<p>So we went down the wrong path, sorry to have intruded.</p>
<p>Good Luck.</p>
<p>Big ShoesâŠ^^^not at all! I think it is an eye opener for some of us to learn about these experiences that you shared as they are not common across the board. People should know that this exists. But it is also important, as alwaysamom points out, that prospective students realize that the majority of students are not admitted to most BFA programs through such events and in fact, many BFA programs do not attend that event (none of the programs on my Dâs list are at that event, for example). But things vary across the country and over the years on CC, I have learned a great deal from people like you who share experiences that I wasnât as aware about and are not common for all applicants. I think it is also good that newbies realize that lots and lots and lots of kids get in the regular 'ole wayâŠwhere the colleges donât know them at all until audition day. Thatâs how it worked for my kid and many others. And it is important to note that colleges who hold audition dates only bother to do so when they are truly looking to fill the class and it is not filled up (Point Park seems to be the exception). </p>
<p>Please, by all means, continue to share. I think putting these experiences in perspective also is helpful to those new to the process. I think your sonâs experiences so far sound extraordinary and Iâd love to follow his journey.</p>
<p>Couldnât agree more with soozie. I was very glad to hear about the thespian groups because I ahdnât known about them before. The more info I can gather on this process, the better. Hope to see you in Chicago or elsewhere Bigshoes!</p>
<p>In September last year I started a thread entitled: âon the spot audition room acceptances?â that included a lot of discussion of Thespians, the impact of these early acceptances on numbers etc. Iâd link it here but I donât know how to do that. I was prompted to ask about it because I kept reading posts from parents from the 2011 group that mentioned that their son or daughter was already in at various places and I didnât understand how that could be and worried that all of the spots would already be gone by the time my daughter auditioned. I had never heard of Thespians and by the time I started this thread and learned about it, the Nebraska thing was long over and we were less than a month away from our state equivalent (smaller scale) which thanks to a CC parent I got the info on in time for my daughter to attend. </p>
<p>It is true that the majority but not all of the schools that take the time to attend these events have to work harder for their admissions, but that doesnât mean they are not GREAT schools with wonderful programs that are truly worth a look. For some, the only reason that they are not the hot school is because they have to overcome a location disadvantage and indeed, a handful do actually offer to cover the travel expenses for a student that they really want to have a closer look at their program. </p>
<p>Those early on-the-spot offers do not go to everyone so getting one or many is pretty great. To address jeffandannâs concern about wanting to know if some number of seats were already offered up before they ever see anyone auditioning in the usual Dec â March cycle, yes indeed they are. But itâs safe to assume that the schools that do that are the ones that are working extra hard to fill their seats and not everyone that is offered a seat at their program will take it. They have to gross pretty high to net what they want. It doesnât mean these are not wonderful schools it is just the reality of how they have found they need to work in order to bring strong talent into their programs.</p>
<p>The Nebraska thing is over but do check to see if there is any state or regional thespian thing that you can plug into if you are applying for college this fall. I have no idea on a state by state basis if that is the case but were it not for CC, I would never have known that we had one going on in mid-October last year less than 5 miles from my house.</p>
<p>It sounds like we need a list of organizations that have auditions for theatre colleges before regular auditions!
Virginia has one in late October in Reston, VA. <a href=âhttp://www.vtasite.org/files/Download/factsheet_12.pdf[/url]â>http://www.vtasite.org/files/Download/factsheet_12.pdf</a> Students do NOT have to attend with a school.<br>
Start a thread, perhaps?</p>
<p>^^Thank you so much for posting this! Our school doesnât participate in VTA, so it wasnât on our radarâŠI will have to dig and find out which college programs will be there. This is actually something we could manage in the fall despite all the potential schedule conflicts. Thanks again! :)</p>
<p>Southeastern Theatre Conference. Dates are usually in March. High school juniors may audition as well as high school seniors and college transfer students:
[Undergraduate</a> School](<a href=âhttp://www.setc.org/undergrad-school]Undergraduateâ>http://www.setc.org/undergrad-school)</p>
<p>The list of schools attending in 2012:
<a href=âhttp://www.setc.org/images/stories/undergrad/UGrad_Recruiters_2012.pdf[/url]â>http://www.setc.org/images/stories/undergrad/UGrad_Recruiters_2012.pdf</a></p>
<p>Times3- The VTA audition in the fall is a great âwarm-upâ for the remaining auditions! I stumbled upon it quite by accident, myself.</p>
<p>This is just one school and the places that they go before Unifieds even start:</p>
<p>June 25-30, 2012 International Thespians, Lincoln, NE </p>
<p>October 13, 2012
Washington Thespians, Seattle, WA </p>
<p>October 26, 2012
Florida Theatre Conference, Gainesville, FL</p>
<p>November 15-16, 2012
N. Texas Auditions/Collin County, Plano, TX </p>
<p>November 19, 2012
Greater San Antonio Area, San Antonio, TX </p>
<p>Nov 29 - Dec 1, 2012
Texas Thespians, Houston, TX </p>
<p>December 7, 2012
Colorado Thespians, Denver, CO </p>
<p>This is just one school, one large, really good school that all but a few would be happy to have their kid go to. Some of these events are bigger than others, some have so called less desireable schools, and in the case of this school, all you will get is acceptence down to their university for and âofficialâ audition. This school only sees about 100 kids a year and accepts around a dozen. Getting an acceptence from them at a festival means you donât have to send them a prescreening video. </p>
<p>Youâll have to decide if its worth it or not, it was for us, our son has an audition slot there this fall.</p>
<p>Since I already went through auditions last year, I have not read this thread until now, but I found I have something in common with BigShoesâ S. I attended a PA High School and also attended my stateâs Governorâs School of the Arts. This allowed me and any senior student who attended either of these programs for Visual or Performing Arts to audition for colleges in October of my Senior year - Career Day at my PA HS. Each department had their own auditions. </p>
<p>Our MT auditions took a full day. In the morning we prepped with the accompanist. Then we all took a dance class together while auditors watched. In the afternoon, we each went into a large room and did a song/monologue for all auditors at the same time. Afterward, the colleges posted call-back lists and you could meet with the college rep(s) and get personal feedback. </p>
<p>I was given 4 offers out of 12 call backs that day and one of those became one of my two safety schools. I REALLY loved their Theatre Chair and even though the college was not on my initial list, I added it after meeting her because she was amazing. The other three offers were to programs that would not have worked for me, so I never applied and did not even mention them on CCâs acceptances. I did get call-backs to two top tier programs that day but they would never have offered any spots until they saw more of the talent pool, Iâm sure. </p>
<p>The spots that were offered to the majority of us that day were for programs most would consider safety schools. Only one boy was given an offer to a very top Acting ProgramâŠbut if you saw him perform, you would immediately agree - his talent speaks for itself.</p>
<p>Career Day helped me prepare for audition season, build a little confidence, and helped me lock safeties into place, but the the majority of my audition season was January and February 2012 like the rest of students on CC. </p>
<p>In my opinion, the best strategy is to audition for several safety or lower on your list schools initially, do your favorites in the middle and end with whatever is left. Spots do get taken along the way, so auditioning earlier means you have a better chance at those spots before theyâre gone. </p>
<p>And as far as Point ParkâŠsome of their spots for girls are probably already gone. Somehow they admitted more girls than they could actually take last year, so they had to put some accepted girls back on a waiting list and promised them they could be in the MT class of 2012/2013 without re-auditioning. Not sure how many will do this, but there could be less spots for girls because of it. One of my MT friends got caught up in this 
Luckily she had lots of offers and had not turned any down, so she had other options for this year.</p>
<p>There are college auditions held at the Illinois High School Theatre Festival which is held in January every year. I checked the website and they donât have the schools posted yet. D doesnât remember anyone from our school auditioning there, but I will definitely look into it when the time comes.</p>
<p>The master classes that went on at the Nebraska festival had some interesting people teaching them. By looking through the list my son was able to make a few nice contacts, one for future work with a large casting company. </p>
<p>There where benefits to the festival for us, but you have to get in and work it. There where schools in attendence that are on the BIG list and the SMALL list. They are there for a reason, and not just to set up future auditons, at least not all anyway. Please donât get me wrong, Iâll say it again, though I donât know why, but this is by no means part of some larger bigger better formula. We still have a long way to go, this was a scholorshipped opporunity to go to a festival that had some workability in my sons case.</p>
<p>If it works for some kids, great, if not, there are other ways, traditional and non-traditional. There is a school out there for our kids.</p>
<p>Back to my spread sheets now. UGH!</p>
<p>As I have learned over the years on this forum, things differ in various regions of the country. For instance, some areas of the country have lots of theater type awards that do not exist at all in my neck of the woods. It has been interesting to read about. As well, the Nebraska Thespian event or even the other ones mentioned here or the sites that BigShoes said that one MT program goes to, seems focused on the midwest and west and Florida but not the east or northeast, which is where I am from. We have NOTHING like that here in VT. Further, we donât have performing arts high schools either (which a student above shared about her early audition experiences there)! So, the only avenue for lots of kids that i know is the regular 'ole way of applying and auditioning at the colleges (or Unifieds) and the schools not knowing a thing about the applicant before that time.</p>
<p>Here is a link to the thread that halflokum mentioned above and a couple links to past threads regarding the International Thespians Convention:</p>
<p><a href=âhttp://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1212685-spot-audition-room-acceptances.html?highlight=on+the+spot[/url]â>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1212685-spot-audition-room-acceptances.html?highlight=on+the+spot</a></p>
<p><a href=âhttp://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1112125-international-thespians-auditions.html?highlight=thespian[/url]â>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1112125-international-thespians-auditions.html?highlight=thespian</a></p>
<p><a href=âhttp://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/486294-thespians-college-acceptances.html?highlight=thespian[/url]â>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/486294-thespians-college-acceptances.html?highlight=thespian</a></p>
<p>I think, too, that what Point Park did was even worse than not accepting latecomers to the audition process, but to rescind acceptances after they were given, by putting people who did not deposit early onto the waitlist. A number of students who post on CC had already declined offers from other schools because they thought they were going to PPU!</p>
<p>At VTA most of the programs that require an audition for admission to the program still require an on campus audition, so it is important to confirm the policies at each school. However, some of the non-auditioned schools do seem to sometimes use the VTA auditions for talent award consideration. All schools there use the auditions as an opportunity to meet students who they think could be a good fit for their particular program. Also can be a good warm-up for upcoming auditions.</p>
<p>SETC in March has auditions for HS Juniors, Seniors, and Transfer students. Can only speak for where I teach⊠the March auditions are too late for seniors and transfer students, since students would have had to apply academically yo the university before SETC. It is a great way for us to meet HS Juniors to encourage them to apply to our program. Many of my colleagues attend the SETC auditions for the same reason, although those at schools with rolling admission may be better able to take advantage of the Senior and Transfer auditions and portfolio reviews.</p>
<p>Overall, for us these auditions are used more for recruiting purposes, since we require much more extensive on campus auditions than the 60-90seconds at VTA or SETC. </p>
<p>Sent from my DROID RAZR using CC</p>
<p>Finally have an audition coach!! So happy that we can tun the prep stuff over to a professional! We were really stressing about having guidance.</p>
<p>Congrats, Walker1194! I think the hardest part for my D was choosing the material. Her coaches spent time getting to know her so they could pick material - both songs and monologues - that really suit her. I think getting a coach is worth it for that alone.</p>
<p>It seems eerily quiet on this thread latelyâŠthe calm before the storm, or is everyone frantically doing stuff? I feel like we are in a holding pattern, waiting for the non-Unified schools to announce their audition datesâŠ</p>
<p>I agree about it being eerily quiet on the CC boards. My D is busy working as a camp counselor by day and rehearsing for a community theater production at night. She is still trying to get to some voice lessons and coaching sessions. Iâm urging her to get essays done on the weekends when she isnât rehearsing, and I am lining up headshots and dance choreo (for the prescreening DVD) for end of August/beginning of September. I feel like, with the help of our MTCA coaches, we are in great shape going in to the fall. Incidentally, ALL of the schools she is applying to have posted their 2012/13 dates. Now we are waiting for her high school to finalize their calendar so we can firm up her audition schedule. How is everyone else using their summer?</p>
<p>Really, Shaun0203? Our Ds must be applying to totally different schools, b/c only a handful of my Dâs schools have audition dates up! (BTW, we are using MTCA as well). My D is at Stagedoor for 6 weeks, so she doesnât get home until August 19th. She tried to get as much done as possible before leaving, but with 5 summer reading books for upcoming AP classes (she got 3.5 read before she left), it was tough. I am feeling the panic creep inâŠIâm just grateful she has her songs and monologues chosen! Oh, and half her dance for pre-screen DVDs has been choreographed and practiced. But thatâs itâŠ</p>