<p>I thought I'd start a thread for those of us who have Junior HS sons & daughters (or if you are a Junior yourself). I know that while those that are in the midst of auditions are feeling the pressure right now, I am feeling a different pressure with my D's SAT and ACT tests coming up, waiting for acceptances to summer programs, and already thinking about applications/scheduling auditions for the Fall of 2008 (yikes!) It will be here before we know it. Let's get to know each other and help each other out.</p>
<p>Good idea! </p>
<p>And so it begins again....</p>
<p>This thread could not be more timely. Now's the time for juniors and their parents to get very focused and organized. As noted by the OP, the fall of 2008 will be upon you before you know it. So, for what they are worth, let me offer some suggestions:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If you can, spend the next few months visiting schools. Certainly research them on their websites and gather as much info as you can to enable you to come up with the list of schools to which you intend to apply before the summer hits. Make sure it is a diverse list that that is not limited to the most competitive programs, that is not all very small programs, that includes some where academics count and some where they don't count as much. Make sure that you include at least 1 non-audition school where you are a strong academic match. There is no such thing as an audition based "safety". You don't need to have a list of 10, 12, 15 schools that will make you insane during the audition season. You need to have a list of smartly chosen schools in numbers that you can reasonable handle while continuing to meet all the normal senior year obligations and responsibilities. Don't fixate on any school or location as a "must". That's a recipe for disappointment and stress. There are loads of very good MT programs out there in a broad variety of locations. Put together a smart list, not one based on "image" or preconceived notions of the "top" schools.</p></li>
<li><p>If you haven't started already, start looking for audition materials now. School websites have this years audition requirements on them and they generally don't change from year to year (but make sure to check back in mid -July just in case). It takes a lot of time and effort to find the right audition materials and you want to have your final audition selections lined up with plenty of time to practice, figure out cuts and have back up songs and monologues.</p></li>
<li><p>Take care of the application process early. Line up teachers for recommendations before the year ends and find out where you can send them recommendation forms/envelops in late August so that they can complete them before the deluge hits. The Common Application, School Supplements and individual school apps start coming out in mid-July. Use the Common App as much as possible. Try to get the apps and essays done by September. Remember, applying to a BFA program is much more complicated and time consuming than "normal" apps because of the audition process. If at all possible, you want the fall to focus on audition coaching and preparation unencumbered by all the stuff involved in the "paperwork". There's going to be a lot to juggle as you need to attend to all the normal h.s. and extracurricular responsibilities.</p></li>
<li><p>Keep organized. There are a thousand details to keep track of. The application process, scheduling, packing for and traveling to auditions, making sure each task is done, including tracking what others are supposed to do - like teacher recommendations, school reports, GC reports. Make yourself charts, lists, spreadsheets, whatever will keep you organized.</p></li>
<li><p>Make a timeline that gives you more time for each task than you think is necessary. Space things out so you don't get overloaded. It always takes longer for each step than you predicted.</p></li>
<li><p>Complete the scheduling of your auditions early as much as possible - like by late September mid October. That way you can better control the dates and sequencing and plan your travel in a manner that best meets your needs. There are a limited number of dates and spots on each date so get your reservations in early.</p></li>
<li><p>Perhaps most important, remember to have fun! You are about to embark on an exciting new phase of your life. Enjoy the traveling, exploring of new places, the time together during long drives. Yes, this process is extremely competitive and stressful. But try to think of each audition as your own 1 person show and you have top billing! You love to perform, otherwise you wouldn't be doing this in the first place, so try to view each audition as another opportunity to do what you love. If you do your homework in choosing the schools on your list, put in the time preparing for your auditions, odds are that you will get into at least 1 of the schools on your list and you only need one.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Right now is a great time of year to see a musical production at the schools you are visiting. This can give you a very good perspective of each school's production values, as well as a peek at the level of talent in the program -- thus giving you an idea of how you would fit in at each school. Try to visualize yourself in the cast -- realistically! Where would you fit in? This can help a great deal when you make your final list.</p>
<p>FWIW - MichaelNKat, as usual, posted a comprehensive overview of the most important things to remember; here are some additional tips that worked well for our family this year:</p>
<p>1) Visiting/Selecting Schools - to visit all schools turned out to be cost prohibitive for us (living in CA). My D did a lot of research on-line & talked to current students in different programs (she had met in summer programs and/or Facebook), and auditioned at the schools she selected for her short list "on campus", thus allowing for an actual feel for & tour of the campus. Some things to think about when your S/D puts together his/her final list: conservatory vs. liberal arts vs. "a mix of both", urban vs. rural, large vs. small etc. My D had what I refer to as an "eclectic" mix of schools on her list. The one common denominator was that she could see herself happily attending any of those schools.</p>
<p>2) Audition Materials: cannot stress enough how many people we actually ran into who thought singing from Wicked was perfectly acceptable and others who carried entire scores in printed publications with them instead of personalized binders with a select number of songs. Marking the songs with "ballad, uptempo, lyric soprano, belt" etc. is not a bad idea either as nerves may play a role, and you want to find your songs quickly if/when asked for a specific style. Be prepared, but do not overrehearse monologues with over the top blocking and/or props. Spend a good amount of time selecting material, and don't hesitate to use a musical theatre audition coach for this purpose. They know what colleges are looking for.</p>
<p>3) Application process: my D pulled copies of most schools' applications for the year prior, so that she had time over the summer to think about her answers/essays. Most schools she applied to (except for NYU) asked the same questions. Doing all but two of her applications before Labor Day (some are just not available that early) made for a relatively stressfree Fall (yeah right). I personally do feel that early applications do get more attention from the admissions people, as they simply have more time to review them. In any event if worked well for my D. Applying to some schools with rolling admission (like Webster, Point Park and Marymount Manhattan) took the pressure even further off by getting academic acceptances prior to heading into audition season.</p>
<p>4) Organization: D made manila file folders for each school, and had them color coded (red for I really want to go there, yellow for I like it but do need to get more info and green for her safety schools). Wherever we went, the appropriate folder came with us. All her notes, printed info from the internet or mailings were in that folder, and so were mine (travel arrangements and "my mom point of view" :)). At auditions I saw other parents with binders (one parent said she had made one for each college) and that looked like it could work really well too. My D opted for manila folders (that we kept in a file cabinet at home) and stapled a checklist to the front with things as: application sent date, SAT's sent date, rec letters sent date, audition confirmed date etc. Her songs, monologues, headshots, resumes, accompaniment/ipod & notepad she carried around in a binder that easily fit in her dance bag, along with a "non wrinkle" dress (after her first audition that is where she wore a 100% cotton number she just loved and had to wear in spite of my protest ;)), dance clothes, a snack and a refilleable waterbottle. I carried her "song bible" (just in case), extra snacks, first aid (make-up, band aids, zicam, hair stuff, meds, tape) and her manila file folder in a big tote. </p>
<p>5) Timeline: keep a calendar handy(those 'month to month' ones worked really well for us) and an overview of each school's audition dates (some will be at a Unifieds in your area, and this may reduce travel expenses). Try to combine some auditions wherever possible, but be realistic (some auditions can take all day (Point Park, CMU for example cannot be scheduled on the same day, but could be planned the same weekend last November). Start planning travel once your audition times have been confirmed. Yes, some do need to be confirmed (example UMich for academic review purposes, but also others). Some schools have limited hotel accommodations nearby (Elon) and so booking your hotel early will increase the chances of being closer to campus.</p>
<p>6) Audition scheduling; much will depend upon whether your D or S wants to audition early or late in the audition season, but you should definitely stay on top of it and not wait until the last minute getting the appointments. In most cases, my D was able to schedule her own at her leisure at night, however, in one case, paranoia kicked in (NYU ED audition), and we found both of us online getting an appointment early in the morning at the same time :p as soon as audition dates/times went up. Much depends on each individual preference and if your child is ready material wise. Also, some people want to hold off and wait to be seen last "to be remembered", others want to get those auditions in early and see what happens. The latter was the case for my D. She scheduled the bulk of her auditions before Christmas and left some for the 'spring'. It worked for her. It will also depend upon what type of school your child attends as some performing arts schools will have certain performance demands that may conflict. Be aware that most high schools are not ok with taking time of to audition.</p>
<p>7) Fun: definitely remember this special time with your S/D. Time flies. This is a time to remember fondly. If you are traveling with your child, just "be there" as comic relief, rather than 'the critic'. I managed to get lost almost everywhere we went. It broke the tension tremendously (having planned for extra time knowing I would likely get us lost from past experience :)). If you do drive, make sure to bring printed copies of Mapquest with you, or invest in a Neverlost :D.</p>
<p>Oh, and remember, breathe!</p>
<p>Oh what wonderful CC'ers!!! This is great, great stuff...thanks so much.</p>
<p>Lots of great advice given here! I would add one more suggestion, which is, when you are compiling your list of schools, be sure to research the curriculum available at each. This is one aspect of this process which, in my opinion, should be at the top of the list of things to do in preparation for applying and auditioning. The course offerings at many schools differ, sometimes drastically, even at some of the most discussed schools here on CC. You should be able to find this information on the schools' websites, and if you can't, then get in touch with the ones you're interested in and inquire. Keep hard copies so you can compare from one school to the next. See what is offered each year, for all four years. How many dance classes, the type, and at what levels? Is there private voice? Every semester? What is the number and diversity of acting classes? What methods are taught? Read the bios of the teaching staff. For those of you who are equally interested in academic offerings while in college, and I know many are, be sure to see what is available in your areas of interest and how possible it is to accomplish taking the academic subjects which interest you.</p>
<p>Investigate the productions at each school. Are there student productions? (very important, in my opinion) What types of shows have been/are being done? Is it only typical standards like The Music Man and Fiddler on the Roof? Are new musicals chosen? What are the opportunities for straight plays? The productions should challenge the students every bit as much as their class and studio work. Who does the tech work for the productions? Is there required tech for all students? Is there a film program or a musical theatre writing program at the school? (these provide many additional performance opportunities).</p>
<p>Ideally, the opportunity to connect with current students (and preferably not just one!) and to discuss what classes are like, what is studied, what is expected (very important-many have a no absence policy), is it a collaborative atmosphere which is fostered? Sitting in on classes during a campus visit can be enlightening but not always to the extent that you might want it to be. :) </p>
<p>Good luck to all of you who will be next year's hopefuls. You all have the advantage of starting this process before many who will be competing against you.</p>
<p>Hi TXKatsmom - my d. is also a junior and we will be heading into this process. I have been reading these threads for a few months now. Everyone is full of information. My d. sent in her info. to the Carnegie Mellon summer program. Anyway, just wanted to let you know there are other juniors out there too.</p>
<p>alwaysamom's advice to investigate the curriculum at each school is an important piece to figuring out if a school is a good match for your needs and desires. From among the 3 core disciplines of acting, voice and dance, different schools approach the balance of the curriculum with different emphasis. Some are very balanced, some give more weight to acting etc. Then add in ancillary (but none-the-less important) classes in music skills, piano and others. To what extent is liberal arts important to you and how much room is in the MT curriculum to take L.A.</p>
<p>Each school usually has the mandated MT curriculum on its departmental website. We created 2 charts in Word comparing the curricula at my daughter's top contenders. We organized one by semester and and one by subject area, showing the number of contact hours for each course. It was very revealing and informative - and in some cases surprising.</p>
<p>Junior here. :) I've been trying to look at the curriculum for each school, but a lot of it is going over my head. What I really want to see is the recommended schedule for each semester - for example, Ithaca posts that, and it's really helpful. But some schools just post that you need "4 s.h." (Elon, for example) in "Fundamentals of Music Theory"; or "6 credits" total in "Applied Voice" (or whatever). Those charts don't help me that much - it helps to know what kind of classes I'll be taking, but what I really want to know is how many semesters of dance I can take, how many electives are open, how many semesters of private voice I get, etc. etc. etc. I don't know if I'm asking for help or just complaining, but...I've presented my dilemma. ;)</p>
<p>Ninnynoddle - The info you are seeking can be extracted from the websites either directly or by lining up hypothetical schedules. Here's what I mean.</p>
<p>At many (if not most) BFA programs, the curriculum is very structured each semester. So, for example, at schools like CMU, Syracuse, UArts, Ithaca (and many others), the websites show the mandated curriculum each semester and also how many credit hours are built into the schedule each semester for liberal arts, departmental electives etc. That's the easy case.</p>
<p>At other schools, usually BA programs, it takes more work. You can determine the total number of credits needed for graduation, get the mandated core L.A. curriculum, get the mandated courses for your performance major and figure out how many credit hours are left over for electives in performance areas. Then you have to dig into the online course catalogues to see what courses are offered that you could take to fill up the credits. It takes more work, but if you figure out how many courses you would take in a typical semester to get all of your credits in four years, you can then put together a pretty good estimation of the classes you would be taking. The info is all there in the student bulletins/course catalogues.</p>
<p>Wow, thank you so much! That was exactly what I didn't know I needed to hear. :)</p>
<p>Oh, but one more question - what on earth is an "s.h."?</p>
<p>Some song choice advice :) - </p>
<p>This year especially, a lot of MT college faculty people have expressed to me that they don't necessarily want to hear the newest stuff or the highest, most riffy belting. They are feeling "hit over the head" with American Idol-style, pop contemporary vocal pyrotechnics, and also with the "newest" material, gleaned from YouTube. Keep in mind if YOU found it on YouTube, so did a lot of other people - and that's good research in one sense, but it's really easy to simply find the most impressive, cutest, or funniest YouTube songs (Blue Hair, anyone? :)) and want to do those without really considering if they are THE best for your voice. Take the time to make sure you find what is VERY best for YOUR specific voice and acting energy. </p>
<p>Related story: Earlier this evening, I was working with a brand-new student (a junior), exploring rep with her for her auditions. She has a great pop belt voice, and I played one "killer" belt song for her, which she loved upon hearing it....but when she sang it, it wasn't THE thing that brought out the MOST unique specialness of her voice. Sure, she could sing it reallly well, but 3 songs later, we found THE song...which we couldn't know for sure until she sang it!!! So find someone with a VERY VERY discriminating ear for MT singing, who can weigh in on your rep choices!!! And have FUN looking - juniors who start looking now (or have already started) have LOTS of time to engage in the treasure hunt which is audition material seeking...</p>
<p>All schools use some type of unit of measure to designate the time spent in or credit given for a course. Graduation and degree requirements as well as a value given to the course in meeting those requirements are stated in the unit of measure the school uses. It can vary from school to school. Some use "credits", some "hours" some "units". I don't know specifically what "s.h." means but if you compare the number of "s.h" required to meet a stated standard to the number of "s.h." for courses, you will know the number of courses you need to take to meet a particular "s.h." requirement.</p>
<p>Here is what I would advise someone based on my our experience this season:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Start as early as possible looking for material - both songs and monologues. Monologues from a play were particularly hard to find. And the more you practice and they become "yours" the better you will be. Be sure to check all the "overdone" lists as so many of your favorite songs and monologues unfortunately seem to appear there. </p></li>
<li><p>Visit as many campuses as you can possibly afford. On paper colleges that were at the top fell to the bottom and others rose to the top after a visit. All the brochures and hype will tell you theirs is the best and all colleges look beautiful in brochures. Or talk to the people that go there or have visited and really do your research. </p></li>
<li><p>Get a big file bucket. Make folders for each college. Keep all correspondece and applications in them. Have one general folder with to do lists, confirmed audition dates, and the audition requirements. Have one folder with check list of all the individual financial aid requirements with dates, etc. Have one folder for travel with all flight and hotel confirmations printed out. </p></li>
<li><p>Find audition dates for each school and don't schedule your top choices first. Get a few auditions under your belt before you do those. As they audition over and over it becomes easier and they perform better. They also may decide along the way to change the songs or monologues. </p></li>
<li><p>Buy one of the individual steamers to take on all your trips in case they need some respiratory help. And be sure to take Vit C before, during and after the trips. Maybe even consider wearing a mask on the plane. Flu germs and airplane germs will be your biggest enemies. </p></li>
<li><p>Research a BFA v BA and seriously consider what is right for you. Research both and have desirable non-audition programs for a safety. Approach it from the beginning with a worse case scenario as if you won't get into any BFA programs but you have a backup that you like. And remember always there are a lot of successful stars out there with no BFA. For economics take advantage of Unifieds. And make a list that doesn't just include the most popular and competitive colleges. </p></li>
<li><p>Last but not least, take advantage of the wealth of information on this CC site. Everything you could possibly want to know is listed here.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>i'm a junior too. eek.</p>
<p>Ninny:</p>
<p>I don't normally point people directly to our website at Otterbein, but in this case it seems appropriate, given what you were asking. Here's a visual representation of the first year schedule for our MT majors:</p>
<p>And here's the one for our MT/Dance majors:</p>
<p>You can easily figure out from these diagrams what your days would look like.</p>
<p>You'll see the credits listed in the right-hand column. All of our MT's typically carry 18 credits/term, even though the standard college load is 15 credits. Since we're on the quarter system (three 10-week terms), 180 credits are required for graduation. At schools with semesters (two 15-week terms), the typical load is 12 credits/term, and 120 credits are required for graduation. </p>
<p>Incidentally, the official terminology for our credits is "quarter credit hours" and the abbreviation is "qch". For schools on semesters, the equivalent is often expressed as "semester hours", abbreviated "sh" or "sch".</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>
<p>I'm also a junior.(ugh...) But this is a great idea! </p>
<p>I love this site so much. Everyone's so friendly.</p>
<p>Just to illustrate some of the things about courses and scheduling I was talking about earlier, I've pasted below the first 2 years of UArts mandated MT curriculum. It lays out the specific courses and credits. On the site itself, all the listings are hyperlinks which take you to course descriptions, and in the case of the mandated L.A. core, to the course options to fulfill the requirement. </p>
<p>In looking at stuff like this, what can also make it a little tricky to figure out how you will be spending your time and how much open time you will have in a week is that sometimes the credit hours do not reflect the actual time spent in class. For example, with the UArts curriculum, each .5 credit dance class requires 1.5 hours a week in class. This semester my daughter is required to take 16.5 credits but is in class 26 hours a week, not counting crew obligations for which she gets 0 course credits. (What's nice about the UArts listing is that it shows the class hours per week, not just the course credits. The general assumption is that 1 course credit equals 1 hour of class per week, but that's not always true, not only at UArts but at other BFA programs as well. The actual class hours per week are worth asking about if not shown on the website.)</p>
<p>Freshman Year Credits: 32.5</p>
<p>Fall Credits: 16
LACR 101 - First-Year Writing I Credits: 3 cr, 3 hrs
THEA 151 - Survey of Theater Arts Credits: 3 cr, 3 hrs
THMD 111 - Beginner Ballet Credits: 0.5 cr, 1.5 hrs
THMD 121 - Beginner Jazz Credits: 0.5 cr, 1.5 hrs
THPD 123 - Scene and Lighting Technology Credits: 2 cr, 2 hrs
THST 101 - Acting Studio I Credits: 3 cr, 6 hrs
THST 110 - Music Skills Lab Credits: 0 cr, 1 hr
THST 111 - Music Skills for Musical Theater I Credits: 2 cr, 3 hrs
THVC 120 - Voice for Musical Theater Lab Credits: 0 cr, 1.5 hrs
THVC 121 - Voice for Musical Theater I Credits: 1 cr, 1.5 hrs
THVC 131 - Voice Lesson for Musical Theater Credits: 1 cr, 0.5 hrs</p>
<p>Spring Credits: 16.5
THMD X32 - Tap Credits: 0.5 cr
LACR 102 - First-Year Writing II Credits: 3 cr, 3 hrs
THEA 152 - Script Analysis Credits: 3 cr, 3 hrs
THMD 112 - Beginner Ballet Credits: 0.5 cr, 1.5 hrs
THMD 122 - Beginner Jazz Credits: 0.5 cr, 1.5 hrs
THPD 120 - Crew Credits: 0 cr, hrs vary
THPD 124 - Costume & Property Technology Credits: 2 cr, 2 hrs
THST 102 - Acting Studio II Credits: 3 cr, 6 hrs
THST 110 - Music Skills Lab Credits: 0 cr, 1 hr
THST 112 - Music Skills for Musical Theater II Credits: 2 cr, 3 hrs
THVC 120 - Voice for Musical Theater Lab Credits: 0 cr, 1.5 hrs
THVC 122 - Voice for Musical Theater II Credits: 1 cr, 1.5 hrs
THVC 132 - Voice Lesson for Musical Theater Credits: 1 cr, 0.5 hrs</p>
<p>Sophomore Year Credits: 34.5</p>
<p>Fall Credits: 16.5
THMD X11 - Ballet Credits: 0.5 cr
THMD X21 - Jazz Credits: 0.5 cr
THMD X31 - Tap Credits: 0.5 cr
THEA 353 - Musical Theater History I Credits: 3 cr, 3 hrs
THPD 120 - Crew Credits: 0 cr, hrs vary
THST 201 - Acting Studio: Technique I Credits: 4 cr, 7.5 hrs
THST 210 - Advanced Music Skills Lab Credits: 0 cr, 1 hr
THST 211 - Music Skills for Musical Theater III Credits: 2 cr, 3 hrs
THVC 211 - Voice and Speech for Actors III Credits: 2 cr, 3 hrs
THVC 231 - Voice Lesson for Musical Theater Credits: 1 cr, 0.5 hrs</p>
<p>Select one course from the following two:
LACR 22X - Scientific Inquiry Foundation Track (SIFT) Credits: 3 cr, 3 hrs
LACR 210 - Texts & Contexts: Perspectives on the Humanities Credits: 3 cr, 3 hrs</p>
<p>Spring Credits: 18
THMD X12 - Ballet Credits: 0.5 cr
THMD X22 - Jazz Credits: 0.5 cr
THEA 354 - Musical Theater History II Credits: 3 cr, 3 hrs
THPD 120 - Crew Credits: 0 cr, hrs vary
THST 202 - Acting Studio: Technique II Credits: 4 cr, 7.5 hrs
THST 210 - Advanced Music Skills Lab Credits: 0 cr, 1 hr
THST 212 - Music Skills for Musical Theater IV Credits: 2 cr, 3 hrs
THST 222 - Foundations of Singing/Acting Credits: 2 cr, 3 hrs
THVC 212 - Voice and Speech for Actors IV Credits: 2 cr, 3 hrs
THVC 232 - Voice Lesson for Musical Theater Credits: 1 cr, 0.5 hrs</p>
<p>Select one course from the following two:
LACR 22X - Scientific Inquiry Foundation Track (SIFT) Credits: 3 cr, 3 hrs
LACR 210 - Texts & Contexts: Perspectives on the Humanities Credits: 3 cr, 3 hrs</p>
<p>Once in one of these programs, the student is going to have to exercize a lot more initiative and independence than I sometimes get the feeling some of you parents are expecting of your kids. I just saw on another thread where JIJane wrote a long, heartfelt post regarding this with which I couldn't agree more, so I'm gonna link it here ... </p>
<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1059792492-post8.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1059792492-post8.html</a> </p>
<p>Of course, I'm a little biased on those points since I also did all my own grunt work both times through the process, but I think it is a point of view that should be considered. </p>
<p>Also, I want to reiterate the importance of getting your audition material ready early in the game. Like mid-fall at the latest. I was a little disheartened this year to see that there were some fairly long time participants both on this forum and Theater/Drama who got all the way into January without having done this. If anything, you should be narrowing down your choices by then. Not just getting to the minimum requirements. I had to bite my knuckles to keep from saying anything because scolding would have done no good at the time and only added to a stressful situation, but with all the information that's been provided here, there's absolutely no excuse for it. I hope to see different next year.</p>