My D said her biggest takeaway from the process was to be genuine. Don’t try to be what you think the auditors are looking for. Understand who YOU are and sell the heck out of YOU in the audition.
At the onset, she was overly worried about if the auditors would like her or not…she was most at ease just being herself and true to her goals as an artist. She’s a super artsy-fartsy type, so schools that were very rigid and prim and proper and really into themselves ended up not appealing to her because she felt they weren’t genuine.
Down the line, schools that appreciated her honesty offered her acceptance. Those that didn’t, she was rejected. It made those rejections a lot easier because she knew from the start that those schools were not a fit.
And most of all: Fit fit fit fit fit fit fit.