again, thank you all!! I will broaden our search to those programs listed.
I feel like I should be saying “her” search instead of “our” search, but really, who am I kidding???
I always say you have NO shame in saying “we”! The entire family is part of this process so declare “we” proudly and boldly!!!
I agree- this is a family effort. It will be “her” actual audition, but it is absolutely “your” process!
I forgot another school: the University of Tulsa. Non-auditioned BA MT program at a very good university (students do audition for scholarships).
I note you say you’ll need a lot of scholarship $$. So here’s my best advice: grades. Make sure your D does really well in school academically. That will put her in good position to get a lot more $$ for school than her talent will.
Also, if possible, take piano. That will be very helpful in music based classes.
Every piece of advice being offered is great, and valuable- here is one more, don’t get overwhelmed and feel like you HAVE to do every one of these things to give your kid a shot in 4 years. As your OP says- you are already “early to the party” and ahead of the game as you are thinking and planning now. Don’t feel like you have to make this the focus of your entire world - relax and enjoy life too!
Since you are in the Dallas area, I would get Mary Anna Dennard’s book “I Got In”. Read it cover to cover along with your daughter now. Mary Anna is based in Dallas so I would go ahead and set up an appointment for an in-person consultation with her now. She could help you plan the next few years. She knows everyone in your area and will keep you informed of all workshops in the area. It is not too early to begin those.
SCOOP! Ms. Dennard is working on a book geared toward the younger high school student with a projected publish date of August 2015.
@GSOMTMom - that is great to hear! We have both actually read “I Got In” and loved it. I wondered if it was too soon to contact a coach. @Dusing2, thanks for saying it might not be. :). I planned to set up a meeting with her next year, but timing may work out to meet up this spring instead.
I feel like several of you are saying that in most cases, it’s worth the investment to hire a coach, right?
What an amazing wealth of information this board is. Thank you all for being so welcoming and helpful.
It is absolutely not necessary to hire a coach if you feel you have other avenues to help guide you. But for those of us who did not, and did choose to hire a coach, I believe the vast majority feel the coaching investment was well worth it. We would not have selected the right songs. And monologues, we would have overlooked programs that we ended up really liking , D made incredible friends and contacts. And her coach still keeps up with her now. We did use Mary Anna although we live nowhere near Dallas. But there are many good coaches to choose from. I highly recommend Moo, but find the best coach for you if you decide to go that route. It really helped us.
Coaches are not cheap. Some would say that given the investment that you are likely to make in the audition process and the cost of a college education, the cost is well worth it. However, you do not have to have a coach. Plenty of students achieve acceptances without one. For many, the advice and direction prove extremely valuable. Some will say that they couldn’t have done it without one.
IMHO, you certainly don’t need one at this point, especially if you are already starting to research the college admission process. Continue your research, talk to as many people that you can find that have been through the process, go chat with a couple of department heads or experts if you get the chance, and form your own opinions about what might work for you. There is a lot of information out there, including many books on auditioning.
For the record, we used Mary Anna, and found her to be an awesome coach and a great resource. However, did we need to have her? In our case, probably not, especially since d attended a PAHS and had lots of support from her school. You can get access to Mary Anna’s complete set of videos on the process, which are very helpful, for a fairly reasonable amount.
There are other coaches that are also very well respected, such as Dave Clemmons and MTCA.
An agreeable but alternate view from a family that squeaked it through:
Last year at this time we (Mom, D, Me) all felt that “Pshhh, we don’t need no stinkin’ high falutin’ coach!” Now we are reflecting on the last year and thinking “Hmmm, perhaps we should have used the darned coach!”. D recieved two excellent acceptances, made several wait lists, and we could not be happier with the outcome. Still, one must wonder what the results could have been through the services of one of the aforementioned coaches. I am sure that the proces of material selection, consistent practice (and correction through feedback from an objective professional), and overall readiness would have been a lot smoother with a coach.
I feel that all of these kids are immensely talented, and they are all akin to being world class sprinters - each as fast as the other on any given day. It all boils down to who leans forward at the finish line as they all cross the tape as one large group. I feel the coaches teach 'em how to lean at just the right moment.
I’d also add, don’t let your child come downstairs with a raging fever the morning of Unifieds whispering “I lost my voice!” Yeah, avoid that one…
If you live in Dallas, using Moo will save you tons of money on auditions (almost making up for the expense of hiring her). She has her own unified -type auditions in Dallas with about 20 schools. Lots of people skipped Chicago and NYC unifieds, and just did hers plus a couple of extra schools. Just an FYI, Texas State, OCU, OU, TCU, and Central Oklahoma were all at Moonifieds in Dallas. Not only would it save you money, but also lots of missed days of school. And, she also scholarships several kids each year so your daughter might even get a scholarship for free/discounted coaching.
I think a guide book for the early high school years is probably a good idea. Yet, it is surprising they are interested so young, but if you look at the threads on this board from parents of younger kids, it shows a need. Kind of surprising to me that a 14 year old would know so early that this is a serious pursuit. I suppose that could change over time. Sometimes I feel like they just need to enjoy being a teenager! Maybe performing IS their joy!
Just commenting on this one idea…
I have one kid who has known what she has wanted to do from a VERY young age…it began in nursery school. It never wavered. We never discussed what possible major she may want to do in college, because we knew for years…this was her passion and she was immersed in it. She even entered college while still 16 and applied to BFA in MT programs. I have another kid who liked many things, but the area she began to feel some interest in around the middle of high school was architecture, but that wasn’t a subject she had gotten to truly study, unlike the MT kid who was involved in it her whole life. So, this other daughter was not ready to commit to a major (in this case, that would be a BArch program) but went down the BA path in architecture and eventually did enter that field (went to grad school too). Having one child who knew her path at a very young age and one who didn’t, I don’t feel either way is better. It’s just different. Sometimes a kid has a passion starting very young and has enough exposure to it to know they want to do it for the long term and sometimes kids need to explore, even in college and determine their field later. In any case, it is very possible for someone even younger than 14 to know that MT is going to be a serious pursuit. That was the case for my MT kid way younger than 14.
Putting all that aside and back to the OP’s question…I personally think 8th grade is too young to be thinking a lot about colleges. It is nice if the student is developing a direction and a pursuit of MT. But exploring various college options really doesn’t need to happen that soon. I think her first two years of high school should focus on training in this area of interest (dance, voice, acting, and ideally piano), possibly summer immersion programs, production experiences in and out of school if possible, and so on. As well, doing the best one can do to take a rigorous course load and get good grades is going to pay off in lots of ways. There is plenty of time to visit and explore specific colleges. I think junior year is a good time for that. I think it is too early for your D and I think I would go nuts if dealing with college stuff for over four years for one kid. Yes, you can look at long term goals (ie., wants to go to college for MT) and then use these next few years to get training and theater experience, and see theater too, and there will be time later to dovetail all that into college selection and admissions/auditions.
@soozievt, you said it better than me!
I agree with idea of not exploring specific colleges in 8th grade, however it’s not too early to start getting a general idea of “the lay of the land”. My S knew at 11 that he was going into MT as his ONLY career path. Looking back, there were signs even earlier that this was who he was meant to be - he could accurately sing the theme song of Thomas the Tank Engine before he could talk, in his stroller he “sang” a repetitive “note” that changed resonance patterns as we moved through different kinds of indoor spaces, he found his “class clown” personality in early grade school, at 9 or 10 he sang a soprano solo in a Bernstein piece with a professional orchestra and when he walked on stage it was as if he was walking into his " home". He KNEW, and so did H and I, that he was going to have a career on stage in some capacity. At 11, he started his "training’, and loved very minute of it.
In 8th grade, I took him to his first college fair. Our local “top tier music conservatory” hosts a performing Arts college fair every fall. That first one, I did most of the talking and we mostly asked about summer programs for HS students. As a “first timer” he got to see what a college fair looked like, hear questions asked by others, learn to look college reps in the eye and listen to their answers, start to “recognize” some of the school names, see that not all schools offer MT programs, etc. He signed up for their mailing lists and we got lots of information to start comparing (OK, so I’m the one that actually did most of the comparing those heaps of mailers that arrived for the next four years). We didn’t go again until 10th grade year. again we mostly asked about summer HS programs, but also started asking questions MT vs. Acting vs. VP, BFA vs. BA vs. BM, etc. This time HE initiated the interactions with college reps, but I would jump in with a few other questions. By junior year, S had a pretty good idea of what he was in for - actually earlier than that - and was gaining skills in talking to reps and asking specific questions related to what he thought he wanted. Did this change over time? Yes. Did he like going to the college fair in 8th grade? Not really. But he later understood the value. I am convinced that he had more confidence in comparing/evaluating/eliminating options because we had started this process so early. And I got a pretty good understanding of what we we were in for over the next four years. Probably not right for everyone, but I’m glad we started “looking” s early.
Actually, while we did not start the college exploration that early, my MT daughter was familiar with many of the MT programs by name fairly young. She had attended a summer theater camp starting at age 9 and most of her friends there (who were from all over the country) were older than herself and so at some point, they were heading off to college (many for MT or Acting) and she wasn’t up to that step at all. In fact, I recall when she was 12, we were in NYC with another camp friend and her mom and we walked by NYU and my daughter said, “I want to go here some day.” Back then, that likely was one of the only schools she knew about for MT. It turns out at age 15, she asked us to let her graduate HS early and so her college selection process started in 10th grade, even though we didn’t plan to get going on any of it until 11th grade originally. She applied in 11th grade. We discouraged applying ED to Tisch because we felt she should get to visit and explore more schools in depth before making a commitment (and she only got to visit a few by that point since we thought 11th grade would be her college visit year but it turned into her college application year). She did end up at NYU though! 