<p>Audition session is on! Any thought about order of auditions? Gut feel says do dream schools last to benefit from practice, but is there an advantage to early audition to uber-selective schools?</p>
<p>I have a hunch it can be a disadvantage auditioning late for your top choice schools, especially if they spread their auditions over many weeks. If they’ve already filled up your “type” you might not be considered, in spite of a good audition. As for benefiting from practice-- perhaps this is true if you have not had many auditions in the past, but for a seasoned audition-er, it’s probably less of an issue.</p>
<p>I’m not sure that there’s any foolproof formula, but I’m not the best authority on the matter. My son only was accepted into one out of six programs he auditioned for. It happened to be the first one he auditioned for. I suspect that there are some advantages to auditioning on campus, but I’ve heard people argue to the contrary. One college representative explained that schools can’t justify the expense of Unified (or other off-campus) Auditions unless they consider students from all the dates and locations.</p>
<p>Well, for my D she had no choice but to interview/portfolio review for her top school first because it was ED. I had wanted her to have an opportunity to interview with some other school before the BIG one, but it just didn’t work. I have no idea if it was good or not, so I guess we’ll see in a few weeks.</p>
<p>no matter the order, keep in mind that winter weather is unpredictable!</p>
<p>So true about the weather… and I keep reading that this year is going to be a big one for snow (fingers crossed that it is not.) In winter 2010, when D3 auditioned for conservatories (which meant driving and flying all over the country) there were blizzards pretty much every time she had an audition. That was… stressful! At one point I was glad we had opted for a 7-hour drive to an audition because the folks from our city who flew had their planes cancelled/postponed.</p>
<p>My D didn’t intend to put the schools in any audition order but she had disastrous first auditions. The more she auditioned the better she got. We treated the first couple of auditions as learning tools. She was able get a feel of the process as well as take feedback from these schools and tweak her monologues and presentation for future auditions. She did no ED’s and got into her top choice which was her 9th out of 12 auditions.</p>
<p>If you get a choice on time of day…morning or afternoon would it be better to audition when the auditors are fresh?</p>
<p>bisouu-
If possible, it would probably be better to audition in the afternoon or evening when your voice is warmed up. It is hard to reach your full voice potential in the morning when you are still a little groggy.</p>
<p>D definitely tried to do some less stressful auditions first to get the feel…and I think that worked. And we met a young woman who was accepted to CMU after auditioning last on the last day of Chicago unifieds, for whatever that’s worth. </p>
<p>But it’s a crazy crapshoot and there’s no hope of psyching it out. (D did the first audition date in Syracuse, mid-October, last year. Because we were afraid of snow. It snowed ferociously on the way there and we ended up leaving directly after the audition to beat a blizzard on the way home. Snow didn’t interfere with any of the winter dates.)</p>
<p>Unifieds are like childbirth-- everyone has war stories-- but the outcome is usually a good one.</p>
<p>While I agree that much of this is guesswork, I would highly recommend NOT waiting till the end to audition for schools that have rolling admissions – e.g. Ithaca, U of Arts, Hartt, etc. With rolling admissions, the numbers could work against you at the end if offers already have gone out and been accepted for your “type” or if there are higher than anticipate numbers of acceptances for offers that have already gone out.</p>
<p>True^^ Hartt only has the one early action audition date, not rolling admission, just to clarify. If you want to know before April 1 you have to audition in December.</p>
<p>Unless I’m mistaken, Ithaca only had ED last year, not EA/rolling; but anyone could audition at the early decision date (which was around December 1st). They did seem to release their acceptances on a rolling basis last year. Interesting to speculate whether that played a role in their eventual high yield (i.e., overacceptance). Just as an example, my son auditioned for regular decision on the Dec. 1 date; he found out his accepted status on March 5th, and the first acceptances we saw online were in, what?, late February I think. They seemed to come in fits and starts (not the organized “waves” that you saw with Syracuse). It’s fascinating–if frustrating when you’re in the thick of it–to see how differently each school does it, and how much it can change from one year to the next.</p>
<p>Ok we are going against the grain and my D signed up for the first slot on the first day of auditions for her top school. (she is hoping her eagerness will pay off) LOL</p>
<p>Good luck then. I think it’s pointless to worry about all this peripheral stuff (time, date, etc.) when the only thing you can really control is how well prepared you are. Tell your daughter to work hard, find something that brings out the best in her and go way out there with it. Given the numbers and the talent of the competition, this is no time to play it safe.</p>
<p>Thank you Jkellynh17</p>
<p>My son did the first available audition date at his first-choice school (they go in a group–no time slots) and he was accepted. He also had the flu! No predicting it…just gotta go with your gut to some extent.</p>
<p>This school actually gave time slots…not sure how that will work. Do most audition rooms have a chair of some sort? Should it be used if there is?</p>
<p>Generally speaking, the student delivers the monologues while standing.</p>
<p>My experience is that the auditioner is provided with one chair. One acting teacher I had told me to always move the chair before I began my audition monologue. It’s a good way to establish yourself as being (both in your own mind and in the auditor’s) in charge of the performance space. You think to yourself (don’t say this out loud!), “Okay this is now MY stage for the time that I am auditioning. I don’t like where that chair is, it needs to be one inch further away . . .”</p>
<p>The choice of whether to use the chair, and how to use the chair, depends on what you are doing with your monologue. If you have two monologues, you can use the chair differently with each. And don’t use the chair just for the sake of using the chair. Don’t rely on some sort of “gimmicky” use of the chair.</p>
<p>Basically, people are usually more powerful speakers when they are standing then when they are sitting. So many auditioners do prefer to be standing up when they deliver their monologues. Nothing wrong with that. (Remember that in Shakespeare, you only get to sit down if you’re the king . . .)</p>
<p>Now I have also heard that my experience isn’t universal, and sometimes there isn’t a chair at college auditions. So you may want to contact the school and ask if there will be a chair available, if it doesn’t say in the instructions. Asking if a chair will be available is completely professional, because there usually is a chair at professional auditions. Asking for other things to be provided may seem a little unprofessional.</p>