<p>Here’s some advice we got and it worked for our D:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Read and understand the ENTIRE play from which you take your monologues. Understand everything about your character, since auditors will ask those questions. Biggest mistake you can make is perfecting a monologue without knowing anything else about the play. Auditors hate this!</p></li>
<li><p>Have three go-to monologues, and even if your particular schools don’t require it, make sure one is classical. And make sure that all three “contrast.” </p></li>
<li><p>Learn from each audition. Our D auditioned for Ithaca early on, listened and used coaching advice from that auditor that made her classical monologue stronger for subsequent auditions. She didn’t get into Ithaca, but the advice likely helped her get accepted to three other BFA programs.</p></li>
<li><p>Let it roll off your back, if you have one bad audtion and learn from it. The most important audition you’ll do is “the next one.”</p></li>
<li><p>Most importantly, have fun! This should be a memorable time of your life. It’s normal to be nervous, but don’t let it ruin the overall experience for you. Enjoy the time with your parents, eat at some good restaurants, see some performances when you’re not auditioning, and just do your best to enjoy what will be an experience that you’ll remember for a lifetime.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Also, EmmyBet’s advice is VERY good when it comes to making your list of which schools to apply:</p>
<p>From looking at your list, I see about six extremely selective schools, including BU, Emerson, NC School of the Arts, NYU, DePaul and Fla. State.</p>
<p>You might might want to change up your mix a little and maybe remove a couple of those, and replace them with solid, but less selective BFAs such as UArts and Hartt. Those two schools are tough to get into, but your odds are better since they typically audition fewer students than the highly selective ones on your list. The other nice thing about Hartt and UArts is that both schools offer talent-based scholarships, and they do so to make themselves more competitive with the more prestigious schools. As an example, my D is being offered $12K a year by UArts.</p>
<p>AMDA is probably the least selective school among the BFAs on your list, so I’d suggest you leave that one in. No BFAs can be considered “safeties,” but AMDA is close.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>