<p>Hi - I am sure there is another thread this should go under but am not sure how to find it.....</p>
<p>Just trying to figure out if visiting schools over spring break is worth it. My daughter is a junior and already has a list of schools she will apply to. She is always worried about my money (nice kid, huh?!) and doesn't think we should spend it on visits since she will see the schools when she auditions anyway.</p>
<p>Can someone give me their two cents about the advantages of visiting schools as a junior? Should we just wait until auditions?</p>
<p>We were hoping to go see Elon, UMich (and see Seussical) and NYU over spring break but it would involve a lot of flying around (we are from Calif) and plane fares are going up daily.....</p>
<p>MTMama...I would vote that the visits are definitely worth it. For my daughter, it helped her zero in on the type of school/program she wanted. We visited any number of schools that she knew pretty quickly were not the school for her and she eliminated them from the audition list. The impressions you get from meeting with faculty and sitting in on classes are invaluable. It's hard to do all this on audition day. We didn't visit ALL the schools on daughter's list, but we visited a large number of them and it took several trips...including two that involved flights. It wasn't cheap, but it really helped her realize what kind of program was best for her. The closer we got to audition time, the more she knew she wanted a program with strong emphasis on the MUSIC in Musical Theatre. Without the visits, we wouldn't have arrived at that place, I don't think. That's my two cents!</p>
<p>I know it costs - but I really believe you need to visit the schools you are interested in. Further, once you get a short list (3-4) - try to see their productions. Finally, just to complicate this even further - it is best to visit while school is in session - this allows you to see classes and to talk to faculty as well as current students.</p>
<p>I think you have aa great list of schools - I do wonder, being from CA, if you are checking out Fullerton.</p>
<p>Basically, I do not think you can replace live contact with brochures, statistics, and web sites. Those things are, of course, tools to help you narrow your initial choices - but while the investment is large - the investment in your training in larger.</p>
<p>if you visit before you audition, you may be able to rule out that school completely, saving app/audition fees and another trip there. (not to mention getting a feel for the school, blah, blah blah)</p>
<p>i was like your daughter -- very concerned about money. in the end it was DEFINITELY worth it that i visited. i have a lot of friends at the school i'm at now who lived far away and didn't visit before they came. some regret that decision now and some don't.</p>
<p>let your daughter know that it really is in her best interest and that it will save money later -- that might make her feel better about it!</p>
<p>We couldn't afford the money or time to visit ahead, but if we had, my D would not have set up auditions at some of the schools. So if you have the time and money it's a really good idea.</p>
<p>We had to combine the visits with the auditions because of finances, although I think a seperate visit is probably the optimum way to do it, we found that doing it this way worked out just fine. We got to tour the schools, talk with faculty and administration, and my S got to talk to lots of students. Many times there is a show or a rehearsal going on. We came away feeling like we had a good "take" on the schools.</p>
<p>For those of you that describe that visits would have changed your (child's) audition plans, I have this question.</p>
<p>Was it the acutal program that was ruled out by the visit, or was it features about the school (such as size, location, etc.)?</p>
<p>What I'm trying to get at here is, with limited time and funds, would it be worthwhile to catagorize schools and make a visit to one representing that catagory? For example: NYU represents a large university in a metropolitan area while Evansville represents a small-medium liberal arts university in a smaller community.</p>
<p>ElliottsMom...
I would say in some cases the program was ruled out by the visit, in others it was the school. </p>
<p>For example, at one visit to a program high on our list because of their emphasis on MUSIC in Musical Theatre, we saw a performance that was very disappointing. At this same school, daughter sat in on classes and didn't like the interaction between faculty and students. </p>
<p>At another school we visited, we discovered the lack of a physical campus was a disappointment to daughter. Until she saw it, and experienced it, she didn't realize how important "campus" was to her. That was a school high on her list too. </p>
<p>She auditioned at neither of these schools.</p>
<p>This (evaluating based upon "categories") would not have worked for my son. There did not seem to be that sort of pattern to his choices. That being said, given the time crunch (and not even mentioning the $ crunch) combining visits with auditions (and/or portfolio reviews) worked pretty well for us.</p>
<p>I would say that it may be hard to categorize the schools. Last summer we visited 12 schools....we would group them by location, then off we went! For us it would have been hard because, for example, my d LOVED BoCo and the city of Boston, but other schools that were located in the middle of large cities she did not like. The funny thing is that some of the schools we were looking forward to seeing, impressed us the least! It is such a personal opinion! Really, they are all great schools! But there is definately a feeling that they get when a "match" is made!! We were able to narrow our application/auditions down to 7 schools for her by visiting. We then tried to take advantage of any shadow days that these schools offered in the fall. If we had to do it all over again, we would probably do the same thing because we had a good time as a family and it gave our younger d a chance to see some schools. I will say, with MT being such a highly selective field, I could understand applying/auditioning first, then visiting the ones that you receive acceptances to. Best of luck!</p>
<p>Not to get all "emo" about this topic...but D also had a "feeling" when she was at a school that she could make her home. Some she felt "fit" and others didn't. While you can get that "feeling" on audition day too, it's nice to get it once on an early visit....and confirm it again audition day. (And schools that she felt "fit" weren't all necessarily in the same category of big vs small, university vs conservatory, BM vs BFA. She had a wide range of schools in these categories that ended up being the audition schools.) </p>
<p>For us, there wasn't really a rhyme or reason. Wish I could say it was easier to narrow it down, but it wasn't!</p>
<p>Campus vists are tough since many of the programs are spread out. If you intend to audition on campus then MANY of the MT schools hold tours and info sessions (and performances) on audition days. If you end up doing the LA or Chicago Unifieds without visiting you can wait until you have acceptances in hand. </p>
<p>Maybe you can just select one geographic area (pick a big triangle) and do just a few in one visit. For instance, UM, CCM, CMU, Northwestern and Chicago programs are all about 4 hours apart. Ithaca and Syracuse can be visited in one fell swoop. After that, if you have more time (and energy) to reach downstate schools in NYC, all the better.</p>
<p>Other things to factor it: Time, $$$, selectivity of program.
There are also old threads about this with many different opinions and ideas. If you search under "campus visit" they will turn up.</p>
<p>We combined college visit with her auditions. We knew she wanted to audition at the campus and this gave her a great opportunity to sit in on class, talk to students, see a show, etc. </p>
<p>We are thinking about trying to visit BOCO, Emerson and Hartt during spring break, but we only have two days and its a five hour drive... Is it feasable to visit two schools in one day? Is that too rushed? Any voices of experience out there in Cyberworld?
Thanks!
Harriet</p>
<p>just to let you know, BoCo is a short tour just becuase the school is so small, so don't expect it to be hours long like some schools' are. when i went for the tour, i got an MT-specific tour...but that's only because i was the only one there. i don't know how it is if they have a big group. i haven't taken a tour at emerson, so i can't speak to how long those run, but i think if you're willing to get up early enough in the morning, you might be able to fit BoCo and Emerson in one day. </p>
<p>wait, does the two days include driving time? then it probably wouldn't be possible.</p>
<p>Evasmom, normally I prefer to give each school a full day and not see two in one day. HOWEVER, the one exception was Emerson AND BOCO...yes, this is doable in my opinion and we did it (for the initial visit....went back again separately for auditions). We went to Boston the night before. My D has friends in the program at Emerson and she did an overnight in the dorms. On the visit day, we did the info. session and tour at Emerson in the AM. The tour guide at Emerson was in theater so that was good. The Info. session was fine, though be aware that it is not specific to the theater or MT program. BOCO is just minutes away. BOCO does not have an Info. Session but has a tour. The tour actually wasn't so great because while there were only two families on it, the student leading it was a trumpet player. There really wasn't information specific to MT. We had asked ahead of time about who my D might be able to meet with on our visit. I am trying to recall but I think they said someone would be able to, I think faculty. So, after the tour, we went to admissions and a nice young woman was working there and felt badly that we had come that far and hadn't gotten much information on the MT program. No faculty were available as we had been led to believe would be the case (they had said not to make appointments ahead of time for that, unlike other schools.) She made some calls to students who usually come to the admissions office to talk to prospective students and so we waited in the office a long time but the student did not show up. So, then we asked about observing classes and it was late afternoon by that point. She was able to get us into a ballet class which we watched. We then drove onto Brown where we were headed to my other D's parent weekend (so in your case, you could drive to Hartt after this full day). Neither of the visits to Emerson or BOCO were too specific to MT (other than my D had the friend to talk with and spend night with....which was an outrageous night cause the Red Sox won the pennant that night!). Emerson said that the admissions officer could meet one on one to answer questions and so when we arrived early for that, she did come out but she barely had much to say at all about the MT program. I'd say our visit was generalized about Emerson, same with at BOCO, and not the BEST visits but still worthwhile. The visits to other campuses were more informative. Emerson, when we went back for audition day had NO presentation whatsoever about the program, unlike every other MT audition we attended. BOCO had a presentation about BOCO itself by the admissions officer on the audition day. We also got to see a musical when at BOCO auditions and the school was way more elevated to my D after that visit compared to the first visit. Emerson which was high on my D's list initially and for a while, started to drop after visiting some other schools at auditions. </p>
<p>So, yes, I do think you can combine Emerson and BOCO on one day because of their proximity but also because neither has a full day of offerings that you could do on the visit really. </p>
<p>Normally, I mush prefer a full day of many elements of a college visit. This was an exception. I have never been to Hartt, however. But the drive from Boston to Hartt is not that long so this trip sounds doable to me.
Susan</p>
<p>i don't think he was there last year, but this year there is a MT Grad Student working in the admissions office -- he's the one who gave me my tour. he was very very helpful and candid and i felt that it was was of the most informative tours i had gotten (but then again, he WAS in MT and i was alone, so he could speak openly and not just give the glossed over version, if that makes sense).</p>
<p>when i went back to my BoCo audition (my tour was a few weeks before) he was actually presenting during the school overview/admissions presentation thingy. i came in a little late and he saw me and waved at me and mouthed for me to come talk to him after, which i thought was SO sweet. we talked about my audition and how excited i was, and i asked him a few more questions about the program. he told me to find him after to tell him how it went.</p>
<p>i would definitely recommend seeing if you can get him as your tour guide. since he IS an MT student, he's really knowledgable about the faculty, etc.</p>
<p>Oh, my ... You must, must, must, must, MUST visit before you commit anywhere! I'm not talking about visiting on any kind of formal "accepted students day" where they're all on their best behavior and putting on a bunch of dog and pony shows, either. I say go on a regular Thursday or Friday and get there early so you can sit in on some classes ... and not just theatre classes. Unless you're going to a conservatory, there are gonna be a whole world of classes outside your major that you'll have to take and you won't just be taking them with theatre kids ... or theatre profs. You really need to get a good idea about the whole place, so you should try to arrange to "shadow" a student for a day. If possible, you should also arrange to spend the night in the dorms with somebody who'll show you the social scene. Obviously, it's best to do this with somebody you already know, but some schools will arrange it for you if you ask. Oh, how I wish I had done that last year. If I had, I probably wouldn't be here posting as "fishbowlfreshman" right now. Instead, I fell for a very well-orchestrated sales pitch hook, line, and sinker so here I am.</p>
<p>I realize this is a little off-point from what the original poster was asking about, but I feel very strongly about it. If you haven't already done an extensive visit to your schools, you should really consider doing it at your favorite two acceptances between now and the end of April. I don't want to scare anybody, but do make sure you have a realistic picture of what you're getting into.</p>
<p>P.S. If finances are a big consideration for you, wait until the end of April before you commit to a school that might be lower on your list because of scholarships. At least call around to your more favored schools and make absolutely sure you have their final offer. One of them might come up after awhile when they realize they're gonna lose you if they don't. That also happened to me last year after I'd already committed.</p>
<p>Hope this helps somebody. I'm glad I at least got it off my chest. I imagine there are some school reps reading who'd probably like to shoot me right now, but please consider what I've said ...</p>
<p>We did spend much money traveling before deciding where to audition, but I don't regret any of it. The trips were so worth it, and the second trip back for the audition has a way of confirming the feeling from the first visit. In addition, we thought it was very important to meet the heads of the programs. It helped so much going back to the campuses for auditions and feeling like we already knew the important faculty. It makes all the difference, I think, in how comfortable one feels on the audition day. I think you should go for it, and you have a good mix of different types of schools to consider. I recommend doing the MT visit, classes, shows if available, but also doing all the admissions dept. meetings and general campus tours.</p>
<p>My feeling is that whether to visit schools prior to auditions is dependant upon the circumstances. I don't think it's necessary for someone in Cal. to visit colleges in the East to decide at which ones to audition, because other than the timing of it, the biggest problem can be the expense of the travel to/from the auditions, certainly not the expense of the applications. I'd suggest that you'd be better off auditioning at more schools than spending money visiting to decide where to audition. It certainly helps, if they're not that far away, to see some, if nothing else to get a feeling for what will be important to you in making the final decision. If you are going to go before you audition, you probably should go at a time when they are having a perfromance.</p>