@dramamama3, I agree with you. We were lucky to be in the Northeast as well and found campus visits to be extremely helpful to my son. If you can visit, I recommend it!
A different opinion on campus visits - we were not close to any of the schools either D was applying to, so we did the urban/suburban/rural “general colleges” that helped narrow things down, not the actual schools. Sometimes a campus visit to a school isn’t a reflection on the program, especially if students aren’t there. D1 went to Wright State and the first time we saw it was at her audition. Dayton, Ohio in January is NOT attractive, lol. I was actually horrified (I didn’t tell her!) when she got in the car after her audition and gushed about how much she loved it. They have a beautiful new arts center now, but when she went, it was old and dingy. If we had just ridden through the campus, or done a general school tour, she probably wouldn’t have even applied. We visited schools with both Ds after acceptances.
This is another thing that’s very individual!
I agree that the general school tours are not helpful generally. When we did a school tour, my son always emailed someone in the Theatre dept. to see if he could get a theatre tour or meet with someone from the department. He never got a no. This was always very helpful and gave him a vibe of the department at that particular school. If it is easy to visit and you like doing visits, then do them. If you can’t get to a school until the audition, that’s OK too. You’ll get a feel then. It’s different for everyone. Some prefer it and some do not. Either way is good as long as it works for you and your student.
D is a current MT sophomore, so I’m digging back a bit. We also live in the NE and were able to visit about 10 schools going into senior year. It was a personal choice, and all schools were within a 2-7 hour drive. Often we would hit a few schools in a weekend. I agree general tours are not normally helpful, unless your tour guide is an MT student, but she was able to eliminate 5 schools off her initial list because she didn’t like the feel right off the bat. This was great because I didn’t waste money on applications/auditions at schools she didn’t like. Ironically, I added a last minute visit to the school she currently attends (which wasn’t even on her list) and she loved the feel of the campus before we even got out of the car. She loved it even better after the tour. As for common apps etc, I know most here have been following these boards closely. D had everything submitted by mid Sept - and was able to secure audition dates to some of the schools that have limited slots (BW is a good example). This was also important because we could schedule around the school musical and her senior class trip. This is a process and it while it can be very exciting, it is also very draining. This board can be a wealth of information, which can sometimes be overwhelming. Remember, everyone’s kid on this board will have a journey, but none of the journey’s will be the same. BAL everyone!
Does anyone have experience with Ithaca’s summer pre-college MT/acting programs?
I have same question about BOCO MT pre college one?
@GeddyMcNutty , I don’t have any personal experience with Ithaca, but my D’s coach at MTCA said that that program provides very good training.
@muttsandMT Thanks! Trying to decide what to do: Summer job to help pay for applications/auditions, Summer school to get ahead for next year or Summer college program to prepare for auditions! Oh, or be in a summer show!
@GeddyMcNutty I completely understand. My D is going to do a 2 week summer program and (hopefully) complete a one semester science class so she can have a free period next year (she has already completed one semester ahead of schedule). 
She gets a full 3 months off for summer break, so we’re thinking it will be doable.
Great suggestions on this thread. I wish we had started earlier. I also wish we had gotten help filming prescreens. I feel like I shortchanged my D by trying to do those ourselves. A lot of people said they did fine doing them on their own, but I didn’t feel like ours were very good — tbh I think my daughter has a beautiful voice and it just didn’t come through on the video. I don’t know if it was acoustics or recording quality.Anyway, her prescreen results were disappointing. Due to unrelated issues, we ran out of time to redo them and had to submit them as is.
I could never understand cutting corners with the prescreens - with all the expenses involved in an audition season, professionally-filmed prescreens are a mere drop in the bucket. I realize you don’t need to do them to have success, but why would you take that chance considering that it is literally the gateway to an audition slot. Seems risky not to set yourself for success. My daughter passed 12 out of 13 prescreens so I am happy with the way things went and will never know if it would have gone differently had I taped them for her.
@El-Cee who (or where) did you use to tape the prescreens?
@El-Cee this issue again becomes access to resources that further separate the haves and have nots. The schools claim cell phone videos are fine, but I do think professionally produced videos would clearly make a difference.
Not everyone has access to someone (or someplace) to videotape and edit, and add in the need to schedule and accompanist. And they have to be recorded over and over again to meet all of the various requirements put out by the schools - some want to see the accompanist, some don’t; some want waist and up, some want 3/4 body and some want head to toes.
My D’s HS performing arts program had a workshop on audition prep and said they’d be recording prescreen videos. But, they let them go long, added unneeded edits and didn’t compose the shots to the school’s requirements - and insisted the requirements weren’t hard and fast and the schools wouldn’t really care.
So unless you have access to a facility or company specifically versed and experienced in shooting college MT audition videos AND the ability to pay for it, many kids are already starting off at a disadvantage.
@afterp89 I completely hear what you are saying. This process is draining on the family resources and clearly professional prescreen filming is a non-necessity. But this entire process is an expensive one and if somebody is committed to going through it then the amount spent on having a pro do the prescreens is, as I mentioned earlier, a drop in the bucket. (ours were $350 and I would venture to say we have spent over $10K on the applications & audition-related expenses: mainly travel.) So my point was that I would recommend allocating the couple hundred to the prescreens if you are planning on going “all-in” anyway.
Clearly Musical theater training is expensive and if a kid is at the level that they are pursuing this professionally then I assume many resources have already been put into the training that has gotten them to this point. It is rare to see a kid who hasn’t been taking dance lessons all their life, private voice lessons for years and many are involved with expensive camps, intensives, etc. that further bolster the overall expenditure. I’m not saying it’s fair that some kids without the resources simply won’t have the same amount of training, but that is the way it is in life. To some degree there will always be a division b/w the “haves” and the “have nots” and I don’t feel guilty for allocating our resources to having professional prescreens done b/c some kids can’t afford to go that route. We are all just trying to give our kids the best shot that we can.
@mamaboyz we used a guy named Matt Simpkins. He is based out of Queens (NY) - he has a studio set up in his home and was great to work with. He has a BFA in MT but is mainly a photographer and videographer now. We did not use him for headshots however we really were happy with the way the prescreen videos turned out and the amount of aggravation that I saved myself was honestly priceless.
@El-Cee I have no problem with you using your available resources for what you deemed necessary - I used my available resources as well. But, your previous post indicated you “could never understand cutting corners with the prescreens” so I laid out for you exactly why someone may have to “cut corners” when resources aren’t available or fiscally prudent. I assure you there are quite a few families in this process who have not and could not take on what you seem to think is the norm to prepare for this career - and many of their kids will go on to successful careers.
For what it’s worth, I have heard colleges say they actually like it when the kids shoot their own prescreens because it helps show more of their personality. And some of the best ones were shot on their cell phones. My takeaway from that is that the slick produced prescreens can be a turn off and a barrier to simplifying the “get to know you” element. My 2 cents. Not sure the expensively produced ones give anyone an advantage. Could be the opposite.
Of course there are families that lack the resources to go all-out in this…however I would dare to guess that it is more typical for families to have spent a fair amount on the training necessary to excel at the things required of an MT applicant. Yes there will be kids with natural undeveloped talent who have not had the same opportunities for training but I think the majority would have had significant resources spent on them to get them to the college-junction where they are competitive with a national pool of kids.
I did not mean to be insensitive to those people who can not afford to have a pro film there prescreens. We are far from rich and I work several jobs to be able to provide for my kids. My point in the original post was that if possible I would suggest people find a way to get them filmed by somebody who knows what they are doing. This whole process is expensive and if a family is going through it then they are spending a fair amount already. And to me the risk of not getting many auditions due to poorly-executed prescreens is not worth saving a couple hundred dollars.
Since I made the initial comment about prescreens… I have to admit that the phrasing “could never understand…” stung a little. For us it was a combination of expense and living in a fairly rural area with not much available in the way of professional filming. I also took the headshots of my D myself. I think we all do the best we can with what we have. I just wanted to let the next class know our experience with prescreens if it might help someone.
Re prescreens, it just is what you’re comfortable doing yourself. We had a quiet space, black studio background, cheap digital camera on a tripod, and Bluetooth speaker. My daughter edited them in iMovie herself, and came up with a nice finished result. Passed all of her prescreens. So very possible to do yourself. Do it professionally if you want but don’t feel like you’re skimping by DIY!
Headshots another story, get a professional job 100%.
RE: prescreens: I guess the thought of trusting myself to do them seemed quite scary! I didn’t want to have any culpability in what could have potentially gone wrong with them.
I did not mean to offend anyone who either has chosen to do them or had no other choice but to do them. Perhaps a poor choice of words on my part but what I meant to convey is that I was frankly scared to attempt them myself for fear of not showcasing her well enough and then possibly being responsible for a bad outcome and that I thought the allocation of funds to a professional job was a smart use of resources in my case. As with anything, your mileage may vary and I know that plenty of people have excellent results doing their own prescreens.