My dd is applying for musical theatre direction (piano) at Baldwin Wallace and she attended their virtual summer institute. Their auditions will all be recorded with a live/zoom component as well. They’ve also dropped the test score requirement for Merit and are posting a matrix based solely on GPA.
@RainbowHigh I want to add to the great advice that you have already received. College Confidential has two threads called Big List of MT Colleges by State and Big List of MT Colleges by Program Type. Use these lists to start researching schools online. With covid, many schools have greatly improved the helpfulness of their websites, especially with videos and virtual tours. Start researching programs now, both the well known and the lesser known.
Really look at the BFA programs from schools that don’t get much love from “top 20” lists. For example in my state of Texas there are wonderful BFA programs at smaller or less known schools like University of Texas at Arlington, Abilene Christian University, Sam Houston State University and, just south of me, West Texas A&M University. All areas of the country will have these hidden gem programs.
In addition to the book “I Got In” by Mary Anna Dennard is another book by her called “Before I Got In” which is geared to younger high school students just starting the process. It was the first book we purchased. I also highly recommend “The Ultimate Musical Theater College Audition Guide” by Amy Rogers Schwartzreich of Pace University.
If you have primarily a voice background, audition for shows whether high school or local community theatre. Keep getting on stage. Finally, take dance lessons. I think this is the area where you can make the greatest gains. There is a big difference between some dance background and none.
Thank you @AmarilloTX so much for your advice. I actually read the Big List thread and other one as well and my list is started to grow. I have been reading through each school’s curriculum. I noticed that almost every school has an Musical Theatre Repertoire Class which is exciting to know. I have compiled a list but I do not want to declare any school as a “dream school” since having that causes much more stress to the process. My main goal like many others is just to be accepted to at least one BFA program.
I’ve been in my school’s productions since 6th grade and I’m going to start taking dance classes in August. I will definitely purchase the books you were telling me about by Mary Anna Dennard . Thank you for the most helpful advice and everyone else as well. I’m going to begin my journey soon as possible. Thank you all 
Wish me luck in the future.
This is a major mature step you have taken. Many students should heed this mode of thinking!
If you’re a podcast listener, the latest episode of Actor Aesthetic has Kaitlin Hopkins of Tx St as a guest and she gives lots of great information about college auditions in general and specifically for her school. There are also other episodes on this podcast on college auditions that are good.
Last yr (class of 2024) I posted a theme that is pretty important for you aspiring artists. It resonated with some so I’ll repeat it here.
“Forget the dream school, follow the dream!”
Many great programs out there. Try to find a great one for you and kill the auditions.
Here is a great spreadsheet of the schools participating in common prescreens and the requirement for each school. I found it very helpful.
https://papermill.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/2020-MTCPS-Participating-Schools-JULY_17.pdf
I agree, the spreadsheet is very helpful. However, I have found one mistake. For the University of Oklahoma, it shows the wildcard as “No, Not accepted”. The wildcard is actually optional for OU and I strongly encourage submitting a wildcard to OU. At a MT day for high school kids last year, OU stressed that they look for unique talent and that a great way to show uniqueness is through the wildcard.
I have printed the spreadsheet as a guide but will still double check the accuracy. I am also going to revisit the Papermill website a few times because new schools might still be added, in addition to corrections.
@conpar39 I recently checked out the 2024 admissions results on MTCA and “I got in” (Mary Anna Dennard). I was stunned to see that more than half of the UMich MT class used one of these 2 services. While no one thinks you HAVE to use a coach I have to say I am pretty impressed by this.
Where did you find this information?
Where did you find this information?
MTCA had almost 300 students use their coaching services last year. Moo had at least 150. Assume 2000 apply to UM and 500 have no reason to in the first place. Close to one third of the remaining pool uses one of these two services (in some way). Many use Moo solely for the efficent early auditions she hosts at Moonifieds. MTCA has a whole range of services one can choose from. And note some sudents are counted on both services. There is selection bias as well as both coaching services look at talent first when choosing to coach someone. This is a costly porcess no doubt, but each coach does provide scholarships to their programs when the need (and talent) exists.
@MTDad2025 as a parent that has used MTCA multiple times, they do not select students based on talent. MTCA works with everyone unlike Moo. MTCA meets the students where they are artistically and assists them in their growth. Just wanted to clarify that fact for you and others that may read this.
I stand corrected. But with MTCA’s offerings being a la carte, many of the student’s “coaching” may be for items that a) cost a fraction of the full service offerings and b) would have been incurred in some form anyway. The services are obviously tout their successes, whether they contributed with one monologue coaching session or provided everything under the sun. There is no panacea to getting into a top program. For every Michigan admit, there are kids still deciding/taking gap years on the Class of XX pages for MTCA. Moo doesn’t even list kids who do not get admitted to an MT/Acting program.
I’m sorry I have been absent for awhile, but this weekend is the College Audition Prep Weekend college mock audition (virtually!!) and I have been helping some kids prep for it! This virtual audition thing is taking some learning for me (not exactly tech UN-savvy, but figuring out ways to improve the sound and keep video from being choppy and rough has been the focus of my life the past few weeks! Zoom is not the best at these things, but seems to be what everyone is using…so I am trying to become a Zoom expert! LOL. Who knew last year that life was going to be so different this year?
Not surprisingly, National Unified Auditions has announced that it has cancelled in all 3 cities. They will be working on virtual auditions. My guess is that the virtual auditions will take place when the Chicago Unifieds were scheduled.
@AmarilloTX Although I wasn’t surprised by the Unifieds cancellation, I am feeling sad and bummed for all the kids who will miss out on the Unified experience and especially for kids who do their best with all that electric energy. On the bright side more virtual audition opportunities may open up things for some with less resources to travel. But this year is definitely going to be like no other! Break legs and hang in there everyone!
I hate that my daughter will lose the experience of Unifieds. It seemed like an experience to remember! And missing out on walk-in opportunities is a bummer. Saving travel money is a plus though!
So have you solved the choppy video problem? For work I use an ethernet cable instead of WiFi, but I still feel like I look choppy sometimes. Does it have to do with the webcam as well? Share your experience! Also for sound, my daughter was planning on using her AirPods. We haven’t tested them yet, though. I keep reading about the Blue Yeti that people have ordered, but not sure she needs that as she won’t be singing.
The use of any type of headphones is discouraged in the discussions I have had with some folks putting on some virtual auditions (Moonifieds/CAP United).