Ok, is it really possible to do all on campus auditions if you have a lot of schools, like 12/13? I am thinking it is not possile logistically… how many auditions did some of you seasoned parents do on campus? Anyone over 10?
Don’t spend the money on that!!! I have not heard anyone say there is an advantage. Visit schools after you receive an acceptance. This would just be overwhelming.
@theatremomma we aren’t doing it for an advantage. Quite a few schools on our list don’t go to unifieds. Plus I really don’t want to go to unifieds for the few schools that are on her list. Not sure how many schools you could comfortably schedule at unifieds…I am
Trying to avoid going to NYC if we can. The weather makes me nervous and the threat of illness etc…
12/13 is not a lot of schools in the MT world. Probably average. There r kids doing over 20.
My d did a total of three trips - Unifieds (where she was able to do two on campus auditions that same weekend, plus several others as part of Unifieds); one other on campus audition for a call back on a different weekend, and one visit after being accepted to a school she hadnt seen yet but had become #1 choice.
All the kids we know did between 1 and 5 trips for auditions and callbacks. Even if doing on campus auditions, families went to two or three During one trip that were driving distance apart. The kids that had the 5 trips were burned out by the end. Very tired. Also hard to schedule around achool and missing classes, shows, etc. It seems those that did Unifieds for the bulk and maybe 1-2 other trips enjoyed it the most.
I agree with above that visits after acceptance are more cost efficient as the list is narrowed down. Also remember that LA hosts Unifieds too and weather is good. And lots of schools that “don’t do Unifieds” hold regional auditions near Unifieds at the same time. We loved it. Took lots of meds with us in case of illness, survived the blizzard, etc. Met lots of nice people too.
Good luck
We just did this whole application process last year, and I would do as many at Unis as possible and then visit were you are accepted.The few who do not do Unis often if you are not in state take videos, do those. We did not follow this advise and I regret it:)
We did all on campus auditions and had planned to do one at Unifieds in New York but we couldn’t because we were returning from auditions in the Midwest and the turnpike was closed. We didn’t do on campus auditions for an advantage it just suited my daughters personality. In hind sight I would done a combination of NY and Chicago Unifieds & on campus. The key to scheduling auditions is getting your applications in early. We had scheduled 11 auditions in 6 weekends.
Well the only unifieds I would go to would be NYC, no others as they are too far from us and I don’t wish to fly. Guess we’ll see how it all pans out. I was just wondering what was the most trips someone made. I’m hoping to combine a school or two together if the available dates line up ok. Perhaps a few Ohio schools etc. I just can’t fathom auditioning at 12 or so schools & doing 12 indiv trips. Seems like the dates won’t work but I’ll know more once all the dates are updated on the sites. Some schools are still listing last years info. Yes I’m trying to get D to start apps in August. She already has an essay written from common app prompts.
My D did 7 on site out of 10. Adding more would have been difficult I think logistically just based on the on site audition days. To do so would have meant yanking her out of everything else her senior year of HS, and none of us wanted that including her.
Back when my daughter auditioned, she applied to 8 schools. She did all on-campus auditions. This involved 6 trips over 4 months (for two of the trips, we were able to combine two schools in a weekend). Today, if she were applying, she might apply to 11 schools and I do think this would have been doable, particularly if a couple were before the holidays. @Ducky312 did it.
My daughter was not yanked out of anything during her final year of HS due to college auditions. In fact, she had a full slate of shows, training, and much else going on that year. Of course, she was out of everything immediately following her final college audition due to hospitalization and recovery from an accident for the remainder of that school year.
I’m glad we saw ALL her schools prior to mid-March that year and didn’t wait until acceptances rolled in.
My D would have had to drop out of show choir competitions if she had done more than the 7 on site that she did. And that is a big deal at her high school. I am also a proponent of high school students being high school students and being able to do things like go to football games, dates, proms, etc. I recognize not all students or parents feel that way, but we did, and as a result curtailed her on site visits to accommodate such events.
My D was advised to try to visit as many campuses as she could during auditions so she could observe classes, talk to students, etc. The danger in that, she was advised, was that you could fall in love with a school but then not get accepted and that would be difficult to deal with. So she knew that and I think took a balanced approach when visiting.
All told, I agree with soozie; my bias would be to visit before acceptances vs. after and that can be accomplished by auditioning on site when practical. I think you get a better feel for the program, the students, training, etc. As an example, there was one well regarded program my D auditioned for that was near the top of her list before auditioning, and immediately afterwards she told us even if she got accepted (which she didn’t) she would not go to that school because of the vibes she got (one comment when she asked what the students do on weekend was get drunk like everyone else - that was a deal breaker). On the other hand, the state school she applied to was more near the bottom of the list, but when she auditioned on site she loved the environment, faculty, students, pretty much everything about the place. It vaulted to the top of her list and she graduates from there next year.
Most on-campus auditions are on Saturdays, but there are some schools that hold them on Fridays and Sundays. You may be able to get multiple schools in a single weekend if they are close enough together. We we able to to UMich on Friday and IU on Saturday. Some people have been known to do one school on Saturday morning and another in the afternoon. That’s a little tight for my taste - especially given winter weather in Midwest/Northeast - but know your own personality and your kid’s, as to whether or not you like handling that kind of stress. As others have posted, the key is getting applications in early so you have your pick of dates - especially those early fall dates. If I were doubling or tripling up on weekends, I would be sure to contact the programs to see what my expected time commitment was and also to explain to them my situation and see if they could guarantee my kid an early/late spot to accommodate the multiple auditions and travel time. We only did 7 schools and scheduled the least likely “fit” school in March, then cancelled when “better fit” program acceptances came through earlier in December and February.
If we had done 10 -15 schools, we would have looked into unifieds for some of them, but I was leery of relying on Chicago winter weather and indeed it was a factor for many that year - as was NYC’s in a subsequent year. But weather can be a factor no matter what you decide - could be a shut-down Ohio/Pennsylvania turnpike or a mountain pass in West Virginia. When we did CMU, we got in to Pittsburgh the night before and only had to “slide” a mile or two from hotel to the campus. A friend missed her a.m. slot b/c they decided to drive that day and a FedEx truck was overturned on an snowy hwy. CMU was very accommodating and let her audition that afternoon, but the mother/daughter relationship took a huge hit during that very stressful drive and D was not in the best frame of mind when she finally arrived.
Know what your gut can handle. Know what your kid’s gut can handle when it comes to how much prep and down time they need between auditions. Can you/they handle whatever the world of weather/health/sudden life events throw at you/them? Or do things need to be carefully planned with extra time in between? We took an opposite tack from some previous posters and S did not participate in HS fall musical - his decision. If a “better” show had been chosen that year, the decision might have been a little tougher, but he made the decision as a junior that auditions and prepping for them was a priority for his senior year. He had gotten what he felt he could get out of being in school shows and he was ready to do whatever it would take to prepare for the post-HS phase of his life. He wanted to do on-campus auditions and both he and his parents liked arriving in the city the night before (all schools purposely chosen to be within driving distance for several reasons). We took him out of school more than the “allowed” number of college visits both junior and senior year, but we kept it as close to a minimum as we could and S was OK with taking the “heat” from the school counselor (she had bigger fish on her plate anyway and S’s absences were the least of her worries). It helped that he had gotten all of his required academics out of the way and his only had AP Calc and AP English to manage homework for - again, another decision to put college auditions as highest priority for senior year. He was not particularly interested in having a HS “senior experience” and that worked well for HIM. Everyone’s path is different. Trust what you feel will work for you and your kid.
Also, you say the schools you are auditioning for don’t go to Unifieds, but check to see if they are holding auditions in the same city as Unifieds at the same time. Schools like CMU, Ithaca and Pace do that every year in NYC. My daughter did five schools at Unifieds, and we felt that was manageable. She didn’t do any of the schools noted above that were in NYC but not at Unifieds because those were the few of her on-campus auditions (we live about 1 1/2 hours outside of NYC, so the NYC area schools like Pace and Montclair we did on campus). That being said, the school she is attending was her first Unified audition, so I don’t think auditioning on campus give you any real advantage.
My S did all his auditions during a four day stretch at NY Unifieds, and it was a fantastic experience for all of us. But he did fewer than a lot of you, is healthy as a horse most of the time and reacts well to pressure. I could see spreading it out, honestly, but I wouldn’t worry about it if you have to do most of it at one Unifieds or another.
I know for the last couple of years Baldwin Wallace and Wright State have had auditions on the same weekend (I remember you mentioning Ohio schools). Our year, 2015, we did BW on Saturday and WSU on Sunday. We saw MANY of the same families at both, so I believe this is common trip. Feel free to reach out to me if you want more information.
@theaterwork we drove to all our auditions. Some were long days. But manageable
@IfYouOnlyKnew yes that would be great! She is applying at both those schools. Actually several Ohio schools. Ohio northern too and Otterbein if she passes prescreen lol. Isn’t there an Ohio unifieds someone mentioned?
My daughter was advised to audition on-campus if at all possible, and we did that. The college staff will be more relaxed, the auditions are less crowded, and you may have the advantage of seeing a production while you are there, and checking out the campus in general. If you are lucky enough to have more than one acceptance, this can make a big difference in final decisions. And trying to visit 2 or more campuses in April or May, during senior year – that’s going to be tough. I also recommend going to as many auditions as possible early in the year, when the weather is nice and before the school year gets too crazy. (Your student is also less likely to be suffering from a cold or the flu, as so frequently happens during the winter audition season.)
@theaterwork - here’s the website for the Ohio unified auditions (January 9, 2016) I believe they are true “unified” audition where you audition for all schools at the same time, but you do not necessarily need to have applied to the school to be considered. Not every school participating is there looking for MT/Acting majors. Some are only there for tech, design etc. majors (if I remember right, that’s the case for CCM), so if you look at the complete list of schools attending, be sure the ones you are interested in are there for MT/Acting. It is mainly geared for Ohio residents, but you could contact the coordinator to find out if there is any wiggle room there.
http://ohedta.org/opportunities/auditions/
Thanks @mom4bwayboy I will look into it. Looks like they are updating this years info on July 1. I am wondering too if my D has all these applications to do and get submitted, so she can schedule auditions, what if you can’t get an audition date to work out for a school or there aren’t openings left etc, are you just out the app fee then? Seems like you most likely aren’t interested in the school otherwise so…I guess we need to make sure of the schools she applys to and get the audition schedule figured out…seems like you could waste a lot of time there
This is always the million dollar question and everyone always divides into a few camps, but my advice is to only visit before acceptances if you also can afford to visit after. You feel different and are treated differently when you visit AFTER, so I see those visits as most valuable. Auditioning on campus will NOT give you an advantage, so do it if you want to see the school, but know that you often won’t get to see much of it on audition day (the people in the department are BUSY). And there is always the danger of falling in love so no matter how well the audition seems to go and how much the kid loves the school, keep reminding yourself of the daunting admission statistics.