Lessons learned during application and audition process

College Majors Musical Theater Major
1

I am by no means an expert, but having just completed a grueling process with my D, I thought I would share my thoughts in the hopes that it might help others who are as clueless as we were.

First, anyone planning to major in MT should consider visiting colleges beginning freshman year if possible. You may not want to take any major trips solely for that purpose, but try to visit local colleges or plan stops to nearby campuses when on vacation. We started over spring break of junior year, and ended up not having time to visit several, including a couple that were on her final short list. My D ended up going to some campuses for auditions or scholarship interviews, but her schedule didn’t allow time for a tour or meeting with anyone in the department.

Second, do your research. Know what type of program each college offers. Look at the required classes for the degree. You can find this on most college websites. We wasted some time pursuing colleges that really didn’t fit what my D wanted. For instance, Butler does not offer tap classes. You may also find some hidden gems. Some colleges that do not offer a BFA in MT, offer enough performance classes to essentially get the same education. Look at the performance season. Find their theater’s Facebook page which may include posts about additional shows outside the main stage season, Get an idea of how many performance opportunities they offer.

You want to do those first two things early because beginning the summer before senior year, you will need to begin applying for admissions, applying for scholarships and preparing your audition pieces.

Apply for lots of scholarships. Many of the great MT schools are private. They will give money, but my D was told by a couple of schools that she had maxed out their scholarship offerings between academics and talent, and it was still only about 1/2 of the total leaving $20-30K still out of pocket. And that is why you should definitely plan to apply to whichever of your local state schools has the best MT program. Keep in mind that even though you are looking at a performance based program, schools will still give you merit awards based on academics, so those ACT/SAT scores and GPA are important. Most schools will have a chart showing how much money to expect with a given GPA/test score combination. Some will have additional scholarships that you may need to write an essay and/or attend an interview to receive. We also had several waive application fees and essays because of her scores. You will apply to a lot of schools, so it does add up.

The most grueling part of all of this is the audition process. So, one big piece of advice - don’t overschedule senior year or the summer before. As hard as this will be, consider not being in your school’s fall or winter performances. You want to put a lot of time into auditions and applications and you want to be available on the dates that schools hold auditions. Having one less performance on your application will not affect your chances. It really comes down to the auditions and you want to put your efforts into that. My D took 4 AP classes and had a major role in her winter play. She ended up not being available to go to Unifieds because of conflicts with the play and she did not get enough sleep this entire year with her tough course load and the application/audition process. I do suggest getting at least one audition done early, like in November, but not a favorite school. I found that my D improved with every audition, so think about the order you do them in. Save favorite schools (and at least one safety school) for a little later.

Know what every school you are considering requires for your songs and monologues before you begin to select them. Do they want modern or classic, before 1950, after 1970, 32 bars or the entire song, 1 or 2 minute monologues? Hopefully, you will be able to get this on the colleges’ websites by the summer before senior year. Also know that you will probably need to make some videos. Several schools require them as a prescreen before even allowing you to audition. For others, you may not be able to travel to their campus for various reasons. Know what they want on the video. In addition to specifics I listed above, they may want the videos shot full-body, 3/4 body, or shoulders up. I don’t know if any school would eliminate a student over technicalities like that, but why take the chance. Be sure to shoot a test video and take a good look. We discovered that the camera was autofocusing the entire time, causing it to zoom in and out slightly. We could only see that after downloading the video onto our computer. If you have a voice teacher, I recommend having them accompany you while taping your videos. My D did this and it really helped. She was more relaxed and confident since she knew her teacher would let her know if she was off in any way.

I hope this gives a little help to someone out there.

2

I share my thoughts on a Facebook Group for musical teens. Here they are, but please note that these aren’t all my words, some of them I stole (if that’s the right word) from this group :slight_smile:

  1. Best piece of advice I can give anyone is to start early!! Pick your songs, monologues and tape your pre-screens over the summer after 11th grade. I know you've all heard it before but it's absolutely true. Senior year is busy and stressful. Starting early will give you piece of mind.
  2. Cast a wide net. Pick a variety of different schools and a variety of options because the competition is fierce. Every kid I saw and heard was beautiful and amazingly talented. I'm sure your kid is too, just like mine, but so is every other kid! My daughter is a petite brunette soprano. She's gotten a ton of Leads throughout her MT life, but if I tell you how many petite brunette sopranos we saw throughout this process (many of whom looked just like my daughter) you would not believe me, literally hundreds and hundreds.

Along the same lines, remember that the acceptance rate at many of these schools is 1-3 %. That’s not a joke, it’s the cold hard truth. This year many top notch schools had close to 2000 applicants, and they accept anywhere from 12-20 kids (half boys, half girls). I’ve been told girls make up 75% of the audition pool, so if you do the math, and have a daughter like I do… 75% of 2000 (original applicant pool) then there are approximately 1500 girls vying for 10 acceptances. That’s a less than 1% acceptance rate at the top schools.

I’m not saying this to be a Debbie Downer, but to keep it real :slight_smile: And also because this was a mistake we made. My D was only interested in a BFA in MT, she would not even talk about applying to a BA as a safety school. My D is smart, with very high grades and ACT and she should have applied to some great schools that may not offer a BFA, but offer fantastic BA programs (Wesleyan comes to mind…that’s where Lin Manuel Miranda went and it sure didn’t hurt him that he wasn’t in a BFA MT program).

  1. Research the schools your interested to see if they are a good fit for your child. Do they want a small conservatory, or a big school with more college-like experience? City or small town. There are a million different options and tons of great schools if you do your homework.
  2. Fit in dance classes! I know how busy your child is, but they are important. My daughter is a vocalist, then an actress, then a dancer. She's more of a mover than a dancer. She also has experience choreographing... she's choreographed 4 shows at our high school over the past 2 years. She loved the dance calls, but I truly believe those with real dance training have an advantage because some years there are programs that are specifically looking for dancers. I know of one girl this year who will freely admit she's a dancer not a singer and she already has an acceptance.
  3. If money is an issue for you, consider attending one of the Unifieds. They are held in NY, Chicago and LA. They are a good way to audition for a bunch of school from all over the country in one central location. We attended NY Unifieds and my D loved the entire experience. BUT, AND THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT, if you decide to attend Unifieds make sure you sign up early for audition slots because many schools fill up way before the deadlines listed on their websites.
  4. Visit the campuses and see the school's musical productions if you can! We did this for the local schools. It's a good indicator of the professionalism and level of talent at the school.
  5. I don't know much about the professional coaches out there. We did not use one but I'm told they have great results, so if you can afford it, I say go for it. And by the same degree, if you can't afford one, don't fret. We didn't use one and my D is doing just fine. There are also some amazing, intensive summer programs out there that are worth researching, but again, expensive. My D never did one, but I'm sure she would have enjoyed it if she had.
  6. I've been told not to read to much into what goes on in the audition room. I've hear countless stories of kids who were told during their audition they were the next Broadway Star only to get rejected and, likewise, similar stories where kids thought they bombed their audition only to be admitted later
  7. And this is most important.... Enjoy the time with your child, keep your sense of humor and try not to second guess yourself. You can't possibly get everything right, and in the end, know that it really doesn't matter. Your child is enough. YOU are enough. People will tell you that they will end up in the right place and you won't believe them when you are in the thick of it, but they are probably right. Believe them. (I'm still hoping this part is true for us ;))

BREAK LEGS EVERYONE!!!

3

@MTMOM17 thank you. You put many things more succinctly than I did. Just a couple of things I want to add.

Acceptance rates are usually 50-100% higher than the number of students they want in each class. So, if a school wants 18-20 students each year, they will accept about 27-40. That’s because they know they many students they accept will have other options and may turn them down. That does make the odds a little better.

I do agree with casting a wide net. My D applied to 25 schools, and auditioned at about 1/2. But I wish we had done more upfront research. She ended up applying to and auditioning for schools that really did not fit her needs, and may have missed a couple that would have been better for her. Do include a wide range on that list. Don’t limit yourself to only those you see on the top 10 lists. EVERYONE applies to those.

One other thing to consider is the success stories from the schools, but don’t put too much weight on the Broadway successes. While that is the pinnacle, that’s a small part of the industry. Look at alums and contacts within regional theater, cruise lines, Disney, Branson, etc. That’s where the first jobs are more likely to be.

4

Thank you @ajmomma , but like I said a lot of what I wrote I took from someone else, so don’t give me credit :slight_smile:

I agree with what you added… do your research upfront, my D also applied to a few programs which did not suit her and missed others which would have been a better “fit”

5

Hi- mom of a junior with a question about researching curricula. Some schools have sample four year plans which ar very helpful. For other schools I can find the curriculum for the major in the college’s catalog, but it is really hard to tell from some catalogs what a four year plan would look like. For example, I was not able to tell from Otterbein’s catalog that almost daily dance class was a feature of the MT curriculum: I only found out from reading through some threads on CC. Does anyone have any other suggestions on how to figure out curricula? And thank you all for the helpful suggestions noted above!!

6

I found thAt talking to someone in the department was the best way. Some dance classes are treated like labs. You get one hour of credit but spend several hours a week in class. That is hard to know from online info. Call the schools you’re most interested in. Takes a little time but not as much as a visit. I wish we had done more of that up front.

7

Honestly when I was doing this a couple years ago, I took note of the programs that had a web page that was easy to follow and navigate. That included easily locating the curriculum and the inclusion of a sample four-year plan. Not having those things didn’t rule anyone out, but in my mind if they were making it difficult for me to find the most basic information about their program, it did give me pause about the organization of the department. This is theatre - image is a factor!