I feel like I should be the expert here as my daughter and I went through the audition/application process last year but yet, here I am feeling really stressed out about scheduling for this years audition season.
Last year we were lucky enough to attend the Moonifieds, which were wonderful. The schedule is all done for you and my daughter had a wonderful experience.
Unfortunately, we can not return this year and I am feeling immense pressure to make sure she can hit all her schools at the Unifieds.
I have a few questions that I am hoping someone can help with.
We will be attending (if all goes to schedule) both Chicago and New York Unifieds.
I am worried that there are several schools seem to require you to be at the audition for many hours. Does anyone know which schools require you to block out several hours as opposed to a 1/2 hour time slot? I know that Carnegie Mellon is many hours.
How do folks manage to make 1/2 day auditions and still get the other schools covered?
UCLA MT is one that my daughter wants to apply to but they hold their one NY audition on the 24th (the first day of Unifieds) for what they say is 6 hours. Does the school really hold them for that long? With NY Unifieds only being two days, im worried that she wont be able to see any other schools that day and just have the 25th for the NY auditions, which seems a little crazy.
I dont know about you guys but if anyone went through this last year and has a way to make the appointment making easier, please share. I feel a bit on edge and worried about this.
I found that it was easier to just schedule the auditions and then when we got to Chicago I went around and spoke with the schools where there was a conflict for my D. Many of them say 6 hours, but that is only if they call you back. I stressed about it too, but in the end everything fell into place. Just get her on their schedule and worry about the timing once you are there.
Unless the student is the last audition of the time block, they’re not there for the entire time but you don’t know that until that day so assume she’ll need to be there the entire block when scheduling. Some schools hold parent/student info sessions at the top of the block. What Moo suggested and how auditions were scheduled were 2 auditions a day for MT auditions. It’s because there’s usually a dance call to consider. The D did 7 auditions at Chicago unifieds last year. We were there from Saturday to Wednesday. What I did was check the audition schedule of all her schools and plugged her first choice dates and times into a handy dandy online calendar so that there was a visual of the schedule. I used Google calendar that synced to my phone but had to change settings to account for the time difference or else she would’ve been ALL messed up once in Chicago.
@Jkellynh17, some kids spend quite a bit longer with CMU because they are passed around from Barbara to Kaf then Gary. And last year because of the snow, a few were called back two or three times to see them at different times and even had to go back the next day.
My son had both rooms and lots of adjustments and we were still out within an hour. (He was in the second group.) I’m just saying it doesn’t actually take four hours, but you don’t know which part of it you’ll be required to be present for .
I agree with jkelly - though I know weather last year added complications. My D auditioned for CMU on campus- so things were slightly different. The tricky part is- you just don’t know. My personal advice would be schedule 2 a day (morning and afternoon) if you have extra time, always a good chance for walkins. You need to prioritize your schools too, you may or may not be able to “schedule” a dozen auditions over 3-4 days, but you could probably get that many done
D attended both NY and Chicago Unifieds. For both, she scheduled 2 per day: one in the morning, and one in the afternoon. During Chicago’s, she did have an afternoon off. Then, at a couple places which she knew would only last up to an hour at Chicago (because they made that clear in their instructions), she left that time for walk-ins. She could’ve scheduled another audition in that time, though; she just didn’t need to. She also scheduled one audition on-campus (but literally a block away from Palmer) the Saturday right before Unifieds. Some schools have Sunday auditions, but she didn’t have one scheduled then. (She wished at the time that she had, but that’s ok.)
At NY, she scheduled 2 per day Saturday and Sunday, and she also scheduled one for Friday, before the official start of Unifieds. She had time for walk-ins Saturday and Sunday, but she would’ve been uncomfortable cramming in more scheduled auditions beforehand because she would’ve been worried that she wouldn’t make them; the schools she scheduled there each asked to block 3-4 hours time.
When schools released audition dates last year, we made a rough schedule with all possible audition dates so we could visualize what could go where. Then, D had a final calendar which got filled out as audition times were confirmed. It was actually sort of fun to puzzle it all out!