<p>I swore to myself I would take a backseat in my daughter's audition/application process, but I am just beginning to grasp what will be required of her and am starting to panic. With a heavy senior year course load and leadership in extracurriculars and casting in plays/musicals, she is already stretched so thin! I am beginning to doubt she will be able to fit it all in! </p>
<p>She has her five top schools chosen, but they are all highly competitive BFAs. I would like her to choose five target or reach schools, but the options are all over the place and I'm finding it difficult for either or us to cull the huge list.</p>
<p>There are applications to complete and essays to write and ACTs to order. Oh yeah, then there's choosing and prepping monologues (do we hire a coach?) and songs to prepare and tapes to be made and, oh yeah----she has to schedule the auditions! </p>
<p>At this point, should she still be visiting schools or just focusing on audition prep? Should she save the visits until acceptances are offered? Does it make a difference in auditions?<br>
Had she had even a little spare time this summer, she could have done more but now it's nearly time for back to school.</p>
<p>Egads! How did you/your children get through this?</p>
<p>The first thing we did was make a list of schools my daughter was interested in. Then, I went to each school’s site and got the requirements for auditions. MT and Straight Theatre. I made a chart and I also made a file for each school. In the file for each school, I made a checklist. Once we got all of that together, I went to the Internet and googled overdone songs and monologues and cross referenced those with many lists to make sure she didn’t use overdone material. She then worked with her voice teacher and she had a friend who is an actor help her with her monologues. However, she did most of this on her own. Many people have suggested MTCA for coaching and they have a great reputation. My daughter and I met several of their students at Unifieds and they were great! You can go to their website and they also have a facebook page. It’s worth a shot to look at them. I would also suspect that there are plenty of professionals in the Chicago area who could help and may even be willing to skype lessons. Hope that helps!</p>
<p>It is a complicated process and your participation will be key. supportive had great suggestions. I made my daughter work on her essays in August because of how crazy first semester senior year is. Alot of people say save your favorite school apps for last- we did the opposite because I knew she would run out of steam. Eventually, she dropped some applications because she just didn’t have the energy for additional supplements. if you can afford it and are willing to spend the money I would use a coach. We used Mary anna Dennard. Make sure you have a balanced list of schools because it is so tough. Try to get an early acceptance because it boosts their confidence. We went to Chicago Unifieds because we could get a lot of auditions in. Read all the threads on this site as there is so much good information. I don’tthink you can be too organized as there is so much to do. Feel free to pm me if I can help.</p>
<p>I forgot to say that I think 8-10 auditions is about right. Add a few BAs into the mix as there is no such thing as a BFA safety. People have said it is easy to be in love with your reaches but be sure you have a safety or match that you are in love with. That is such good advice!</p>
<p>Add a few non-auditioned schools that are sure to be affordable, where your child is sure to be admitted academically, and would be happy to attend. These could be BAs or BFAs. A non-auditioned BFA could meet that criteria as well as non-auditioned BAs.</p>
<p>There are non-auditioned academically less selective BFAs, and there are highly selective BAs, some are auditioned and academically selective… some are academically selective, although non-auditioned. Just because a school offers a BA does not mean it is a “safety.”</p>
<p>Lots of information on this site as well on each of the program sites for the schools.</p>
<p>Totally agree lorilynne! I also had my daughter start her essays over the summer. She actually applied to her first college in August of her senior year and was accepted at the end of September (a month later) for that school. The hardest thing about that is staying focused on your classes in your senior year but it’s also a nice relief to know that you got into college. She’s actually going to that school for their BFA Acting program. I do believe that if you get your apps completed before November 1st, you shouldn’t have a problem with scheduling auditions. 8 - 10 programs is about right and that’s very manageable. They need to have reach schools, probable schools, and safety schools- as far as academics is concerned. Both of my kids only applied to schools where they would be happy to attend. No one ever knows about getting into BFA programs. I have seen some uber talented kids not get into any program and I have seen kids- especially boys- who are not nearly as talented as girls- that have gotten into some of the most prestigious programs in the country- with sucky grades!</p>
<p>I’d recommend starting out by securing a good, affordable, rolling-admissions, non-auditioned safety school (in my daughter’s case it was Temple-- we are in-state and she knew it was a good program.) Once you have that acceptance, you can relax a little. Did I say relax? It’s going to be a hard year! 8 or so auditioned schools plus a few non-auditioned schools should yield some good choices for April. Your daughter will have most of her answers before April 1 (my daughter did not hear from one of her schools until the second week of April, and this was not a wait-list admission; they were just slow.) But then you start comparing financial aid offers.</p>
<p>Hi, Skewl - Just wanted to say a couple of things:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>As you’ve now discerned, even though we all want our kids to be as independent as possible, applying to these types of programs is going to be a team effort for you and your daughter. It’s a lot to do, but there are also a lot of excellent bonding possibilities involved.</p></li>
<li><p>You’ve come to the right place! The threads on this board are an amazing source of information on the process, and everyone is so helpful.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I agree with all of the suggestions that folks have made.</p>
<p>If your daughter is aiming for highly competitive programs, you will need to get an audition coach. This can pretty much be anybody who can tell the difference between a good audition and a poor audition, it doesn’t necessarily need to be some sort of “professional” audition coach. Some folks here seem to be coached by faculty at their high schools.</p>
<p>If she really has a lot of extracurriculars that take up a lot of time, she might want to think about cutting back some of those that are not connected to theatre.</p>
<p>Some folks who really are determined to get into one of their top choice schools take a year off after high school to focus on preparing for their audition. Or at least they audition their senior year just to see, then take a year off if they don’t get in where they want.</p>
<p>Your daughter of course will need to come up with the plan that works for her, I’m just giving you some things to think about.</p>
<p>Does anyone have names of non-audition BFA program mentioned in this thread? I am trying hard to figure out backup (“saftey” schools) in the musical theater degree world.</p>