<p>Bumping again. A very interesting and timely thread.</p>
<p>Have just read this entire thread with pen in hand. It was very enlightening. If anyone from the current audition season wants to chime in and debunk a few more, or newer myths, please feel free. With more and more schools adding prescreens, I feel like my D(scarily I initially used the word"we" instead do D, need to remember this is my D journey and not “ours”) needs to audition to a larger number of schools so that if she doesn’t pass prescreens will still have a fairly broad range of schools to apply to. This is getting more daunting every time I think about it, and we’re still a year out. Best wishes to everyone wrapping up this years audition season, following your progress with bated breath, and continually thanking you for educating those who are following.</p>
<p>@mtflmomof1 - First of all, you are on the right track by building your base of knowledge from the experiences of others. We absolutely could not have made it through this process without the collective wisdom of those who came before us and are generous enough to share their experiences on CC. And that includes everybody who’s going it through it right now - I mean, there are times when you are able to gain solid information that is only hours (if not minutes) old. It is an awesome resource.</p>
<p>Here’s how we approached our search: Right off the bat the odds of our D getting a spot at any school freaked us out. So we cast a fairly wide net. We put together a list of 26 possible schools, ranging from the “top ten” to the small regional programs. We sent off prescreens to 8 schools, from which D received 3 callbacks. That small number alone worried us a lot, although her prescreen video was not good due to poor sound and a bad cold.</p>
<p>Many CC posters felt that the large list of schools was “excessive” (putting it mildly), but we saw this audition season as her one shot.</p>
<p>In the end she did 6 on campus auditions, two of which required plane tickets. What really helped her were the Chicago Unifieds. I don’t know about the Unifieds in LA or NYC, but I can tell you that Chicago changed everything for our D. I think that there were 40+ schools conducting auditions over the course of 5 days. She and my wife stayed at the Palmer House, where the Unifieds were being held. She went into the week with 8 auditions scheduled and was able to fit in 4 walk in auditions. With each audition she felt more comfortable and more confident. Since Unifieds she has had 3 more on-campus auditions, and she now feels like an old pro.</p>
<p>In the end she auditioned for 18 schools. So far she has received 7 rejections, 3 acceptances, and awaits the results of the remaining 8 schools. Surprisingly enough, 2 of the acceptances came from walk-ins during Unifieds.
We don’t know what’s in store for her in the next month, but we are relaxed at this point because our worst fears (no offers) were not realized.</p>
<p>If you can only afford to travel for one audition, make it to the Unified auditions somewhere. Stay at the same hotel if possible, so that you can maximize your time availability to do walk-ins. If we had known how beneficial Unifieds were for our D we wouldn’t have done the first few on-campus auditions.</p>
<p>Finally, don’t be afraid of using the term “we”. This process requires intense planning and organization. I don’t know how she could have done it alone while juggling school, training, performing, etc. I know that there are kids who do it on their own, and hats off to them. We saw our role as one of managing opportunities for our D. The real work of earning a spot is up to her.</p>
<p>Break a leg, and enjoy the journey!</p>
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<p>YES!!! I’ve been telling people on the audition trail to use the words “we, ours, us” shamelessly!! This process truly requires the support of the entire family. For me, a single parent, that meant that Grandma and Grandpa got in on the act too. Everyone feels the blow of the rejection and the elation of the acceptance! WE are in this together! :)</p>
<p>Lol. At times, I have told my S that I have worked so hard for this he should be paying for ME to go to college</p>
<p>@cheeseheadmike said it so well. I’m the parent of a Freshman MT and I now help our school district put on events to help parents and kids better prepare for this process. It is NOTHING like regular academic application. Most counselors tell kids “pick a few schools and focus your energies” “do it without so much parent involvement” etc. It is nothing like that for MT. I am a relatively bright woman and had a heck of a time keeping all the details/deadlines/uploads/etc organized - there is no way my busy high school student could have done this alone. In addition, all the work and preparation they have put in to this life of dance, acting, singing, camps, lessons. shows, etc leads up to a point where they get this “one shot” to get into a school and it would be crazy in my view to sit back and let them accidentally mess up the application process to “let them learn.” They are learning enough about rejection, patience, and the like. So get in there, be a “manager,” cheerleader, researcher, typer, driver, travel agent - whatever you can to help. This process is hard on everyone but doing it together makes it something you can survive and maybe even enjoy (at times). And I will say that @cheesheadmike got it right to cast a wide net with a variety of options. It breaks my heart to hear of kids getting zero offers. I’ve heard many kids that get on the other side of this realize how talented the kids are coming thru - and how lucky anyone is to get an offer. So give yourself options (audition for more than you think), keep an open mind and lean on the support of so many on cc. It definitely is a “we” season and we wish all of you still waiting for the best outcome!</p>
<p>@LuvMTs I feel like I should go into college counseling or admissions after going through all this last year. I was the momager and handled all things paperwork. That left my D free to do all things artistic, pre-screens, essays and stay on top of school, lessons, rehearsals and senior year.</p>
<p>@broadway95 I love the term “momager” !</p>
<p>@LuvMTs you’re absolutely right about keeping an open mind. I am shocked when I read about kids who only audition for a few programs or rule out any program that doesn’t show up on the top ten list. Even worse are the kids (and parents) who say “if I don’t get picked for a top ten school then I’m not good enough to pursue MT.” Sorry to be direct, but that is plain stupid. A kid’s ability to get into a top ten program is only partially based on their talent; remember that a school is trying to fill our a cast of a variety of types. Some years they just don’t need any more kids of X type, no matter how talented they are.</p>
<p>And while we’re on the subject, @mtflmomof1, do not get hung up on this top 10 list or that top 20 list. At best there are a total of 200 slots at the top 10 schools, and these will be filled from a pool of 10,000 or more kids. Those are lottery-type odds. As we learned at Unifieds there are many fine programs that don’t show up on anyone’s list. It’s very easy to get stuck on a path of pursuing the golden ticket at the expense of what might be best for your kid, and you’ll drive yourself crazy for no reason.</p>
<p>Many of the schools that show up on today’s top 20 list had unknown but developing programs just a few short years ago. </p>
<p>Just my 2 1/2 cents worth…</p>
<p>Where are you getting the number 10,000 or more kids, @cheeseheadmike? I doubt whether there are that many. I’ve never heard of a school, even the so-called top schools, say they even have 2000 apply/audition for MT. I think the highest I have heard has been around 1,800. So, I can’t imagine that there are more than 2,500 or so auditioning in anyone year…and that may be high. Does anyone know? It’s actually an interesting question.</p>
<p>I guess I’m looking at the pool of applicants, prescreens, etc., and not necessarily those who audition. You read a lot of anecdotal evidence on CC of schools like Pace and others evaluating 2,000 or more applicants. I apologize for being a bit loose with my terms, but there’s no denying the statistical odds that work against any one of our kids.</p>
<p>Well, even the pool of applicants can’t be as high as 10,000! Schools that don’t have prescreens don’t seem to get more than 2,000 kids. No apology needed…I thought maybe you knew something the rest of us didn’t!</p>
<p>It turns out that the more that I think I know the more wrong I am.</p>
<p>I could see where nation-wide, in all theatre arts programs (BA, BFA, non-accredited, etc.) there could be in the range of 10K. I know you can be a ‘theatre major’ of some sort at the bulk of colleges in the US. Since there are around 4000 colleges, if even half of those had at least 5 theatre majors, that’d be 10000 right there. In elite/audition based programs, obviously the numbers are significantly lower. </p>
<p>And you certainly can’t discount the value of ‘connections’… whether they come from school affiliations or from some other cultivated relationships. I hope that the college experience for my S will offer a balance of excellent training and some helpful connections. I am pretty sure that everytime I see awful acting on TV or film, they probably got the job because of who they know. </p>
<p>As far as what tracking method to use for audition dates and other important deadlines. We used a “great big book of everything” approach. It is a yearly planner that has both monthly and daily calendars. We have used this approach to plot and schedule auditions in our area for years. People are surprised that we know which theater is doing what show well before it’s even published, but we have our ways of finding that out- and that’s a whole different discussion. </p>
<p>Anyway, in spring of junior year d determined the list of schools she was interested in. We reviewed the 2013 audition dates and determined the approach for each school (submission, unifieds, on campus, etc). We knew the approximate dates of each and plotted those on the big month calendars. this helped us schedule out the audition year. </p>
<p>In August most schools published their audition dates for 2014. Using the daily calendar we plotted every single
Date they offered and made key decisions about which schools fell to the unified and submission approach (this was complicated by the fact that d is also doing vp auditions). </p>
<p>This same calendar was used to plot application, prescreen dates, decision dates, notification dates…you name it. </p>
<p>I know it’s old shook and doesn’t exactly comply with new age technology, but it works really well. </p>
<p>As a key note, because of this approach we made only two east coast trips (one 3 day trip to ohio and one 10 day trip to New York/New England), two regional auditions, and one video submission This included a collective 15 programs. 100% of which were between ohio and boston. Added benefit was that she applied to every single school she wanted to. She has been accepted into 3 to date, declined from 3 and is awaiting decision for the remainder. </p>
<p>So to my limited judgement it was a cost beneficial approach for us so cal theatre peeps. We’ve learned a lot and there a few schools I would have tried to steer her away from because academically she wasn’t competitive. But overall it has been a once in a lifetime experience that I will never forget (thankfully I have a son who is into sports). I am paying back my cc friends by helping out my fb friends who are getting ready to go through this same process next year. </p>