Good morning,
I am posting a quick comment here since its hard to find new threads on the individual school pages. Since we can’t host tours, I will be conducting a series of Q&A/Informations sessions on zoom for students and parents interested in FSU’s Theatre programs. If you are interested in attending one, the information is in the Florida State University page under Musical Theatre Schools. I hope to see you there!
@SoMuchDrama I think WiFi is too problematic. Yesterday, we did some tests and found that using a Cat 7 shielded ethernet cable was the way to go. One of the kids needed to upgrade her router (it was over 5 years old and did not support the speeds her parents were purchasing from their Internet provider!!). I know that some people are discouraging headsets, but I have seen AirPod Pros being used by professionals in streaming productions. We are purchasing a variety of mics and are going to test those (optimally less expensive, better quality). This weekend, all three are going to be at the mock College Audition (virtual) that is being done (signups still available!) and Texas State, Texas Christian, OCU, UCO, OU, LIU Post, etc. will be there. It will be interesting to hear what they want in a virtual audition. I think that will help considerably. (One of the reasons I love mock auditions!! Especially in this brave new “virtual” world!)
When daughter uses her macbook pro with ethernet cable she gets kicked out of zoom. If she is on the wifi she has not been kicked out yet. Anyone have any ideas.
When you switched the cat 7 shielded - what were you using prior? What type of computer? I’m also wondering if the adapter for the mac pro is the issue since it doesn’t have a Ethernet port.
@mojorun22 all of them were using WiFi (various routers) - one tested her speed yesterday prior to ethernet cable at 29 down and 8 up. With the cable, she had 157 down and 87 up. They are all on PC. We had a few other Ethernet cables to test but the Cat 7 Shielded provided the fastest results. I ordered two more for them – one arrived yesterday and one today by 8 am – so they would have for this weekend!
I have a MacBook Pro but I have upgraded the router in my house (what Spectrum provided was not sufficient). With my Wifi, 2 rooms away from router, I got 259 down and 112 up. And you may be correct about the adapter. I would find a Mac networking forum (Reddit?) and get some help.
I can tell you that with our tests the last week, the Advanced Audio settings have to be changed. After much research, it appears that isn’t available on your regular Zoom account for mobile. So that really stinks!! One of the students was going to do hers on her phone because it is a far better camera, but could not change the audio settings.
Here is what we found that worked best in the tests (but PLEASE test this out yourself!!!):
On desktop Zoom:
Join with Computer Audio
Click on the little up caret (^) by Stop Video, click on Video Settings.
Make sure “Touch Up my appearance” is unchecked and “Enable HD” is checked
Click on Audio in the left nav (of Settings)
Assign your correct mic (input) and speakers (output) there if not correct
Test them
Deselect automatically adjust microphone volume
Click on Advanced (in Audio Settings)
Check "Show in-meeting option to “Enable Original Sound” from microphone
Make these choices:
Suppress Persistent Background Noise - Disable
Suppress Intermittent Background Noise - Disable
AGAIN - these are the settings we found worked best for these students!!! PLEASE TEST YOURSELF!
This year is going to be a year of learning…!!!
I just posted a VERY late Final Decision post for one of my students that several people had DMmed me about and tagged me for over the last few months. I had to write it (it’s incredibly long) and have the student approve it…but 15 days before he leaves for college…it’s up! I feel like I accomplished something today!! LOL
Thank you so much, @onette I just ordered the CAT 7 shielded cable. I was using older ones, so hopefully that will help. Going to look into a newer router as well and maybe upgrading the package from Spectrum. I guess it’s all cheaper than airfare!
@SoMuchDrama It is most definitely cheaper than airfare!!!
Best wishes to all you 2025 parents who are braving the MT process in the Coronaverse! To quote the play, “Steel Magnolias”: What does not kill us makes us stronger.
For anyone considering CCPA, I posted this on the Roosevelt University thread but thought I’d add it here. The article below was written by a student who had just completed her freshman year at Roosevelt CCPA as a BFA Musical Theatre-Dance major, class of 2023. My D (BFA MT 2023) would agree with her classmate’s assessment of her experience at CCPA!
Please send good vibes my D’s way this weekend. She’s filming her dance presecreens tomorrow and her singing prescreens on Sunday. Her dance teacher was kind enough to just let her use the studio for free. And we have an area all set up at home for songs and monologues. School starts back for her on Thursday, so she’s trying to get as much done before then as possible. She wrote her common app essay last week. Where is everyone else in the process?
@ARBMusTheatre im not in this year’s process, but it feels to me like you are way out in front of it AND THATS GREAT…I will say to try to avoid self imposed time frames and unneeded pressures, I feel our prescreens last year could have been better but we had a self imposed deadline of 9/15 and there really was no need. that being said our coaches thought they were good to submit but in hindsight maybe we should have redone them? you can also over analyze and be hyper critical of yourself so try to avoid paralysis by analysis…when you feel good about it, submit it whether that be 9/1, 9/30 or 10/30 there is zero correlation from what I saw that indicated earlier submission equalled more or less pass rate, once you are happy with the product, hit send and don’t look back this is just the first mile of a very very long marathon…hope that helps!
Everything @NYYFanNowMTdad said. I will also add, that depending on your child’s personality, it might be a good idea to have a 3rd unbiased party around during the filming. My D is super critical about herself and in hindsight it would have been a good idea to have a 3rd party there that they respect with regards to the process and their honesty, but also have no “skin in the game” other than they love your kid and want the best for them. My D HATED her prescreens. She did them at school as part of a class, so I wasn’t there during filming. I personally thought she was being her typical hyper critical self but still offered that she could re do them, but at that point she was so overwhelmed and stressed between everything going on she was over it. She did well, so obviously they were fine, but it was still unnecessary stress and drama. We learned what to do and what not to do as well as what this year’s class needs to insist on during filming - we’ve definitely passed the info along and told them to not be afraid to speak up if they aren’t 100% happy with them. In my opinion, it’s especially important to be happy with them this year when everything is video submission. Best wishes!!!
Couple of quick notes on what we’ve found is working well with all of this technology. The Blue Yeti works great but make sure you test out the different settings. Get someone on a Zoom with you and play with the four different settings and gain.
We decided to get an external webcam. If you have a MacBook Air, the camera in those aren’t very good. We got a Logitech HD pro webcam C920. Works great, even in low light
Finally, if you haven’t upgraded your router in a while, do it! Even with ethernet cables, I still wasn’t getting super fast upload/downloads. Now, with the new router, we’re averaging 270 down and 23 up. I gotta figure out how Onette gets such a high upload number. Still trying to figure out how to get that up.
So that’s all I can do on my end. Now patiently waiting for her to write her essays!
Thoughts in optional ballet prescreen videos? My son has taken ballet for the last three years but I wouldn’t call him an advanced ballet dancer. Wondering if it helps or better to leave it out…
anyone know where I can find the prices of schools’ prescreens and auditions? trying to organize it all.
@Stress19372919 - I literally tried to complete this spreadsheet last night. I googled, “college/uni musical theatre application fee” and found the majority of them. If your DD or DS isn’t biting your head off, it’s all listed in Acceptd. The prices range from $45 to $80. Don’t forget to add a column for the actual college application fee. We’ve only found that Elon and Syracuse let you submit prescreens before applying to the college. I am hoping there are more out there since several of the schools are no go’s if DS doesn’t get into the MT program.
A few more schools to add that don’t require academic application before prescreens: Otterbein, Coastal Carolina, Webster and Emerson. Emerson doesn’t have their 20-21 info up yet but last year you didn’t have to apply before submitting prescreens.
Webster and Otterbein do not have an application fee for academic admisssions. You can save time but not money by skipping the apps. And since Otterbein is on the Common App, not much time saved there either.
For anyone interested, I have added the September zoom Q&A session days/times on the Florida State University CC page,
Michele
Anybody else doing CAP? I feel like after a year of working toward college auditions, we’re finally getting close. And the Cleveland Unifieds are getting close too, right?
@ARBMusTheatre Three of my students are doing CAP!