<p>My D is a junior and plans to major in Acting BFA. We have narrowed our list to 15 schools. I took a look at when these schools will be auditioning this year, so I can get an idea of how we will audition next year.
We will have 14 auditions so there is no way these can all be accomplished at Unifieds and regionals in New York in early Feb. I planned it out so that we can do 8 of the auditions on campus at the schools from September through January, with quite a few in January, and then 6 auditions at Unifieds/regionals in early Feb.</p>
<p>For those of you that have auditioned, does this sound about right? Or can you fit more in at Unifieds? I am concerned about trying to do too many over three days and not doing well because she is tired. </p>
<p>The other problem is that my D's senior year musical will be rehearsing throughout this period, and there is always a long rehearsal on Saturdays. Many of the auditions times are Saturdays in January. I'm sure many other students auditioning for college face this as well. I think my D is the only student in her drama club looking at going on to college for acting, so it's not like the auditions affect anyone else in her school cast though. We can miss a couple rehearsals, but my plan includes using the Friday auditions days instead. She will have to miss school and not rehearsal. (There's something wrong with that! haha)</p>
<p>We did it very much as you did-- and I was glad, because she learned so much from her earlier auditions. I think you could probably get a few more in at Unifieds but I do think it’s important to spread it out. One thing we did was to have some early notifications in there-- once she got into a school she liked, she cancelled 4 auditions. Different people will react differently to the audition stress-- all these kids love to perform, but doing a monologue for a bunch of judges is a LOT different than performing with an ensemble for an audience. For D, at the time, that stress was awful and she just wanted to be done. For others it might be a lark or at least an adrenaline rush.</p>
<p>Your plans sound very good. I second Gwen’s advice. I hope your daughter enjoys herself and has great success!</p>
<p>My D got much more nervous at Unifieds than we expected and was much happier at on-campus auditions. In retrospect I wish we had known that and done more on campus, but you never know these things.</p>
<p>I am sorry your D will be in production during auditions - but maybe that will be a nice distraction. My D gave up a HS play for auditions (she had to be gone the weekend of performances) and she was very sad about that. Fortunately she was able to find a community production to fill the gap, but I think it made her audition experience even more bittersweet knowing her friends at school were all in a play that she couldn’t be in, or even see. It’s such a complicated time!</p>
<p>My D is a senior preparing to audition and we are finding it tricky to find the time for it all. She is doing a show this week at school, but will have to take some time off from productions for a few months to focus on audition material, voice lessons, and practicing! The rehearsal times and homework demands are making it too hard to work on college app stuff. She is doing Unifieds, but there are some schools with on-campus only auditions and then some just dont fit in the Unifieds time frame.
Dramamom- your audition timing plan sounds like ours… and we are hoping it works :)</p>
<p>Don’t forget that it is perfectly okay to take audition material from shows you are actually working on. Sort of kills two birds with one stone.</p>
<p>Adelphi’s BFA Acting Audition dates for this year:</p>
<p>Saturday October 27, 2012
Saturday November 17, 2012
Saturday December 8, 2012
Saturday February 23, 2013
Saturday March 23, 2013
Saturday April 13, 2013</p>
<p>They do not go to Unifieds. They do accept video submissions and will make private appointments as well. And they generally make decisions soon after each audition, although you should probably ask about that specifically if you’re curious.</p>
<p>Muhlenberg auditions September through March…basically all year. So they are the earliest. They dont require an audition but it helps with scholarships. Carnegie-Mellon has one Saturday in November as part of the sleeping bag weekend. SUNY Purchase has one Saturday in December. University of the Arts has a couple Saturdays in November and one in December. So, that makes 5 on our list. They are all drive-able for us too which helps. If you aren’t in the northeast these could be tough.</p>
<p>Fordham has fall auditions (it’s an auditioned BA). Emerson has an early action audition date, as does Hartt (both in December, I think–these, like UArts, will give you an early notification, too.)</p>
<p>I do remember you once mentioning that Arcadia has fall auditions, though. Fordham does theirs in the winter, on campus, but around the time of the NYC Unifieds, so one can do that all in a single trip. My daughter did NYC regionals for NYU, CMU, Mason Gross, Fordham, Juilliard, and a bunch others (it’s a blur, only a few months later) all the the same week.</p>
<p>Just a reminder that Coastal Carolina now requires a prescreen DVD. So if you are interested in the November 10 audition, keep that in mind. A couple of benefits to auditioning at CCU at that early date - the early date is less well attended than the spring dates; you have the chance to work your pieces and get feedback from the faculty in the master classes, which can be helpful for future auditions; and they do sometimes offer “early” acceptances from those fall auditions.</p>
<p>Yes, I see Syracuse does have audition dates in the fall. I didn’t note those in my planning because we want to do Ithaca as well in one trip. Ithaca doesn’t have a fall date. But in January you can do Syracuse on Friday and Ithaca on Saturday.</p>
<p>When D was making audition plans, we had to be very cost-conscious. We narrowed it down to an East Coast trip (her top choices were all in that area) and the Chicago Unifieds and she did as many at the Unifieds as possible as long as they were schools that interested her. On the East Coast trip, she spent 10 days looking at schools and auditioning and took trains and buses from one site to the next (she went alone, we just could not afford both of us to go). She prepped over the holidays and did the auditions January-February so only missed couple of months of production opportunities. Her safety was a local U so that was no problem at all to fit in. One thing to consider is how your high school looks at these absences. Although D was number 1 in her class, and kept up with the work, the admin raised an eyebrow to the number of days missed (about 3 weeks total) and actually could have considered her truant and failed her for the six weeks. Still, that grading period was her highest GPA ever, she kept her class rank, and now attends her top choice school. One more thing, I don’t think D could have been a hotel guest alone if she was not already 18. Her birthday was the day the East Coast trip started. Good luck to all as the audition process begins!</p>
<p>I can’t imagine my son making that trip on his own, but maybe by the time he is a senior, he will be able to handle it. What good experience that must have been for your daughter!</p>
<p>I am glad to hear from everyone that this is the major undertaking and complex time management problem I feel that it is!! I am relieved.
writestuff… wow, that was quite a trip! Yes, money is a consideration but we are fortunate to be smack in the middle of a lot of the schools. We can do quite a few day trips. And I drive a Prius! Now that I have a plan too and know what is needed I will try and save hotel points etc for the next year and a half and maybe I can get a few free nights here and there. All in all though, I am estimating that I need 6 grand for all the app fees and travel. (We still need to go to Chicago and see 3 schools there sometime in the next 6 months)
My D will miss 6 days of school for this over four weeks. Manageable. Her course load next year will be lighter too. We loaded up this year. I am more concerned about the school musical… as a senior she will have a lead.
oh well, somehow it will get done!</p>