<p>Great info. I suspected the "catagatorization" of schools might not work, but because we are located in Calif. and face the prospect of schools in the east, midwest, and south I put the question out there. I think it's pretty clear that the "fit factor" is very individual.</p>
<p>My d auditioned at the Chicago Unifieds LAST year--had applied to six schools, but only made four auditions.(mmm..we didn't schedule things very well!!) She did not do any campus auditions. She was not interested in touring any of the schools pre-Unifieds--she only wanted to tour schools that had accepted her.
She got four acceptances, but decided to only visit CMU. We gave her the option to go to Boston and New York but she only wanted to see CMU.
So, that's how it worked for her---there's all different ways to approach the college selection process.
Instead of touring campuses, she talked to current students at all of the programs that she was interested in.
She currently attends CMU and is a Freshman MT there.</p>
<p>Wow, 4 for 4. That's incredible. Unfortunately I suspect that we won't experience the same thing. In fact, last night I was discussing next year with my Junior S in terms of planning his course schedule, high school shows, college auditions, visits, etc. Just trying to get him to be clear about what will be involved and to be careful to not take on obligations that will be difficult to fulfill. His thespian group is planning a spring break trip to London and I'm nervous about whether he'll be able to fit everything in. Seems like it can be a short timeframe between acceptances and the need to declare a choice. As much as I hate to recommend that he skip the London trip, I'm wondering if he'll need that spring break week to make college visits.</p>
<p>My experience with a senior son was that he was really busy with college up to the end of February, but after CMU on 2/19 - he has had a big drop off. I don't know what your son can handle, but a trip to London might be just right about spring break. You are right though, it is important to plan ahead. My son had a calendar with school, scholarship, college, and training schedules. Great to plan ahead.</p>
<p>I know my D is trying to find any time she can to spend with her high school friends right now. If you can find a way to let him go to London, I would encourage you to do so, as it will be a trip he remembers for a long time. You may be able to work the school visits by taking him out of school for a few days.
It may be that your school is a little more lenient towards seniors missing a couple of days of school in the final months of school. Check with his school counselor to see if this is an option.</p>
<p>Wow - thanks for all of the responses to my original post! I, too, think that visiting a program before the auditions (when there are many other visitors there) would give us a different feel for a school - and my D. might get more attention and chances to visit classes. But I do also understand the wisdom of waiting until acceptances since the list of schools will undoubtedly be narrowed down.....</p>
<p>fishbowlfreshman - thanks for your response - sounds like you learned the hard way! My daughter is only a junior so we still have time for visits. Once she is acccepted we would definitely do some more visiting before making a decision....although come to think of it, I never visited my college before I went there! But I also had no idea what I was doing with my life so wasn't as invested in a certain major or program...</p>
<p>So - with plane fares rising - I am thinking we might just do a Northeast trip this time and save Elon for later. I need some geographic help - would it be feasible to start from NYC (where my son is in school) and to drive to Ithaca (and possibly Syracuse?), then CMU and then Detroit? I grew up back East but only know driving times on the seaboard. Would this be a crazy amount of driving to go from NYC to Detroit with stops on the way?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I think those driving times are very do-able(sp?) but it also depends on how long you were planning on for your trip? Two weeks would be great but this would be tougher in one week. From NYC to Syracuse and Ithaca would be a 1/2 day trip. Then from Ithaca it would be about 3 hours(?) to CMU. You could then go 2 hours or so and stop in Cleveland and see Baldwin-Wallace if you want. Detroit is 2 1/2 hours from there. These times are definitely ballpark figures but I hope it helps.</p>
<p>Ithaca is actually about 6 hours from Pittsburgh (CMU) - but the CMU/BW/UMich route is definitely doable, as MTHeaded suggests. It's easy driving, too (esp. now that winter has passed!) - almost all turnpike. </p>
<p>Good luck in your travels!</p>
<p>Not sure where you are flying from, but if you have Southwest they have flights into RDU ( Raleigh Durham) to see Elon. They can be priced very nicely. The Elon campus is definitely a nice tour - My D did not even want to consider a school that small but I convinced her to go look and she loved it.
I have heard that it is a good idea to take tours of local schools of various sizes ( enrollment) just to help your S or D visualize the different sized schools. Maybe a good idea before you start to travel and spend $$$. Some realize right away that a large school is too overwhelming or that they could not spend 4 years at a school "that small".</p>
<p>Good point PA Mom. Our first visit was PSU (HUGE) where we stopped on the way home at Muhlenberg (Tiny.) She knew from that one visit that she wanted schools in the medium to huge range...From there we simply checked out schools quickly while auditioning-saved a bit that way. Now, after acceptances, she will try to go back and spend a night to get a better feel.
I thought I should mention too that we know of 2 girls who went to 2 different schools and actually spent weekends there prior to enrolling. Both have decided after their 1st semesters, they don't like it at all! Onegirl's parent told me that you really don't know how you will like the school until you spend about a month and a half there. So maybe visits prior don't always count for all that much in some situations.</p>
<p>Last year, I visited 2 colleges before acceptances (1 of which I revisited for an interview), 2 after acceptances, and 3 not at all.
Of the ones I visited, I loved two and decided I'd go if possible, and decided that two really weren't for me. Strangely enough, the first time I saw my current place of study was the day I moved in. I do love it, but I was quite possibly lucky.
Contrary to what another poster said, I found the post-acceptance visits much more useful. I got a lot more specific info about the programs when I was there, got to mingle with current and potential students and faculty members. As there were a tiny number of visitors in comparison to the big pre-application open days, I found I got a better feel for the place.
At the moment, my department are in the midst of various post-acceptance visits. Rather than being on our best behaviour, once the course leader gives a tour of the facilities, takes them into rehearsals and talks about the course, he leaves the group with the first couple of students he can grab, and goes away for a while. Basically we have an impromptu Q&A session where acceptees and parents can ask a student (who hasn't had time to prepare to "sell" the college) anything about course, college, city, etc. without the student feeling like their grades will go down the drain if they give a negative answer! Then the tutor does a workshop with only the acceptees, giving the parents a chance to get coffee, and the acceptees a chance to mingle and feel like they could cope here on their own.<br>
I think this kind of post-acceptance thing is a million times better than the open day talks I had where they just repeated information from the prospectus verbatim. I remember one of my friends telling me she hadn't even been at the right campus on her open day!</p>
<p>Hi - Yes I discovered the Southwest Airlines site (since they are not listed on websites such as Expedia, etc.) - if I had bought the tickets last week we could have flown roundtrip from Calif to RDU for 250.00! Now all those cheap seats are gone and it is up to 500.00 roundtrip - aargh! - dumb of me to procrastinate......but that does make me hopeful that if we just plan these trips enough in advance they might not cost so much......</p>
<p>Am guessing there is a thread about the Unified auditions - can someone direct me to it? That might help with the decision about which schools to visit.....</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>MTmama- click on the search tool in the upper right hand side of this screen and type in Unified. You can further search there for info specific to LA unifieds.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info - am not very computer savvy! So - I did a search and found references to the unified auditions in people's postings. Am wondering if there is a list of schools (on CC or elsewhere) that go to the LA Unifieds? </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>If you go to Otterbein's website, there is a link to the unifieds page. The list there may not reflect exactly who will come next year, but will show who was part of the main group this year. There are some schools that do not participate in the Unifieds, but have auditors in town the same week. For instance, NYU does not do the Unifieds, but they were in LA the same week as the Unifieds occured. The difference being, that they may be at a site that is close by, but not the same hotel as the Unifieds. They (NYU) were also a day or so later.</p>
<p>]I will look for that link for you, as you may not find it.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.unifiedauditions.com/%5B/url%5D">http://www.unifiedauditions.com/</a> is the link for this years schools that participated in the unified auditions. Most (maybe all?) of them came to LA, but there can be some difference between who goes to what city. You need to check with each individual school,as well as make an appointment for your audition well in advance. Some schools have openings, and you can do a "walk-in" audition with no appointment, but don't rely on that for your favorite schools.</p>
<p>Wow - thank you, thank you, thank you!</p>
<p>I love this website!</p>
<p>That is pretty comprehensive list of schools - and they even come to SF, near where we live! </p>
<p>Am wondering now if there are any disadvantages to doing the Unified auditions? Do programs prefer you to audition at their school?</p>
<p>That is a question that has been answered on this forum. Try using the search tool again to find it. It will help you if you read and reread lots of old posts, as many questions get answered really well in different ways. I also suggest checking out the FAQ link, if you have not already done so, as that tells the basics of this process. I think the response was from Dr. John, who is the head of the MT program at Otterbein. he is a very helpful guy here. If you click on the link for Otterbein college on the main page for MT majors, you will find posts by him. If you then click on his name, you can ask to see all posts by him, and when you scroll through those, you should be able to find the one adressing the question of unifieds vs on campus auditions.</p>
<p>MT Mama, I'm impressed with your planning! I think your trip can be done. Get on mapquest and work it out! On our first big trip (9 days over spring break 2 years ago) we planned to fly into NYC and home from Pittsburgh, renting a car in between. We scheduled school visits in NYC, Ithaca, Syracuse, and Pittsburgh. In my planning, it seemed easier to drive from NYC through NJ and northeastern PA and to Ithaca first (I think 4 hours), then to Syracuse, then take the turnpike all the way to Pittsburgh (seems like that mapquested at about 5 1/2 hours, but I could be remembering wrong). If you were really creative, you could stop at SUNY Buffalo and Fredonia along that route. When in Pittsburgh, I would recommend you see not only CMU but also PPU. I also agree with the above recommendations to go see BW on your way from Pittsburgh to UM. We did BW and UM on separate trips, but they work very well together, as proposed. CoachC is right that they are fairly close. I didn't plan very well!</p>
<p>Our big 9 day trip in the end had to be changed, as it snowed 15 inches in upstate NY that St. Patrick's Day the day before we were leaving NYC in a rent car. I'm from the south and not used to driving in the snow! We made a very last minute change of plans, canceled Ithaca, Cornell, and Syracuse, and drove to Baltimore to get out of the snow on the way to Pittsburgh. I drove down that NJ turnpike as it snowed that day, and saw numerous wrecks - very scary! We inserted a trip to Goucher in Baltimore and actually went to Pittsburgh earlier than planned. As a result, we got to see that city really well, and had a blast - great museums if you get a chance to tour in Pittsburgh.</p>
<p>We went back to upstate NY that summer, flying there, so we did get to see those schools in the end. On the Ithaca thread, I previously posted my travel details of getting to Ithaca from various airports.</p>