<p>I'll very shortly be sending out my apps for school and I'm having the hard decision of choosing when I want to audition. I'm thinking that I might try doing on-campus auditions on some of the last audition weekends for my top choices. My reasoning is that I'll be extremely comfortable with my material and would by then also have an idea to gage what has worked and what hasn't. Do you think that's a smart idea?</p>
<p>BreakIntoSong, my bet is that you will get as many different answers to that as there are people! Some believe it is an advantage to audition early and on campus, and others believe the best approach is to audition later at Unifieds. The only thing that seems clear is that different things work for different people. Whatever strategy feels best to YOU is probably best for you. From what I have been able to ascertain from reading this discussion list for some months, I don't think it makes terribly good sense to try to over-strategize.</p>
<p>I think the main piece of advice that I took away from the process is to do auditions for schools you favor after you have a few auditions under your belt. This was not the case for my D, as she was only able to start audtions in Feb at the Unified audition, and her first audition turned out to be for her first choice school.
If I had the chance to have her do the whole thing over again, she would have had much more audition experience under her belt before she got to her top choice schools.</p>
<p>I liked that we spread them out to a couple a month or so...that way if you get a cold or something, you don't have all your eggs in one basket...not to mention the stress of going every single weekend in one month, or in the case of Unifieds, all in ONE weekend!! Yikes! Best of luck to you :)</p>
<p>PS...M only did 6 actual auditions total - all at the schools</p>
<p>We spread them out, as Melsmom did - good if you get sick. </p>
<p>I agree that perhaps it is not good for your top choice to be first. My son's final choice was his second audition, just the way it worked out.</p>
<p>Some schools will tell you that scholarships are more available if you audition early.</p>
<p>My son had some fortunate success in early auditions and several great options before Christmas. His reaction, looking back on it, is that by the time he got to Feb. auditions, he was probably a little burned out auditioning, and he already had offers from some of his top choice MT programs, making him not quite as motivated later in the process.</p>
<p>Ditto Ericsmom's response for my daughter. She ended up choosing the school she had her first audition at and was later not as motivated, was quite burned out, and even had a broken foot so couldn't dance. While it's true you will get a different answer to your question from every person who answers, one constant is that if you over-strategize it will produce diminishing returns. There are too many variables. Therefore, it is a very good idea to spread out your auditions. That way you cut down on burn out, don't have them all when you're sick, and you won't know if you're better at the beginning of the auditions or at the end until it's too late.</p>