<p>I will be auditioning at several BFA schools this winter (on campus, not at Unifieds), and have only visited the one that is closet to home. The rest are out of state. I have read lots of posts about audition days, and it doesn't seem that there is any time to actually visit the campus, meet with admissions, get a tour, etc. on that day....correct? I am a strong believer in gettiing the "vibe" of the place through these visits...not just of the theatre dept. but of the university. A good match is more than having a good audition. Is it best to come in a day early (or stay a day after) to get that visit in? My high school has pretty strict policies on missing and I want to minimize my absences.</p>
<p>I know that UMich starts the kids off with a general meeting on Central Campus. The audition day starts early, so it may be best to arrive the night before. After Central Campus, the kids move to North Campus for a parent/student meeting with the director of the program. The tour is brief as most of the time is dedicated to the audition. My D’s friends have scheduled arrivals on Thursday afternoons for full tours and admissions meetings. They stay on campus that evening and are prepared for a Friday audition. The campus is huge, and I know that the MT students do not get a full tour on audition day, as the UMich campus requires a vehicle or ride on the shuttle to see the entire campus.</p>
<p>Thanks…UMich is on my list. I am sure that this is the case most places…any advice about where to stay?</p>
<p>We did the tour and my son auditioned the same day at OCU, it seemed the school had it set up that way although you could decline the tour or the Q & A session if you wished, we of course went to everything.</p>
<p>Just a little note about my daughter’s own experience. She chose a school because it was the best value for the money - the school was considered a very good school with a state school tuition. She spent 1 1/2 years at this school and never felt like it was a good fit. Then she proceeded to do a special program for one semester at a school that she felt more comfortable with at the open house but had a much higher price tag. Long story short, she has now transferred to this school. Although the first school is probably considered a better school for what she wants to do, I haven’t ever seen her happier. It was such a wise move. Go with your gut. You do need to get the right vibe from a place.</p>
<p>nick, many schools have audition days on Saturdays. If you can travel in Thursday night or even Friday morning, you can set up a tour etc as well as your audition with only 1 day of h.s. school missed. Check the logistics with each college carefully, though, since some theatre department limit tours and meetings when auditions are occurring. Also, schedule your auditions as soon as dates are posted so that you can grab your dates of choice.</p>
<p>I concur with MichaelNKat… for example, at JMU in the School of Theatre & Dance our auditions days are on Saturdays… many prospective students come in on Thursday or Friday in order to schedule a campus tour, and/ or sit in on classes/ rehearsals in the days before the Saturday audition.</p>
<p>My D did her auditions at unifieds. After receiving acceptances she scheduled visits to her top choices so she could feel the vibe. This enabled her to spend a couple days in classes, seeing the campus, etc. Even though you are auditioning on campus, you can always go back for a second, more detailed, look after being accepted.</p>
<p>When you are at the school the day of the audition, you could probably ask a current student to give you an ‘informal’ tour. Don’t be shy! Many older students assist with auditions (my D did several times) and would not mind showing you around if they have time, or helping to find another student who does have time.</p>
<p>Syracuse has several days during the fall when you can take a tour of the campus in the morning, and then audition later in the day. The information is posted in the drama department website. I do recommend visiting schools whenever possible – my daughter chose to attend Syracuse largely because of the very positive experience she had when visiting the campus.</p>
<p>I will reiterate what xatty said. Due to the extra-competitive nature of the MT admissions process, it is likely that an applicant will not be accepted to all of the schools for which he or she is applying. I think you can do your best to get a feeling for each school you’re at for auditions, but you don’t have to feel pressured to see everything and meet everyone, especially if you are concerned about missing days of high school. You will have ample time to revisit the schools to which you have been accepted.</p>
<p>At that point, knowing you have been accepted, you will have more flexibility in taking days off from high school, you will have more specific choices and decisions to make between programs, and you will be choosing from actual possibilities instead of “what ifs”. I am not trying to discourage you from finding out what you can during your audition visits, just trying to take some of the pressure off if you can’t spend the kind of time you’d like.</p>
<p>My DD will be doing most of her auditions at Unifieds with 2-3 on the campuses since some schools don’t participate in Unifieds. She has visited some schools she will be auditioning for and some she has not yet visited. Since we are in CA and it takes a day to travel to the east she will schedule other visits if she is fortunate enough to get accepted to a school. This is the only way we can make it work and have her not miss too many days of school which is really frowned upon in our district.</p>
<p>When my d auditioned for Elon it was an open house weekend so she was able to see everything. I also agree that since the number of acceptances will probably be a fraction of the schools you audition for you can always go back for a final decision. Most kids already have some preference based on a lot of other factors and once accepted you can weed down to “favorites” and go from there. I also think it is a good idea, if the school is way up on your list, to add a day and really get a feel for the place. Most auditions are in the performing arts buildings and you can meet lots of current students and get some information from them from a student’s perspective.</p>
<p>I agree with xatty and perischack … in my kid’s experience, there was no genuine advantage to auditioning on-campus and in many cases, the on-campus audition + tour was exhausting both for parent and auditioning student. Not to mention the expense of travel, hotel, car, etc. </p>
<p>The unified auditions offered a more cost-effective alternative that was actually easier on the student; and as other posters have noted, many kids are accepted from unifieds.</p>
<p>In hindsight, I would suggest that the OP consider doing most of his auditions at the Unifieds of his choosing, knowing that he can always visit schools and programs after receiving each acceptance. </p>
<p>Also, unlike traditional BA or BS applications to LACs or universities, for BFA candidates it doesn’t pay to ‘show interest’ by visiting each campus before applying … the audition really makes it or breaks it for all BFA candidates (Acting or MT) regardless of whether they’ve visited the campus in advance. </p>
<p>Best of luck!</p>
<p>I’m going to be the contrarian here and say that I think, ideally, it’s best to be able to visit each school you’re interested in. I realize that not everyone is able to do so. If you’re able to plan for a day or a day and a half at each campus visit for auditions, that should be enough to get a good feel for the campus, the department, visit a class if possible, talk to students, eat a meal, even possibly see a show. I always think that a good combination of on-campus auditions along with a few at the Unifieds is probably the ideal way to get the most bang for your buck, and to avoid the possibility of illness or weather issues during Unifieds weekend wiping out all of your auditions.</p>
<p>A plan to visit after acceptances are received has issues of its own, particularly with timing. Many schools don’t send decisions til on or around April 1. A couple are notorious for being later than that. Yet you must make a decision and have your acceptance in by May 1. That can be a pretty small window of time to make reservations, get inexpensive flights, and schedule visits even if you only have two or three schools to see. If you’re in a spring show at school, that presents another potential problem. </p>
<p>Just some food for thought.</p>
<p>The feel and fit of a school is a critical component and I agree with alwaysamom. My D both visited and saw shows at 4 of the schools she auditioned at. This did require an overnight stay for all and very careful scheduling and planning. Most of the time the audition day is packed so full that there is not time for a general campus visit. Most of the on campus auditions had current students available to answer questions which was very helpful. D also visited a class at the school she ended up attending. For those auditioning at Unifieds, it makes sense to visit after acceptances come in.</p>
<p>While costs and time availability are always issues, I too agree with alwaysamom. In fact, I am an advocate of visiting as many schools as you can before you apply and audition and here’s why. The fit and feel of a school is a critical component in any type of college selection process but is even of greater paramount importance in a performing arts program where the dynamic of the learning process and the nature of the program is inherently interactive and emotionally complex and intimate. The atmosphere of a program, the culture of the relationships that form between students and with faculty play a much larger role than with more traditional programs in determining whether it is a good match. An in depth visit with a school will give a student great insight about whether the school, the students, the faculty “feel right”. Finding this out before you apply or audition can determine whether the school stays on your list. In addition, time and energy are at such a premium during the audition season that it can be very counterproductive to prepare for and attend auditions at schools which you later determine are just wrong for you. As a case in point, my daughter had on her list of schools a well known and highly regarded program. We visited it and for some very important reasons, she concluded that it was a horrible fit and therefore she did not apply. If we had not visited beforehand, she would have spent substantial time involved in the audition process for that school, only to find out later that it was a bad fit. Instead, she eliminated it from her list up front which was beneficial.</p>
<p>Visiting a school beforehand also provides important opportunities to talk to dept reps and students and glean a wealth of information about the audition process, what the auditors look for, which components of the audition are given more weight, whether there are songs and monologues to avoid, whether individual auditors have personal preferences and other information that can help a student to prepare and be the most competitive candidate that they can. My daughter obtained very valuable insight about auditioning at each school she visited.</p>
<p>For a host of reasons, it can be very difficult to schedule time for an in depth visit at the time you audition. High school responsibilities and attendance, the demands of all your auditions in the aggregate, the availability of dept reps during the audition season, the time demands on the audition day and the time you can commit at any one time to a trip to a school, all work against you being able to set aside the time to both tour/meet with the dept and audition in the same visit. My daughter visited all of the BFA programs on her list from January of her junior year through the beginning of September of her senior year. By spreading things out, she was able to set aside time to focus on the visit without creating chaos in her school and extracurricular life. When it came time to schedule auditions, she was able to prioritize the sequence of the schools on her list, tailor her prep for each school based on information obtained from the visit, focus her attention and time on just the audition process and felt more at ease about auditioning because she had been to the school, knew where to go, had met with dept reps and professors involved with the audition process and had received a preview of what to expect.</p>
<p>For us, visiting the schools in advance was well worth the time and expense. It also doubled my opportunity to spend some really neat quality time with my daughter during an incredibly exciting time in her life.</p>
<p>Totally agree with the last 3 posters. Here’s one of the reasons: several years ago, a student of mine went through the audition process, and was accepted to several well-regarded schools. She hadn’t visited any of them. When the acceptances came in, she was in the middle of rehearsals for her high school musical, bogged down with school-work, and was unable to make any campus visits. She chose to attend the most “prestigious” of the schools on her list, sight unseen. To make a long story short, she hated the school. Luckily, she was able to transfer in the middle of the year without re-auditioning – but needless to say, this involved a great deal of extra expense, not to mention emotional stress. </p>
<p>If at all possible, it’s worth the time and money to visit schools before auditions. Like MNK, I have great memories of those trips with my D, going way back to sophomore year. Once your kids are off to college, you’ll treasure those times.</p>
<p>While I also agree that college visits provide immeasurable information about the school and should be the first choice in making plans sometimes it is simply not possible either through schedules or finances. We were not able to take my son for visits before audition time, finances simply did not permit it. We combined visits with auditions, while it was somewhat limiting he was able to get a feel for the schools, meet students and faculty during that time and tour the campus. Most schools he auditioned at provided tours and Q&A’s for both the students and parents. While not ideal it can suffice with careful planning. But I agree that no one should accept a school site unseen.</p>
<p>Agree with visiting in advance of auditions when possible, however…the OP stated that he was planning to audition at these schools, anyway, not that he was looking to hone his list. In that case, since time is an issue, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with leaving the more in-depth visits for post-acceptance. As I said originally, at that point, you are dealing with actual possibilities and not maybes.</p>