Would appreciate any information on which schools require prescreens, when those windows open and close, and and what schools require on campus or unified auditions and those dates as well. I’m overwhelmed. Thank you.
The good news is, If you look on the “big list of MT programs” threads at the top of the page there is an * next to all programs that require a prescreen. The bad news is- every schools deadlines are different, you will have to check each one for schools you like. A good rule of thumb is “late fall” as deadline, (My D filmed and submitted in Nov of her audition year) BUT in general, the earlier you submit the more choice you MAY have for audition times. And there are se schools (Ithaca jumps to mind) that have a fall audition where the prescreen needed to be in earlier
You will make it!!! This type of info gathering is tedious, but using some type of spreadsheet/folder system to organize the information is helpful. I was totally clueless just months before son’s senior year, but searching for the information and organizing it actually helped to ground me and led me to understand the gist of the process. The preparing to launch part of the process was the worst, along with waiting for decisions from schools of course 
While the “Big list of MT programs” is a great resource/reference and EmsDad has done a wonderful job trying to keep it up to date, if I were auditioning this year I would not rely on someone else to be 100% correct without double checking something as important about whether or not I need to send a prescreen. Schools may change that request from year to year, so that really is something you need to check the website on every school you plan to apply to…just like deadlines, required apps, essays, fees, and audition dates.
I sat down with a binder, made a page for every school that we even THOUGHT we might consider. Then went to each school’s website. On each schoolpage in the notebook I listed deadlines, required apps, required fees, required essays, audition dates, required prescreens, BFA vs BA vs BM, location of school and tuition. As I thought of more things about schools that might be important, I added those facts to the pages. At first I alphabetized the schools. As we eliminated school, I put them at the back of the book but kept them for reference.since I started this book during my kid’s junior year, I had estimates for deadlines and audition dates and changed them as they were updated by the schools. The schools should have most of this info posted by now.
Once we had a firm list of audition schools, I compiled it all into one spreadsheet. But, I still kept a binder with a printout of info we compiled for each school and we continued to add handwritten notes on those sheets to remind us of extra things we needed to remember for each school. I had two copies of the binder. I kept one at home and took the other with me everywhere from September to March.
@Dusing2 - I completely agree that you need to check your schools rather than rely on big list to know if there are prescreens- BUT since Emsdad has done such a fantastic job with the list- I figure it’s way more reliable than a bunch of us chiming in with “x school requires a prescreen”.
The Big list is a great place to start, and is probably one of the best resources around. I love his organization of the schools.
Prescreen requirements change every year, and the “Big Lists” are no doubt always a little out of date in that regard. You should always check with each school for current requirements.
To give credit where it is due, the “Big List of MT Colleges by State” goes back to time immemorial (the Jurassic, I believe*) and @shaun0203 is the creator of the “Big List of MT Colleges by Program Type.”
I just compressed the format to meet the new rules with smaller post size limits.
- Dr. John Stefano from Otterbein was one of the original contributors back when it was posted on Geocities.