<p>Hello, I am a high school senior, who recently applied to five MT schools, four of which will be at the Chicago Unified auditions. Unfortunately, it seems that most of the schools I've applied for already have completely booked time-slots and only offer alternatives, such as sending in DVD auditions, which I would rather not do at all. Is there any way around this or am I at a dead end? I already have a room at the Palmer House and would hate for that to go to waste, along with all of the hard work I've put into my applications.</p>
<p>Not sure what else your options are at this point, other than keeping in close contact with each school to be on a “standby list” in case there are cancellations. Also, if it is possible to switch your travel plans, you might want to check and see if the schools have openings at LA Unifieds. Sorry that you’re facing this challenge. I know that many of the audition slots go very early in the process. As they say on “Project Runway”, make it work!</p>
<p>huburt, I am so sorry for your situation, and I completely understand because the exact same thing happened to me. I ended up canceling my hotel and flight reservations (no fees involved thankfully), and now I have planned two smaller trips to audition for my top 3 schools. I know it may be hard to take – it took me like 3 weeks to finally move on about the whole Unifieds thing – but it really ended up being better for me to not go to Unifieds and instead focus in on the schools I like the most. Maybe this is possible for you? I know Southwest is having a special right now on airfare – flights starting at $69 one way! – and maybe that could help you book some flights to visit your top schools? I really think visiting the actual school is better; you get to see the campus, dorms, performing facilities, and have a more personal audition. Instead of auditioning for 6+ schools in Chicago, I am now auditioning on campus for Millikin, Texas State and (hopefully) Webster. I will still be sending a video to Ithaca, but the other schools I was planning to audition for in Chicago have been bumped from my list. The phrase “Quality not quantity” is finally making sense to me after all these months 
Good luck, whatever you decide!</p>
<p>I agree with steamedartichoke. Visiting campuses and auditioning there is a great option. My son opted NOT to do unifieds at all. We are fortunate that we can afford the travel, and many of the schools can be combined in one visit if you’re smart about geographical planning. Best wishes to you!</p>
<p>First of all, thank you for the wonderful feedback, everyone. After some intensive discussion with my mom, I’ve decided to take the path that Steamedartichoke took (Before even reading the suggestion… Great minds think alike?) and schedule some on-campus auditions for my top schools and hope for the best. Not to mention, I still have a few non-MT schools I’ve applied for.</p>
<p>Also, not to spark a rant or anything, but am I the only one who sees the entire process of all this to be completely and ridiculously convoluted? Setting up auditions and everything, that is… It just seems… Strenuous? Perhaps I’m wrong. Just ready to be through with it all, as I’m sure you former high school seniors understand.</p>
<p>Anyway, thanks again for the feedback and support.</p>
<p>I’m so glad you got it all figured out! Although, I still am sorry that Unifieds didn’t work out. And I absolutely agree, this whole year is just crazy for performing people like us! All of my friends already know where they’re going and are completely set in everything, and I’m still like “Uhmm…I have no clue where I’m going to be in 8 months.” I also think the process has taken 5 years off my life; sooo many applications, essays, letters, mail, and pieces of paper in general! I’ll be so happy when it’s all over. Please keep in touch with me throughout the next few months, I’d love to hear from you about how your travels go and where you end up going for college! PM or whatever to keep me updated! :)</p>
<p>huburt and steamedartichoke, it is unfortunate that you are going through this, but the schools themselves warn that audition slots do fill up early. We started getting my D’s auditions in May of last year…(one school actually allowed you to request your audition date in May the year prior to the auditions!). It takes a lot of organization and hard work to get through this process, and unless you have help from a parent or someone who can really commit the time, it is even more difficult. But, look at it from the schools’ perspective: they can only hold so many auditions - that is completely understandable. My only concern with your approach is that by limiting your list to 3 or 4 schools, you could be limiting your chances of acceptance. As you know, these schools are very, very competitive, and it’s not so much a matter of “quality over quantity,” but rather hedging your bets by applying to more than just a handful of schools. My D applied to 16 (I know some people think that’s too many, and maybe it is), but she would be THRILLED to attend any one of the schools on her list. In other words, there isn’t one school on her list that she is ambivalent about. If I were you, I would definitely fly to your top 3 as you are suggesting, but stay on the radar for Unifieds if you can…keep calling the schools to see if there are cancellations. Or, if you can afford it at all, go to Unifieds and try to do walk-ins. I just think that by limiting your list to such a small number of schools, you are putting yourselves in a dangerous situation. If worse comes to worse, send in the video auditions. Because after what you’ve been through already, I doubt whether you want to take a gap year and do this all over again in 2014. Good luck to you both!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Just to piggyback onto this comment by monkey13. I would not cancel arrangements to attend Unifieds until I had all of the on campus auditions scheduled. If you’ve done that, fine, but it sounds like you haven’t yet and you may find scheduling at this very late date a challenge to arrange. It’s so important to schedule auditions as soon as each school makes the dates available, and that likely happened with most, if not all, schools months ago.</p>
<p>Interesting topic. Of the 8 schools my D is applying to, there are only two she’s going to audition at Unifieds for. And one of these she’s waiting on the results of her pre-screening video to make sure she can schedule the Unified audition. I can only presume they have enough slots in the three days in Chicago to accommodate those students passing the pre-screen, otherwise she’ll have to juggle that school with another on the same weekend to do on campus auditions at both (luckily both within driving distance, and each within two hours of each other).</p>
<p>I sympathize; the process does seem kind of crazy.</p>
<p>The process is daunting and hectic. However, I agree with those who say you might want to go to Chicago and try to do some walk-ins at Unifieds. Kids get sick, they cancel, auditors might have a couple of minutes of down time and just fit you in…you never know. AND…towards the end of the day at Unifieds, I sawseveral auditors inviting kids in to audition for their programs. You might go and walk past the door of a school you never considered and maybe never heard of, and they might invite you in to audition and that might be THE one, the great fit for you and them…you never know. Listen, “quality not quantity” is a great rule of thumb for most things, but unfortunately, this process is about “quality AND quantity.” These programs can only accept a very few kids, maybe 5-8% of the kids who audition. It is in many ways a crap shoot, no matter how good you are. And, the sad truth is, some schools go for a certain look, or may have an abundance of a certain type or range already. They may not admit that, but it is true. So putting your eggs in one small basket of schools might not be the best solution. You have to give yourself better odds. There is no such thing as a safety school among audition programs. </p>
<p>PLUS…the audition process is a great learning tool. You will get great advice, some you think isn’t so great, some no feedback at all, some will work with you for what you think is a really long time. I say, the more you can audition, the better, and maybe going in and working hard to get walk-ins will help you grow too.</p>
<p>Good luck to you.</p>
<p>Couple questions, since my daughter is doing at least one (hopefully two, please let them like her pre-screen!!) auditions in Chicago. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>I see on the site that some folks have gotten a spot based on walk in auditions, but there seems to be some confusion about walk ins, whether you have to have already applied to the school or not, etc. Any more details on how that all works? I’m going to encourage my D to do some while she’s there.</p></li>
<li><p>I’ve also heard there are some programs that are in Chicago during the time of Unified auditions, but are not part of the official Unifieds, are at different locations, etc. Is this true and if so how does one find out who they are and where they are?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Walk-ins: Every school has their own policy on this. Ask at each check-in desk when you are there. My D did 2 walk-ins (3 years ago) without having an application in prior. In both cases, she was asked to submit an application as soon as possible afterward. </p>
<p>Other schools: Again, you will have to check every school individually. All schools post on their websites the time and location of regional auditions. Many have dates that coincide with Unifieds. If this is the case, then contact each school to schedule an audition. But, at this point, all audition spots are probably taken. Some schools have waiting lists. In 2010, my D did DePaul, Boston U and Juilliard in Chicago at the same time as Unifieds (but they are not “Unifieds” schools).</p>
<p>Monkey13, I completely understand and your advice totally makes sense. I’m sorry I didn’t make myself more clear; the plans I explained earlier were just for this semester - on campus auditions for Millikin and Texas State in February and March respectively. This past fall I was accepted into University of South Dakota and Colorado Mesa’s programs and also auditioned at Northern Colorado as well as CU Boulder (the final acceptance letters for the latter two have not been sent out yet). In addition I am sending videos to Ithaca, James Madison and East Carolina so I believe I still have a good mix of schools without attending Unifieds. I still think the Unifieds are a great idea but for me it was just not meant to be :)</p>
<p>Here is a list from a previous year of some of the schools that were at Unifieds (apparently there may have been more) - note that the list is approximately twice as long as the “official” list):</p>
<p>American Academy of Dramatic Arts
Ball State
Birmingham School of Acting (UK)
Boston Conservatory
Boston University - Hyatt Regency
Calarts
Carnegie Mellon
Cincinnati University
Coastal Carolina University
Cornish College
Emerson College
Florida Atlantic University
Ithaca
Juilliard - Hyatt Regency
Liverpool
Montclair University
New School for Drama
Northern Illinois University
NYU Tisch - Hotel Allegro
Otterbein University
Ohio Northern
Penn State/The Pennsylvania State University
Point Park University
Rider
The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland - Silversmith Hotel
Rutgers
Santa Fe (University of Santa Fe Art & Design)
Savannah College
Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy
Southern Methodist
Syracuse
TCU Department of Theatre
Texas State University
The Hartt School
UC Irvine
University of Evansville
University of Illinois Department of Theatre
University of Miami
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota/Guthrie
University of Northern Colorado
University of Oklahoma
University of the Arts
University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point
USC School of Theatre
University of Utah
Viterbo University
Webster University </p>
<p>This list is from this thread:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1366975-how-many-schools-attend-each-unified-session.html?highlight=unifieds[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1366975-how-many-schools-attend-each-unified-session.html?highlight=unifieds</a></p>
<p>Unfortunately, there does not seem to be an easy way to compile such a list (although apparently the hotels hand out lists at the event). You pretty much have to check with each school (or at least check the school website). This, of course, means that you won’t know about schools that are not on your radar.</p>
<p>Students from my d’s high school routinely do walk-ups at Unifieds for schools that they were not familiar with if they have time. Apparently some schools recruit in the hallways if they have open audition slots (but there is never a guarantee that this will occur for any given year). Sometimes these “last-minute” walk-ups turn out to be a great fit, even they knew nothing about the school until the audition, and the students end up happily attending.</p>
<p>@steamedartichoke–</p>
<p>@steamedartichoke-- My darling D had the same problem with 3-4 schools. She was distraught. To be fair, like was mentioned before they do tell you that slots fill up. However, we called each school and explained our issue. Two worked with her right away to sqeeze in auditions. The other two had us continue to check into open slots and the open slots did indeed arrive (in the case of one school, slots opened up Monday of this week). Don’t give up hope without calling the schools. And you are ABSOLUTELY right, the process is maddening. But keep trying–don’t give up. Which I think is good training for a future MTer :)</p>
<p>@Monkey13, I realize what you’re saying completely, as I recognize the overwhelming competitiveness of this industry, but I do have a multitude of other school to which I’ve applied where, if accepted there, I would pursue some of my other passions.</p>
<p>And @steamedartichoke, yea totally! PM me.</p>
<p>We are new at this how do Unifieds work? Do you have to apply to school first?</p>
<p>Yes. During the application process you will choose your audition dates (every school is different in regards to the point in the process that you’ll be able to start scheduling auditions), of which the Unifieds dates will be one of the options. You do not schedule auditions through the unifieds organization itself. Think of Unifieds as a location that each school may offer auditions at.</p>
<p>EmsDad - thanks for compiling this list of official and previously unofficial Chicago Unifieds schools. Any care to comment on who showed up at this year’s (2013) Chicago Unifieds?</p>