<p>Are there any other parents of kids in the arts who have to audition out there? DD has applied academically, but also has to audition for the ballet programs she is interested in. So far, she has received academic acceptances to University of Oklahoma and Indiana University. She has auditioned at OU and we are waiting for the letter. It is so very nervewracking to play the waiting game for not only academic acceptance, but art area acceptance too! OU was her first audition, and she absolutely fell in love with the school. I am so worried that if she doesn't get an acceptance to the ballet program at OU, her confidence will be shot for her upcoming auditions (U of S.Carolina, Butler, Indiana U, U of Utah). Anyone else going through the same thing?!</p>
<p>You are not the only one going through this. Music majors, drama majors, all need to audition just like dance majors. Yes…it’s no fun waiting. At least your kiddo has one audition completed. </p>
<p>If you want some empathy, you’ll find it on the music major and musical theater sections of this forum.</p>
<p>Congratulations to her on her academic acceptances so far!</p>
<p>You might want to go on the dance forum here on CC. Look under “college majors.” The dance forum is not that active, however. The music forum is extremely active and many, many students and parents are dealing with auditions. You would be welcome there too, I would think.</p>
<p>I have one dancer and one musician who are college-age. We’ve been there. Your daughter is applying to excellent programs. She will need to know that sometimes there may seem that there is no rhyme or reason to admissions: there are unseen factors involved (number of spots, connections others have, and so on). Students sometimes get into the most selective programs but not the less selective ones. It is trite, but auditioning will be a big part of her life, and performing can be stressful too. So I guess she could look at this as good practice.</p>
<p>Does she have friends going through this also? I know my daughters were pretty isolated and friends did not understand. There are some online ballet forums that she might benefit from. I wish I could remember the sites but it has been a while for me. Good luck!</p>
<p>I get it, mom of a music major here (he is a college freshman majoring in music). He did 9 apps last year, auditioned for 4 (the other 5 were not for music). We trucked out in the snow, he learned and practiced pieces, and we had the double-acceptance-wait thing…it’s a different process than non-arts major kids go through for sure. </p>
<p>One bright spot was that all apps had to be done early to move on to audition work…so the essay and common and testing were all out of the way by Halloween :)</p>
<p>The music forum is here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/</a></p>
<p>Dance: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/dance-major/[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/dance-major/</a></p>
<p>Musical Theater: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/</a></p>
<p>My daughter had the advantage of being a high school boarding student at Interlochen while she was auditioning, so much of her senior class was doing the same thing. The kids often got to travel together in a group to the various schools (IU, Oberlin etc) for auditions. The important thing is to NOT lose confidence if one doesn’t go well. My daughter didn’t perform well (singer) at Julliard and had to fly from there to IU. I talked her off the ledge and she nailed the IU audition. Also keep in mind that the spots can be very limited, so it doesn’t mean you are terrible just because you are rejected.</p>
<p>After son’s first audition I said I would rather lie down and give birth in the hallway than wait during auditions. Things got better and everything works out.</p>
<p>This is the easy part. Then they get out of school and auditioning is a way of life. D, a classical singer out of grad school, will travel to five to seven cities in the next few months and has eighteen auditions. She is thrilled to just have the opportunity. She heard that one of the young artist programs had over 1500 prescreening applications.They will audition 75 singers for 10 positions. All for a summer contract.
But as they get older at least you don’t have to go. You just get to chew your nails at home.</p>
<p>Yes, I remember that pain well. Also waiting on word about college scholarships. The responsiveness and receptivness of one university played a BIG part in my D’s decision. They got back to her quickly, they were organized, they leveled with her right away about scholarships, the dean was very personable - it was solved.</p>
<p>This too shall pass. Hang in there.</p>
<p>And the timing is off from what the nonaudition classmates are doing, too … performance programs typically have a Dec 1 deadline and if one is preparing a prescreen CD/DVD then they are now stressing about getting that together while everyone else is just thinking about writing their essays. Then, once applications are in, the nonaudition students are in sit-back-and-wait mode while the auditioners are spending weekends in January, February and March missing school and social events because they’re battling traffic and weather as they trek from school to school to put themselves on the line for 10 minutes that will determine the course of their next four years. Anyone who can survive that during senior year will be in a good position to know whether they’re committed to pursuing that career for the rest of their life!</p>