We have asked our MT son to choreograph and film D’s dance portion. We are going to end up filming the prescreens and slates in pieces. Hopefully, someone with better editing skills than I can help put the pieces together. S has volunteered by his time is really limited.
@artskids basically has her own in-house theater company at this point. 
Haha @Jkellynh17. It certainly feels that way some days!!!
Having some distance could be a good thing! Be grateful
For the second year in a row, D is going to miss her (our) lofty 10/1 goal to have all applications, prescreens, etc in-but I think she will have everything submitted by the end of this week. How is everyone else doing? I am procrastinating-need to tackle FAFSA.
I have a question – my S auditioned and was just offered an equity role in a professional theater company for a show this Spring. BUT, they rehearse in February and the show is in March. They are asking if he can complete all of his auditions in January. My S is applying to 11 schools. He has 5 auditions yeses so far. My question is if we can schedule them all for January, either NY Unified and on-campus where necessary, will 1) the schools require him to go to the school for a call back? and 2( will he be able to tour schools in April before having to make a decision? When do the schools want a commitment? I think it is too much of a conflict to do the show, he would like to see if he can do it. It is a really great opportunity.
Any help is very much appreciated.
I would say go for it (do the show), if all of his schools have Nov-Jan on campus audition dates, and/or are at NY Unifieds. Is he auditioning for any Acting (as opposed to MT) programs? They are generally the ones that have callback weekends, usually in March. Schools should not ask for a commitment until 5/1, but some ask for it earlier. Yes, if he is torn between several choices in April, he could go visit before committing. That is an amazing opportunity-Break legs auditioning, and in that show!!
Some may disagree with this, but imho, the college essay for a MT BFA program is about as important as college GPA will be to land a job on Broadway. Writing all of the different essays was one of the most time consuming and stressful parts of the application process for my D. When you think about it, how many MT Department heads actually ever see them? And those who do read them, are they really going to reject your admission based on the essay if they love you in the audition room?
Thanks @owensfolks. He is not doing straight acting. So much for senior year. On another note, I have not strated FAFSA. I thought that was closer to end of year?
FAFSA opens 10/1 now. Doesn’t mean it has to be done TODAY; but they advise to do it early, because there are finite funds. I like to get it done early because A. It stresses me out, and B. It would be nice if my D gets a Fall/Winter acceptance, and we could quickly get an idea of the bottom line. She has really good academic stats, but we don’t qualify for any traditional financial aid.
I totally agree, @Bogeyw . The essays are the thing that really bogs my D down/slows her momentum-and I doubt that they matter much. The ones that I care about are the ones for scholarships, and/or Honors College considerations!
@Bogeyw - remember that there are schools (NYU, Michigan, Syracuse, Boston) which have separate academic evaluation, and are competitive schools. Essays might well matter there, you never know the tipping point
toowonderful, I thought Michigan’s university acceptances were driven by the program (not really the academic evaluation)-- is that not correct?
@TwoBusyMom Actually UMich admission is driven by both academics and audition. In addition to passing the prescreen you have to meet admission academically to the college before you are scheduled for an audition slot. They make it very clear at the welcome session on audition day they only invite candidates that have passed academic acceptance as well as prescreen review.
I believe Michigan may also revisit the academic profile (Including essays) in some cases when making their final MT decisions, since they have more talent-“qualified” candidates than they can accept and b/c they are so committed to the holistic university education for their performers.
I’ve written before about what happened to us. My daughter sent her prescreens in to Michigan in pretty early - October I believe and then we had to sit and wait. We heard back from all her prescreens - but still no Michigan and many of her friends had heard who had applied later in the fall/winter. This was her first choice school and we didn’t want to call or be a pest and there was still time so we kept being patient. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to when someone heard back and we were told that sometimes different professors get different batches of prescreens and depending on whether they have a show up it may take someone longer to watch them regardless of when you applied. Two days before the end date for hearing back we found out that her academic transcripts had not been sent by her school! Turns out her school never deals with the MT process and only sends out transcripts for kids applying ED or EA. We completely lost our minds - the school faxed them and called the department - and the next day (the final day) we heard she passed the prescreen. So yes, academics matter.
Unfortunately by then all the dates at Chicago Unifieds were gone and we had the expense of flying out just to Michigan to audition. Kind of pricey for an additional trip and you think about the odds and the what ifs. But here is the October update! She is a freshman MT at UMich and says she has never been happier in her entire life.
When S applied to U Mich 4 years ago, you were not given an audition slot unless you pass the academic hurdles. Has that changed?
No - you have to pass the academic hurdles. Call and make sure they have everything.
Thanks for the clarification on Michigan, and singoutlouise, great to hear that your D is so happy!
Hopefully someone can help me out. I am really confused with this whole application process. For the schools that do not require a prescreen, does everything have to be submitted at the same time or can my daughter submit the application then references etc as they are available. Will this hold up scheduling the audition? Her HS uses parchment for transcripts so we will request those through them. What about schools that require a pre-screen. Can she submit the application, etc. then send in the pre-screen a few weeks later? Her applications are pretty much complete. She is just finishing up personal statements/essays etc. but it will probably be into early November before she is ready to submit pre-screens. Thanks for any help.