Does anyone know what schools will be seeing walk-ins at Unifieds in Chicago? My child has her week scheduled, but has 2 friends who don’t have many auditions scheduled, and are considering coming to Unifieds just for walk ins. I was wondering if there is some type of list somewhere they could refer to??
I contacted Utah; they will have walk in spots available. But that’s the only one I personally spoke to.
Not hard to find out though; just call the theatre dept. and ask. That’s all i did.
Many schools had signs - or even reps in the hallway, but I don’t know if there was a list. Fair warning- Some schools are really welcoming with walk ins (I have read many stories where a walk in ends up the final choice) others less so. D had a friend with a similar strategy last year (she came with us, but had nothing scheduled) One that was interesting was a school where my D had a scheduled audition. They were great with my kid- but an hour or so later when friend came for a walk in- they were SUPER rude to friend- so much so that D ended up pulling her application, saying she didn’t want to be anywhere so overtly two faced.
My son was one of those kids that walked into a school at Chicago Unifieds last year, and that’s where he is now. (RCS). He also walked into Ohio Northern-- Their sign-up list was taped to their suite’s door… which was on a floor with the regular hotel rooms- not in the conference room/audition areas. Many kids he knew did a walk-in for Northern Colorado. I think Coastal Carolina had some walk-in spots, too.
Many schools do walk-ins and they’ll post on the standing boards on most of the floors of the Palmer House Hilton. You’ll have to make sure you physically go to the PHH and walk around read all the boards. Many schools will also leave literature out on the tables scattered about in the audition areas (not in the lobby) with notes posted on them that they’re accepting walk-ins. Some schools will post a sign on their sign-in table. Also, just listen to people and ask. Keep a copy of your daily schedule handy, too-- some lists fill up very quickly. BAL!
Will many schools be set up Sunday? My D will be free that day, and it’d be nice if she could walk around then and scope out which schools might have walk-ins.
My daughter did walk-ins last year for Viterbo, LIU-Post, and Montclair. Northern Colorado had walk-ins but was only there for 1 day, Monday.
Ball State should have some walk-ins available, depending on how many squeeze in scheduled auditions before Unifieds. I’m guessing this will be common for most other schools as well. Just check with the proctor at the schools’ door so they can let you know how things for that day are running!
Sunday doesn’t seem to be a big day for auditions. Dance calls for BoCo , CCPA and TSU I think. But haven’t heard of many auditions besides BoCo.
My son auditioned for Syracuse on Sunday-- not at the PHH. It was a few blocks away. We walked. (and froze!) Sunday would be a good day to walk around the PHH and get a feel for the conference space area-- It’s huge and takes up several floors of the hotel. There won’t be too many schools there yet, but I remember seeing a lot of literature already out and posted. Monday morning will be hopping!
I also recommend not scheduling auditions too close together. I had a major role in creating my son’s schedule and I always made sure there was at least 45-60 minutes in between audition blocks. Sometimes more. He was mentally and physically challenged the whole time we were there and would come back to our room exhausted. It’s very stressful! I was there solely for him… a “sherpa” as we joked about ourselves last year. I planned all meals and ran errands. (Luckily, there’s a Target on the next block!)
We are auditioning for Syracuse and NYU on Sunday - scheduled appointments.
This may be in this post already, but a reminder that the elevators are super-confusing - we ended up using the stairs a good bit when we could (and not too many floors to go between). The wait was REALLY long sometimes & certain elevators only go to certain floors - sometimes you have to go down to go up…
Stupid question. Can you walk in even if you haven’t applied to the school?
Yes, you would apply after the audition if you are interested.
I’ll second @MTmom2017 on the elevators. There are 3 banks of elevators serving different floors (with one common transfer floor, I forget the floor number). Wait times can be very long. We used stairs quite a bit as well. My D never liked to plan too much for unknowns, but I’m a project manager and that is my life, so I always made sure we left early for the auditions & dance calls, etc. This is probably more of an issue if you are staying in the hotel and going back to your room in between, but can impact anyone.
For the walk-ins, we had time Monday morning so just walked around the conference floor, looked and asked about walk-ins. My D did a couple there.
I’m going to NY Unifieds but I think walk ins will be similar… Can anyone tell me about the prices for walk ins and methods of payment in their experience? I know it will vary but about how much can a walk in cost?
The walk ins we did were free…applied after the fact…
It varies by school from zero to just under $100 (CMU was at the high end.) A lot of them are zero.
If you know which schools you hope to walk-in, I would look up their standard application and audition fees. Most likely you will be charged the same price.
Perfect, exactly what I needed to know. Thanks so much everyone!