<p>@tramsmom Yes, I think some level of financial need is probably an element of her scholarship program, and also maybe minority status. But this is all total speculation (on my part, at least!). </p>
<p>@elsacc me too as far as speculation. I donāt believe she publishes any actual scholarship criteria anywhere. </p>
<p>Mary Anna will work via Skype. We live extremely far from Texas and Skype worked well for us. Same for the vocal coach in NYC she connected us with. We did that via Skype also. It was not an issue. </p>
<p>Her scholarship students represent a wide range of circumstances and i believe all demonstrate some financial need. All are talented. But so are her non-scholarship students. She has many non scholarship students who get into top programs as well. Unfortunately not every talented kid can get a coaching scholarship. But I think itās wonderful that she offers some. I donāt think awards have anything to do with it. My Dās year there were Jimmy, YoungArts and professional kids in the mix who were not on scholarship. So I do think it is need based to a large degree although talent is certainly also a consideration.</p>
<p>āMy Dās year there were Jimmy, YoungArts and professional kids in the mix who were not on scholarship. So I do think it is need based to a large degree although talent is certainly also a consideration.ā</p>
<p>That was equally true this year. </p>
<p>My D is a Moo scholarship student now and it is not need based at all. In a very nonchalant way I emailed Moo about her coaching sessions and what it would take to get a scholarship. After a few questions about what my D wanted to do she asked me to email her any videos of my D performing which I did. She immediately responded saying my D was talented and emailed my D that she would help her for free! No talk of financial need ever transpired. No paperwork ever filled out. In fact I had already paid for a workshop. She has been very accommodating with her time and help, suggesting monologues and working with her on them. </p>
<p>Well then, that clears that up! I never did think to ask ā¦ ;)) </p>
<p>It seems odd to me that a coach would offer āscholarshipsā that had no requirement of financial need. I donāt get that.</p>
<p>I think there are students with financial need who receive scholarships. It obviously is not the only criteria. Just like talent scholarships at colleges, some scholarships are offered regardless of need if the school or coach really wants to work with them. Nothing wrong with that.</p>
<p>Thereās a big difference between colleges offering merit or talent scholarships and the situation with coaches, in my opinion. </p>
<p>Wow. Please allow me to point you in the direction of talented and perfectly smart and capable MTs and their music major and dance major friends with an arsenal of material who know the drill and could coach you for what? $25-$50/hour because thatās a lot better than the 10.50/hour they make in the survival jobs they are working.</p>
<p>Except, yeah. Doing that would take a leap of faith and isnāt as pretty and packaged. Iām not at all anti pretty and packaged but I have seen the other way work. These numbers simply are NOT a must. Iām sad if people think they are.</p>
<p>BRAVO. This is terrific. As far as awarding free services, it seems collegeauditioncoach has different criteria for different individual situations, and personally, I like that approach very much. I wish more of these experienced college coaches offered some kind of financial aid. Maybe they will begin doing so, or maybe they already do. We would benefit, as would others!</p>
<p>This comes up every single year and we rehash the same things each time. Many of us have used coaches and have seen tremendous value in doing so. Some of us have strong feelings one way or another about certain coaches. I for one have shared several times the story of a particular student who, completely uncoached but brimming with talent, earned a spot at Carnegie Mellon a few years back. Similar stories abound. Indeed, many of us point out that students with excellent resources and support systems wonāt need a coach at all. But these stories also donāt diminish the experiences of countless students and parents on CC and off, who have benefitted from the expertise of the top coaches in this field in guiding us through what is arguably a difficult time ā especially for those of us who were completely unfamiliar with the process. Yes, there is a value to that. So letās all try to be respectful of all the opinions here. Do you absolutely need a coach to get into a BFA program? No. Are coaches inherently evil? No. Will this topic come up again next year on CC? Yes. </p>
<p>@halflokum MTCA āemploysā recent grads as coaches. They have a small army of people you can employ under their umbrella. Its useful if you are targeting a particular school. </p>
<p>I agree, @halflokum, coaching is not a must. But there are people for whom coaching is worth the expense. we are from an area where few people before us had auditioned for college MT programs. The assistance of a coach who understood the college audition process was extremely helpful. The advice given was far different from what local voice teachers and drama teachers had given. Using a coach was not about creating a pretty package. It was about finding the right schools, being guided in the process, finding audition material and being prepared. For us, it was money well spent.</p>
<p>@alwaysamom - Iām not sure why it is different for an audition coach to offer a scholarship to someone who is talented versus a school offering a scholarship to someone who is talented. They both want that talented person on their roster so they offer a scholarship. </p>
<p>As always, there are some families for whom coaching is a good fit and some for who it is not. I hope we do not begrudge those who choose to work with a coach just because we may not have decided to do that ourselves. Every year talented kids, coached not coached, will do well in auditions and will receive offers to great schools. You just have to pick what is right for your particular circumstances.</p>
<p>It is so so true that often times drama teachers, voice teachers, college counselors, are entirely clueless about the MT audition process. They are completely well-meaning, but often just donāt know what this whole process is about, or worse, are operating on outdated (more than 3-4 years ago) information.</p>
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<p>Iām not alwaysamom, but just to respond to this commentā¦</p>
<p>I can see why a school wants talented students. Why does a coach need to have a very talented applicant on their roster? What is the benefit? Typically, when someone offers a service and does pro bono work, most think of that in terms of helping those who canāt afford the service.</p>
<p>Coaches advertise their services by touting their success rate. So a kid who will be a strong candidate for top programs is valuable to the coach who will later advertise her services by listing those top programs where her students gained admission. Offering free services based on merit makes perfect sense in this context. The kidās success becomes the coachās success and potential students canāt help but see a great track record as evidence of the coachesā value.</p>
<p>vocal1046ā¦I honestly assumed that was the reason.</p>
<p>However, as a college counselor myself, I think the value in assistance is the guidance and facilitation of the process and I donāt think the counselor or coach gets someone in. For me, helping someone with the college process who is not a great student, but finds their place, is just as satisfying as helping a student who is a high achiever and gets into a top school. The student is the one who is accepted. Where they get in is not a reflection of me. When someone asks about my services, I discuss how I can help them and not where my other clients were accepted. Where my clients are accepted is more a reflection of who happens to sign up and not because of the job I did. I think the value of the service is the same for any type of student who needs assistance with the process. Just because a coach has a student who has gotten into X tippy top college doesnāt mean that if you sign on, that will happen to you too because where students are accepted is tied to their qualifications, and not who coached or assisted them. </p>
<p>I truly donāt care who is on my āroster.ā I just want to help students and parents who feel they could use assistance in navigating the process, no matter what type of student they are or which types of colleges they are hoping to attend.</p>
<p>There is also the issue of the chicken and the egg. Which came first? If a coach takes on a top talented kid for free services, is it due to the coach that the kid ends up at CMU (example) or was this a top talented kid who was a very strong candidate to be admitted coach or no coach? It seems rather obvious that working with a tippy top kid is going to likely have an end result of acceptances at top colleges.</p>
<p>Counselors who I know who do pro bono work, do it for those who could not afford such assistance and likely need it the most.</p>
<p>Oh, I wholeheartedly agree with you. What I meant to be saying was that the branding that goes on with coaching services relies on the (perhaps mistaken) belief that the coach guaranteed that success. So a coach who wishes to burnish his brand would seek out students most likely to succeed and attach them to his brand even if it meant providing free services since the return on that investment would be increased brand status. Not pro bono in the usual sense. Also questionable is outing those students who have benefited from your generosity. Clearly, this also polishes the brand but how does this serve the students?</p>
<p>Anyone interested in coaching should actually reach out to the coaches themselves; have consultations and get some initial feedback. Find the one who is the best fit for you. If you need references, coaches can put you in touch with parents and students from their most recent audition cycles to get feedback. Go ahead, ask lots of questions. </p>
<p>And as for Mary Anna Dennardās scholarship kids, I can speak to a few who I met in Dallas - these were extraordinarily talented students who were absolutely chosen because of financial need AND talent. I think we do a disservice to suggest that providing scholarships is somehow only self-serving to the coach. If you saw these kids, you would know that is absolutely not the case. I watched a young man and his mother in tears because of the opportunity he received to get free coaching and assistance ā something they never could have afforded. </p>
<p>Lastly, coaching is not college counseling. These are audition-based programs and in many cases, highly competitive audition based programs. Of course talent plays a role and all of the top coaches are well-versed in assessing those students who will likely be very competitive. </p>