<p>One thing we did which I would definitely do again.<br>
AMDA will do an audition in Junior year, and offer a place with a Junior applicant scholarship, or feedback on how to improve.</p>
<p>Not about what you would do differently regarding auditions, but I was searching for something and came across this. I thought it was worth bringing back for those still in high school.
<a href=“http://www.theatermania.com/south-carolina-theater/tmu/10-2012/the-top-5-things-i-wish-id-done-before-undergrad_63570.html”>http://www.theatermania.com/south-carolina-theater/tmu/10-2012/the-top-5-things-i-wish-id-done-before-undergrad_63570.html</a></p>
<p>This is a great article, austinmtmom. Just sent to my son. Says some things I’ve been saying, but we all know sometimes things carry more weight when said by someone other than mom.</p>
<p>If D had to do this all over again, I’d consider having her use a coach for a least a few sessions to figure out which schools would be the best fit. That was the most overwhelming thing–learning about the schools and what they were looking for. But we didn’t know about coaches until it was too late.</p>
<p>My daughter had a fantastic acting teacher and a terrific voice teacher, and D did a great job picking appropriate songs & monologues for herself. But we might have been less stressed throughout the process if we’d had help with choosing which schools to apply to.</p>
<p>It all turned out even better than we could have hoped for, so in the end we have no regrets that D was coachless throughout. But I think a few sessions would have been well worth it, had we known such a thing existed (and I’d have fewer gray hairs right now, too). </p>
<p>Now that the dust is settling, S feels that maybe he should not have tried so hard to find “obscure” songs and monologues, that perhaps he should have had songs that “showcased” his voice type, rather than trying to stand out as “unusual”. He thinks perhaps this hurt his chances at the “top” schools that emphasize voice above all else. On the other hand he received some very enthusiastic acceptances to some very good programs that seem to believe that good acting is at the “heart” of ANY good performance - whether singing, dancing or “straight” theater. Way back at the beginning of deciding what schools to apply for, S felt that in the long run this was what was really important. And now that he’s in the home-stretch of making a final decision, he again feels that way. It was only in the throws of the audition “season” of uncertainty and getting rejections, that he started second guessing himself. Perhaps all you can really do is go with your gut and give it all you’ve got. I DO believe that any of the programs he has been accepted to will be a good place for him. And maybe the ones who did not accept him, were - in his heart of hearts - already “crossed off his list” before he even started. It’s hard to not get a little philosophical - OK crazy - with this whole process. . . Good Luck to the next batch. You’re starting in a good place here on CC. Take it all in, and do the best you can.</p>
<p>The title of this thread alone makes me feel sick to my stomach because I don’t wish this process on my worst enemy (well, maybe just that one LOL). I recently posted on another thread about summer program experience (my D went to Carnegie Mellon for their summer pre-college program) but I’ll reiterate here what I said there: Hire Moo (and hire her NOW) and apply for Broadway Dreams. End of story. </p>
<p>@DoReMiMom, we went with MTCA but your advise is very well taken. There are people around our area who do college coaching but we went with an expert and we started now thanks to all of you on CC. </p>
<p>If we had to do it all over again, we would not have “married” certain schools during the college visits we made during junior and senior year of high school. One poster once said her son wouldn’t even take the campus tours because he didn’t want to fall in love with a school and then get rejected. That’s a great strategy and although I appreciate the goal of protecting oneself against heartbreak, we felt D would run the risk of looking like an idiot if the auditor said “why our school?” and she didn 't have a clue about the school. </p>
<p>We visited as many schools as we could that we could drive to in a day (no hotel bill), saw many shows at our varoius local universities (to gauge the quality of the training), attended open houses galore, and couldn’t help but narrow it down to 6 top contenders. This was based on the location, curriculum, people we met, size of the school, and the school’s “vibe,” etc. It helps that we live in a suburb of New York City and many schools are within a day’s drive. </p>
<p>When certain rejections came, hearts were broken, tears ensued, and I wouldn’t have wished this process on my worst enemy as DoReMiMom said. The pain of the rejections stung like I wouldn’t have believed possible (for both the child and the parents). </p>
<p>The trouble is, if you go into the process thinking, “I’m not going to fall in love with any program because it’s difficult to even get into ONE program,” then we felt, in our daughter’s case, that she’d run the risk of not doing well in the interview portion of the audition. In other words, when going into the room, you have to have the confidence to believe you CAN get into that program. If you don’t love the school, you run the risk of looking disinterested, or that you didn’t do your homework on the program. You could kill your chances of getting in. Now some schools want you to “show them the love” and others couldn’t care less, but how can you tell which school would be insulted if you showed up for the audition yet knew very little about them? Plus, we enjoyed visiting the colleges and narrowing down what we liked and didn’t like about each school. We didn’t want to have to run around to colleges in April and have to make a quick decision on schools we hadn’t visited, if possible. Again, we only visited within a day’s drive or if we happened to be vacationing in that part of the country, or visiting relatives, etc.</p>
<p>You can research on the web, but there’s nothing like a visit to get a feel for a program, and seeing is believing, so we wanted to visit the schools within a day’s driving distance. If you’re fortunate enough that the auditors ask you to sit down and talk to them after you perform your monologues and songs, I feel you have a better shot of getting into some of the schools if you know why you want their program. (Again, some schools don’t care whether you know them well or not.)</p>
<p>So it’s a balancing act to try to show the auditor that you LOVE that school and it’s a top choice, yet not fall in love with any one program. We failed miserably at not falling in love with certain programs. It was worth the heartbreak in the end, because many of the “top” programs were crossed off my daughter’s list after we researched the school. So we didn’t waste time (and money) applying and auditioning for a school she would not want to attend. Since all the schools have their auditions on the same weekends, you can’t audition for them all, so wasting time on a school you wouldn’t attend takes away from an audition you COULD be attending instead (unless it’s a walk-in, then of course, go for it!). Since there are a limited number of audition slots and opportunities, we only wanted to go to schools we loved, or at least liked. We would have loved to do more schools, but you can’t do them all.</p>
<p>If you juniors can manage a way to identify the schools you love, but not get married to your “top choice” (or top 6 in our case), you will save yourself some heartbreak. Psychologically, being rejected from a school you thought would be perfect for you is very, very difficult. Love many schools, fall in love with none, and try to keep an open mind about the schools you don’t like that much. It’s amazing how much better those schools start to look to you when you get accepted to them.</p>
<p>In the end, my D got accepted to various programs and they each have pros and cons. Our prior visits and research makes decision time now extremely easy because we did an enormous amount of research and visits, including seeing shows at the schools. However, as I said above, the heartbreak of the rejections has been unreal. Had we taken a more cavalier attitude like some if the posters have, we would have been better off. I admire those kids who shrugged off the rejections with an “Oh well! That’s life!” kind of attitude. If you can take that attitude toward the rejections, it will serve you well. </p>
<p>There are many paths in this business, and getting into “X” college is not the only path. Try to remember this when the inevitable rejections come and keep it all in perspective. Date all the schools, but don’t marry any until you have that acceptance letter in your hands. It’s easier said than done because as you look at the curriculums, talk to current students, visit and research, you will prefer some schools over others. That’s natural and will help you narrow down which schools to apply to and audition for. Just try not to get psychologically attached to any specific outcome. Even the best of the best often get rejected from several schools. Save yourself some heartache, if you can, and keep an open mind about all the schools.</p>
<p>Break a leg!</p>
<p>BethsMom, the “falling in love” is the danger of the summer programs held at colleges, too. Bad enough to be rejected by strangers, it is even more difficult to bear when the auditors included a beloved or respected teacher.</p>
<p>My son was the one who refused to go on campus tours. We made sure to remind him of a few basics about each program before his auditions, to give him something to talk about if asked. The fact that he has had a lot of improv training, surely helped!</p>
<p>Best wishes for making the right decision among your daughter’s choices.</p>
<p>Going to add to my previous comments a few pages back:</p>
<p>SUMMER BEFORE SOPHOMORE YEAR
Volunteer somewhere, anywhere</p>
<p>SUMMER BEFORE JUNIOR YEAR
Texas Musical Theater Workshop (non-audition, not too late!)
Get a job, any job when you get back from Austin. Use volunteer work last summer as reference. All this MT stuff cost money. Show that you can contribute something to the cause.
Reach out to Dave Clemmons (remember, it’s just money)</p>
<p>SUMMER BEFORE SENIOR YEAR
Shoot for Mpulse, Interlocken, TPAP
Re-up with Dave.<br>
Get ready for the blood, sweat, and tears</p>
<p>Is it weird I’m not ready to contribute to this yet? I definitely have a lessons learned list, I keep them for everything lol but its like I’m not ready to look back or maybe even digest that its over because if its over it is one more step closer to me dropping him off in Westerville OH. Sorry…I’m not normally one to bring a party down LOL</p>
<p>@MTMajorCook - I get where you are coming from. An often heard mantra on this board is that “they end up where they are supposed to be” - and I am a HUGE believer in that concept. But if we could “do it all over” doesn’t that imply that we would like a different result? And what does that do to our newly acquired peace of mind on the choices our kids have made? It’s confusing…I don’t want a different result. D is SO excited, every time she talks about school she starts to bubble and bounce- but I wish I really DO hope that some of our reflections and war stories can help the next group along the path?</p>
<p>toowonderful, don’t think it implies a wish for a different result. For those who believe that they end up where they’re supposed to be they will wind up there regardless. I think it’s things done differently along the path to where they’re supposed to be–things that could’ve been done differently to make the trip to that destiny smoother.</p>
<p>@GSOMTMom - I think you expressed the point I was trying to make better than I did. I certainly DO wish I could have saved my D and myself some angst along the way, I said in an earlier post (possibly on another thread) my D wanted to do ED for NYU, and I said “no, we have to explore all options”- and we did…and she’s going to NYU. </p>
<p>Alright ready…here I go</p>
<p>I would have researched and really understood the financial aspect better. We did not realize going into this process that at many schools a talent award reduces your financial need therefore any needs based grants or assistance you see on the schools website do not apply if you get a talent award of equal or greater amount. You really end up in the same place as you would have without the talent award. I understand talent awards are hard to come by but we didn’t rule out by cost hoping if he received any talent award it would make the cost obtainable for us. If we could go back I wouldn’t have wasted the money applying or traveling on a slim chance that made no real difference anyway. Stacking scholarships is also important information for those of us wondering how to pay for all of this. AND I would have made him apply for many many more outside scholarships.</p>
<p>I would have forced him (it would’ve taken me to force him) to take the SAT again and the ACT. He got a decent score the first time, knew it was enough to be admitted and called it quits. I did not realize all the different levels of awards based on the GPA and test scores.</p>
<p>I would have made him take more AP classes.</p>
<p>We would have scheduled Otterbein earlier. The 15/20 minutes Dr John and team spent with S giving him feedback was invaluable. S said it would’ve been great to have that feedback in the beginning of the audition season. None of the other schools provide this type of attention. It does make for a loooonnngg day there lol</p>
<p>We would have looked into an acting coach. S was so focused on dance, which he would NEVER change that but looking back I feel he would’ve benefited from more acting classes. He’ll be getting them soon enough!</p>
<p>We would have packed extra dance clothes and had them handy at every audition…you never know when they are going to fall in the toilet. </p>
<p>I would’ve scheduled CCM earlier due to the weather…course is there EVER a good time to be in Cinci in the winter? There always seems to be a snow storm on audition days. We walked in no less than 4 inches of snow to get into the school.</p>
<p>Lastly if I could do it again I would really try to relax. I had so much anxiety over this I ended up on meds for a bit. I would believe that one way or another we would come out on the other side and whatever will be will be. </p>
<p>Excellent @MTMajorCook! Seems like just yesterday we were sitting at CCM with the snow storm going on outside. Months later, I feel like the hindsight of this process is insane. </p>
<p>It’s about 90 million degrees here in CIncinnati today, with 99.9% humidity. Guess the only difference on CCM audition day was the temperature.</p>
<p>To add to the OP - In hindsight - always 20/20 - I’m glad S refused to go out for the fall musical at his school. Performance dates coincided with his first audition date in November - including a Friday masterclass day. As a parent I was a little sad to not get to see my S in his “last” musical, but in reality this made his (our) fall much more sane than it would have been with after-school rehearsals thrown in. There is NO way we would have gotten the pre-screens done if we’d had that overlap. This also allowed him to do a second November audition. He had decisions from both schools before Winter Break (one a wait list). The acceptance from his first audition - theoretically a “practice” audition - was a great thing to have in his “back pocket” throughout the rest of the audition season. Even the “wait list” was a bit of a confidence booster (ultimately rejected in April). One thing I think we might have changed was to add a December audition - instead of committing to another “unnecessary” performance at that time (again, in hindsight). For us that probably would have been CCM (fortunately, just a LONG slide down the hill to get there on that snowy January day) - which would have given us one more “yes” or “no” before Winter Break.</p>
<p>I know many other parents and students would not agree with my fall auditions instead of fall performances philosophy, but if you are trying to reduce stress, manage good health (for ALL involved), maintain grades, AND prepare for auditions, I think auditions and prep for auditions should be the main focus in fall of senior year. And maybe sleep. Funny, but being able to attend that Friday masterclass day on the day before his “practice” audition, put S well on his way to moving this “back-up” school to the top of his list - where he will be attending come August.</p>
<p>And this is for the parents of current freshman/sophomores - if at all possible try to get all SAT/ACT testing (including retakes) done by end of junior year (NO later than September senior year). If you are going to do test prep tutoring, do it as a junior (or earlier), and no later than Summer before Senior year. Waiting just adds one, or more, Saturday(s) to shoe-horn into your audition schedule. Of my three college-aged sons, none of them improved their test scores significantly enough in senior year to make a statistical difference in acceptances/scholarships - some even went lower on those tests. Best gains were made in Junior year.</p>
<p>To add to MTMajorCook’s comments regarding scholarship “stacking”, I wish I had paid closer attention to ADMISSION deadlines for scholarships. S may have missed out on one top award because we scheduled his audition one week after the Feb. 1 admission-to-the-SCHOOL cut-off.</p>
<p>Remembering this is bringing back shades of the panic I felt this time last year. We all survived - and so will you. Breathe. . .</p>
<p>How do you know who stacks scholarships and who doesn’t? Just ask, I guess??? So many things to know and discover. I feel like I need a team…</p>
<p>Some schools are clearer than others about stacking so it is just best to ask the FA department</p>
<p>You have a team…team CC! :)>- </p>
<p>Yep ask, some will say on the website but most aren’t too clear.</p>
<p>Don’t rely too heavily on the cost estimators either, although I can say Otterbeins’ was accurate almost to the penny. </p>