<p>@MtRaleighmom… I totally agree with you about Unifieds, makes me nervous too 
but it saves a lot of time and money doing them that way. The kids have plenty of time btwn now and Feb to prepare. I am happy that not all of my S’s schools are going to be there, which forces him to audition on campus and see some that way. Prescreens will definitely set the schedule. YIKES! We all have to remember to breathe… :-)</p>
<p>We did a combination of on campus and Unifieds. You really need to know your child and which audition environment they will prefer. Our D loved the intensity and energy of Unifieds. She also liked doing her auditions close together and felt she got better each time. Each audition at Unifieds sort of built off the last. She also saw so many friends she knew from camps and coaching. They had a great time hanging out and supporting one another. She was not a huge fan of on campus auditions as she found the days to be draining. Many included campus tours, observations of classes, etc… While those things are wonderful, she just didn’t like to do them while she wanted to be focused solely on her audition. But that’s just her. Others really did not like the craziness of Unifieds. So you really have to think which type of audition environment your child will do best in.</p>
<p>One suggestion for a non audition safety could be Columbia in Chicago. I know a number of kids who have used it as their safety. There has been a lot written about it on CC so you may want to see what those attending or who have applied have to say about it. (It was not a school to which we applied but we do know 2 students who are or will be there, one in film and one in MT). </p>
<p>We toured Columbia in Chicago and felt good about it a safety. Great location, good faculty that works a lot in Chicago theater, great dorms, and decent facilities. They encourage an arts supplement audition for scholarship purposes. </p>
<p>Campus visits and audition location are just another example of the idea that there is no “one path”. Take all advice/stories/opinions as information- and then do what you feel will work best for your child and your family. And then most importantly- TRUST YOURSELF that you know what is best for your child and family. When others are doing it differently- that’s THEIR journey. You do yours and the universe will unfold as it should :"> </p>
<p>Thanks so much @toowonderful that is great advice! It’s really easy to overthink this whole crazy process with all of its variables and subjectivity! </p>
<p>@MTRaleighmom - I nearly drove myself (and my family) crazy trying to figure out the “perfect” way…and I added stress to an already insane process. </p>
<p>If you are centrally located, or have the flexibility to attend on-campus auditions, I recommend reading about audition day experiences in the specific school threads and the more general audition day threads. Some schools are known for having exceptional on-campus audition days with workshops, specialized tours etc. Some on-campus audition days may be the audition only.</p>
<p>Here is my 2 cents…and I am sure there will be others with a completely different experience. My daughter did only one on campus audition. It was her first and it was in November. That was the only auditioned school she got into. She liked the experience, felt that the auditors really took their time and made adjustments and got to know her. At unifieds she felt it was like a cattle call. No school (other than Montclair) spent more than 3 minutes with her. She was in and out and sometimes they didn’t even look up. This can really rattle a kid’s confidence if they haven’t been through a lot of auditions outside of school, (community theater etc). I know many kids get offered spots from LA Unifieds, but I wonder since it is the last session of Unifieds if not a lot of spots are already filled by the time they come to LA. Just a thought.</p>
<p>That is interesting Bisou. Our Ds auditions at Chicago Unifieds were all quite lengthy - 3-4 hours each for CMU, Michigan and Syracuse; 30 minutes with Coastal by herself for just voice/monologue, CCM about an hour between dance and vocal/monologue; I’m probably forgetting some… But at any rate, none were anywhere close to just 3 minutes? Sounds like a very different experience.</p>
<p>Maybe because my daughter was straight acting?</p>
<p>Cmu and Syracuse are not technically part of Unifieds though they are held in the same cities at about the same time. Not sure about Michigan. Those auditions were quite a bit longer for us than actual unified auditions.</p>
<p>My D auditioned at unifieds for Syracuse BFA Acting- the full process was nearly two hours between info session, q and a session, physical warmup and actual audition. Her only really fast one was MInn-Guthrie, she was only in front of people for 5-10 min, no info session/parent session etc</p>
<p>Personal opinion but I think combining auditions and full on campus tours and class visits is impractical and exhausting. They are very different mental exercises and you may find you will not have the luxury of that extra day because you have to minimize the amount of school missed or the way the audition dates lay out you will need to move on to the next audition and won’t have extra time. Also, if the audition doesn’t go well or you get to the school and hate the vibe, you will want to get the heck out of Dodge as soon as the audition is over. I suppose that’s fine if you are driving and have that flexibility but if you are flying in, you may come to regret the decision to have built in extra time. </p>
<p>I’m a fan of doing college visits to schools that look good on paper junior year where it is only about the visit (and not about the audition) when perhaps you can wrap it around school vacation weeks so you don’t miss school or other school related events. A little late at this point for the class of 2019 if this hasn’t happened already but you might consider getting clever with long weekends this fall before the winter auditions start if you can manage it. Then depending on whether or not it is practical to do some auditions on campus, all on campus or none on campus and all at unifides, you can figure that out from your schedule and the school’s available dates. It makes that time all about job 1, the audition. Then see where you get in and revisit “if” you are unsure or visit for the first time somewhere that you hadn’t seen before but might be interested in. The reality is, some schools you apply to you might never visit because you either don’t get in or you do get in but it gets trumped by a more coveted acceptance and you think eh why bother? There is some natural shedding that will happen in the admissions process which can save you time and money.</p>
<p>@toowonderful I really agree and I feel like I won’t know what works and what doesn’t until we are through the process. I have to trust in my D and what she has done to this point to prepare herself to deal with this audition process and be successful in school and the biz. She has done a lot of training and has a wide-range of audition experience but she has minimal ballet experience and has never done any college national programs or anything like that but one 10-day intensive at BAA. Is this good, bad, indifferent? At this point whatever choices we made about previous experiences the die is cast and the total package D will offer at auditions is basically set in terms of her work ethic, experience, skills, ability to work with others and the subjective factor of talent. Yes she will coach with MTCA this summer but this is just the final piece of wherever she is in her development as an artist now. I have to trust where she is at now because it is not possible to change anything that came before. </p>
<p>She will direct her path with guidance from us and I will have to let go and believe that she is ready, hard working and prepared. She is jazzed about Unifieds and does usually thrive in that environment and welcomes it. She would be equally excited about auditioning on campus but our west coast location doesn’t really allow for that and she gets it. I would love to strategize every detail and control it because that is who I am but this situation is beyond that :)</p>
<p>I bet that did have something to do with the length of the audition @bisouu. Straight acting auditions are shorter. MT requires them to see three different areas in most cases so they would need more time. At Chicago Unifieds we did not feel rushes. I I also did like that many schools had an info and q and a session with the program heads during that block of audition time so still many questions answered even if we weren’t on campus.</p>
<p>@evilqueen - one of the things I NEVER could have predicted is that I am already beginning to look back at the process with a little bit of nostalgia. It was the most insane time, and stressful to the max- but it was such an amazing time to share with D. I’d do it all again (as long as I knew in advance this time that it really WAS all going to work out!)</p>
<p>I wanted the leave this here as encouragement to everyone who is starting next year. On some other threads we have been talking about the numbers in a different way. Here is some math that was started by DrJohn (a poster from about 2008 affiliated with Otterbein in some capacity) and confirmed my feeling that we weren’t looking at the totatlity of slots available in these programs.</p>
<p>Using the formulas provided by DrJohn and updating the data in volume for both schools and applicants. No science to the updates but since the result is close to his I think his analysis stills works and is encouraging going into audition season. There are of course way more than 40 schools so this is a conservative estimate really :)</p>
<p>applicants 2,500
slots 20
schools 40
total slots 800
gender slots 400
Female applicants 1,675 (67%)
Male applicants 825
Female odds 24%
Male odds 48%</p>
<p>But what about BoCo who took 56 this year and others who take way more than 20?</p>
<p>I think the point is to work with just “general” math…round numbers- b/c one would never have truly “hard” data on the number who auditioned etc…</p>