I just recently got my audition confirmation for Montclair state. You have to apply to the university academically first (ACT/SATs are optional). Then after a few weeks I got an email telling me to fill out this form and submit my audition request as well as print out this theatre application and send it to admissions with an essay/letters of Rec. etc. Now, just this week I finnaly got an email with a document Saying my confirmation time of audition and what to bring. Kim Whittman at the theatre admissions is extremely helpful and responds to email questions quickly.
HI everyone,
I’m giving my experience of Penn State’s auditions on Dec 5.
First of all they were fantastically organized. On the 4th you were invited to watch 3 different classes; voice and performance, a theater history class, and a 2 hour senior workshop. This was great in that you could really see who was in the program, how they work, etc…
The afternoon also included a very nice q and a session with Cary and the new director John. It was very thorough and put the kids at ease, yet in a realistic mind frame.
You had the option of watching yet another performance or reading that lasted through the evening.
The morning of the audition began with dance. The check in was done with current students who could not have been more helpful and friendly.
Dance was about an hour split with ballet and then jazz.
Then very, very, quickly they had to change and run to the general warm up in the studio and personal auditions.
Now for the interesting part.
The parents were again taken in a room and talked to by students and faculty alike. In depth, perhaps too much so, we were given the lowdown on the program, philosophy, and a myriad of details on the terrific program.
Most importantly we were reminded of how the elimination was going to go down. The first cut that day was going to be a talent cut. Cary stressed that even though the student may have talent, if they were not NOT asked to stay for an interview, it meant they didn’t feel the student had the tools to develop or succeed in their program.
If they passed that, they were put in a pool of “we can’t decide on these people so fast so we need two weeks to process what we saw and then we will send out more notices”. If you pass that stage, you are in a holding period of “yes, you are quite capable of succeeding here and we just have to see everyone now before we put our puzzle pieces together.” On March 30, after all 500 plus people have been auditioned and sorted, we will take the entire group leftover and make our final decisions. From that we will have our class and its understudies, er, wait list. By may 1st we will let the wait list know if they have a place. There will be no more than 7 girls and 7 boys. One class recently had only 5 each, I think a student said. And of course the variety of types will be the rule.
Here is the heads up I want to pass on to you. I am not sure if this is a common practice, but there are at least SEVEN faculty members watching at the audition. That is not a problem, but it is a lot of eyes on you. Be ready.
They tape the audition for future reference.
They also let the student who goes after you to observe your audition. Is that typical? I don’t know. But you should know that.
You will also have the WHOLE CURRENT FRESHMAN CLASS watching you as well. The students are all seated in the room during your songs and monologue. Actually they are there watching the dance portion as well but my D thought she would have a more private audition.
Of course, it’s their school and they have every right to do whatever they prefer but your student should know that there are going to be at least 18 or 19 people there observing.
Penn was my D’s first choice. She loved everything about the place. She was nervous already. Hardly slept the night before. Didn’t eat breakfast (unheard of). This “open to all” audition threw her. Maybe it shouldn’t have. Maybe she cared too much. Maybe she should have better prepared. Yes, all three. She, well, not bombed, but did not have a good song/monologue portion. And that was that. Cut.
Live, learn and improve.
We are onto the next one on Sat. I realize her chances at Penn, everyone’s chances, are remote. but I did want to give you all a heads up on that tidbit. BAL- it’s a great program!
@mtmcmt Wow, that’s an intimidating set-up to face, especially for an early in the season audition. Haven’t heard of some of these practices at college auditions before. Though the multiple faculty in the room can serve kids better than just one person, as it’s so subjective. Thanks for your detailed description and best of luck to your daughter next Saturday.
¡AYE, PENN STATE! USTEDES SE CREEN MUCHO. ¿QUIENES SON PARA PORTARSE ASI? YO ME LLEVO MI TALENTO A OTRO LUGAR. LOS VEO CUANDO SEA FAMOSA. >:) There, @mtmcmt. I went off on them in Spanish for you. 
Chin up. She’ll find her place.
Thank you for sharing! This was really full of great detail and insight for those going to audition on campus. Question : Do you all think we need a 2020 auditions thread? Separate from the venting?
@TNMTDAD Ha, Ha. What ever you said, thanks! And last night she came down with the flu so it really hits.
And yes we can use an audition thread, I think. I would like to know the lay of the land at each school, if possible.
Her first audition was BW on Nov21 which I posted somewhere. Recap: Very organized but since we didn’t visit the day before, we had less of a feel for the place. Which was too bad.
The audition seemed very straight forward, great kids helping. Each student had a “helper student” to guide them. 3 people in the audition room. No interviews, no extra songs, monologues asked for. That seemed typical for most kids auditioning. Lots of smiles from staff. Will tell our group tomorrow a yes, no, or deferred into the possible yes pool.
Dance call was after the singing/acting.
I will post after next week’s adventure. Then that is it for us until NY unifieds in Jan.
I’m starting it - think it is too easy to get lost in this venting thread.
Is there a thread on approximate number of applicants vs number of prescreens and then number of offers and class size? I am curious if schools only make 10 offers or if they make more in hopes of getting a class vs wait list. This has to have been discussed
Penn state told us very clearly that they had the largest group of apps this year. They are seeing 500 and counting for auditions.
They will take only 12 to 14. In earlier years, they made invitations to approximately double the number hoping to yield the 12-14 but have stopped that since they have gotten mostly yeses.
So they don’t really make those extra offers anymore.
It’s a guessing game on yield but they try to do their best.
What they have decided to do now is cast their class first, sending out the yeses, and put their “understudies” on alert that they are on the waitlist. No one on the waitlist is just a “possibility”. In other words, if you get on the waitlist, you are the specific back up they want.
Up until March 30, everyone who has not gotten a NO is still just a consideration. Yes, they think you are great but you are in play only. Until March 30, your status is “deferred” not waitlist.
That translation is, “Oh, Penn State. You think a lot of yourselves. Who are you to behave like that? I’ll take my talent somewhere else. I’ll see you when I’m famous.” 
@mtmcmt, Am I understanding you right? Penn State will audition 500? Is that live auditions, or are you including pre-screens? Even if they see 50 kids a day, that is a full 10 days of auditions. If that number is correct, I feel doubly worried for my kid, who didn’t make it through the pre-screen. Does that mean Penn thinks there are 500 kids out there who are more suitable to the program than mine? That amps up my anxiety for the rest of audition season.
@claire74 I don’t think it works that way. I have been told over and over that it is has to be the right “fit” – for example, to use a baseball analogy they won’t recruit another shortstop if they already have 3 and they need a first basemen. The shortstop may be phenomenal but they just don’t need one. Your priority should be to apply to as many programs as you can to get one that needs a shortstop, or your D 
Hang in there
@mtmcmt Thanks for sharing & best of luck moving forward! The number of faculty in the room is similar to our first audition experience, the entire freshman class sitting in is certainly interesting and unique. I read this to my daughter, and she said she would politely decline if asked to be in the room for someone else’s audition - that seems odd to both of us?!? I know she’s been in call backs with multiple ‘actors’ in the same room before…but could you imagine being in a job interview with another candidate in the room?! My D’s reaction to this was similar to @TNMTDAD
I love the idea of an audition experience thread. That would be great info . That Penn State audition @mtmcmt sounds intense! They were a school my D was very into in the beginning but because we’re OOS it dropped down to bottom plus I’m not sure she’d have high enoug stats grade wise to get in academically as I thought they were fairly hard to get into that way. Plus that winter weather in State College sucks! We saw Sutton Foster there 2 winters ago and I hate the drive lol. I will say D’s previous voice teacher went there for MT & that’s why she was interested. He commented that they’re so hard to get into now he probably wouldn’t get in lol
@claire74 Yes, they told us they expect to audition 500 or more out of almost 900 prescreens. We had only 22 at our audition. They were trying to find an extra day to hold auditions on campus but remember, they go to other places than just on campus. I found it hard to believe as well. Why would you need to see 500? Certainly, after all these years of knowing your own program, you could bring 100-250 and have all you need from those applicants.
And we were also told that they like geographic diversity if they can get that. One more thing… they not only want to balance by type but they are looking to balance skills as well. For instance, (and this is his example), they might want a boy who has great dance skills for the productions heavy on dance and a soprano who is really strong in acting even if she can’t really dance, a tenor who can be comedic and a belter who can dance (for ensemble) but may be just a beginner in acting. So it’s really like filling in a crossword puzzle. Seriously!! I suppose if they found 12=14 triple threats they take them but that’s not what he indicated to us.
@theaterwork- Penn stated that as long as you had grade/stats that would at least get you into their satellite campuses, if the MT dept wanted you, you would be accepted. You don’t need the grades you would normally need to get into the main campus.
@deelight- Yes, my D’s teacher was pretty upset at the notion of fellow auditioners in the room as well as the other current students. One or two who were helping at the audition would have been ok, but it seemed to my daughter that it may have been an experience they were going to dissect later in class. A heads up would have been nice.
I know that at professional auditions singing at a theater, you can expect others waiting their turn to be side stage, but never had that happen in an audition room, nor with people who weren’t needed.
Also, wanted to add, that perhaps future auditions would not have the whole class watching. Perhaps it was something new they were starting or perhaps it was a one-off. Maybe they let the class watch one audition? I don’t know. Maybe we were just unlucky in timing. I hope so for all of you. Singing for a large audience of your peers is probably not an energizer in this situation.
I have heard this before about PennState so not really surprising. Last year my S auditioned at Unifieds so we didn’t have that whole experience. We did go on an accepted student visit in April and loved the campus and people we met.
@mtmcmt … Millikin was like that as well. Meaning, the kids auditioned on the main stage while everyone sat in the audience - so all potential students were there as well.
That was the only one like that in D’s rounds last year … there were several where kids would be on deck and would be in the room and watch the kid ahead of them audition, but only Millikin had them all in the same room.
@mtmcmt, 900 prescreens at Penn. At $80 a pop, that makes $72000 income from fees, where the vast majority will not proceed with their Penn applications once rejected for MT. Does anyone else feel like a fool for willingly subjecting themselves to this process? Having a bad day…
@claire74 I hear ya…that’s crazy . Is the $80 the application fee? So they aren’t one of the schools where they let you prescreen first and get an answer before applying?