<p>D is going into her Junior year. For both Junior & Senior year, can you give me a timeline of how things went for you? when you looked at schools, when you applied, auditioned, unifieds etc...the more specific the better...let me walk in your shoes!</p>
<p>Also, if anyone can private message me spreadsheets (or PM me and I can give you my email) or anything you used to help keep you organized through all this, that would be helpful.</p>
<p>The head is spinning but Im trying to calm down!!</p>
<p>My D started with her coaching team the beginning of her junior year. She had her assessment done, got assigned her team, and she started working, slowly but surely. if you are going to use a coach, I highly recommend getting one now, not after junior year. Keep in mind, though, that those of us with senior are even more frantic than you, and coaches will give them priority. But you can get a lot done during junior year. We refined her school list the first half of junior year; figured out where she was weak in dance fall of junior year; visited 6 schools during April break of junior year; refined her list even more, chose audition songs and monologues in late spring of junior year; and then started applications and getting audition appointments as soon as they were available (some schools opened up audition requests in May of her junior year for the following year; others in August, and a bunch coming up in September). We also kept an eye out for audition dresses always…she’s not growing anymore…and had those purchased in the late spring of junior year. We thought ahead, and she took PSATs in her sophomore year; then took SATs only once in junior year, and ACTs as well, so we were done with standardized tests by the end of her junior year. Hope this helps!</p>
<p>The start of junior year is awfully early to give things like spreadsheets any share of mind. I’ve got a junior too though he is not my MT kid. The MT kid is leaving for NYU tomorrow and I’m taking a much needed break from helping her pack so I can offer what I remember about our timeline plus the advice of a fellow junior parent. Thank you for the diversion.</p>
<p>Around this time (end of summer) my daughter’s junior year with the exception of buying “I Got In” (Mary Anna Denard’s book) along with one of those college directory books with all the fact/figures and starting to read CC, she just went back to high school. There were weekly voice lessons, and acting classes as well as dance classes as time allowed but they were just part of the normal hum of things and not specific to college auditions. That’s pretty much it.</p>
<p>In February and April breaks her junior year we did a couple of college visits in the northeast and Midwest as part of a family vacation. They were worth it. It is nice to look without the stress of applying and we ruled three schools completely out. She also took the ACT in April and June her junior year and never took it again. Any prep for that she did on her own flipping through a book. In my opinion any serious junior year related college prep should focus on those darn tests, not the auditions but that’s me. </p>
<p>The summer before senior year, we hired a second voice teacher (local) to focus on the vocal side of college audition prep. This teacher worked with her the entire year all the way through the auditions and was invaluable. Meanwhile her regular teacher continued with her ongoing training and supporting things like the school musical material etc. Monologue selection and preparation she did on her own with some advice from her high school drama teacher. </p>
<p>Also late in the summer before senior year just as we were finally turning our heads towards the college hunt in earnest, we had a big “oh geez” realization when U Mich added a video prescreen for the first time ever and we suddenly had to shoot some footage by the end of the summer/early fall to submit in time to catch their early deadline (10/15). The voice and monologue stuff was easy enough but we didn’t have any dance footage that could work so we did have to get some help with that from a choreographer. If we had known that prescreen was coming, I would have made a point to shoot some dance samples from various shows she was in that we could have used but it caught us by surprise and I had nothing already in the can to use so we had to improvise. </p>
<p>OK then fall of senior year started and well you know the drill. Classes, college essay writing, etc. but it wasn’t until THEN that I created my first spreadsheet which laid out the dates and locations, high school conflicts etc. so we could figure out how all of the auditions could work in the most optimum and cost efficient way. (The latter was completely blown by the way because we could not do unifieds due to two major school conflicts). </p>
<p>Anyway, from one junior parent to another, you are stressing out one year too early. Just dip your toes in this year. Junior year is tough enough academically anyway. Next year at this time, freak out, spreadsheet-o-rama etc. </p>
<p>momoftheatergal, I have a different take on the time line for the process. In my view, the beginning of the junior year is the right time to map out a process that will span both the junior and senior years and enable your daughter to methodically work through investigating schools, come up with the right list of schools to which to apply, complete the application process and prepare for auditions. This whole process is exponentially more time consuming than the typical college selection, application and admission process and starting early enables you to map out and accomplish each step while still meeting the requirements of day to day high school life and responsibilities and the time devoted to theatre related training and experience.</p>
<p>BTW, I started with our spreadsheets fall -early winter of junior year and by the time my daughter was choosing from among her acceptances, probably had about 8 different spreadsheets covering everything from college investigations, specific programs, application and audition requirements, the application and audition process, and comparisons of schools that offered acceptances. Even had a spreadsheet I gave her guidance counselor mapping out the time line for the h.s. to meet each college’s requirements. I was spreadsheet crazy; it took a lot of effort but kept the process very organized and manageable.</p>
<p>I agree with Michael. I think early junior year is a good time to get started, if you haven’t already. Thorough research takes time, and if you want it to include visits, it’s best to start that research early so that an appropriate list can be compiled. You don’t want to be wasting time and money doing visits if the schools aren’t true options. Starting early will also allow for more thoughtful research of audition material. In my opinion, all of these kids should be reading plays regularly, and seeing live shows whenever possible. There aren’t many places that don’t have live theatre, and if your child has not had the opportunity to see professional live theatre, then perhaps a plan to do that once or twice during junior year my be in order. Most applicants will, of course, have been doing this for years, either through trips to large theatre centers or established regional theatres or by seeing national Equity or non-Eq tours. Some, however, will not have had this invaluable experience.</p>
<p>As Michael said, this is an incredibly time-consuming process and it requires a lot of effort and organization so that the desired outcome is reached. Having the luxury of starting early and not having to rush things is a benefit that will play out over the course of the next year and a bit, when the busy life of your child intervenes in the process.</p>
<p>I am a junior mom, also. I have a bare-bones spread sheet started and D will start coaching with MTCA this winter. I expect that our school list will be evolving over the next year, and I’m anticipating that I will learn a lot from reading about the experiences of this years’ seniors. Hoping to make school visits, but only those near home – we’ll save the real travel for auditions or visits once she’s accepted somewhere.
D has a good friend at UMich who tells her I’m crazy to be worrying about this already, but, as a male, I’m sure his experience was totally different.</p>
<p>Momoftheatergal, I knew when I responded that my approach (which did not have much of anything going on early junior year) would likely be swamped by responses that will advocate getting going now. But that doesn’t make what I am saying wrong. It depends on the type of approach you are most comfortable with. </p>
<p>CC is loaded with highly organized parents (MT and other fields) that contribute excellent advice and who are absolutely on top of things starting very early and that’s great. If it is helpful for you to start now, absolutely do it. But on behalf of parents like me, I feel it is important to point out that you can pull everything you need to together and have successful auditions and keep all of the hair on your head without turning the volume up to high this early junior year. The end of junior year or summer before senior year makes more sense to me and college counselors in school and out will be more likely to give you their attention then as they wind things down with the current year’s seniors.</p>
<p>I can’t think of any spreadsheet that I would create this early that wouldn’t likely need to be seriously overhauled a year from now as requirements change from year to year, audition dates get established and various programs fall in and out of favor for whatever reason. Half of high school is still in front of you which means there are an awful lot of priorities that are very much in the moment that have nothing to do with college. But that is me and if you feel like you need to get started, absolutely get going. For others who might be more inclined to think like me, know that we are out there and make it to the finish line too but our posts do not make for as interesting reading. All the best.</p>
<p>One reason to start the college search process early, in our case very early with it being the end of freshman year, is planning high school academics, and classes.</p>
<p>I knew when my son began talking about NYU being his dream school he needed to hear firsthand from admissions what sort of grades, high school classes, and act or sat scores their admitted students have. Without that campus tour we did last month and hearing what grades and sat’s he needed to strive for he would not be already studying for the sat’s. It’s given him real goals. Doing that tour in Junior year and having NYU or the like as a dream school would make it to late to catch up on the academic side of getting into these schools. </p>
<p>The other good thing for us is that I do not have to nag him about what he needs to do school wise. He really wants this and is working on the school part of things.</p>
<p>I have a spreadsheet but I rely on my folder system. Each folder has a checklist stapled to the inside front cover with a checklist specific for that school. I broke it down into Application, MT and Schloarships. As we go along and make the checklist, we add the stamped and addressed envelopes, audition requirements and any correspondence. It’s working so far :). I like to look at a folder instead of the spreadsheet.</p>
<p>I’m in the hybrid category, I guess. We started researching etc. pretty early–my son asked to visit schools in his sophomore year–so we have been keeping notes (both paper and digital format) since then. I did make a spreadsheet or 2 in his junior spring, but spreadsheets just don’t do it for me (or him)–I end up focusing more on the process than the results and find them absurdly difficult to read and use. I am making one just for recommendations, since each school has different requirements and our college counseling office will need to route the letters by hand rather than through Naviance. But for us, a couple of giant wall charts & calendars, combined with a folder/cover sheet system, has become the most useful approach, and I put that together this past summer, prior to the start of senior year. </p>
<p>The best thing about making spreadsheets for me has been the act of sifting through the information–by reading, organizing, and recording it, I ended up remembering most of it without having to look at the annoying spreadsheets! To each her own, right?</p>
<p>We had more the halflokum experience. Found cc and coaches going into the summer before senior year. I would have liked a little more time to prepare but overall found that it was plenty of time to organize auditions for 15 schools without a problem while my daughter took care of the training. I think that if I could have changed anything it would have been for my D to have a better understanding regarding the importance of junior year grades.</p>
<p>I think it’s great you’re planning this far in advance, as long as it doesn’t make you too stressed, but from the other side of the spectrum, we didn’t use spreadsheets at all and started planning about a half year in advance… We just jotted down the dates as they filled up in the calendar. That’s more my style–spreadsheets don’t work with my brain. I figured if my daughter wanted to do something more, she’d do it herself. The only glitch we made in retrospect was to not make full use of our day in NYC (we live within driving distance so she went for the day)–she should have done more walk-ins but at the time was exhausted and didn’t think ahead. </p>
<p>We also have limited money as well as limited time (I’m a single mom with 5 kids) so my D did have to take on more herself, which is both good and bad. We didn’t have a coach (can’t afford one) but a professional director extremely kindly volunteered her time to work with my D on her audition pieces starting about a half year before the process. That was all my D did (plus ongoing voice lessons). </p>
<p>Finally, she concentrated on academics a great deal (took the SATs 3 times, took as many APs as she could) as she wanted to be competitive for any scholarship offer. That did pan out. I guess my point is that there are lots of means toward the end and it’s highly personal–what works for your child and your family. I think it really depends on what makes you work best, what you can do, and what your own kid needs. My own D is heading off to Northwestern in a few weeks!</p>
<p>Hang in there, and good for you for being so proactive. My son is a sophomore MT major at Baldwin-Wallace (FANTASTIC school). He applied to 11 programs and was accepted at 5 (BW, Elon, Syracuse, Hartt, and Muhlenberg.) While he’d been studying voice, music, and dance for some time, we started using a coaching service in May of his junior year, and it was the smartest move we made! We used MTCA, and they were great. I had 2 wonderful spreadsheets that I’d be happy to share with you via private message.</p>
To each her own, right?</p>
We just jotted down the dates as they filled up in the calendar. That’s more my style–spreadsheets don’t work with my brain. I figured if my daughter wanted to do something more, she’d do it herself. The only glitch we made in retrospect was to not make full use of our day in NYC (we live within driving distance so she went for the day)–she should have done more walk-ins but at the time was exhausted and didn’t think ahead. </p>