<p>Does anyone know anything about the National Unified Auditions? I checked out their website where they list dates, locations, and schools, but no information about how to register. Do you register through the schools? Is this a good idea? Any advice?
Thanks!</p>
<p>You register through the schools when you start your application.</p>
<p>I think that it is a good idea to do the Unified Auditions because you have the opportunity to get most of your auditions done at one time. I did my interviews this way, and it was nice to have them all done the same weekend. It was a pain when UArts lost my portfolio 4 seperate time, thanks to me giving them another copy at my interview.</p>
<p>Is there any benefit to doing the Unified Auditions versus scheduling auditions at the individual schools my daughter is considering?</p>
<p>Thanks
Chuck</p>
<p>There is a good thread over in Musical Theatre on the Unified Auditions. There are several scheduled across the country that are attended by dozens of schools. There is no auditioning advantage of going to the individual schools vs unifieds – but visiting the schools is of great value – really essential – to determining whether it will be a good fit since we found them to be very different in many ways. My D did a combinations of school auditions and unified auditions. It may not be significant, but she ended up selecting a program where she auditioned at the school. That said, Unifieds (we did LA) were great, very convenient, and actually a lot of fun.</p>
<p>Yes, when you go through the application process with each individual school is how you reserve your Unified audition date and time. My son did most of his auditions at Unifieds in Chicago. The school he is now attending was from a Unified audition. (UArts). We weren’t in a position financially to travel to auditions and do visits ahead of time. He did all his research online and then after he got his acceptances, he visited schools to make his decision.</p>
<p>^^^that’s what I did. I did the virtual tour online of all the schools I applied to, then went to visit my two top choices after I received my acceptances.</p>
<p>RE: advantage of going to schools to audition. I think some schools give you a lot more time to audition / attention / get to know you better etc. when you are at the school rather than at the Unifieds. Where an auditioner might have a half day of dance call, monologues, info session, songs at the school they may have a brief 5 minutes with no dance involved at the Unifieds (for at least two schools that seems the way it works). I can’t help but think they get to know you better sometimes at the colleges and that this can work in your favor. After one of the Unified auditions the school called and asked for a DVD of my daughter’s audition because their memory of her after a brief 5 minute audition was positive but vague and they needed to see her again. At another audition the professor told her she was on their short list but that she would need to go to the college to audition again, in front of more faculty members, if she wanted to be admitted to their MT program. So these results of the Unifieds seem to indicate being at the school is sometimes (but not always) better. Of course the money saved by doing the Unifieds was substantial.</p>
<p>This is not intended to argue against Unifieds because I think they are a great option and I am really glad we did them. Just another perspective. My D was accepted to four schools – two with school auditions, two with unified auditions. However, she had not visited either of the schools where she auditioned at unifieds. She had done the internet research, etc. So, she had a decent overview of the schools’ programs. However, by the time she got her acceptances in late March, it was very difficult to arrange the travel to visit the schools before the May 1st deadline. She was in rehearsal for her high school musical in which she was lead, studying for AP exams, didn’t want to miss school, and frankly was tired of traveling – just wanted to be done. While she might deny it, I think part of her final decision process was as much driven by not wanting to travel as which school was absolutely the best fit. I think her final choice is a good one for her, but I do wonder whether she might have fallen in love with one of the other schools had she visited. (By the way, I wouldn’t let her pick a school she had not visited). In retrospect, I wished we would have visited those schools prior to audition. I know it really isn’t feasible to visit all if you are auditioning for a dozen schools – I also thought that we would wait to see where she got accepted and then visit . . . it just didn’t work out that way for us.</p>
<p>Here’s another argument for auditioning at the individual schools if possible: if you happen to get sick, or have weather/travel problems during the Unified auditions, it may be very difficult to re-schedule. These issues can also come up when auditioning at individual campuses – but it’s much easier to re-schedule one audition as opposed to half a dozen.</p>