My S applied to 14 schools. He passed all prescreens. He has been singing FOREVER but studying seriously for about five years (I’m a voice teacher who supplemented his training with other teachers, master classes, etc.). He is a tenor. Dance training is very minimal since he resisted when he was young, so maybe a year seriously. Serious acting training, also maybe about a year, although he has done about eight roles and ensemble work in drama & MT since middle school. He has done some community theatre, but he is not AEA, although he’s done a few auditions in NYC. He also leads an a cappella group and had even done a few boy soprano operatic roles years ago. I should also admit that his GPA is mediocre to low, SAT 1610. His audition prep and rep selection was done by myself as his primary private voice teacher along with Judy Blazer in NYC. He did college coaching, monologue selection and prep with Beth Baur of New Jersey School of Dramatic Arts in Bloomfield (she is extraordinary and a fraction of the cost of other drama coaching programs). A choreographer friend put together a skill-level-appropriate routine for his dance pre-screen video and spent an afternoon helping us tape it.
1 – We visited Carnegie Mellon in early January. The audition atmosphere was surprisingly warm, but admittance to this school apparently is like winning the lottery. He was REJECTED.
2 – Auditioned at Emerson next weekend. We both LOVE Boston! Lots of friends there. The school has amazing facilities and is right on Boston Common. However, we felt it is very academic for an MT program. He was ultimately WAITLISTED.
THE UNIFIEDS in NYC. These were the infamous Blizzard of 2016 auditions. We live in NJ and had planned on commuting to the auditions every day via train. Fortunately, one of my student’s moms prompted me to get a hotel room instead. Thank God! We were fortunate to get a room around the corner from Pearl Studios. We ended up having a great time, and he managed to get in seven auditions.
3 - CCM - I’m pretty sure it is my fault that he accidentally applied for acting instead of MT! Unfortunately, when he arrived at the audition, we were told he wasn’t on the list! When we explained the mistake, they essentially said “too bad”, and he ended up doing the acting audition instead (they were very nice). REJECTED academically.
4 - BoCo - audition went very well. They asked for several additional songs. This was S’s first-choice school. He was ACCEPTED with a scholarship (although not nearly enough). When we begged for more $, we were told they do not give any need-based scholarships. Even though we adore Boston, he turned it down due to money and also because he ended up liking another school a lot more than initially expected.
5 - PennState - again, very good audition, much like BoCo. Ultimately, WAITLISTED.
6 - University of Evansville - I had heard of this school because the fine young actor Rami Malek has talked about his excellent training there in interviews. My S auditioned as a walk-in and was ACCEPTED with a generous scholarship for its Theatre Performance BFA. This school is a hidden gem. They only do one musical per year, but have related coursework. I am not exaggerating when I say the production of Richard III that we got to attend there recently was the finest Shakespeare I have seen off of a Broadway stage. These kids get truly superb training. Ultimately, S decided against due to its location (Evansville is a pretty but smallish and remote city) and its academics - 41 required gen eds.
7 - UArts - He had a great walk-in audition and was ACCEPTED with a nice scholarship. Unfortunately, when we attended the accepted students day in Philly, we were very disappointed with the level of performance we saw.
8 - Ithaca auditions at NOLA uptown (a purposeful nuisance?!). The head of the theatre program got up to address the students and parents and rolled right into a speech on how important it is that these kids know right from the beginning what a tough field this is, how their school regularly puts kids on probation, how one should not approach any of the members of the jury with a handshake (“cold season”!), and stand behind the tape! One of the jurors criticized his dramatic choices with regard to his musical rep. This was a most unfriendly, cold atmosphere, really unlike any other audition. Not surprisingly, he was REJECTED.
9 - Roosevelt/CCPA - My son had heard glowing things about this school from his acting coach whose own S attends there. The auditioners were very warm and gave glowing feedback. He was ACCEPTED in early March. More about this below.
10 - Juilliard - Everything one might expect. Although they were friendly enough, the atmosphere is pretty cold. Again, kind of like winning the lottery to be accepted. REJECTED.
11 - Syracuse - He took a bus up by himself in February and stayed in the dorms with a friend. He didn’t get a lot of sleep and I didn’t get a good vibe from his description of the audition. REJECTED.
12 - Manhattan School of Music - Great audition - he was ACCEPTED. This is a brand-new program, and they offered him NO scholarship $. Unfortunately, we couldn’t even consider it based on this.
13 - Circle in the Square Theatre School - He had a great audition with highly-positive feedback from a renowned acting teacher (thrilling, actually!). This is a highly-prestigious two-year non-degree program located inside a Broadway theatre that he gave very serious consideration to. He was ACCEPTED but declined because he wants to try a degree program.
14 - Montclair - Since we live in Montclair and know so many kids who attend here, I think we took it for granted. My S didn’t audition until mid-March. Although ironically he had been accepted academically, he was REJECTED after the audition. This came as a blow. It would have cost us only $12,000/year if he lived at home. We found out from an inside source that due to auditioning so late and the rolling admissions process, too many of his “type” had already been offered spots. The school never actually contacted us either. I had to reach out to them for a decision. I think The Universe just has something else in mind for my kid. If he had gotten into Montclair, the $ would have assured that he would have gone there. He also would have been forced to live at home. Even though their recent production of The Producers was excellent in every way, I have heard mixed things about the program from people I trust. In my S’s case, I think this has all been for the best.
A couple of weeks ago, we visited all accepted schools. The Final Decision: Roosevelt University/Chicago College of Performing Arts. This is a rising program. They gave him good scholarship $. The dorms and school are located in downtown Chicago, an absolutely beautiful city with excellent public transportation, across from Grant Park. The dorms have panoramic views of downtown and Lake Michigan. While freshmen do not audition for mainstage shows, they have two showcases. After freshman year, the kids are encouraged to do outside Equity auditions and are considered for roles in school mainstage. Chicago is the second most significant theatre city in the country which also has a great deal of film/TV work available. If they get pro work, deferrals are granted. We were also impressed by an off-campus apartment we got to see - as a note, my daughter attends school in NYC. She pays double what the person is paying for his shared apartment in Chicago. It is just a less-expensive city. Plane tix are not so bad since it is such a frequent route from EWR or JFK/LGA to ORD.
I welcome questions from those about to embark on this time-consuming but ultimately rewarding journey.
My performing credits are as follows: 4 high school musicals. Yup. Thats it! Starting in late fall, I took 3 months of dance lessons and acting lessons once I realized how badly I needed to start in order to be competitive!! So… Went into this cycle awfully unprepared. Theres really no logical reason why things should have turned out well… But sometimes life surprises us 