@flippedout We are Hilton Honors members, so we always try to stay at the Hilton properties. We flew into Newark and stayed at the Embassy Suites near the Newark Airport. We were able to get a good deal, and the hotel had complimentary evening snacks/drinks, which were good. The next day we took an Uber to Wagner, and it took 15-20 minutes: no traffic early on a Sunday morning! We were flying out of La Guardia, so we took our bags to Wagner, and they stowed them in the Theatre Office for us, which we greatly appreciated! We have friends with a student at Wagner who like the Hilton Garden Inn on Staten Island- it was full when my D was auditioning, so I don’t have personal knowledge of that hotel.
@MTdreamin We are also Hilton Honors members and were thinking to stay at Hilton Garden Inn but it seems they tend to book noisy events on weekends that might cause us to have not so restful nights which would be awful for a morning audition (have not been notified if it’s morning or afternoon yet).flying in and out of Newark.
Did you get a tour of the college on the day of auditions or schedule a separate one the day before?
@CaMom13 Flying in on a redeye because D has a choir festival that she feels she needs to perform in, so getting in at 5 AM. Will go straight to hotel, rest a bit and then still deciding if we should 1) go into the city and back to Staten Island for their evening show or 2) schedule a college tour, see matinee and then head into the city 3) schedule a tour, go to city, return to Wagner for evening show.
We have a relative and friends who live in Manhattan so trying to determine if we actually have time to meet up.
We didn’t find any
@flippedout At Wagner last year I went on a campus tour while D was in her audition. She was in the morning audition group. They divided the auditioning students into 3 groups-quite a few in each group. Each group did a monologue audition, a song audition and a dance audition. You performed your monologue in front of some of the students in your group (around 6 or 8 others I think). You performed your songs alone in a room-not in front of the other students, and the whole group did a dance call together. While the students were auditioning, they had an information session for the parents in Spiro Hall which was very good. There were faculty, parents, alumni and students on a panel. After the panel, they had campus tours for the parents. We were done by lunch time. We did see a show at Wagner and enjoyed it. Wagner does have a shuttle to the Staten Island Ferry. Hope this info helps!
did they have combines at NYC unifieds could never find any info. Just curious. Also do they do them in chicago?
@MTquest24 -only NY has combines-- that was the one you saw posts Friday here where we were in line at 5:30ish am… I heard of only a few callbacks . mostly texas tech and a few boys for rider would love to hear if people knew of more specifically from ShenCo & texas state.
@NYYFanNowMTdad My daughter was also called back for Texas Tech and Wagner. I heard of one girl who heard from ShenCo. No word on Texas State.
@kyderbymom Congratulations on your daughter’s accomplishments so far! That is really terrific.
When you say, you’ve found people from the larger colleges to be less than friendly is it mainly the fact that they are auditioning more applicants (because they are larger) and because they have to get through so many auditions, they are more business like and curt, etc. OR if you mean something else, could you elaborate on what you have experienced?
Who is less than friendly: is it the faculty, non-faculty audition evaluators, representatives checking people in, etc.?
Has anyone received emails from department heads post audition? My daughter heard from a couple schools late last night (Sunday night after Unifieds). Wondering specifically if Penn State sends personal emails if they’re interested?
@SingerDancerMom, who else did your daughter get emails from? Mine didn’t audition for Penn so unfortunately, I can’t speak to that.
Anyway we can create a chat like this one from last year? Seems to be helpful as results start coming in
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/2125862-class-of-2023-mt-artistic-acceptance-notifications-how-when-where.html
@universitygirl44 I also found this one very well to learn about rolling artistic decisions…
@NYYFanNowMTdad re combines callbacks do you mean called back to audition that same weekend to NY Unifieds or another time? We didn’t go but curious how it worked. I thought they called ppl back later that same weekend to do a full audition?
We can finally see 14 day weather forecasts for Chicago Unifieds! No polar vortex (knock on wood)… some drizzle and snow.
@intheburbs yes I thought so too meaning same weekend but ive heard of very very few people who go call backs so just not sure how they proceed.
Food for thought during the height of audition season… Your kids are going to come out of auditions - some planned, some walk-ins. They’re going to be excited about the auditor(s) from this school - that was so awesome and warm, that spent 15 minutes with them - and that school is going to move up their list. Or they might feel put out by the lack of warmth and friendliness of the auditor(s) at a particular school where it’s all business and little engagement, and that school might slide down their list.
Try to reserve judgement and encourage them to reserve judgement until you receive acceptances and ideally visit campus for your kid to sit in on classes. (Assuming that you didn’t visit prior to auditions - and you can manage it after acceptances.) You will find that the perception of a school from the audition room may be completely different from what you see when you get on campus and your kid engages with students and sees what happens in the classroom.
I can tell you that my kid was very excited about two programs we had not visited when he received the acceptances from them. His excitement was based on what he saw on paper and what he experienced in the audition room. When we visited the two schools, the experiences were night and day different in terms of how the students engaged with one another, how the instructors engaged with their classes, what the facilities were like, etc. It was incredibly eye opening. Before the visits, he could have seen himself at either one. After the visits, he absolutely would never have considered one of the two schools.
Now is the time to start trying to figure out when you can visit schools in April if at all possible.
Good Luck Everyone as you wrap up your audition season in the next couple of months.!
I agree with @speezamom. The audition experience itself is not truly indicative of the program and entire college, which ideally requires a thorough visit and talking with current students and alumni as well.
@speezagmom–very helpful and timely post! Just home from an incredibly busy but fun weekend at NY Unifieds with my D & am definitely trying to help her to keep everything in perspective until we know what her options are… She had both warm, engaging auditions where she felt great about her interactions with people in the room and some where the vibe was more business-like, with little interaction. From our experience with a couple of early auditions in Dec., it doesn’t seem that the in-room audition experience always lines up with the outcome–you just don’t know what those people behind the table are really thinking! We’ll definitely have to take a breath and see how everything works out between now and April, but spring campus visits will definitely be next on the planning list!
^ Couldn’t agree more about needing the visits and how much they influence the decision. Also don’t read anything into the audition room engagement/lack of, etc. - no one can predict the outcomes and just because someone is warm and engaging with your kid or the opposite means nothing.