<p>How many schools will I be able to realistically audition for per day at the Chicago Unifieds. I was trying to plan things out and am not sure if I can get 5 schools in per day and go for 2 days or if I will have to be there all three days. Can anyone shed some light on how these auditions are run and how many auditions are realistic in 2 days?</p>
<p>From posts I have read I would think you would not want to put more than 3 in a day. Some of the schools take a 4 hour block. My D is a senior and we have not gone through this yet I am sure some experienced CCers will chime in.</p>
<p>I have virtually all my D’s auditions scheduled, and at NYC Unifieds, I could only schedule 2 a day. This is b/c many of the schools she is doing at Unifieds require a 2 to 4 hour block. On the other hand, she has one school that asks for 8 minutes, but I have to keep the afternoon clear in case she gets the dance callback. I have read of people in years past who managed more than 3 auditions per day at Unifieds, but frankly, I don’t know how they did it. The most I was able to schedule was 2 in one day.</p>
<p>My D auditioned for 9 schools over 3 days in February 2011. We actually scheduled 6 auditions ahead of time, but she had SO much time that she did 3 walk-ins, and actually had time to do more if she wanted. The one caveat is that if you are auditioning for a school that has a “dance call” as a call-back of sorts, they are often in the evening, so allow space for those.</p>
<p>If you are in Chicago, 90% of them are in the Palmer House, so you don’t need to account for much travel time.</p>
<p>Some of the 4-hour block schools (Ithaca was one for us) don’t really need the full 4 hours, they allow you to come to the meeting at the beginning of the “session” and they go on your way, as long as you make it back before the session is over. Not all are like this, for example CMU used the entire time period with my D. But its worth checking with the individual schools, as some are very flexible.</p>
<p>I would suggest you get there a day ahead of your first audition, weather is never easy at that time of year in NYC or Chicago.</p>
<p>We scheduled 8 in three days and had time for 2 walk-ins. We called 1 or 2 schools which wanted 4 hour block and were able to schedule other auditions during the 4 hour block by requesting to go near beginning or end of part of the audition.</p>
<p>2 years ago we arrived in Chicago on Saturday, did parts of 2 auditions on Sunday,Michigan and Roosevelt, then completed those and 5 more over the next 3 days along with 2 walk-ins. And my daughter still had enough down time. A friend actually pulled off 14! Feel free to contact schools ahead of time to find out how long their auditions will be so you can schedule wisely.</p>
<p>Keep in mind - the object of the game is not to see how many auditions you can do. If you have a target school in mind, you may not want that audition to be your 5th one of the day.</p>
<p>There are definitely multiple schools of thought and approaches to auditioning at Unifieds. Some students thrive on auditions and want to seize the opportunity to get in front of as many schools as they can. Some will prefer to focus on fewer auditions. The high level of competition to gain admission to many of the available MT programs mirrors the competitive nature of the business.</p>
<p>I think it is interesting to consider that this is a very competitive, audition-based business where learning to maximize audition opportunities is very important. Unifieds are a great introduction to what young performers will face as they pursue a career in MT.</p>
<p>^^That is true to some extent. However, with a kid now in the professional world of MT in NYC, I can say she has never had more than one audition in a single day. Further, in the real world, you are rarely auditioning with the same material at each audition as the material is chosen with the part/show in mind.</p>
<p>Regardless of the differing philosophies, (which I respect) it is the practical information regarding how many auditions are possible to do in the time and finances a student has. If you only have time and resources to be at the unifieds for 2 of the 3 days can you realistically schedule 5 each day or do those with experience at unifieds caution against doing so. Obviously its more ideal to be there all 3 days if one can afford it and if schedules permit. I’ve also understand that contacting the schools is the best way to gauge whether this will work or not with the particular schools of interest and plan on doing so. I was hoping to hear from those who have actually experienced the unifieds in Chicago to gain insight to their experience and how they maneuvered and what they see as being reasonable and doable.</p>
<p>Well, depending on the schools you could probably squeeze in 5 a day if that’s your goal. Some are in-and-out in 5 minutes flat if there’s no wait time. Most of the time is spent waiting. Aside from info sessions which typically last about an hour and a few longer dance calls… you wait. Some of the four hour blocks are two hours of waiting if you are the last one in line. During this time students will run off and do walk-ins at schools that don’t have a crowd.There’s a lot of juggling if your trying to squeeze in as much as possible, but the schools we encountered were very easy to work with. So, is it possible? Yes.</p>
<p>Our son did 7 auditions at the Chicago Unifieds. We arrived Sunday evening and left Wednesday mid-day. (We took the train.)</p>
<p>Our son had 6 scheduled auditions and did one walk-in (just for the heck of it.)</p>
<p>I am unsure that you would be able to schedule 5 audtions in one day considering many schools have separate dance calls from the songs/monologues. (Roosevelt had their dance audition Sunday night for everyone and then spread out the rest of the auditions through out the rest of the days.)</p>
<p>That said, you would probably be able to schedule 2 or 3 and do some walk-in.</p>
<p>I guess the question is, do you have a particular school (or schools) you are targeting or do you want to get into “a” program regardless of where it is at.</p>
<p>The more “in-demand” schools did not necessarily allow walk-ins, where some of the lesser known schools would. Some of the unknown schools had representatives actively out recruiting in the halls and lobbies for folks to come audition.</p>
<p>Depending on your demeanor, there can be a lot of self-inflicted pressure at Unifieds. I witnessed a lot of actors and parents running around (and some tears and hystrionics.) If you are a pressure junkie (like my son) you’ll love the environment.</p>
<p>We my son targeted a small number of schools to pursue, and it worked out.</p>
<p>Ok, the key word seems to be schedule. That’s unlikely to work for 5 in one day but you can easily figure it out when you start scheduling. If you’re doing walk-ins I do know plenty of kids who did 5 or more in a day. But I’m firmly in the camp that believes more is not better. There were so many schools that my daughter had no interest in and the goal is to get into a program you want to attend.</p>
<p>Thank you- this is the kind of info I was trying to learn from so that I can better anticipate whats best for me to do.</p>
<p>How many? It depends on the schools . . . my D auditioned for 12 + one walk-in. She had two 4-hour blocks chunked out (Ithaca, as mybroadwaybaby mentioned didn’t keep my girl the whole time either, but CMU did + 30 minutes). If you want me to send you my girl’s schedule from Unifieds last year, please send me a PM. </p>
<p>It wasn’t “let’s see how many auditions we can do in a day” for the sake of it. We did it for financial reasons. We live in the West and financially it was not feasible for us do many on-campus auditions. Time constraints with my job was also another factor we had to consider . . . I only have two personal days off a year, and then I have to forfeit pay. As it was, I had to forfeit pay for several days (teacher). </p>
<p>I mentioned this in another post, sorry to repeat . . . when scheduling, I suggest keeping your kid’s temperament in mind . . . Will she get stressed out zipping from place to place? Or will he thrive on the energy? Will one bad audition push her over the edge? Or will the “move on to the next one” keep him from perseverating about the “mistakes” in the audition?</p>
<p>My girl was busy, but not freaking out busy . . . to be honest, she could have done more walk-ins if she wanted to. She really loved the energy. I’ve heard of kids that said they wished they would’ve scheduled more auditions at Unifieds, and I’ve heard folks say that they were perfectly happy with two auditions a day.</p>