Hello! New MT Dad here. I’ve been reading MT posts here for months, appreciating the shared wisdom and experiences of so many. Huge thanks to all those that took the time to share. Us new parents are standing on the shoulders of giants!
Son will be a senior next year. He hasn’t finished his short list yet but the majority of schools on his full list are in or around NYC. Although he seems to have my procrastinator genes he has been working on his audition materials and songs with a college audition coach/vocal teacher for a while. He also is signed up for a local MT college prep class this summer.
The longer the pandemic has gone on the less and less interested he has been in continuing to do online shows, online classes, and (ug) even online school. So we’re looking forward to things getting back to “normal”!
GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL!! ITS A ROUGH ROAD AHEAD BUT YOU WILL GET THROUGH
I suggest reading past 3-4 years OF venting threads and final decision threads as many of your issues, questions and circumstances have been experienced by those of us on the other side
of course the last 2 years Covid has changed/impacted things, but hers hoping this years class will be somewhat " normal" again
New MT mom as well!
My daughter is finishing her junior year and has started to prepare her prescreen materials, training as hard as possible, and finishing her school list.
She´s an international student so we are new to all this process.
I would encourage your son, and any prospective student, to cast a wide net. NYC is not the end all and be all of the theatre world, especially wrt to college and university theatre programs. Every student should have a healthy mix of stretch schools (very competitive programs), moderately competitive programs, and less competitive/no auditions schools (safety). Though it doesn’t correlate exactly, that usually also ranges from most expensive to most affordable schools.
Hi my D is a rising junior interested in a BFA in MT. I am seeing people talk about their kids’ safety, fit and reach schools they are applying to. I was wondering if any of you know in general what is best on the mix of schools – do most people apply to only a handful of reach schools? I mean my kid wins talent shows, vocal awards, etc and gets top parts in school and in the MT ensembles at our good community theatre, but we are in a mid size city on the Texas coast so I have no idea how many reach schools is reasonable. She was waitlisted, then accepted to the NYU Tisch summer MT program, which will be online only.
Very much agree with UMiamiMTDad, cast a wide net, look beyond what you think you like. My S was sure he would stay in NYC and is actually going to be in North Carolina.
@jkredhead I would suggest that you review the past year venting & final decision threads. The good news is most kids do get an offer from a desirable program if they cast a wide net. the bad news is the process is extremely competitive and some kids do get shut out, the competition is intense with MANY kids being award winners that get few offers and most kids do not get an offer from those " top 10 schools" you read about. they are truly lottery tickets lower acceptance than HPY at leass than 5%- that is not to say your kid wont, but best advice is read read read here & go into this brutal process eyes wide open. best of luck to you & your talented daughter!!
Thank you! Yeah she plans on applying to a lot of schools. She is going to be doing a mock audition and some summer program auditions at Moonifieds Jr. in November. She is a rising junior. I have been reading a lot of the threads. This summer she is continuing her ballet and vocal lessons. Her school doesn’t do musicals much but she plans to audition for musicals scheduled at our community theaters this coming year. She will be doing NYU Tisch’s musical theatre summer program online throughout July. Applying to 20-30 schools is daunting. I hope she can do all that. She doesn’t sleep much during the school year as it is due to her advanced hs classes.
My daughter went through this process a couple of years ago, doing Unifieds in Chicago and NYC. It is grueling and beyond competitive. Get a well known coach that can help with setting the list of meet, reach and safety schools and help navigate the song and monologue requirements. The kids that are getting in to the most competitive schools use these coaches. My daughter started working with her coach in summer before 10th grade. My daughter (like most of the kids) was acting/singing professionally and at school since she was a toddler, winning awards and getting paid gigs. It might sound harsh but these kids are a dime a dozen and you need to help your kid stand out a bit from a very crowded selection. Even with my daughter’s extensive resume, it was still a crapshoot and without a coach it is very very difficult to get a good match. On the coaches advice she applied to 24 schools and received 8 offers (acting, musical theater and film offers). This was far beyond what the coach expected and her help was worth every penny - she received amazing scholarships and couldn’t be happier doing her BM in Music (musical theater emphasis) at Oklahoma City University! Good luck and take lots of deep breaths - it will be a very stressful year!
@dmom26, thanks so much. Yeah we are thinking about getting a coach through Moonifieds. Glad your daughter found the place for her! My girl has had trouble dealing with academic pressure she puts on herself, so hopefully she will make it through with her mental health intact.
We used My College Audition out of Boston- highly recommend and the owner was very helpful in managing stress! She and her coaches were present at Unifieds and hugged many kids through a stressful few months. Good luck to your daughter! Academics are important in this process but it ultimately comes down to the audition (and getting thru prescreens!)
Hi BTDT w the mt process twice in 20 and 21…but now my '26 kid is more straight acting.
Does anyone have thoughts on coaches that cater more to Acting BFA? (We are familiar with MTCA).
Thanks! Also wonder if anyone has thoughts on acting programs at known MT places (UM, CCM, BW etc) do you think you would always be qualifying like “oh going there for acting not musical theater” kind of thing? Kind of a challenging question at this stage of the game…
My College Audition is the one we used and they work with kids for MT, theater (which I think you mean by acting BFA) and film. If you go through her website, her students are literally everywhere. As for which program is the “best”, I personally feel that is the best reason to get a coach. It is such a competitive process as you know…getting someone to evaluate your child and see where their best fit is going to be will determine the “best” program. Julliard, the Guthrie and the other “best” programs take less than 20 kids each out of thousands that apply. There is a place for everyone if you know where to start.
We used MTCA for my very unexperienced S for acting and had an AMAZING experience. We were matched with a wonderful coach and had outstanding guidance. He is going to UNCSA. Please PM me if you have any questions. I cannot recommend them enough
We used MTCA for my daughter and she auditioned for both MT and Acting programs. She is attending a BFA Acting program in the Fall. MTCA is equally strong in their Acting preparation. I highly recommend contacting them. @dramamama2424 Please PM me if you have any questions. Happy to help:)
College Audition Project (CAP) has coaching for straight acting, and also has many “acting only” participants at their CAP United Auditions in November. Great people too!
Hello everyone, I was wondering if someone knows the approximate dates of in-person auditions for different colleges, or if this information is available somewhere (maybe with some luck I can find someone who made an excel table…)
I know dates for 2022 are not released yet, but the information about this year or past years would be very helpful.
Unified dates were released already, I think on their facebook and webpage. My S said that UNCSA announced they will be totally virtual. A few place had early auditions in November but most were in January and February
My S went to UMiami, which wasn’t even on his radar at all until his audition coach put it on her list of schools for him to check out. In fact, two of the three schools where he was accepted were schools she suggested for him that he had not previously considered.
You are about to have an amazing journey this year. I hope you find much success. I wanted to let you know of a great opportunity available to you. There will now be a Unified audition event in Pittsburgh!!! The dates are October 8,9 and 10. There are several great schools signed up and more will be added. We will offer master classes, most will be included in your registration and some will require a small up charge. There will be auditions for MT, acting and portfolio reviews for tech/design students. I’m not on here often but if you have any questions you are welcome to reach out to the website or my FB group, MT Parents. We hope you can join us. Welcome to Pittsburgh!! Pittsburghunifieds.com