Dreamer seeking advice and Syracuse audition experiences

<p>Syracuse is my dream school! I am a high school junior now… rank # 3 of 219, GPA 3.9 unweighted, 4.125 weighted… I have been doing theatre for 7 years, taken dance for 4 years, studied voice for 6 years and done tons of workshops, masterclasses and such… i’ve played leads at my high school, as well as doing regional theatre and community theatre… I am from the south and my problem right now is my ACT is much lower than it should be. Does MT at Syracuse operate its admissions based more on talent like Carnegie Mellon or academics such as Elon? Also, it would be REALLY REALLY REALLY great to hear audition experiences from current students, alumni or parents of students who were accepted and rejected and if possible audition peices…</p>

<p>Hi mtdude! My D is a sophomore MT at Syracuse. You have to get in academically at Syracuse as well as by audition/talent. You are judged by admissions for the academic piece and by the drama faculty for the talent piece. Then the two come together for the admissions decision.</p>

<p>You look like a good fit for the academic piece in terms of grades. Maybe you could take an ACT prep class to boost your score a bit (not knowing what it is – maybe it’s not as bad as you think?) and/or try the SATs to see if you do better on those.</p>

<p>If you’re going to audition for the MT BFA, you need to be a triple threat. Two years ago, you had to get the highest faculty ranking in 2 out of the 3 prongs: singing, acting and dancing to be considered for the program. My understanding is they really like strong dancers right now so boosting your dance training would probably be beneficial.</p>

<p>My D did the regional audition in Washington DC. For MT, she auditioned for the head of the dance program and one of the MT professors. Dance audition was done in a group (learn a combination and then perform it as a group). Then individual sessions for monologues and songs. As far as auditions go, my daughter said it was an enjoyable audition – the faculty members were pretty darned nice and very friendly and gave her some constructive feedback at the end – things she should continue to work on over the summer.</p>

<p>You find out if you’re in some time in mid-March. The admissions emails/letters come in a couple of batches. Not everyone is notified at once.</p>

<p>It’s a fantastic program with incredible opportunities both learning, training and performing. The school is terrific in general and now they have the #1 ranked basketball team in the nation. LOTS of school spirit – so you get great MT/drama training with the traditional campus experience. I have particularly been blown away by the caliber of the acting training. It is outstanding in my opinion.</p>

<p>Hope that helps you out a bit.</p>

<p>when i auditioned, the dance portion of the audition was rather intense. I personally didn’t have much trouble with it, as I consider myself a dancer. But i was very pleased with the dance portion. If you really want to do well in the audition, build up on your dance technique, if you don’t already have any. It will really help you.</p>

<p>My audition experience, I felt, went really well. the auditors were very friendly it seemend and were seemed willing to work with me throughout my audition. Good luck!!</p>

<p>Mtdude, my son auditioned for Syracuse in New York last year. He was accepted but chose to go elsewhere, although if he had decided on a more conservatory-style program than the one he chose, Syracuse would have been it.</p>

<p>Syracuse was his first audition, and they could not have been nicer. Everything was well run, and they broke the group up into sections, some of whom did the dance call first, and others who acted and sang first. </p>

<p>The dance audition was among the more challenging of the schools my son auditioned for, although as bwaybank says, if you are a dancer (as is my son), it’s really a chance to shine. He knew he did well, and got positive feedback afterward.</p>

<p>The acting and singing portion was for one auditor. There is live accompaniment. My son sang at least two and possibly three of his songs (can’t remember exactly), did his dramatic monologue (and was asked to play some acting games with it, which he really enjoyed), and then spent a few minutes just chatting. It was an overwhelmingly positive experience and a great way to kick things off. You are always cautioned not to read too much into an audition, but we were not entirely surprised to receive an acceptance.</p>

<p>I wish you the best of luck as you travel the road next year. I hope it leads you to Syracuse!</p>

<p>I don’t know whether it has changed, but when my daughter auditioned in January 2007, the voice, acting and dance components of the audition were each scored on a 1-5 scale and you had to get a 4 or 5 on at least 2 of the parts. The dance component was equally weighted in the scoring process and was the most demanding dance component of all the my daughter’s auditions. So, as others have said, come ready to dance.</p>

<p>Just so you guys now, scoring is now (at least it is for dance, I’m not 100% sure if this applies to singing and acting as well) out of 100.</p>

<p>You must receive a required score for the dance portion of the audition. I have heard 60 for girls, 40 for boys.</p>

<p>If you do not get that score on your dance portion, then no matter how well you do on the other portions of your audition, you will get rejected.</p>

<p>As far as your academics. we were told at the audition this year that they audition everyone first. After department selects potential candidates, they send the applications up the hill to evaluate for academics. It sounds like academically you are a good fit. If you feel the ACT score could be higher–then it would be a great idea to do a test prep or private tutor to prepare for taking it again.
Best of luck to you mtude. It is an excellent program-the students seem happy there.</p>

<p>How did you all hear about the scores that you received at the auditions for dance, etc?</p>

<p>classicalbk, I don’t think people are saying that they found out their OWN scores on each segment of the audition, but only explaining how the scoring works at Syracuse (which is true). My D (in the past) did find out her dance score, which was high, only because one of her friends who was a current student monitoring it told it to her. She was accepted.</p>

<p>The Syracuse dance audition is more challenging than some other schools. And you have to score well on all three aspects of the audition to be accepted.</p>

<p>Thanks, S-VT. That makes sense.</p>