So for those of you who auditioned only on campus, no unifieds, did you find it difficult to fit in the audition dates? Like were schools having auditions on overlapping days etc? I could foresee this being a problem maybe. Are most audition dates on weekends or weekdays?
My d did 6 on-campus auditions and was scheduled to do 2 more but ended up cancelling them - she decided that she was burned out on auditioning in Feb. after Unifieds when she had some acceptances already in-hand. She did 2 on-campus in the fall and 4 in the Spring, plus a school visit in January to a school that she was admitted to in December. It was not difficult to arrange them without conflict, but we did have to fly back-to-back to go from a Friday audition to Chicago on Saturday to begin Unifieds. Maybe we were just lucky in picking schools that didn’t have conflicting audition dates - most of her schools had at least 3-4 weekends to pick from. Her schedule was November (2), January (2 + 1 admitted visit), February (1) and March (1). She cancelled 1 in February and 1 in March.
Most auditions are on Friday or Saturday, but some schools offer Sunday dates.
Depending on your list of schools and your capability to travel, you can probably do 3-4 in the Fall (for example: 1 in October, 2 in November, 1 in December) and then probably easily do 6+ in the spring (2 each month in January, February, and March). More are certainly possible.
D did not actually have to miss much school, we normally flew out on Friday evening after classes were over and returned on Saturday night or Sunday. I think she missed maybe 3 days total (not counting the 3 days at Unifieds) and one of those days was for the school visit. We are from Texas so we had to fly to all but one of her on-campus auditions. Half of the schools were very close to the airport and the other half were within a 1-2 hour drive, so travel was pretty easy. However, one of the schools that she cancelled was a fairly difficult trip: poor flight times, a plane change with a long layover, and a 2 hour drive after landing - I think that weighed in her decision to back out.
We learned it is generally a good idea not to try and fly back on Saturday because auditions routinely ran over the scheduled time period. We almost missed one flight home due to auditions running two hours past the scheduled end. Once or twice her scheduled audition time was shifted from the morning to the afternoon.
A lot will depend on which schools you put on your list.
My kid did 5 on campus auditions before Christmas and 3 on campus auditions after Christmas. We had a few more scheduled, but got an acceptance to a top choice in mid-February so we canceled everything after that.
My D did 7 on campus auditions and didn’t have an issue.
Before things got started, I wrote out a list of all of her schools’ audition dates to see where the conflicts were. Plus, she started things a bit early so she there were more dates available to choose from.
My S only had 1 EA. All together he did 9 on campus and 5 at unifieds. Plus 1 call back weekend. Every weekend from mid-Jan to mid-March we traveled. It was fun, but he was pretty burned out by the end. He had to drop out of a school play that was his “dream role” and had a serious melt down at one point. On the other hand the upside to spacing the auditions out is a hedge against illness or bad weather.
S had 7 on-campus auditions - two in November and the rest in January - February. He canceled an 8th March audition after acceptances came from programs higher on the list. We got all the prescreen/App materials in by mid-October so we got first choice on all audition dates and were able to “gang up” UofM on a Friday followed by IU on Saturday - just missed some snowy driving on that weekend for both days. Ugh, don’t miss that trip.
I’m just putting the dream schedule together now for my D. Of course she still has to submit her apps and then request her date, and hopefully get it, so it fits into the schedule.
She’s interviewing for Technical Theater (not MT), but almost all the schools she’s interested in require on-campus interviews. Only one of her schools interviews for Technical Theater at Unifieds. 
You will have a lot more options at Unifieds with MT.
Coming from the West coast, I figured a way to hit almost all the schools in a single 9-day trip in the beginning of February, and then we have just one extra weekend to fly back and forth for the last school. Luckily she’s looking mostly in the midwest so they are relatively close. She’s going to miss a total 9 days of school in February. Oh Well. She’ll bring her homework because there will be a lot of free time.
If you have an idea of which schools your D is interested in, the audition dates are now up on most of the websites. You can play around with a calendar. just to get a feel for what it could be. I put all the schools dates on one calendar and then looked to see how the interviews could be combined.
As others said, you can map out the auditions on a calendar. Most schools offer several audition dates. My daughter did 8 on campus auditions.
The one thing I will add to what has already been said, is that sometimes you can combine two on campus auditions into one weekend/trip. We were able to do that with Syracuse/Ithaca and with Penn State/CMU. That cut down on total trips.
I have written out the possible dates and which school to do when. Yes several of the schools all had similar dates but bc most offer several choices it seems it is working out. So far I have been able to schedule several without having to have the app in first. That is a huge relief to ensure the dates we need. Since we are not applying to any Unified schools all of ours will be on campus.
This is why everyone recommends applying early to schools that require your application to get an audition datae. You have a better chance of getting your requested audition dates and the puzzle pieces fit much better!
As soozievt said, try to combine schools into one trip. We did BU, MMC and Rider on a long weekend (Rider’s audition was on a Monday-President’s day maybe?). Another weekend was Muhlenberg, Wagner and a post acceptance visit to Rider – flew in to Newark, rented a car and easily drove to all three – seemed amazing to this Texas girl!
Our worst day was in the State of Arizona. D had a 9:30 AM Dance call and 10:30 AM audition slot at University of Arizona in Tucson, then we had to book on up north 110 miles or so for a 1:00 PM audition at Arizona State.
Most on-campus auditions are Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays. Don’t forget, though, that audition season is in winter. I can’t tell you how many people missed auditions over the past 3 years because of blizzards, ice storms (Elon, anyone?), cancelled flights, and hazardous driving conditions. My D and I got the last plane out of Providence during a blizzard to fly to her OCU audition. After our plane left (which was very scary, given conditions), all the airports shut down. We were supposed to change planes in Detroit. Well, plane couldn’t land in Detroit b/c of too much snow on the runways…we circled for 45 minutes, then ran low on fuel, had to make an emergency landing in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and totally missed the connecting flight. I called the travel agent from the tarmac in Indiana (surprisingly, I had the foresight to do this, b/c I was so drugged - I am afraid of flying). Got the last two seats on the last flight to OK. After a 7.5 hour layover in Detroit (best airport to be stuck at, BTW), we arrived at Oklahoma City at 2 something a.m., with an audition at 8 the following morning. D was one of only 2 east coast auditioners who actually made it to the audition…everyone else had cancelled flights or were stuck somewhere halfway. So, leave PLENTY of time to get to your destination…I know one CCer had an awful car accident driving in the Ithaca/Syracuse area. While Elon did cancel their auditions during that dangerous ice storm, most schools carry on with the auditions despite huge snowfalls, particularly ones like Ithaca and Syracuse who are used to 3 feet of snow every weekend. So, you may want to think about arranging back to back auditions in the northeast, midwest, or other snowy/icy locations.
Also, it’s winter, and kids get sick. We had to move D’s BoCo audition b/c she had pneumonia. Luckily, they were wonderful about it. Bottom line: Prepare for disaster, leave yourself second dates open, don’t overbook, and leave plenty of time between flights and actual auditions. Stuff happens. Hoping for a balmy winter for y’all this year, but I don’t think it’s gonna be that way here in New England and NY.
I completely agree with above advice- and it illustrates why Unifieds can be such a great thing. Once you get there, IF you can get there (sometimes a challenge) you are good to go. I suppose it would be possible if you were in Chicago, and staying at the Palmer house to audition for half a dozen schools over a few days and never even go outside! Of course the flip side of that is it’s a lot of eggs in a basket (what if you CAN’T get there, or kid is sick etc)
Everybody needs to do what feels right to them. I have known people who ONLY did on campus auditions. I have known people who did ALL auditions at Unifieds. Both had positives and negatives. We did a mix. Drove to anything closer than 4 hours (which in midwest gives you a number of choices) and did others at Unifieds. It felt more manageable to us that way - but everyone has to take their own journey.
Do you think it’s safer to try to fly between cities in winter, or drive?
For instance, with one free day between Saturday’s CCM on-campus in Cincinnati and Monday Unifieds in Chicago… would you rent a car and drive all day Sunday, or fly on Sunday (perhaps with a morning departure to allow for delays)?
@monkey13 am already nervous about this! We arenotdoing any schools that would be at Unifieds so all are on campus. I tried to do early auditions bc of weather but 2 of the schools are in January and 1 in February. Living in NY means iffy travel either by car or plane!
Being from California we did all auditions the week of Chicago Unifieds. Unifieds from Sunday thru Thursday and then 2 on campus Friday and Saturday. We flew in on the early flight Saturday morning and flew home late in the day the following Saturday. It was cost prohibitive for us to fly across the country multiple times as well as missing more than a week of school. Luckily, she did not get sick. I had many people stare at me as I wiped everything around us on the plane with antibacterial wipes! 
@craspedia - it’s a tough call. Flights get cancelled, but dicey roads can be a real problem. Personally, I would drive - but I have control issues.
@toowonderful Thanks. I am unfortunately the same way…
I’d drive, too. Yes, control issues here, but also, flights get delayed even there aren’t weather issues.