When do prescreens start?

Does anyone know typically when schools start opening up prescreening? I’m looking at Texas State and saw that they have dates for MT auditions listed but the prescreen hasn’t even opened yet

Some are as late as 9/1; but that is the latest that I have seen. We are new at this-but my guess is that as long as you are ready to send everything around the 1st of September, you should get your first choice of audition dates at most schools.

Usually sometime in August, but yes, some as late as September. Just need to keep a close eye on it. We had most of our prescreens done in August.

Uhhhh. I thought I had this whole audition thing but… prescreens? Can someone enlighten me?

@SRWard, a prescreen is a video audition. Some schools require applicants to film their audition pieces and send it to the school, and the school watches them and uses that to narrow down the list of applicants, and then invites only the ones who passed the prescreen to actually come audition in person. Prescreens are more common for MT programs than acting ones, though a handful of acting programs do use them.

@SRWard - some schools require you to pass a pre-screen before being allowed to audition for their school. It’s sort of a pre-audition audition. If you do not pass, then you are not allowed to apply/audition for their program at that particular school. Look at the website getacceptd.com (yes- that is spelled correctly). That will give you an idea of what a pre-screen is.

At some schools you have to be academically qualified to pass a prescreen.

There are a lot more prescreens for MT than acting, but Pace and Ithaca require them, not sure about others.

Otterbein and The New School require them for acting. Marymount Manhattan does if you are auditioning regionally.