<p>I'm curious about the prep and time your junior/senior spent getting ready for college auditions.</p>
<p>What was a typical week like including school, voice, dance, acting, homework, social life, production work, job, etc. </p>
<p>I'm sure that it varied depending on the time of year, but we're just trying to get a sense of different approaches and how kids balanced their lives the months/year before auditions.</p>
<p>Not sure how we survived it, kksmom5!</p>
<p>My d just finished the last of her auditions early this month. She started out the end of October. She also decided to enroll in 4 AP courses, be in the fall play and spring musical (and had the leads in both). She is involved in a ballet company, with rehearsals 5 days a week, and an all-day musical theatre class (that has been amazing!) on Saturdays. Sleeping has been pretty much eliminated from her schedule! Her boyfriend is probably the most understanding person on the planet, has been her cheerleader, support, and there when she needs him (and not complaining when she’s not). </p>
<p>Advice – spread auditions out – the most she did in one weekend was 2 that were reasonable drives from one to the other. Over plan and over rehearse – then there’s no stress in the material to present. Talk to teachers (some were more understanding than others – she missed about a dozen school days w/auditions and travelling to and fro). Know what your (and your kid’s) limits are. She ended up needing to drop piano lessons second semester – too many auditions/homework/rehearals…no time to practice. She will resume this summer. Know you can’t be two places at once. She was very clear with her director and the people in charge of her Saturday program when she would be absent (and why). Keep a master calendar for the months that have auditions – include travel days…</p>
<p>Work your master list of schools up early, and do the paper applications as soon as they are available – she had all hers in before mid-September. </p>
<p>Control what you can, go with the flow, and remember to have ice cream or something else fun in every city you see…much of the blur of the audition year is amazing, wonderful…and remember to breathe!</p>
<p>mommafrog I think we have been living parallel lives the last six months! Our schedule has been so similar to yours right down to the 4AP classes and the dozen missed school days. (constant communication with her teachers was a must, as is making up ALL of the work)
Our biggest difference was while you sought out ice cream shops after auditions, my husband and I found local brew pubs! (left the kid at the hotel for sure) </p>
<p>So kksmom5, prepare, plan and organize and then do it some more! There are fabulous coaches,teachers and resources like CC that can help guide you through the sometimes bizarre world of MT auditions. Having a varied list of schools is a must. Enjoy the ride. It goes by quicker than you think. Good luck to you and your D and the MT Class of 2016! Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions.</p>
<p>Hey, first thing, cross out “social life.” ;)</p>
<p>My son only did four auditions this year and life has still been crazy. Weekly voice and dance lessons, five musicals in one year. Plus travelling for honors chorus! My son only took 2 AP classes though.</p>
<p>I did twelve auditions from the first week of January to the first week of March. Be prepared to lose your social life for a few months. I had an insane year. I’m only taking one AP course (AP Lit), and I take weekly voice lessons. I did my school’s fall play from Sept-Nov, where I had a lead, took driver’s ed every Saturday morning, and worked 20 hours a week up until auditions started. Most days I would have rehearsal from 3-5, work from 5-10, and voice lessons I would fit in during my free periods off from school. I auditioned every Saturday in January and February plus the first weekend in March, and did five auditions in one weekend at Unifieds. Don’t get a job unless you really need to…I got my job for the summer and ended up keeping it to pay for my car. Working in retail while trying to prepare for auditions is a nightmare…my boss didn’t comprehend what college auditions were and still scheduled me for long hours during the holiday season.</p>
<p>While doing all those things already mentioned, I advise against getting mono. D did and looking back, she probably should have opted for not getting mono. That would be my suggestion; to not get mono.</p>
<p>Ugh. sdf. Yeah…wish we could have kept these kids in a bubble the whole year. Mine did New York Unifieds in a walking boot w/a sprained ankle, and also had the stomach flu from heck the day before we flew there. She did her final audition stop w/a raging sinus infection…hence my suggestion to spread the auditions out – hopefully, you’ve got a healthy kid for at least part of the year!! Hope your d is feeling better!!!</p>
<p>She is, thanks so much. Think she’s gonna make it. We had three more schools to visit and between her recovering and some viable offers trickling in that were closer to home anyway, opted to say that we are probably going to call it done and hold off on them unless something crazy happens at the last minute. </p>
<p>And yeah, I would agree, spread them out a bit.</p>
<p>It’s tricky though, because we tried to get her in on the first scheduled audition at most schools and conflicts quite often meant we couldn’t. I wanted that in case she got sick, she’d still have a chance to reschedule. But then because she kind of started so late in the game, she really improved a lot by early spring over how she was last fall, so maybe waiting wasn’t necessarily bad either. Most of the schools on her list indicated that they’d consider special arrangements if their scheduled times were a problem and were very accomodating (incuding, surprisingly, the BigName Huge Famous Schools who must surely have a heart to do that <em>grin</em>) but one or two of them would not see anyone on any date other than that scheduled one, period.</p>
<p>I would find out which ones those were in advance, it might be handy to know that when figuring out conflicts.</p>
<p>Haha snapdragonfly! Good grief, talk about trial by fire. Glad she is doing better. Good tip about flexible schools. :0) (I’d be interested to see data on mono this year - it’s strange that I’ve come in contact - virtually and in-person - with so many folks that have dealt with it this year.)</p>
<p>During college audition season, I totally overwhelmed myself. I was in a show, taking weekly voice lessons, doing dance classes 5 days a week, taking acting classes, and in 5 AP classes. It was terrible! I recommend you cut down on everything so that you have more time to prepare for auditions and relax. Do voice and acting lessons once every other week, and jazz and ballet dance once a week. Space auditions out as much as possible!</p>
<p>Your d is very blessed to have you. Has she made her decision on which college she is attending? My d is at the end of her freshman year. Do you have any advise on what we can do now? We are in Texas and there are some good summer camps, did your d ever do camp? Thanks for your input.</p>
<p>No decision yet, though we are narrowing it down. Thanks so much for the kind words!</p>
<p>In my opinion, the most important thing a freshman/sophomore needs to do is start getting ready to kick ass on the National Merit Scholar in their junior year - and yes, start prepping now. On that, and on the ACT or SAT, because it does take a couple years of slow and steady work to pull those scores up if you aren’t one of those kids who just waltzes into standardized tests and blows them away. </p>
<p>Do whatever is necessary to be able to be in those AP classes and have good enough grades to be in the top rank of your school.</p>
<p>That way, you will hopefully be able to actually AFFORD the acceptances she gets.</p>
<p>Obviously it would be ideal to take dance classes, acting classes, and voice classes, but from personal experience, a lack of being able to really sing will close more doors than not being an expert dancer or actor (yet). So few kids actually get any acting instruction worth a crap in high school and they are going to rip everything you learned down to nothing and build you up from scratch anyway, just like they do in the military - or so I have been told - I think they are looking for potential and just some sort of personality that comes across, for acting. For dancing - you need to be able to “move” at least. Some programs want people with actual dancing chops and some will accept “movers.”</p>
<p>But not being a strong singer will simply shut the doors.</p>
<p>Take classes in all of them if you can but start working on your singing now, if you haven’t already, and if you have been taking singing classes but not throwing your whole heart into it - start throwing that heart into it. Not only is it very important, but like body building, it takes years to really get those singing “muscles” really built up.</p>
<p>As far as camps and activities for the summer - mostly my D has done TATD convention (Texas Association of Teachers of Dance) and local drama camps so I am not really an expert on what other camps there might be nor do I really know what they would be looking for - hopefully some of the college reps can chime in with their opinion on this.</p>
<p>But what I would suspect is, unless you can attend something that is so nationally prestigious that the name really impresses, to find stuff that your kid finds enjoyable and instructive that is affordable; (assuming budget is an issue) I’d spend the money on coaching and prep for grades and voice over the next couple years rather than a couple summer programs. Starting out this early, which is great, you can do the slow steady approach which I think is so much better than figuring it out at the last minute. It’s frantic enough as it is.</p>
<p>Thanks abco for your well-wishes. Will take you up on the PM-ing. :0)</p>