As I read through everyones posts and questions it made me curious if there is a consensus on this or if the answers would all be different…
If you could wave a magic wand and have your greatest college audition struggle disappear what would it be?
I’d have to say scheduling auditions. Between the number of schools my daughter is planning to apply to and the limited number of school absences she’s allowed, it’s crazy-making trying to fit them all in.
I close second would be that the rep and monologues that she picked over the summer did not change a month before prescreens. That’s stressing me right out, but she seems pretty calm about it.
Make sure your child stays healthy! I’ve read some heartbreaking posts about kids who’ve had to cancel auditions because they’re sick. And the darn audition season is right in the middle of cold and flu season! Get the flu shot, take the vitamins (especially vitamin c), wash-wash-wash hands, get enough sleep and stay hydrated! We also added an allergy pill daily (winter stuffiness from allergies can turn into sick sinuses) and elderberry for a few weeks right as the height of the season approached. For the first time in his entire life, my son did not get sick this winter. He slacked on all of these and got a whopper of a cold in April, but by then he was done.
This is so true!! Didn’t think of that.
I would say if I could wave a magic wand over the audition process I would have liked objective info on what the desired/target student “profile” is for each school before we picked a school list. I think the 2024ers have more info due to @beachymom 's excellent post on picking schools but my magic wand would go farther and actually put down things like “needs to be a trained dancer” or “looking for potential” as things the auditors actually ljudge per school. My 2022er wasted time and energy applying to a couple of schools that weren’t right for her - not too many but clearing those off her list might have given her more time to do auditions elsewhere.
I’ll definitely check out @beachymom’s post! and I completely agree.
Staying healthy.
@mindatwork can’t believe we still haven’t cured the common cold ugh.
Not our struggle but what helped was staying healthy and keeping things in perspective by not losing sight of the big picture. And don’t extra stress your kid, whatever their triggers are.
I would take away the waiting. My D just finished her first final audition. I wish the school would just tell the ones they are not interested in already, and if you are still being considered, send that out as well. It would be nice to know they are cut as soon as the schools decide that. I am sure some schools don’t know on everyone, but they do know on some.
I am grateful for the pre-screen for this reason. However, schools that don’t have pre-screens and early auditions should give the kids a break and let them know who is definitely not being considered.