^^^this! Great advice @singoutlouise! My first dialed back on NOTHING (had only 7 auditions - we didn’t know what we didn’t know)- luckily it worked out for him. Neither of my next two did their HS musicals - although they continued to work on shows through the PA school they attend 1/2 day - the scheduling is a bit easier and the directors accustomed to the audition cycle. My recent graduate, much to my initial dismay, dropped speech and debate as it is a very heavy commitment during the season. She also took one less AP course than she initially planned. Even given her “reduced” load, she was overwhelmed; I cannot imagine how she would have been had she not scaled back.
@singoutlouise We were just talking about this last night. I don’t think my son has any clue yet about how difficult this process will be this year. He is adamant about trying to do it all with shows and AP classes and choir commitments. I get stressed just thinking about it! I am going to share your post with him, maybe if he hears it from more people he will lighten his work load. Thanks for the advice!
Mine did both the fall play and her spring musical. And managed 13 auditions, 5 at NYC unifieds. It wasn’t easy. Her musical director was VERY understanding about letting her miss Saturday rehearsals (and she was playing the lead!), but we did manage to get her auditions scheduled early so that she was done by the first weekend in March and free for the two weeks before opening night mid-March.
Mine did too and I have mixed feelings - the Fall play we could have happily skipped but I was grateful she was in the Spring Musical as it gave her something to focus on between LA Unifieds in early Feb and decisions in late March! In retrospect it was fine that she kept up with all her activities, APs and shows because she has ended up exactly where she belongs in school but it was an exhausting year and would have been a little less so if she had dialed back the extra-extracurriculars a bit.
@songbird17 Make sure your son checks the AP attendance requirements. My daughter knew she would be missing school for auditions and when we checked she could only have 2 missed classes. She dropped the AP knowing that the odds were that she would miss them. Our school is super tight on missing days and seniors are only allowed 3 for college visits not including travel days. We had to go to the top to get her days over that excused so she would not lose credit.
My D received BA acceptances from 2 schools via video submission…so, yes, it does happen.
I definitely agree your senior may have to scale back some extra curricular activities to make room for auditions. However I would hesitate on literally dropping everything senior year to focus completely and utterly on college auditions. Senior year is to a lot of kids a special time, seeing friends that you may not see again, being in that “last show” with them, etc. if your child is SOLELY folcused on auditioning and nothing else then that will be a stress in itself. Not to mentions their friends will not be in the same boat most likely as a lot
Of them will not be going to school for MT. They will do NOTHING but check their phone and email all day in the spring etc if they have nothing at school to keep them busy. It’s a slippery slope. I would keep something… maybe choose to limit AP or dual Enrollment classes so there will be less homework to do or drop one show. My D couldn’t opt out of the spring musical or the fall one as she went to an arts high school and it’s required but at the end of the day I am so glad she was in them both. She still says she was so thankful she was in them as college freshman year she was not cast AT ALL in anything. Prepare for that as well as there may indeed be a “performance drought” in your child’s future at college.
I second cutting back a bit, however, D still chose to do her spring show…she couldn’t imagine her senior year without the show! She cut back on her outside dance lessons instead (she’s been dancing since she was very young, so we were comfortable cutting back here - but didn’t completely eliminate it either). Doing the spring show was a saving grace for my D as it kept her busy while waiting for those acceptance/rejection letters to come it…show rehearsals gave her something else to focus on and kept her spirits up. That’s not the answer for everyone though - it’s just what worked for D.
I don’t think I replied here (this may be a second thread asking the same question). My d was watlisted to one school via video audition (slots were full so she had no choice) and was accepted to another (the one she committed to) with scholarship money. Having been nervous (as I think many of our kids are/were) about how she presented on video, she did end up using the same videos she submitted for pre-screens (that she passed all but one, but subsequently got rejected from at live auditions), so once again, the logic of this process does not exist.
As the original poster for this thread, I’m happy to report that my D’s only online audition garnered an acceptance with scholarship money! So while it is not ideal, they can work out for you!