So I guess it is my time to share. My S has always had a love for musical theater and voice. As a sophomore we started the college process with a visit out west and lessons at two wonderful schools, the University of Michigan and Baldwin Wallace. Both schools faculty were super accommodating and recommended my S consider classical voice as well as musical theater. He continued to build relationships with both professors that resulted in a second visit to Michigan.
My S is not a dancer, but moves well. He spent the summer working on his college essays, supplemental essays (God there were too many of those,) pre-screen videos and dance. By October all applications and videos were out and two auditions scheduled (Baldwin Wallace and Point Park). He was cast in the lead for the fall production which ended the week before his first audition at Point Park. Things went well, but he did not love the experience. The following week was his audition at Baldwin Wallace and I have never seen him more excited about his performance for both the Vocal Performance and Musical Theater Programs. He totally made connections with the faculty and students on the audition day. He received his first acceptance in December to Baldwin Wallace and that was a game changer. Quickly he decided to cancel auditions to NYU, Pace and Ithaca and keep his auditions at the University of Michigan and Carnegie Mellon.
The University of Michigan and Carnegie Mellon auditions went well and my son awaited a final decision. He was accepted to the University of Michigan’s vocal performance with an amazing scholarship, but his passion is in Musical Theater so I am proud to say he will be a member of Baldwin Wallace’s Musical Theater class of 2022.
Congratulations @mommafaria! Amazing program - since his first love is MT he will be in heaven at BW. So happy for him!
Congratulations, @mommafaria !!!
Congratulations and welcome to the BW family, @mommafaria!
@MTdreamz - I live that the last minute/unplanned acceptance turned out to be “the one”! Hopefully the lurkers for future years will learn from your experience. Congratulations to you and your talented D!!
@mommafaria - I have been wondering which of those awesome opportunities your S would choose (you posted on the acceptances thread). Both were great options. Congratulations!!!
Congrats @mommafaria to you and your talented son!
@mommafaria congrats to you and your son!
Congrats @mommafaria so glad to hear your S is on his way! BW is lucky to have him.
@CaMom13 and @MomofJ5 you know what they say …“the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry”. That sums up the entire MT college audition process! Part of me says why did I bother spending 2 years coming up with a list that went down the tubes! LOL My husband said I should write a book giving advice - I told him there already is one on CC! haha I came late to this site - don’t know if that was good or bad… It may have made me second guess everything and be even more stressed! But would have also given me a reality check… luckily it worked out!
@MTdreamz - Exactly! “luckily it worked out” is the major theme of this year for us!
@MTdreamz My kids have all spent 1/2 days Junior and Senior year at a PA HS. Some years ago, the parent started an audition manual. Initially, it dealt with mostly logistics. I inherited the responsibility to keep it up to date and have been making adjustments each year. In the spring (next week in fact), we have a meeting with the junior parents to talk about preparing for the process. Every year, parents think I am exaggerating about the time, effort and $$ they and their students will spend on the process. Unless you’ve been through it, it is difficult to understand. I am going to bring a Magic 8-Ball with me to the presentation this year - that pretty much sums up how this season for me!
@artskids that’s awesome for the families but yea, until you go through it you just can’t comprehend the enormous amount of time, stress, and money involved. My husband took it amazingly well. We were lucky because we could drive everywhere we wanted to go. He couldn’t believe how many people flew from around the country for auditions. I’m assuming you tell them to read cc even though it would have scared the crap out of me, at least you’re mentally prepared (well, as prepared as you can be). We know a freshman in high school who is crazy talented but watching us has freaked out her mom. I think she will have an easier time than we did but the reality is there are no guarantees and it is totally out of your control. We all deserve a month vacation after graduation - too bad we can no longer afford it :))
@artskids - how large is the manual? Any chance you could share the index or organizational format? I don’t want to ask you to publish the whole thing but a couple of parents who (like me) went through this audition process with zero support for our school were thinking we’d volunteer to talk to junior parents about what they should be doing but we have no documentation so just your “format” would be super helpful.
@CaMom13 I sent you a message. Talking the next group through the process is very helpful but don’t be surprised by the critics. Last year, a mother rolled her eyes, stood up and walked out. It was great.
@artskids - well at least she can’t say you didn’t try to warn her!!! Thanks for the heads’ up. 
@artskids - yea would love to know what happened to that mom (and kid) through audition season…
@artskids and @CaMom13 I am also working on providing information to the Junior parents at my D’s PA studio. It’s smaller and there are mix of kids doing acting and MT and I’ve already included a lot of information about CC and how much these threads have helped me although I too didn’t start using them until I was knee deep in the process. Any organizational info you feel like sharing would be much appreciated. Thanks!
@MomofJ5 Her D did not have a great season but I don’t know any specifics. We know a number of kids this year who did not fare well at all. Not sure why.
@artskids, you can count us among them, although we did end up with options, just none that we will take.
Programs Applied to: 10 schools
Prescreens: 3 - passed them all
Ended up withdrawing from two schools before auditioning because decided the programs and schools weren’t good fits.
WL at two
Accepted at two plus eventually one of the WL schools.
Coach: None
Summer Programs: Ballet summer intensives
Final Decision: Gap year/no college, possibly re-audition next year at one of the acceptances (dream school, but hoping for $) and two of the denial. Otherwise, he will go the “build-your-own-bfa” route.
Thoughts on the year: I thought, and I think my son thought, that being a classically trained dancer would be a great advantage. I don’t feel that’s necessarily the case (although, in the end, it IS what got him into that dream school). My sense after going through this is that it’s all the voice, and an admissions person at one well-regarded school (which, admittedly, is a small sample!) confirmed that. Additionally, that same admissions person mentioned that this past year was an exceptionally competitive year in their opinion. His fall semester commitments, in hindsight, really did not allow him to prepare as much as he could have for auditions at the start of Feb. So those will be things to keep in mind if he re-auditions next year.