I know I’ve seen some posts regarding what rising seniors should be trying to accomplish the summer before audition season (essays, choosing material, etc.) Does anyone know where those threads/posts are? Thanks for any help!
@MidwestMTMom im not sure if there is a specific thread for that, but you can get lots of that info by reading through all the past " venting, sharing…" threads as well as “final decision” threads. you can also use the search engine at the top at the top as well to see if there is specific threads…I would say the big ones for the summer/early fall are : applications, essays, act/sat, headshots, audition outfit, narrowing down material to work on through the summer and fall, starting to look at audition dates, especially for schools that don’t have pre screens they fill up fairly quickly & obviously the pre-screens ideally you would be done with those in the early/mid fall but getting them right is more important than getting them done. passing pre- screens is no given.
good luck
Thanks so much. You caught some that I didn’t have on my list. 
- Practice making and editing videos for prescreens (complete with slates) unless you have someone that is going to do it for you. Work on good lighting and balancing sound levels for both voice and accompaniment. If you are going to submit dance prescreens, you may need to hunt for a location. Learning to do this on the fly, in the middle of the fall, in a hurry, is not fun. Research prescreen requirements for the schools on your list (although the current year may not be available yet).
- Prepare your rep book, with cuts (16 and 32 bars) and complete versions. A typical rep book might include: a Golden Age uptempo and ballad, a Contemporary uptempo and ballad (around 1970-2010), an appropriate role from a show that has been on Broadway in the last five years, a comedic song, and a Pop/Rock/Country song. Some BM MT programs may require an "art song" as well. Get tracks for accompaniment.
- Get a small blue tooth speaker and practice with it.
- If you plan on going to Chicago Unifieds, make a hotel reservation at the Palmer House if you intend on staying there.
- Line up teacher recommendations as soon as possible.
- If you plan on applying to 10-20+ schools, consider making an appointment with your school counselor to explain your situation and ensure you know the process for requesting lots of transcripts. This can be issue with some guidance departments.
- Watch all of Mary Anna Dennard's vlogs at College Audition Coach [dot] com.
- If you are going to submit dance prescreens, work out the choreography.
- Sign up for a mock audition if possible. There are several of these programs around the county.
- As mentioned in a previous post, prepare your resume and get a headshot done.
Got it! This is excellent information. Thanks so much!
Last summer my daughter took dance private lessons every week for about an hour and a half. They did 30-45 minutes of warmup/core/barre and also worked on her prescreen routine. But, what she found most helpful was that every week they spent time doing a mock audition where she would have to learn 8-10 counts of new choreography in a short time period and then perform it like she would in a real audition. She felt that really prepared her for the dance calls where she had to learn choreography quickly.
Figure out how you’ll get the accompaniment for all of the cuts you need recorded. We were unprepared when my son’s voice teacher said that he didn’t play the piano well enough to record the accompaniment. He arranged one recording session in early summer with his chosen accompanist but as auditions and prescreens grew nearer, we knew we needed more than what had been recorded. We ended up doing a combination of things - paying the original accompanist again, hiring his choir accompanist to do a couple songs and engaging one of the people who does it online to record and send us a few cuts. It all worked out but because I didn’t plan/prepare for it ahead of time, it was one of the more stressful elements of the process.