boards one day. It was like peeling a large knowledge-filled onion. OK, bad metaphor, but every layer reveals something new. It’s such an awesome, supportive community. I’m still amazed that parents who went through the process years ago still chime in to offer their insight. You could not find a better admissions coach out there.</p>
<p>Just after New Years a friend of our daughter (from another high school) decided that she want to go into MT this fall. Her parents thought “just pick a school and apply.” Newbies! </p>
<p>This is the craziest thing I have ever been a part of! If these university professors had kids going through this they would surely get together and figure out a better way! I thank all of you soooo much for your words of wisdom…at least there is light at the end of the tunnel now.</p>
<p>I’ve written it before, but… I really knew nothing about the process until I read threads on this forum, and I think I’ve read almost all of them! Son came late to knowing MT was the major he wanted to pursue. He is the only student in his school pursuing MT, and I’m so glad I’m not alone!<br>
To answer the question, I guess I’m not surprised how many people don’t know all that many of us learned from reading CC if they haven’t found the resource. I am surprised how many kids come unprepared to auditions and have arrived without head shots or just a picture, clothes to dance in, and in one case, sheet music for the accompanist. And no, the music was not left at home inadvertently! The directions are on the school website. </p>
<p>Although I had I had a “tiny” inkling of what S would need to do to prepare for this path starting when he was in 6th grade, it wasn’t until two other moms who “had been there” tipped me off and I started “skulking” in the CC shadows when S was a sophomore that I really got knots in my stomach. What I learned from those who came before has made this process so much more - dare I say - pleasant than it might have been. Fortunately we were able to start “gearing up” in his junior year. S also transferred to public performing arts H.S. his junior year. Unfortunately, even though it is an “Arts” H.S., they don’t seem to have a clue about what it takes to get into top tier MT programs - or any tier for that matter. Despite my persistent - OK, maybe I sounded a little strident - warnings to MT/counseling staff and other parents at said H.S., many of S’s like-minded classmates were (are) still “deer in the headlights”, and confused about why they are not getting in. Thank you all so much for all the sharing. WE couldn’t have made it through without all the help we found here.</p>
<p>OMIGOSH, mom4bwayboy, you’re telling our story! The D is at a magnet performing arts school and still no one seemed to know what to do there either! I’m so grateful to everyone here for helping to clue me in and to her college audition coach who has been a Godsend!</p>
<p>Makes you wonder how they can call themselves performing arts “educators”, doesn’t it. S was fortunate to have good coaches as well. That was a VERY good decision.</p>
<p>We had a similar experience when my D was a junior. Senior girl was saying all year she was going to go to college for MT. But there was no sign of travel or auditioning. My D and I had already been to see any number of schools and basically knew where she would be applying the next year. D and this girl were competitors for parts, etc. She never asked my D for any advice even though she knew my D had already been to look at schools.
Fast forward to the fall of my D’s senior year and we hear that this girl is studying MT… at the community college here in our county.
Did leave me thinking… the only difference was the time and research we put in online to research colleges and the industry. There was nothing stopping this other girl from doing the same thing!</p>
<p>The other thing I am finding hard to understand is that our drama teacher does not know more. You’d think she’d be guiding kids through the process, or at least giving them the high points, but, no. Kudos to parents who are involved and investigative. </p>
<p>…and even when you try to help people and tell them about CC, they don’t always do it!! They just look at you like you’re nuts and figure they’ll just follow the instructions on the schools’ websites and all will be fine. [-( </p>
<p>My D is a jr in HS and I have been on CC just this yr., but I have learned SO much from this site! I had no idea how clueless I was! This site + the book “I Got In” by Mary Anna Dennard and I feel light years ahead of where I was! Thank you to all who contribute!</p>
<p>It’s much the same with VP. School guidance counselors know nothing about it and even private voice teachers haven’t bothered to keep up with who is teaching where or the current reputations of schools and departments. Consequently, they all toss out the names of the same 5-6 schools, many of which have declined or who are not optimum for undergrads.
We began the search when D was in 10th grade and was still deciding between MT and VP. Made visits early and had sample lessons so when her senior year began, she had all materials in hand by mid-September and pre-screens and applications were relatively easy. Thankfully, D is super-organized, so she carried the same procedure over to her senior year in college when it was time to repeat the process for graduate school. It’s nerve-wracking and never gets comfortable, but having a place like CC to share and vent and learn from is just the best thing ever =D> </p>
<p>My Ds HS theatre teacher never mentioned Unifieds to her thespians. We knew only because D had friends a couple of years older that had been through the process. This teacher takes kids to Thespian festival in lincoln. Love CC and all the wonderful parents without whom we couldn’t have made this work.</p>
<p>My daughter’s teacher, guidance counselor, friends, etc., never mentioned anything. Luckily, D picked a non-audition school and is very happy. She did submit an audition piece for a scholarship and the drama teacher was of very little help. Daughter had to do everything herself, but teacher did allow another student to film it. You’d think she’d be happy to help, but she was an English major and did drama ‘on the side.’ One of the males, always the lead, went to an audition and didn’t even understand that it was for the BFA, not just theater major.</p>
<p>I’m really grateful for the CC community. My S won’t be applying until next year but CC has made get organized early. I heard a sad story this week from a friend who’s daughter had NYU as her dream school but had no idea about the artistic review. Her D was not accepted and she never understood why. When I asked " how did the artistic review go?" she looked at me like I was crazy. I just dropped the subject because it was fairly obvious she had no clue. </p>
<p>I’ve said this before, but I too stumbled across this site while desperately trying to figure out how to even start on the MT college road (back in May 2013)…oh how much I’ve learned and I give most of the credit to this site for pointing me in the right direction over and over again. I can say my son applied to 15 colleges, submitted 8 prescreens (yes’s to all!), went to 3 on campus auditions and 10 auditions at Unifieds (NY and Chicago)…we’ve had 3 rejections and 3 acceptances so far…only 9 more to wait for! But…we’d never be in the waiting game without this site. I am a grateful CC parent and have recommended this site over and over again. My sister in law has been telling me for months “Why on earth are you doing so much for this boy to get into college? What is he doing?”…well she went to both Unifieds with me and afterwards apologized and said “Oh My Gosh!!! Now I see…if you were not this involved and this prepared we would have had no idea what we were doing, when, where, and what each school’s requirements were!!!”…yes…this is true:)</p>
<p>I don’t even have any kids auditioning… but I’ve been “stalking” and communicating to all our MT friends about the process as many are juniors. We are fortunate to have an amazing regional show choir director helping most of the students this year. She’s been fairly successful and has placements at CMU, CCM, etc. Last year, a mom told me her daughter used an audition “team” based out of NYC to help her. Honestly, you parents who are helping your kids through this process… I bow down to you. I have twins who each applied to 15 universities for academics with a double major in acting/theatre and for a few of the schools they had to submit arts supplements. I thought that was difficult. Again, you guys are my heros!!!</p>
<p>MTMommaJAA - I had a somewhat similar experience when my husband took my son to the Chicago Unifieds because I couldn’t go. He finally understood what I had been doing for the last few months, though he got to enjoy the culmination of all the organization without all the craziness that went into it:) </p>