This is a question for long time CC parents- I am interested to know how Unifieds got started and how long ago if it was around for some of you earlier auditioners. Who heads it up? All the colleges listed coordinate it? The website information http://www.unifiedauditions.com/ is pretty basic
Thanks for satisfying my curiosity 
I know Dr. John Stefano, retired last year from Otterbein, and Peter Sargent from Webster were two of the founders
Thanks @CoachC That is interesting. They sure had a great idea. Maybe he has “passed the torch” since retiring. And from what I read, kids auditioned for far less schools (and there were no prescreens?) Maybe the Unifieds were all kids needed to do.
I’ll tag on another question… (since I have a curious nature and like to know how things came together) who started the prescreens? When did they start? Just curious if it’s been 10 years, 5 years… b/c as @Notmath1 notes above, it changes the game.
Side note, taking off on comment above “all kids needed to do” above^^ … a recently as 4 years ago, unifieds were pretty much all my kid needed to do. We did a couple on campus b/c they were an easy drive (BW was only across town!!) and had 1 prescreen (Ithaca), but other than that, one stop shopping. But… then again, my kid was only auditioning for 10 schools… By FAR the most complicated one to get to was one of her safeties… Muhlenberg does not require an audition for admission, but offers it for scholarships (and I thought it would be a good warmup for D) but they only do it on weekdays… and it is 6 hours away… Ended up quite a goat rodeo.
My son was in the 2010-11 audition cycle… no prescreens at all. I believe the next cycle a lot of schools started prescreening.
Two years ago, Unifieds was just about all my D needed to do. She did two on-campus auditions and one was CCPA while at Unifieds (so just a few blocks from the Palmer House). I think it is still possible to get quite a few auditions done at Unifieds if you plan carefully. Another change I have noted from 4 years ago (even 2 years ago) is the number of schools offering Fall auditions and early decisions. S (class of 2018) and D1 (class of 2020) had only one Fall audition each and only S had a Fall audition with an early decision school.
How many schools now offer ED for a musical theatre BFA? Which ones are they? Besides NYU, Syracuse, and Chapman? Wonder why this is a new change?
In 2014 I “think” Ithaca had either an ED, or an early notification from their fall audition (rather like BW - non binding) … they may not anymore. NYU has both EDI and EDII… what was nice was that AT Chicago unifieds a kid could put themselves in as EDII, one of D’s friends did that…and found out he was accepted about 2 weeks later, rather than having to wait until the END of March (as NYU is always one of the last schools to notify). Caveat - it is a more traditional “binding” ED, meaning they expect you to cancel your other apps/auditions
Isn’t all ED binding? And EA is non binding?
@Notmath1 - I think so… although I have had students tell me they have “non - binding ED notification” from certain schools. I think the terms get mixed (including by me above)… and tbh- I don’t remember if Ithaca was an ED or EA. or if BW called theirs an EA…
I’m not sure what BW calls it officially, but in college-speak, it is EA and it is not binding. I understand CCM will make some EA decisions but I don’t know if that is common. A friend of my S got an offer from CCM 2 years ago in December or January. Last year, Otterbein made a decision “in the room” in December but again, it could be an outlier. Also, UArts may not typically be an EA school but D1 got a fairly quick decision from them after Unifieds.
@artskids - wouldn’t some of those count as “rolling” to a certain extent - b/c not ALL students are getting info at same time. Meaning, BW told all the students who auditioned in November “yes, no maybe” in December… but a couple kids getting offers… is not early action for ALL
I think a student getting “in the room offers” against school norm is just an exception, not the rule. I don’t think that is an indicator of a change in rules. I’m betting they have happened for years, but social media makes it easier to hear about now.
At BW, you are told that you will be notified (yes, no, maybe) from your November audition in December. They also seemed to make a few January offers from their late December MTCA audition last year. The rest wait until March. I’m not sure if that’s rolling with 3 specific notification dates? What is it called at other schools who notify at 3 specific points? When applying ED, aren’t you given a “yes,no, maybe” also? A school with EDI, EDII, and RD is called what? Rolling? I’d love to be able to explain it to friends auditioning this year and looking for advice. Specifically people with older kids in non MT programs, they want to tie the terminology to something they understand.
Yep - hard to tell what to call them for MTs (EA/ED/rolling) since every time there seems to be a rule, there are exceptions! I agree @IfYouOnlyKnew, “in the room” is an exception no matter what! I would say a school like BW that is will give students answers in December from a November audition could be considered EA. The “A” can be yes, no, hold.
I don’t know what they do in regular college land but I thought EA/ED could be yes, no, or deferred to RD. ED is binding, EA is not.
Could someone clarify the difference between rolling admissions and early action?
And @toowonderful do we know when Unifieds started? Some of the really long timers here have not responded.
As linked from College Review: http://www.collegeview.com/articles/article/early-regular-rolling-admissions-college-terminology-explained
EA - "A cross between regular and early decision, these students can apply and receive a decision early, but they are under no obligation to attend that school can wait until May 1 (the normal deadline) to make their choice.
Rolling - “This simply means that candidates can apply anytime within a large window—normally at least six months—and schools simply end the admissions period once they’ve filled all open spots.”
@Notmath1 there are also a few others explained on the link I posted. I join you in seeking clarity.
@Notmath1 - no idea. We need someone like @soozievt I did a quick search, and saw mentions as far back as 2009…
Here is a post from @soozievt from 2004 that mentions Unifieds, so they certainly go back that far and farther:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/140224#Comment_140224
My guess would be that they were started in the 1990’s maybe even in the 1980’s. If you are really curious, you can try emailing Peter Sargent at Webster. He is a great guy and will probably respond.
By the way, for fun you can poke around in the thread listed above and see what MT audition life was like 13 years ago. The farthest that I think you can see back in time is this thread:
As an oldtimer here, I’m fairly certain that Unifieds existed when my daughter auditioned in 2002. She planned to do her auditions on campus, though, so we didn’t investigate Unifieds. My guess is that far fewer kids took advantage of Unifieds back then than do now. We had visited all of the schools on her list prior to audition season and those visits, as well as others, helped in compiling the list of which schools were actually the ones she was interested in.
She decided to apply ED to Tisch as it was, by far, her first choice. All other auditions were scheduled at a similar time with audition dates through sometime in February. Her Tisch audition was in early November and she got her acceptance the second week in December. It was only ED at that time, which was binding. EA was not available at Tisch then. No deferral to RD either. About 1/3 of Tisch’s class came from ED back then. ED kids were also guaranteed the dorm they wanted.
Discussion of studio preference was a part of the interview during the artistic review. I’m not sure when that stopped.
Prescreens are fairly recent. Probably haven’t been around in more widespread use for much more than five years?
Unless something has changed for this year, NYU does not have EA … only ED. But they do have EDI (Dec) and EDII (Feb). If you want to keep your options open, you’ve got to wait for RD at the very end of March. (NYU always seems to be one of the last schools to notify)