<p>letsfigureitout and others: just to add information to the discussion of Unifieds. Got a letter today that confirms a 1:15 time for the University of Evansville, but with no further clarification, though a 1:15 starting time might suggest that they schedule 15 minute intervals. Then again, perhaps not, which suggests that, among the schools scheduled thus far (except Guthrie), we are going to have to contact each re: the duration of the audition/interview.</p>
<p>alwaysmom and soozievt: thanks for your comments. I’ve been in a rotton mood this past week, as I am in my last cycle of chemotherapy - not fun, though, since my employer has given me the semester off, I have the time to assist my S in this complex process. I will be on my feet and normal soon. I’m ready to get back to my real job; triathlons and adventure racing. The Drs. have cleared me. I just can’t smoke cigars once I cross the finish line.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of your help. Last year I saw a very bright, decent actor go through this process with no advice. He applied to four top BFA programs and he got rejected by every one. I told him to visit this site - he did not - and I did not know him well enough to tell him, ‘hey, you better protect yourself and apply to this or that program in addition to the four that you have chosen’. CC (which is ‘us’) is a gift, even for someone like myself, who has been in higher ed. since 1979.</p>
<p>Brian, again, my thoughts go out to you as you deal with the challenges of your illness on top of guiding your son through this process. Hats off to you. You have surely been very involved in helping him and in gleaning the information you need. It is best to call each school and ask about such things as the duration just to be sure, as I would not rely on that sort of thing here but CC is good for lots of other stuff! :)</p>
<p>Re: doing auditions on campus. Yes, that would certainly be ideal. But for most of us, there are two factors that work against that: money (self explanatory) and time. If you look at most of the well known programs’ websites, it quickly becomes obvious that a lot of them schedule their on campus auditions on the same weekends, but are located in various parts of the country. Until the geniuses at Johns Hopkins figure out a way for one person to be in two places at once, it’s impossible to do. The person with whom I spoke at Minnesota/Guthrie was very firm that equal consideration is given to kids that they see at Unifieds, and that kids who want to see and experience campus can do so if and when they get called back for the Call Back Weekend. (Even then, she said that kids who cannot come to that event because of finances, spring shows, etc. are not penalized for that.) My D and I visited a number of schools last year and she will audition on campus for a number this year, but if she ends up being fortunate enough to be accepted by Guthrie or another program she has not visited, we will find a way for her to visit <em>at that time.</em>
On another topic, it’s wonderful when these programs which audition off campus are willing to tell kids how long they need to set aside, particularly kids who are auditioning at the NYC Unifieds at the AMA site and have to travel offsite for auditions such as Guthrie, Purchase and so on. (Anyone know anything about Purchase’s Unifieds times? I called Purchase’s Theatre Dept today and they really wouldn’t tell me much at all. The woman, who was very nice, said that kids cannot schedule – even for Unifieds – now. They have to apply and then, in a number of weeks, will receive written materials with instructions for auditions. They then have to fill out the forms and send them in. After that, apparently, Purchase will respond with a time and date. I politely pointed out that many kids are already filling up their NYC Unified audition slots, and this made it hard to plan for Purchase. Unfortunately, there is nothing we apparently can do about it. If anyone here had a kid audition for Purchase in New York at Unifieds, I would love to hear how this worked out.)
Thanks~</p>
<p>NotMamaRose: and when you are called back to visit Minneapolis in Feb., you will quickly realize how cold it is and whether you really, really want it. Another theory as to why Minneapolis is the friendliest city in the world is that only those who really want to be there are there. It has worse weather than Moscow, but, as I said in a prvious post, one of the 2-3 times I became teary-eyed was the day we left Minneapolis to come back to the east coast.</p>
<p>Brian, I didn’t notice any indication of a bad mood in your post, so no worries. I know what you’re going through with chemo and, as I’ve said before, my thoughts and best wishes are with you. </p>
<p>I do understand that not everyone can audition at, or visit, every campus, which is why I said that it is a distinct advantage, only if time and finances permit. The Unifieds provide an excellent service to those who are unable to audition on campus. I will admit, though, that it does worry me with some kids who only do Unifieds and risk everything on that one weekend. As others have said, and as has been discussed here in previous years, sickness and bad weather can cause havoc. I think ultimately a safer approach would be a balance between Unifieds and also a few on-campus auditions. NMR, perhaps things have changed in the intervening years since my D went through this process but I don’t recall an issue of everyone offering auditions only on the same weekends. Maybe it was just at the schools my D was interested in, but there were many choices over a period of several weeks. Fortunately, for her, she got in E.D. and we cancelled the remaining scheduled auditions (and we all breathed a sigh of relief! :)). </p>
<p>Brian, speaking of Minneapolis, I have a friend who was born and raised there. She hasn’t lived there since she left for college but she still speaks fondly of the city and how friendly the people are.</p>
<p>alwaysamom, perhaps I should clarify. Of course, many schools offer auditions on site over various weekends, so kids absolutely do have a choice. However – and maybe it’s just a matter of the schools that are on my own kid’s list! – it sure seems that at least three or four school offer auditions on their own campuses on the same weekends. Though one may have a date on, say, Saturday, Jan. 26, the other has a date on Sunday, Jan. 27, and they are hundreds of miles apart! (That’s just an example.) My D is doing quite a few auditions overall and with so many dates overlapping (and her not being able to do any auditions in the first two-thirds of November because of a mandatory school play…she attends an arts high school and a senior play is part of the curriculum!), it gets difficult trying to fit them in! It will all work out, of course. And your point about putting too many eggs into the Unifieds basket is very, very valid and something we are being very conscious of. That said, she is going to have to do some at Unifieds. Wish her luck! :)</p>
<p>I agree with what has been posted. Unifieds are great in terms of making less trips and less cost and this whole process is a costly endeavor. What you are doing, NMR, makes sense to me and is what several of my clients are also doing. They’ve already visited several schools and so they can do those schools at Unifieds and then they are doing some campus auditions. Some of each seems like a good plan. Seeing some schools in junior year helps spread out the trips. Then, April can be to visit a couple schools your student may get into that he/she hasn’t yet seen. But if your student hasn’t seen ANY schools, this will be trickier to fit in during as short period of time. Also, as I said, even visiting just a couple of schools, gives the student an idea of what they prefer in a college in general. What I was trying to say to Brian is that I would not evaluate whether or not to do a campus audition vs. a Unified one based on what the school may be formally offering on the audition day as it may not vary a lot but the reason to go to campus goes beyond that. That’s why I was suggesting he may want to go to campus for Rutgers as it is the same distance as NYC is for his family. </p>
<p>NMR…I saw a play this summer in Provincetown in which the entire cast, it seemed, were either current Guthrie students or recent graduates and they were quite talented actors. I’m glad your D is going to give that one a try. I have a client also applying to Purchase like your D is doing. I know it is a bit nutty the way some schools handle the audition appointment making and make some of that come out very late and families have to juggle a lot of trips and auditions making it hard if a school is not forthcoming with that information until closer to auditions. I don’t know how many schools your D is auditioning at. My D did 8 and I think that is getting to nearly max of how many auditions, particularly on campus, can be reasonably done without giving up everything else they are doing in life. Anyway, doing some auditions at Unifieds and some on campus seems like a reasonable compromise plan to me. Doing all at Unifieds seems chancy as well as not great if you have never done any campus visits yet (ie., junior year). My D found she was improving with her auditions as the season wore on and so not all her eggs were in one weekend basket. But people have to do what works for them. I know your D has already gotten to see some schools and so it may mean just a couple visits in April if she gets into schools she hasn’t yet seen and is seriously considering. One word of caution is that I find most kids prefer the schools they’ve seen over the ones they only know on paper and are not fully comparing apples to apples. If you can drive to some schools, the cost is not as bad as those who have to fly, particularly those looking for a BFA in MT who live on the West Coast (I have clients in that situation).</p>
<p>soozievt, wonderful advice, as always. Thank you! And best of luck to everyone on all their and their kids’ auditions. Let’s all try to keep sane. :)</p>
<p>Hello All - I think I’ve been making my attempts too long. My S wants to major in theatre/acting at an urban schhool in the eastern half of the US where he can also have a concentration in engineering. BA might even be better for him than BFA. He is not nearly as professional as your kids - the discussion on auditions makes that clear. Of course his parents are doing all the leg work, but we have no information. This blog seems to be extremely rich in that regard.</p>
<p>S’s first choice is Northwestern (a big reach), about which you’ve all said alot. Ditto U of Minnesota Guthrie program. My wife and I have a thing about Tufts, so it’s out, our S has no interest in NYU (too close to home), and Carnegie Mellon is too intense for him.</p>
<p>Would appreciate any information you can offer regarding the following choices: Vanderbilt, McGill, U of Miami, U of Wisconsin - Madison, U of Texas - Austin, U of Minnesota - Twin Cities/non-Guthrie. Would also like suggestions for additional programs for a kid who should be academically challenged.</p>
<p>Am clueless but offer my support to you all. Thanks!</p>
<p>Im a transfer student and transfer deadlines for schools are later than freshmen deadlines but audition dates (mainly the unifeds) are the same.. I was just wondering how fast do audition dates fill up. Do I need to start soon or can I wait closer to the transfer deadlines?!?! thank you for any help</p>
<p>Frenchlaw – Your son wants to double major in acting and engineering, correct? I do not know enough about engineering programs to suggest specific programs, but I can offer this advice…</p>
<p>CMU - the acting degree program is HIGHLY competitive. It is a BFA, and students may not double major. My guess is that Guthrie is similar in this respect. </p>
<p>Tufts - They have a theatre department and an engineering school… check to see if the degrees are the same or if one is a BA (theatre) and the other a BS (engineering). This would be a double degree, not a double major. Different schools have different ways this is handled, but usually this kind of dual degree takes 5 years to complete.</p>
<p>Does he want to double major in order to have “something to fall back on”… because he is equally passionate about both acting and engineering, and does not want to choose only one to study in college… or because he is ultimately interested in a career track that would allow him to combine theatre and engineering?</p>
<p>His answers to those question will help to focus the types of schools and programs at which he looks.</p>
<p>It may sound crazy, but theatre and engineering can overlap… structural engineering and design skills, and sometime mechanical engineering (in the case of automation) are used by technical directors and designers who work on high end (Broadway, Opera, Las Vegas…) theatrical production.</p>
<p>I used to teach at Univ. of Minn. Their BA Theater program is geared toward the ‘liberal arts’. Their reputation in Engineering is very good. The Univ. is one of the largest in the world. It is adjacent to downtown Minneapolis. The Univ. looks like your typical ‘Big 10’ Univ. Minneapolis? I always defined it as a mellow Boston. Very friendly.
Down side: the Univ., as is the case with most Big 10 universities, is highly bureaucratic and a bit excessive in its emphasis on faculty research.</p>
<p>Madison’s motto used to be:'no, this is not Heaven; it’s Madison. Madison and Ann Arbor have most of everything that you want from a large city - cutting edge music, eateries, etc.,without the downsides. Note, however, that I am a country boy and am looking for property in Nova Scotia. Cities bore me; I can get my culture via regional theater and internet purchases.</p>
<p>I don’t think a kid admitted to CMU or Minnesota/Guthrie’s BFA in acting program would have TIME to major in engineering, also. I work at a university with a top notch engineering program and it is INTENSE! Ditto the BFA in acting programs out there, especially at those “name brand” places. Perhaps the best approach would be for your son to get into a good engineering program at a college or university where there are lots of great opportunities to perform. If you want to PM me, I can tell you about what goes on in that respect at the place at which I work, which has several very, very active student theater groups (including one which has the $$ to hire professional directors to do their yearly play or musical) and many other opps. In addition, there is a performance type minor offered through another dept which attracts kids from all different majors.</p>
<p>Wow! Thank you all!
I don’t think my S’s goal is to double major - you are all correct, engineering alone is too intense to permit it; but I think he likes science and would like to do a non-major cluster/minor/concentration. I believe he’s nervous about his theatre ability and would like to have an available option for transfer if he can’t stand up to students with the ability of your kids - this is all new to him.
Apparently more and more engineering types are becoming interested in the arts. I was told by one admissions officer that engineering students outnumbered liberal arts in the school’s symphony orchestra!
Briansteffy - thanks for the good word on the midwest. Where can you get a better bagel, Madison or Minneapolis? KatMT, will look at Tufts with an open mind. MamaRose, if my S is not sure enough about his theater choice, I’ll take you up on your offer.</p>
<p>Frenchlaw: I cannot answer the bagel question, but, though its been a while, Minneapolis’ largest minority group is Southeast Asian. The best Vietnamese, Cambodian, Thai, etc. food in the country. But there is one thing you have to do in either Madison or Minneapolis; get into a winter sport/activity, else you will go stir crazy by March. Also, you will eventually become an expert on weather and the ‘science’ of its prediction.</p>
<p>hktk: perhaps you are considering Lawrence for the same reason that it has remained on our LAC list. It is noted as one of the better LAC theater programs. The College, of course, is noted for its music conservatory. I bring this up because some orthodox LACs (I am associated with one) have typically looked down upon any ‘performance’ program. That it has a conservatory on-board comforts me; they do not cling to some outdated notiton of the liberal arts. The college is highly rated academically. I have been told that it is an attractive campus in an attractive setting. If you are looking at Lawrence for theater, you might also consider Beloit - a bit more neo60s. If considering the East Coast, consider Skidmore. Lots of people rave about Muhlenberg, but those are MT people. I find their acting program to be less conservatory like. But I am associated with a college that snubs its nose (in general) at Muhlenberg, so consider this opinion tainted.
The LACs for theater that we have looked at, given my son’s stats, are Cornell College, Coe, Beloit, Lawrence, Skidmore; also Bennington (our number one LAC choice because it intentionally rattles orthodox notions of liberal arts/liberal education). The LAC that I teach at is also an up and comer in theater. We just built new theater facilities and we are hiring a bunch of new MFA/PhDs.</p>
figure out a way for one person to be in two places at once, it’s impossible to do. The person with whom I spoke at Minnesota/Guthrie was very firm that equal consideration is given to kids that they see at Unifieds, and that kids who want to see and experience campus can do so if and when they get called back for the Call Back Weekend. (Even then, she said that kids who cannot come to that event because of finances, spring shows, etc. are not penalized for that.) My D and I visited a number of schools last year and she will audition on campus for a number this year, but if she ends up being fortunate enough to be accepted by Guthrie or another program she has not visited, we will find a way for her to visit <em>at that time.</em>