I have a D - rising senior. She is my third child to embark on the college BFA (MT/Acting) jounrney. She is interested in a mix of MT and Acting schools. Her strengths are singing, acting, dancing, instrument (in that order). Her list is 65% complete - although she needs to land her BA safety schools. She will be spending the summer in Carnegie’s pre-college drama program. We are still debating how much we will need/use the services of a coach; I suspect we will make those final decisions when she returns from Carnegie.
Best of luck to my fellow organizer/sherpa/therapist parents!
I have a S - rising senior. He is my first child to embark on this journey - and my first to start the college process so we’re newbies all the way around. He is very focused on BFA/BM performance. His list is pretty close to complete although I don’t think it is well rounded enough so we will likely need to do some modifications. He is attending Baldwin Wallace University’s Musical Theatre Overtures program this summer. We also have not determined if we will use a coach and/or to what degree. I figured we’d see where he was at when he gets home from BW.
Yay, @artskids! I can’t wait to “see” the journey of your D!
Welcome, @speezagmom! It’s quite a ride, especially for a first child. My first also went through this process and is a rising junior at her BFA MT program. It’s quite an initiation into the college process as a parent, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything!
Hello Everyone…I’ve been on the CC forum lurking regularly since 2010–yes, 7 years (said sheepishly). It’s now my D’s turn for introduction: She is a rising senior in a non-PA HS, has taken private voice lessons regularly since she was 8 and danced since 3 yrs old (now trains 9 hrs/wk in all genres). We’ve always put training/lessons (veggies) over performance opportunities (dessert), with the exception of recitals and the annual school musical, as there are only so many hours in the week and the only other choices in town have always conflicted. She is a singer (legit soprano with strong mix), dancer, then actor in that order. She attended ACT, OCU and CCM summer programs and was pleased with all those opportunities. List has been scrutinized and morphed for so long as she has grown as a person that we are comfortable with about 10 schools on the list. We are using MTCA and am very confident this will be the best choice for us: ten years reading CC weekly and reading all “the books” has convinced me that the industry trends are a moving target and I’d rather defer to the experts since this will likely be the second largest expenditure we will make in our lifetime next to a home purchase. My D and I are very close and I’m excited to share this next year with her as she makes some exciting decisions. Thankful for this forum and those willing to share.
@speezagmom my S did MTO a couple years ago and has a friend doing it this year. Let me know if you have any MTO questions or want to connect with his friend before it starts.
Hi all! I’ve been learning from these CC folks for over a year. It’s been incredible to watch their journeys unfold! To be frank, I have a bit of anxiety mixed with excitement and anticipation as we begin down this path with my S. He is the oldest of 5 (all boys), and in the grand scheme of things, he’s really new to the world of MT/acting. Quick recap - S joined choir between 8th and 9th grades, began performing in shows as a freshman (ensemble roles), fell in love and couldn’t “imagine a life doing anything else” in 10th, auditioned for our district’s performing arts program (not an actual PA high school) at the end of sophomore year, was admitted and changed schools; thus completing his junior year today! He has loved his opportunities there, and due to show choir/plays/competitions/concerts and musicals, does not get home until 9-10pm each night. Regarding the 3 main disciplines: he is a singer first (baritenor), an actor second (good instinctual comedic timing, lots of room for growth), and shall we say… a developing dancer. He has rhythm and can learn choreography given enough time. However, it does not come naturally. He’s a tallish kid who embraces his lean frame, loves spending his tiny amount of free time with his friends and girlfriend, and is challenged by organizational skills, haha. Academically, he is an A/B student (with a C in Chem Honors, and I’m just glad he got out of there alive) and has a few APs under his belt. He’s never done a summer program, but will be doing the Broadway Bound summer honors institute in July - it’s a free, 1 week program open only to rising seniors. So glad to e-meet all of you! Break legs!!
You may know me from the Class of 2021 thread, lol…D auditioned last year, and was offered acceptance to 5 of her safeties. She was on one waitlist at a competitive program til the bitter end; but before waiting it out, we both realized that we had NOT built a good list last year. It seemed pretty clear that she was going to attend one of the safeties that offered full tuition (academic scholarship) with every intent of auditioning again and trying to transfer; so I made the somewhat (ok, really) difficult decision to propose her taking a growth year. The decision was mainly a fiscal one from my POV: Her room and board were going to be $7500 (not bad, I know)-but it would essentially be the first of 5 years of undergrad. It makes more sense to “invest” that money in coaching, another year of voice lessons, another Summer Intensive. Also-D received really great academic FRESHMAN scholarships. There are a few exceptions, but transfer students generally don’t receive the same awards. Even if it’s a difference of $6K/year…that adds up.
I would say that D’s list is 90% done. There is some overlap from last year, especially with the reach schools-but one advantage of an additional year is that we now know of some great programs that we had never heard of last year. She now has programs in that “safety” realm (yes-no audition program is a true safety) whose curriculum/philosophy truly line up with her goals. D really, really, really wants to pursue a BFA MT. Desperately. Her talents in order are acting, dancing, singing. Dance is her passion, and something she doesn’t want to let go of. Yet she has room for growth in singing. SO-this year she may choose to audition for BFA Acting at a school or two where she may minor in dance. We have been to many auditions, both on campus and at Unifieds, so please feel free to ask me any questions! Break legs to all.
Hi All, I know I’ve seen some posting on Unifieds in the past and the differences between Chicago and NY. I had always thought we would do Chicago as it is a shorter flight for us and the fact that it is 4 days long made me think that it would be a bit more relaxed and possibly with more schools attending. However! I looked at the dates posted last night and see that the Chicago dates are Monday - Thursday while the NY and LA dates are on weekends. I hate to miss basically an entire week of school when we may need to miss other days for onsite auditions. Has anyone attended both Chicago and NY? Perspective on if all schools on the unifieds site are at both? Can you really cram in as many auditions in the shorter timeframe? Thanks!
@speezagmom - many of the not “official” unifieds schools were in Chicago the weekend before - my D did 3 auditions before actual unified started She then finished Monday/Tuesday - missing only 2 days of school for her and work for me.
It depends on your location. Chicago in the middle of the country so its “relatively convenient”. The best thing about Chicago IMHO is that it has the most schools in attendance (in official Unifieds or just there). But yes, it is a lot of school to miss. But then, all these kids miss a ton of school to audition. My kid’s counselor and HS admin did not really understand this process!
@speezagmom My D missed 3 days of school for Chicago Unifieds 2 years ago. You can certainly try to schedule all auditions in one or two days (and some schools will also have dance calls on Sunday). My D’s year, 3 of her classmates attended NY and Chicago Unifieds. We did not find it necessary to attend both. I struggle with my D missing 3-4 class days for Chicago (plus days she may need to miss for on-site auditions). My S did one audition at NY Unifieds 4 years ago (we were in NY for another audition - so added Ithaca). From my limited observation, it seemed more harried than Chicago.
Hi everybody. I’ve been here for about 2 years. Senior year is finally coming. My D is an Actor/Dancer/singer in that order. She is auditioning for Acting and MT programs. We are working with MTCA and I really love them. I’m a single Mom, my son is a bit older and not in the arts. I’m very nervous about this process and feel unprepared even though I am constantly trying to BE prepared. Our list is too long with only one BA safety. I had to push for that! Worry is my middle name. Money is a big issue for us but people have been kind and we are doing what we can. Non PA high school. Not great performing arts here so years of training and summer intensives (love the vegetable analogy) . When she was younger Ballet summers with AABA at SUNY Purchase, last Summer 5 weeks Emerson MT (we met her roommate co-incidentally here on cc and they had a tremendous experience) This year she is doing Stella Adler Teen Conservatory in NY (subletting from family) and working with coaches. Planning on Chicago Unified’s and driving in to a few in NY. I’m in awe of the kindness and support people in this forum give. We need it because there is no one where we are that has a clue about this process. Especially at my daughters school.It is truly a world unto itself! Unless you are doing it I think it’s very hard to understand. Bravo to our brave young artists and to the wise and kind parents and kids who have gone before us and given so much great help, information and insight. I think I have learned more on this board than anywhere else. Thank you for that.
I’ve been reading CC obsessively since my daughter’s freshman year - it has been SO valuable! I even read through all the archived threads going back to 2010!. (I was “actorparent”, but in the past month I’ve been encountering some kind of glitch and couldn’t log in, so finally I gave up and created a new account.) I’ve loved following everyone’s journey every year - I can’t believe it’s our turn now. I’m excited and terrified at the same time!
My daughter is very much an actor first. She was in a school play at age 8 and decided that this was what she wanted to do with her life. I thought it was just a phase, but she never wavered, and here we are! She was lucky enough to get an agent as a child and did a bit of professional work and is Equity. She’s taken acting classes since childhood, and now goes to a performing arts high school with an excellent acting program - that’s definitely her main passion. She’s also been taking singing lessons since age 10. Dance is her weak spot; as a child she took a weekly ballet and tap class for 7 years, so she has some basic knowledge, but it was only once a week with a little recital for the parents each year – not really “serious” dance training. She’s also done some musical theater “drop-in” classes here and there, and has had a dance class each year at her performing arts high school, but she’s definitely a “mover,” not a dancer!
We’ve been doing tons of research over the past two years, so she has her list all ready, and has been working on monologues. This summer she’ll work on songs with her singing teacher. She’s primarily auditioning for acting programs, but with some MT programs too, so I hope it’s okay for me to post on both boards! (Hey, @marg928 did it, so there’s precedent! LOL).
Looking forward to getting to know all of you and supporting each other on our kids’ journey’s!
I wondered where everyone went and here I see several that I have missed on the old thread! But have to admit, just reading some of this is making me full of anxiety all over again! LOL Good luck to everyone embarking on this journey! It is not an easy one!
She then finished Monday/Tuesday - missing only 2 days of school for her and work for me.