I’m wondering if hiring a college counselor for reviewing my D’s college list, her monologue list, and giving her any pointers and advice. She has an excellent theatre program at her school and will get coaching for her monologues there. But there is still a lot of questions, which I’m not sure the school drama department will address. Is hiring an outside college counselor who specializes in the performing arts a good idea? Are others doing this? What is the cost range? Is it per hour or a package? Has anyone had experiences they can share?
~thanks
There are lots of “coaches” to help kids in various ways throughout the college audition process for acting or musical theater majors. There are many threads in both the drama and the musical theatre forum on this subject. There are national companies that many people use (Mary Ann Dennard, MTCA, Chelsea Diel-may have spelled that wrong). There are also local or regionally bases coaches some people hire.
A more general college consultant (even one who specializes in arts majors) may or may not know about the ins and outs of audition based programs. We have a very knowlegeable consultant in town who works mainly with performing arts majors -but she doesn’t quite understand the audition process and how each school weighs it in comparison to a straight academic application. For example she will say “of course you will get in to such and such school” (based on grades for example) but what she doesn’t realize is that while that particular school may not be super competive academically it accepts less than 8% of drama applicants from auditions --so, by no means is it a safety school.
This same consultant is super helpful in identifying some lesser known schools, helping prepare essays and learn the tricks of test taking to increase that score (which helps with merit scholarships!)
Just know what you want/need and compare your options. You really want to be sure the person has recent experience with college auditions. Things change from year to year and each school is different. It is much more specialized than most people realize.
Good luck.
I used MTCA for my son this past year. They were extremely helpful in all aspects of the process. I would use them again without hesitation
As @bfahopeful points out, a general college counselor will not likely be as helpful as an experienced acting coach (the ones she mentions are CC favs if you look at other threads). If you choose to hire a coach/counselor, you will want to use someone with very recent experience with college acting auditions. It is a completely different animal. The costs range from a few hundred dollars ala carte to several thousand if you purchase a full package. If you research the sites for Mary Anna Dennard, MTCA and Chelsea Diehl, you can find pricing for the various options. Some will permit students to attend masterclasses and mock auditions ala carte; others only if your student is a client. We are using MTCA on a limited (hourly) basis. As a client, if we choose to add in a mock audition weekend or some masterclasses, we can add those individually and for a separate charge.
We are using Chelsea Diehl with ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ (MCA). My D is a rising senior who wishes to pursue a BFA in acting. So far we are very pleased. We’ve had general consultation visits to help build a list, and discuss the process and timeline, contemporary and classical monologue instruction and an open door to ask questions about the process. We bought a package. It is expensive, but so far it seems worth it.