<p>I agree, toowonderful, that visiting colleges to get a feel for the campus and theater department is a good idea. But for those of us on the west coast, it is a very expensive trip to visit MT colleges before acceptance. I would suggest that those on the west coast visit different college campuses in their area to get an idea of what sort of campus your child likes and proceed from there.</p>
<p>That is an excellent suggestion</p>
<p>Our college visits were somewhat strategic. Last year when D was a junior, we did a trip to see what some non-specific examples BFA, BA, and BA>BFA programs of varying sizes and geographies (urban, rural, etc.). From that, D was able to glean what her basis of programs to target would be. For her, that means an urban BFA near a coast. </p>
<p>Then, she defined the type of program she wanted. She is acting, not MT, so she had some specific desires such as strong classical focus, opportunity/inclusion of abroad semester, an experimental/devised niche, if possible, plus we applied some budgetary constraints. From that, she got to 14 schools. </p>
<p>She has visited the campuses of 4 of them already. Another 3 she will audition at the school itself, so 7 of the 14 she will have visited before determining acceptance. Two of the schools have a an on-campus callback, so if she makes the callback for those programs, she will see those campuses then. That puts us at potentially 9 out of 14 she will have seen before attending or not.</p>
<p>That will leave us with 5 schools that if she is accepted, she will not have visited. I figure, if any of those 5 stick (possibly 1-2 of them as they are pretty big reaches anyway), then if they are true contenders by that time, we’ll figure out a way to check those out in person. </p>
<p>This has seemed to work out for us based on budget, timing, etc. Might not work for everyone, but it got us from “no clue to a plan” in about 6 months. I was super scared about visiting a “I fell in love when I saw it school,” but so far she has been open that any of the 14 on her list could be her home for the next four years. </p>
Bumping this - as it was posted a couple of years ago - while it’s a long read, it’s a worthwhile one for those embarking on the audition process this year!