<p>Quick question: For colleges with rolling admission, would auditioning before sending in my application help my odds of getting accepted into the school? Or does the audition have no influence over the application?</p>
<p>At some (Most?) schools you cannot audition before submitting an application. If you are accepted artistically, you would not be able to be admitted without a complete application, so I would see no advantage - it would only delay your results.</p>
<p>Ok. Thanks for clearing that up :)</p>
<p>An additional suggestion. Applications for the upcoming year, both Common and school specific, start getting released in July. It’s beneficial for a variety of reasons to knock them out and get in the student portions by mid-September. If you start working on them in July, there’s no reason you can’t complete and submit them all by September, particularly if most of your schools use the Common App. That frees you up to focus on scheduling and preparing for auditions and for those schools that require the app before you can audition, you are ahead of the game. Doing auditions for the rolling admission schools early on has its benefits also. The maximum number of admissions spots will be open and you can end up with an acceptance early in the audition season that takes some of the heat off of your remaining auditions.</p>
<p>My 2 cents…if you audition early and get an acceptance, don’t cancel auditions you have scheduled later because you think you want to go to the school that accepted you…even if it is your “dream” school. MY D was thrilled to be accepted in November to her “dream” BFA conservatory and consequently canceled most of her other scheduled auditions. She was happy with the school and didn’t see the sense in traveling all over, the added expense and missing more high school if she didn’t have to. She signed on to her dream school only to end up 4 months later auditioning for a BA program at a large university, loving it and pulling out of that “dream” school to sign on to the BA program. I wish she had kept all her scheduled auditions so she would have had all the choices available to her. This way there is no looking back and saying “I shoulda, coulda, woulda”. </p>
<p>In the end, she is very happy with her choice and I truly believe everything worked out as it was meant to be. Had she not canceled all her other auditions she would have never ended up applying and auditioning for the BA program…there simply would have not been enough time for her to squeeze another school in. Early acceptance is a wonderful feeling though and does indeed take the pressure off the remaining audition season.</p>
<p>I have had two students who got into a program early on and they did choose to cancel SOME auditions…the ones at schools that they liked less than the admitted school, but they kept some auditions too in order to see what choices they might have in the end. Both ended up attending the first accepted school.</p>
<p>My daughter did a similar thing. After getting her first acceptance from a rolling admissions school in December, she withdrew an application from a school she knew she would not attend given that she had an acceptance elsewhere. She did proceed with her other auditions and coincidentally, once her various acceptances were in, ended up attending the school at which she was first accepted. As her priorities and analysis of what made for a good match for her shifted over time, that first school rose to the top of her list as others dropped down. If nothing else, this process is anything but static!</p>
<p>I also think it’s good to keep your options open, and then be in a position to know that your initial choice was the right one. Many kids who apply ED (for any type of school, not just theater) end up thinking “what if” when they see the various acceptances other people get in the spring. It is more stressful to keep the decision process open, but in the long run, I think it’s more satisfying.</p>
<p>Another reason to keep applying even after an early acceptance to be able to compare any financial aid offers. Of course, if finances are not a concern that is a different story…</p>