<p>Hi everyone! Just jumping in to say “hello” - I’ve enjoyed reading all the posts and my son will be auditioning as well this upcoming year. The whole process seems very overwhelming, but it is nice to know there’s a support system!</p>
<p>Welcome @theatremom2015. 1st and best advice, just keep breathing… I’d say try not to overstress, but that probably isn’t a possibility 
It’s interesting how things change with time, it was right around this time last year that we were on our “big tour of schools”- which was fun and exciting, and I found myself looking back wistfully on the whole crazy ride. If you had asked me last March, I would have said it was one of the most stressful periods in my life (which it was) but looking back, I remember the adventure rather than the drama. Just saying, as others have said before, that as NUTS as this whole thing will seem, and as DARK as some days will be (the day in March when SHE had 3 rejections the SAME DAY…) looking back I remember the fun, the silly, and how special it was that D and I traveled the road together. BTW- don’t let non BFA people tell you that you are too involved with your kid’s application process, they have NO idea what they are talking about</p>
<p>May I suggest a somewhat safer approach which might present a compromise between wanting an auditioned BFA program and finding a school that sounds a little bit safer? How about one of the many BFA programs where you audition into the BFA after you’ve already been accepted academically to the school, enrolled and completed a certain amount of coursework. </p>
<p>Before anyone kills me for the use of “somewhat safer,” I want to fully acknowledge that anything that ultimately requires an audition is not safe. However, if you are already in the school, successfully completing coursework, impressing your instructors and are indeed talented, your odds of BFA admission where you are only competing against other students in your program are much better than admission to programs where you are competing with the entire universe. </p>
<p>For my daughter, the school that she applied to whose program is structured that way was UC Irvine. We were confident with her grades and scores that she would be admitted academically and she was. We were also confident in her ability to get herself into the BFA program when the time came if she enrolled. Yes, that was bold thinking on our part and in the end since she instead enrolled at Tisch, it was thinking that was never tested but I still feel like it was a safer play at the time and would have yielded the training and degree she was after at a good school.</p>
<p>You can find a number of other schools that handle admission into the BFA the same way on the big list thread towards the bottom of the list. </p>
<p>Skidmore and Oberlin were my daughter’s non-audition schools.</p>
<p>halfokum, these are the type of programs my daughter chose as her “safeties”. She went through the whole audition season and was accepted to a couple auditioned BFA’s and waitlisted at a couple. My daughter was very green going into this. She has been singing for quite a few years, but fell in love with musical theatre when she was a Junior in high school. She has a lot of talent with both singing and acting, but not in dance. The acceptances she received did not have a dance audition. The waitlists she was on did not have a dance audition. She was rejected from every school that had a dance audition.</p>
<p>When looking at which schools to apply to, we sent e-mails to the schools with the audition later BFA’s. A couple of schools were quite intriguing in their answers. When it came time to select a school, we kept one of these schools on our list to visit as it looked like such a great fit. And it was! She turned down the 2 auditioned acceptances, took her name of the 2 waitlists and enrolled at this school. We spent about 4 hours with the department, they listened to her sing, interviewed her, she interviewed them, toured the facilities, etc. They indicated to us that they thought she would do very well there. She will audition into the BFA program at the end of her 3rd semester. However, all her classes from the start are as if she is in the BFA program. She will be studying abroad during her 4th semester. They have a senior showcase in NY. They have current alumni both on Broadway and in television.</p>
<p>I look forward to contributing on this board about her experiences both good and bad. If anyone wants more detailed information about the program at Western Kentucky University (WKU) let me know.</p>
<p>@LoveMyMTGirl, that’s a wonderful story and it brings up another point. There is also such a thing as having these audition after you get there programs, be your strategy, not your safety. You start a program that pretty much mimics the training that you’d be getting in the first year of a BFA degree anyway and then polish your skills preparing to audition after the first year or so. You miss ALL of the chaos of the college auditions senior year and can just focus on the killer apps and essays to get yourself into the schools. You get to do the school musical and other senior year activities instead of being snowed in at various airports on the way to auditions around the country. AND yes you eventually have to audition but if you trust your work ethic and talent, chances are you will end up in that great auditioned program at a wonderful university that you’ve already started to make your mark at. </p>
<p>How civilized would that be?</p>
<p>@LoveMyMTGirl makes an excellent point. Your child will learn a lot about themselves throughout this process, and in many cases, where they think they want to go now, is not what they will want at the end. Sometimes it is, but sometimes they learn about a program, or a path they hadn’t yet considered! </p>
<p>My S is a 5’10" auburn haired varsity football player in love with theater, who started performing at age 8. He is known as a baritone, but also sings tenor and bass, so he has a great range. He is currently on his 19th and 20th show with the same youth company. He did Les Mis in 2011 (his first musical) and was bitten by the bug, and has never looked back. He got in the car, after a certain rehearsal and was so affected by the music, he announced that acting and singing was going to be his life. He’s not much on dancing, so he is mostly looking at a BFA in Acting or BFA MT with a focus in vocal performance, if dance is not a strong component. We live in rural New England, so pickins are slim up here, but thankfully we are surrounded by some great people with a lot of talent. He took 2 years of voice lessons, he is in his high school Accapella group, he is the lead singer in a band. He has really never been to a summer intensive (he did Beginnings with Peter Sklar 2 years ago) because it interferes with football. He has, thus far, really wanted to balance football and theater, and has done a great job, but, boy, is he ever ready to get his future started. </p>
<p>We are going to NY UNIFIEDS. Hotel is booked, monologue selection is in full swing, essays are being started, his theater teacher at his high school is doing monologue advice and feedback, and he is starting up with voice lessons again. </p>
<p>Thank God for all of you wonderful people, I have learned so much about guiding him through this process. It has been key. I hope to connect with those of you going to NYC in January. We are all in this together. Hold on tight!! I can’t wait to see what happens for everyone. Looking forward to the spring when we can all share exciting news!</p>
<p>Wishing much success to all of you! My D is entering her junior year so she will be the Class of 2020. I look forward to following your journeys this year and learning from them. I can’t imagine the stress you all are going through. I’m stressed enough as it is. We are going back and forth on a list a schools to consider. Safeties and non-safeties. BA vs. BFA. My head already hurts. :)</p>
<p>Wishing much success to all of you! My D is entering her junior year so she will be the Class of 2020. I look forward to following your journeys this year and learning from them. I can’t imagine the stress you all are going through. I’m stressed enough as it is. We are going back and forth on a list a schools to consider. Safeties and non-safeties. BA vs. BFA. My head already hurts. :)</p>
<p>We are celebrating a little this week because we went through all the schools on d’s list and her AP scores on only 3 tests will earn her up to 15 hours at all of the schools that she is interested in, including schools at the upper end of academic selectivity (at least in the MT milieu). I did not realize that you can get 6 hours in credit from 1 AP test in some areas at many schools. If she keeps it up next year, she will accrue another 9-12 hours.</p>
<p>I was under the impression that you would only get 3 hours credit for each AP test and some/many schools did not give credit, only advanced placement, or only gave elective credit that would not satisfy Gen Ed requirements. We have not found a single school that did not give fairly substantial Gen Ed credit for good AP scores. This was a very nice discovery, along with the 2-for-1 deal. D is very interested in minimizing Gen Ed classes in college (although she is very interested in classes in literary analysis and history).</p>
<p>Also, d hit her target on the ACT so she does not have to repeat the test during her senior year, taking that monkey off her back.</p>
<p>I told her to bank the good feelings in preparation for the coming dog days of August when the essay grind begins at the same time that All-School Musical rehearsals begin. I have a feeling that you better make sure that you take in the little victories along the way in this demanding process.</p>
<p>This message board has been extremely helpful and encouraging over the past two years. Now (deep breath) it’s our turn. YIKES! My D is a singer/dancer/actress and has always actively pursued theatre. She is at CMU for the pre-college program this summer and is working so hard. ACT/SAT’s are done. We will record dance portions of the pre-screen the first week she returns (August11th). The vocal and acting pre-screen materials are scheduled to be recorded the last week of August. She will do Chicago unifieds. We are keeping the list very small but thinking very big. Can’t believe we’re here. </p>
<p>Best of luck to you- enjoy the ride. Believe it or not, you WILL look back fondly after you finish, if only to laugh at cringe worthy moments!!</p>
<p>Hi All! I am bug eyed gathering prescreen info. Does anyone know if HARTT and Point Park have prescreens? Didn’t look like it. Also Syracuse’s info was confusing re:supplement/ Prescreen stuff. Any insight or a new pair of eyes much appreciated!!</p>
<p>@tmygirl: from Syracuse’s website:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I read this as you can EITHER audition in person or submit a digital audition, but not both. If you intend to do a live audition, DO NOT submit a digital recording.</p>
<p>I’m a 17 year old male (currently), 6 feet 0, and I’ve been doing theatre since 2003 – this is my 11th year in the “business”, if you will. My strengths are in singing and acting, and I’m admittedly mediocre at dance.</p>
<p>I’m a rising senior right now.</p>
<p>I really need some guidance as far as what I should be doing right now in regards to auditions and all. I would absolutely love to do the NY Unifieds but I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to afford it – with a family income of ~35k a year I don’t think there’s much of anything in NY I could afford anyway. I basically would like some help figuring out what to do right now so I don’t screw myself later. Thank you in advance.</p>
<p>If we had a general idea of what area of the US you live in, we might be able to point you to auditions near by. Also consider those schools that accept video auditions, though some have criteria for doings so, for example living x-many miles away. Do you have an MT program or programs in-state?</p>
<p>@ifhgsfj: You may want to start by reading the 20+ “Featured Threads” which can be found through a link near the top of the Forum page - FEATURED THREADS (View All) - or by clicking this url:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/categories/featured/musical-theater-major/”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/categories/featured/musical-theater-major/</a></p>
<p>The best one to start with is the “Preparing to Apply” thread (which is also pinned to the top of this forum):</p>
<p><a href=“Preparing to Apply - Information for H.S. Juniors and Seniors - Musical Theater Major - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/477658-preparing-to-apply-information-for-h-s-juniors-and-seniors-p1.html</a></p>
<p>The book, I Got In by Mary Anna Dennard explains just about everything - it is available on Amazon.</p>
<p>Two other featured threads that relate to the audition process are this one on Unified Auditions:</p>
<p><a href=“Unified Auditions - Musical Theater Major - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/101147-unified-auditions-p1.html</a></p>
<p>and this one on how many schools to audition for:</p>
<p><a href=“How many programs should you audition for? A "Freakonomics" approach - Musical Theater Major - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1243010-how-many-programs-should-you-audition-for-a-freakonomics-approach-p1.html</a></p>
<p>There are many more past threads on the audition process that you can find by playing around with the search tool - use the advanced option and limit your searches to the Musical Theatre Forum.</p>
<p>Also, check out the great blog available from a prof at Shenandoah (can’t post the url due to CC rules but you can use google to find it):</p>
<p>Matthew Edwards Shenandoah The College Audition Blog auditioningforcollege</p>
<p>I’m in Maryland. According to the Big List, there are none in-state. There’s undoubtedly at least one in DC, but American is the only one that I’m aware of and that I’m very interested in. There are also programs in Virginia and New Jersey, I know, but I really don’t know how interested I am for multiple reasons. I’m very willing to go far away from home (and with most of the net price calculators for the schools I’ve looked at, it seems the further I go, the less I’ll have to pay), but the problem is getting there for the audition. If I get in and I start attending, I’ll probably be fine.</p>
<p>ifhgsfj - I have way too much time on my hands now that my son is about to be launched 
He went through auditions this past year. I looked to see if there were any reciprocity agreements for Maryland students to attend other state schools. There is the Southern Regional Education Board and they have a website. I did a search and it appears there is a reciprocity agreement with Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina for the BFA MT major. Not sure if you would be eligible for in-state tuition as I did not research that far, in my experience, reciprocity agreements usually include a tuition price break. Here is the link:</p>
<p><a href=“http://home.sreb.org/acm/ProgramDetail.aspx?id=2319&state=MD”>http://home.sreb.org/acm/ProgramDetail.aspx?id=2319&state=MD</a></p>
<p>The biggest sticking point would be getting to the audition. Do you have friends who are attending Unifieds? Relatives in NYC or Chicago? My son had been admitted to the program and he loved everything about it, but chose to attend another school. It was a difficult choice.</p>