Details for Unifieds?

College Majors Musical Theater Major
1

<p>I'm trying to collect a little info about how schools handle the following at Unifieds. Any info would be greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>How long are the majority of dance calls at Unifieds?</p>

<p>Are most dance calls in the morning, afternoon, or evening?</p>

<p>Are dance calls part of a callback, or a required part of the audition process?</p>

<p>Do schools usually do a video prescreen for Unifieds?</p>

<p>How long are most of the monologue/song audition time slots?</p>

<p>Do most schools offer information sessions? Are they required in order to audition?</p>

<p>Do any of the schools require an on-campus visit before a final offer is made?</p>

<p>Thank you for your help!</p>

<p>~VT</p>

2

<p>I’ll answer from my child’s experience:</p>

<p>Dance calls ranged from 1/2 hr to an hour and a half. Some were before the audition, some after. None of his dance calls were part of a callback, but part of the audition process.</p>

<p>The idea of pre-screens was terrifying for me as a non-tech parent, but I am now a firm believer in their worth. My son had 3 schools with pre-screens and passed all. He was able to walk into the audition knowing there was something about him that led the school to offer him an audition slot.
Two of those slots were 20 min. long, and were his favorite auditions. He was accepted to both schools :)</p>

<p>Most of his schools did not offer info sessions at their Unified auditions, but CMU did.</p>

<p>None of his schools required a campus visit before final offer because he specifically did not include them on his list if that was required. We are in the far northeast, and travel, time away from school, and expense were major considerations.</p>

3

<p>My child’s experience was at Chicago Unifieds.</p>

<p>How long are the majority of dance calls at Unifieds?
As entertainersmom said, the dance calls were about 30-90 minutes, but not every school had a dance call</p>

<p>Are most dance calls in the morning, afternoon, or evening?<br>
The dance calls for the schools for which The D auditioned had the unified dance call before vocal/monologue auditions.</p>

<p>Are dance calls part of a callback, or a required part of the audition process?
As I said, not every school had a dance call. Otterbein does a dance call on campus (they even have an MT major with a dance concentration), but they didn’t do a dance call at Unifieds.</p>

<p>Do schools usually do a video prescreen for Unifieds?<br>
The prescreen was for the school in general just like Shenandoah has. Once called back from the prescreen, the audition was scheduled for the preferred audition date and location. There are prescreen schools that allow walk-ins at Unifieds. I believe in this case the walk in audition was used as the prescreen and the student still had to go on campus. Because The D didn’t do this, I’m not 100% but I’m sure other parents can chime in.</p>

<p>How long are most of the monologue/song audition time slots?<br>
The slots for all seemed to be 10-15 minutes possibly longer if the auditors worked with the students on their material (and possibly shorter…)</p>

<p>Do most schools offer information sessions? Are they required in order to audition?<br>
Many schools seemed to hold info sessions for the parents (we attended 4 that week out of 7 auditions). There were some schools that held the info session while the students were in the dance call. There were some that spoke to both students and parents. For those schools the audition times were booked in 3-4 hour blocks. Chances are the student wouldn’t be there for the full 3-4 hours but we were all prepared for it. As a result, most future MT majors booked only two auditions a day. More students can be seen for Acting auditions since there is no dance or song. I don’t think the information sessions were required, but the schools that held them wanted to replicate the on campus audition experience as much as possible. There were schools that didn’t hold info sessions, as well. For those schools the student just showed up for their 10-15 minute audition block.</p>

<p>Do any of the schools require an on-campus visit before a final offer is made?<br>
None of the schools that The D encountered required an on campus visit before the final offer was made. We knew of one prescreen school that preferred the students audition on campus to appreciate the beautiful campus. We traveled to the school for that audition rather than do it at Unifieds, but again it wasn’t a requirement so much as a preference.</p>

<p>How exciting for SU to give more students the opportunity to audition. From what I’ve seen of some of the kids at bat this year I do believe there will be another extremely talented bunch a-comin’!</p>

<p>BTW, The D is loving SU so far! Go Hornets!!</p>

4

<p>The biggest thing we learned about Unifieds is there was nothing unified about it except schools were in the same city in the same week! Each school had its own registration and audition process. Things that stood out to me were:

  1. Really got favorable impression of schools that had organized and friendly registration/information desk that was always manned.<br>
  2. Appreciated materials we could pick up and take with us or read while child was auditioning.
  3. Getting specific information about when student will receive audition results is wonderful.
    As far as your specific questions go:
    Most dance calls we did were 30 minutes - hour. I think dance calls at the hotel (Chicago) are difficult because most rooms were carpeted. Is the school going to take or not take a student based on their dance? If dance is not a big factor in acceptance I would rather have more time spent on the song and monologue. D really liked the auditions where the auditor would work with her, ask her for changes, etc… It was good for her to see how they teach and I think it helped the school see whether a student receives and can apply feedback well.
    Many schools did not do a dance call.
    I think more schools are asking for prescreen a each year to help them cut back on the number of auditioners. They simply don’t have time to see everyone. This is true both on campus and at Unifieds. I think the danger in this is the video may not be great and schools may pass over someone very talented. But that can happen in the room also.<br>
    Information sessions are great. CMU and UM and Syracuse expected attendance by the students. We had both parent only sessions while kids auditioned and sessions where students were included. I liked hearing from program heads their teaching philosophy, their expectations and what the curriculum would be like. We also liked the opportunity to hear from current students their perspective on classes, campus life, etc… Some schools used recent grads to man their tables and they were very willing to answer questions about the school and program in most cases.
    One thing that was lacking in most all cases was info about the financial end of things. I wish all schools would give out itemized costs and potential merit aid that could be applied for and instructions on when and how to apply for it. We spent hours upon hours seeking out this info for each school.<br>
    There were some schools who suggested an on campus audition after Unifieds including Texas State, Oklahoma and Coastal Carolina . I think for some families both the time off from school and work this requires and the expense would eliminate schools that required this from consideration. If these schools were very interested in a student, they sometimes waived the on campus requirement if they already had seen what they need to see to extend them an offer. </p>

<p>Things parents/kids want to know from you:
How many students will you accept?
When will I find out if I am accepted?
What classes will I take!
What academics are required to be admitted?
Do you have talent and academic aid I can apply for? If so, how?
What are the total costs of attendance!
Where are your recent alums working?
Where are your current students working, especially in summer?
What about campus life? Other activities? Is there time to participate
Where would I live on campus?
What shows will you be doing next year? Do freshman audition for shows?
Who will my voice teacher be and how often do I get to work on voice?
How many dance classes? How many acting classes?</p>

<p>Honestly I would have love a one sheeter that answered all of these questions for each school even if you just gave brief answers and links to where I could find detailed info online.</p>

5

<p>To add to these answers - at least 2 schools I know had dance calls on the SUNDAY before Unifieds began (Texas State and Michigan). These were lengthier dance calls. Also- the Coastal Carolina Unified Dance Call is on a callback basis only, but all others were scheduled as part of the audition. Several schools held dance calls in the evening on the same day as the audition (Ball State) - and other schools blocked you for a half day and incorporated the dance call into that time frame (CCM and Ithaca). My examples are not exhaustive - just from our experience. It was also our experience that schools were willing to work with you to get you seen if you ended up with conflicting dance calls - you could switch to a different night, for instance.</p>

<p>I think your other info is in previous posters answers. The schools that DID do info sessions, I really appreciated. (Texas State, Ithaca, CMU… and although we didn’t audition for Michigan at Unifieds - we had friends that did - and they included an info session.)</p>

<p>In our experience - none of her schools that offered auditions at Unifieds required her to come to campus, including the walk-in that she did. She got several offers from Unifieds.</p>

<p>I hope that this helps!!</p>

6

<p>Two of the schools my daughter auditioned for at Chicago Unifieds also had solo dance at the same time as the songs and monologues, on carpet!. Hartt also had an info session. As others have said, some auditions were 10 - 15 minutes (30 minutes if they wanted to spend more time with you) and some 4 hours. Separate dance calls were typically in the morning or evening. Roosevelt also had a dance call on Sunday before Unifieds began.</p>

<p>I love vvnstar’s list!</p>

7

<p>GSOMTMom’s reply was very similar to my D’s . My D did have two evening dance calls which she preferred because it made scheduling auditions during the day easier. I found it very informative to have an information session by the faculty at Unifieds. I have been to SU’s auditions with my D and I feel the faculty put the auditionees at ease and it would be sorely missed if you didn’t do that at Unifieds. </p>

8

<p>Thank you all for the great info. We are planning on doing everything we can to recreate the on-campus audition experience, so we will definitely be taking time to get to know the students and talk with them. Jonathan Flom and myself will be there for the singing and acting and we are bringing our newest dance faculty member Bob Boross to run the dance auditions. @GSOMTMom - glad you’re daughter is loving it so far! What a group we have this year, so much talent.</p>