<p>The RENT auditions are in NYC. Anyone can find out about them. I don’t think the colleges are the avenue for finding out. My D even goes to college in NYC and doesn’t hear of these sorts of auditions THROUGH college but these are known through all the normal audition channels for auditions in NYC. My own daughter chooses to not audition for work that would take her out of school as she feels strongly about staying in school and then can audition once she graduates (or for summer work). But if you are in school in another state, it is hard to attend NYC auditions with any regularity (and it often takes a lot of auditions to land ONE job…though RENT is a little different as it is not the regular avenue so much as they do take non Equity with less credits, or simply it calls for young actors, for a RENT tour than is as common with Broadway shows and such…just the nature of the show RENT). Of course college students from outside of NYC can audition more readily during the summer as these kids did. But even for a student in a BFA program in NYC, it would be very hard to attend professional auditions very often because they are on weekdays usually and would pull a student out of classes and I know at my D’s BFA program, the attendance guidelines are VERY strict making it nearly impossible to audition even if you want to. They tend to discourage it (though encourage auditioning for lots of things that keep you in school). Even for a professional summer audition, I know for just a single one, my D has had to go in three times and that is very difficult to work around a very FULL a schedule. Thus, auditioning for these sorts of shows is hard to fit in during the school year even if attending college in NYC. It is nearly impossible with attending college out of state. I have heard of kids who are looking to attend college in NYC thinking they can just audition all the time but they really cannot realistically. If someone opts to audition for professional shows such as Broadway and National Tours, they have to be prepared to take a leave from school. Some are more than happy to do that. Some, like my D, do not even want to have such a situation arise and put off such auditions until after graduation. This is a personal decision to make. One thing about going to school in NYC, however, is that there are many theater opportunities, including professional, outside of school that sometimes can dovetail with school (and sometimes not). My own kid is involved in a professional piece this fall outside of school but that would not have been possible as much going to school outside of NYC. </p>
<p>Anyway, auditions such as RENT are posted along with many others in all the various trade publications and so forth, in terms of open calls. If one has an agent, there are agent submissions (private audition appointments) for most shows, as well. You do not need a grapevine to learn of auditions.</p>