My D will be attending NYU Tisch. My parent learnings - after a few wins and losses - include:
(1) Do try to visit schools of interest before Sr. Year. They will be too busy with classes, applications and probably shows, to visit schools other than for auditions. Best to go during the school year - not summer or breaks - so the get a sense of the vibe. 2) When visiting the schools, prioritize seeing the theatre facilities vs. staying for whole general tour or the general info sessions. Peel off from the tour to linger in the Arts buildings if they let you. We got great “informal” tours at Bard and Northeastern just by asking staff who we saw on the way. If you can’t swing a daytime trip, go for a show (a good idea anyway to see the quality and how well the community and other students support their friends in the theatre program), (3) Start the idea factory for the application/audition prep early in the summer after Jr year. Remember for the Theatre Kid, the regular college essays might be harder and more stressful than prepping monologues and taping the pre screens. We hired a counselor who was really helpful to her in brainstorming a topic and she was able to get her main essay done early, then afterwards she worked on picking and prepping monologues. There might be totally separate readers on your main essay who won’t care if you’re a great singer if they think your essay is crap and you’re not prepared for the level of academic rigor of the school (4) get what extra training you can given location and costs to prove your serious interest and to distinguish yourself. She did a day program at a local college one summer and a residential program right before her sr year. It definitely helped her confidence and took some of the “mystery” and fear out of the college acting life and audition process. She also met good kids who she’s kept in touch with and began building her network early. (5) Apply early action to academic safeties that are non audition schools. It was much nicer for her to go into auditions at her reach schools knowing that she was going to college somewhere and that she could study acting at a school she liked at least a little bit. You might also get $$ from those safeties which is nice news at a time when all these kids are under a lot of pressure. (6) chart out the deadlines so you can prioritize what applications and auditions to do when. There will be conflicts! Per the note above, you might want to get an application in early to a EA school that is more of an academic safety but that is not on the top of your list. Likewise, try to schedule your first audition at a school that’s lower on your wish list. Good luck everyone!
We are back in school and in the thick of things. Can you give me examples of “academic safeties that are non audition schools”? I feel I am hearing about the most competitive programs again and again and creating a list with range, whether academic or audition (or both) is a challenge. Thank you!
Drew University 