<p>I’m a 17 year old (18 in November), 5’4" white lyric soprano girl with lots of music and dance experience and… very minimal recent show experience, outside of recitals and revues. Thing is, I was homeschooled for my last three years of high school and ended up with a G.E.D. due to unfortunate medical things (that have now passed and hopefully will not come back, thank goodness!) and thus was unable to participate in things (shows) that required a months long commitment. I kept up dance and voice and some acting classes throughout that, however.</p>
<p>I’m genuinely not sure where I’m strongest, as it tends to depend on the day! I’d guess probably singing and dance, but I’ve for sure had my moments in acting and I love performing in shows and cabarets when I can - otherwise I wouldn’t be interested in musical theatre.</p>
<p>I have nerves regarding just about everything when it comes to applying for universities and auditioning for programs, especially because my school options are limited due to my academic history. </p>
<p>Still, I’m super excited to begin the journey of auditioning and applying for school and realizing my dream!</p>
<p>We had the browser issue too (could add information etc through explorer, but submitting only worked in chrome or firefox) which sometimes caused a momentary hassle (close out of one, switch to another) other than that no issue. D had 10 applications on common app (U of Minn was her only school that didn’t use it). Several schools required common app submission before you could schedule auditions. I remember CMU and Boston specifically, and I think you had to have your common app in with Ithaca before you could submit prescreens. D had all her parts of common app done way early, that way we just needed to get recommendations in (and many schools consider your application “in progress” even without recs submitted, at least enough to schedule auditions) </p>
<p>As a teacher- if your kids have not already decided who they are going to ask to write their letters, they need to get on that ASAP. Earlier is better, you do NOT want to be the 10th letter the teacher has written, the adjectives just dry up!! A lot of kids ask senior teachers at the beginning of the year, but they don’t know their students that well yet. Someone who has known them longer can give more specific information. </p>
<p>Toowonderful is SO right about lining up your recommenders early–really it should be done in spring of junior year. And please be really diligent about checking each school’s requirements, as you’ll find in this process there’s more variation than in the typical college application routine. We actually made a spreadsheet JUST for recommendations because it was so complicated, and my son’s college counselor ended up being grateful (once he got over thinking I was crazy). Almost every school required different types of recommendations (or different numbers), and some wanted artistic recs brought to the audition, others wanted them sent by snail-mail, others wouldn’t accept any artistic recs at all–you really have to read the fine print. </p>
<p>Re: the fall 2013 Common App problems, as others have pointed out, it had to do with some changes in format, and as a high-school teacher myself, my experience was that the biggest problems were that it took time to process the submission and that there were problems for our college counseling office (uploading recommendations was an issue!). All the more reason to get a jump on things, but by all means don’t think you can avoid using the Common App, or even that you should. It’s no more difficult to complete than anything else, it’s just that there were some technical problems last year. </p>
<p>Common app was HORRIBLE last year and my daughter’s school never got Naviance up and running which caused a serious delay in getting her recommendations uploaded which then delayed her ability to schedule her auditions. Very stressful experience during a very stressful time. Get those letters of rec early!!!</p>
<p>D has starting cranking out her apps and we have noticed that the Common App is unavoidable at a couple of schools on her list. Texas has its own version (of course): “Apply Texas.” Some schools offer free application if you DON’T use a common application, which made me laugh.</p>
<p>@EmsDad - which schools are those? My D’s app fees are stacking up fast! BW is the the only freebie we’ve come across so far! My D has started both the Common App and Apply Texas. Want to get as much of the apps completed before school starts. All seniors at D’s school work on college app essays via English classes (regardless of level) & get feedback from teacher. I am so grateful that they give them in-school time to do this! Songs & monologues are picked. Now to find time to choreograph dance prescreen with dance teacher & schedule apptmnt w/accompanist who will record accompaniment tracks for auditions & prescreens. Then record prescreens. Waiting for August 15th to schedule first on-campus rolling admission audition. She already has plans to audition on the same day as a handful of friends she met a camp over the summer. They have kept in touch & have already even picked the restaurant where they all plan to meet up at at the end of the day after Audition day is over. I’m thinking the parents will be at the same restaurant commiserating & catching up at the bar! Salud! now I have to go start my spreadsheet for LORs!</p>
<p>I remember being excited that the BW application was free… then being bummed b/c their audition fees were higher than several other schools, so it all was a wash in the end. This year I imagine it may go up since they are using a prescreen, and most schools charge a fee for that as well. </p>
<p>I had a writer friend look over son’s Common App. essay so it would be ready to go early September. His English class also worked on essays, but the timetable was to complete the essay by November, and I feared it would be too late if he wanted to secure the audition dates of his choice.</p>
<p>I know that this is a touchy subject for some people, but for students who are college bound, I always wondered why the senior English classes don’t assign the task of writing a Common App essay as a summer assignment. The prompts are already up on the website and they can be critiqued as soon as school starts. Even if the student doesn’t utilize the Common App, it’s good practice and some of the prompts could be used for other applications that require “topic of your choice” essays.</p>
<p>People complain about students being assigned summer work but I feel that college bound students can make this small sacrifice.</p>
<p>I noticed that this list is not complete, there are at least a few more beyond the 317 listed (I think that they did not list schools with specific conditions that result in application fee waiver). Most of these schools would probably be regarded by most MT applicants as safety schools, although there are schools with MT programs on the list.</p>
<p>My daughter applied to about 12 schools as a HS grad of 2013 and didn’t need to fill out the Common App at all! I think two schools allowed the Common App, but also had their own form as an alternate. I wish we had the Common App as an option…filling out 12 different apps and almost as many supplements was not fun for my D! Some schools do not require an application and fee unless you pass their prescreen. And some don’t charge a fee if you apply early enough. I think I remember Coastal Carolina, Marymount Manhattan and Hartt to have some special situations with fees.</p>
<p>@musicalleigha - Welcome to CC! Read all the threads and ask plenty of questions. We all genuinely want to help. Have you considered getting some feedback from a coach that specializes in the MT audition process so you can get some feedback on how to best showcase your strengths? And which schools would be most open to your unique academic background? Best of luck to you!</p>
<p>I hope people understand that the Common App is really not a time saver. Think of it more like an upload, tracking and work saving tool/interface that you use for the colleges that want the data submitted that way. A student will not write fewer essays because of the common app than they would without it. Many schools will hit you with a bunch of supplemental essays that although will be submitted through the common app, will still require you to create new essays or to modify existing ones to make them work for different schools. And just because you can’t see those essays yet in the common app doesn’t mean they aren’t coming. It’s early and only days into it going live for this application cycle.</p>
<p>Oh c’mon, @halflokum! Don’t Rain on Our Parade! :(( (Sorry. Couldn’t resist.) Surely there’s some kind of time & effort savings by using the Common App? Like not having to enter the same demographic info 15 times?!? </p>
<p>@addicted2MT of course you are right about not having to enter the same basic data! Ok say you apply to 15 schools and that saves you 5 minutes per school, that’s an hour and fifteen minutes your life you can spend eating donuts which apparently last year were quite the thing. :-). </p>
<p>Then there are some schools with no supplemental essays. You will want to kiss them.</p>
<p>I’m actually a fan of the common app but mostly for its usefulness as a central repository of what needs to be done. Loved seeing those “done” check marks on the main page. But if only it also meant fewer essays… just think of the donut potential. </p>
<p>The common app came in handy for my D during Unifieds. A couple of places she did a walkin at were on the common app and she was interested in pursuing them so we just plugged in the schools names and the got enough of her information to get the artistic acceptance before we even bothered to do the extra supplement and the other was one of those schools that either didn’t need one or by then we had so many written that it only took a 5 minute tweek to send . </p>
<p>I am just so happy to read these threads about the common app and not have to go near it with a ten foot pole hahahahahaha. Last year at this time we were totally fighting with it :-h </p>
<p>Hello there! Thank you everyone for a very informative forum - your insight and advice is so helpful!! We are new to this process, and new to MT, so reading this thread has been great! </p>
<p>Our son fell in love with MT when he was cast as the lead in a school musical his junior year. It surprised us all (both that he won the lead, and that he liked it so much!), because he hadn’t been in drama class, dance class, etc. before then. He did have some music talent, and was already in choir and band, but our school is small and so being involved in those sorts of things isn’t very competitive.</p>
<p>So, now as college application time is here, our son is wondering (as are we) what options and potential he might have in the competitive audition arena. His strength is his academic record (good GPA & test scores) and fairly solid background as a music student at his school (State 1 ratings, etc.). His weaknesses probably are, or at least seem to be from reading this thread, that he’s not taken professional voice lessons, acting lessons, dance lessons, or hired a private audition coach. </p>
<p>Have any students auditioned, with little MT experience or formal training, and been accepted to a top program? How frequently, if ever, does this happen? And what, at this late time, should our son focus on to prepare himself?</p>
<p>(Conversely, if auditioning is ill-advised, how can we shake this MT bug?!?)</p>
<p>Appreciate any observations the group might share - </p>
<p>Hi ParentTrip! I’m pretty new to the process, too, as a student myself.</p>
<p>I’m not as knowledgeable as many of the folks here who have already been through the process, but I can say that I definitely think it’s never too late to start taking private voice lessons and dance lessons! Depending on where you live, there might be dance studios with open teen/adult classes that would take male students. It would at least help with movement in general when dance calls come around! Also, if you can, find a qualified voice teacher to work on audition pieces with, because private lessons and coaching is so, so valuable for anyone in the arts. Community acting classes are great, as well.</p>
<p>Does your son want a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree for certain? If he has music experience, there are several awesome Bachelor of Music in Musical Theatre degree programs. Some of them are very competitive, but others are less so. There are also great Bachelor of Arts programs that don’t require an audition or résumé, or Dance and Theatre programs with a double major option (Muhlenberg comes to mind!). If your son has a good academic record, there are many more school options available.</p>
<p>I haven’t been through the audition process yet, but I have friends who have, and from them and from reading this forum I’ve gathered that most schools care more about the performance audition than the résumé - though a résumé with lots of credits probably helps. </p>
<p>@ParentTrip: my best advice would be to have a consultation with a coach who specializes in the college audition process. They can help your son present himself and his skills in the best possible way. They can assist with selecting audition material that will make him shine. They can help you weed through all of the schools to come up with a list to apply to that match what he is looking for in a college and his skills. And they will give an honest assessment of how he will stack up to others in the competitive audition process. We used Mary Anna Dennard, or Moo as many people refer to her. she has a website at college audition coach dot com. We loved her and highly recommend her. Many CCers have also had great success with MTCA. And I’ve met others who have used Dave Clemmons. And I’m sure there are many others too. Talk to,a few and see who you feel most comfortable with. Most will coach long distance via Skype so don’t worry if they are not located close to you. Just make sure it is someone familiar with the current college audition process. It has changed so much and gotten so competitive that a coach is invaluable in helping you through it all.<br>
I would not worry too much about dance because most of his auditions will focus more on his songs and monologues. But if he has time in his schedule and he is really going to pursue this, taking a basic ballet class would be a good place to start.</p>
Thing is, I was homeschooled for my last three years of high school and ended up with a G.E.D. due to unfortunate medical things (that have now passed and hopefully will not come back, thank goodness!) and thus was unable to participate in things (shows) that required a months long commitment. I kept up dance and voice and some acting classes throughout that, however.</p>
now I have to go start my spreadsheet for LORs!</p>
Surely there’s some kind of time & effort savings by using the Common App? Like not having to enter the same demographic info 15 times?!? </p>
</p>