Having done summer programs, I felt fortunate for everything UArts had to offer with apartment-style dorms.
I had a different experience than BroadwayWannabe with rooms. I lived in a studio with one other girl in Spruce. That was the option I wanted, and I still don't think I would have changed it.
First of all, freshman year I tended to be terminally late (something which I haven't completely amended, but have gotten much better at), and Spruce was the closest dorm to the Terra building, where we MTs have most of our classes.
Second of all, being an only child, I needed to be eased into living with somebody else. Though you are living in close proximity in Spruce, you run the risk of doing the same in Pine or Furness. While living in Pine, you could potentially live with one roommate or more. While living in Furness, you MUST live with multiple people, which did not appeal to me at all, regardless of the common room.
I agree with BroadwayWannabe that you should try to expand your horizons and not live with somebody in your major. However, I had the experience where my roommate and I both requested to live with somebody in a major other than our own, and lo! and behold, we were two MT freshmen placed together.
Regarding auditions: Being as busy as you will end up being, one round of common casting auditions is definitely enough. The shows are cast this way so no one person is spreading themselves too thin during a semester and so shows are cast fairly with directors and faculty in on casting meetings. There are separate auditions for some student pieces, though whether they are directing scenes for a class or auditions for the student-produced one-acts called EQUINOX, depends on the semester. I don't feel lacking in audition knowledge because we are taught it in classes before we leave. I find it is nearly impossible to recreate a professional audition situation with casting in universities because we still know exactly who we're auditioning for and who we're up against. There is material I would never choose to use for a UArts audition that I would use freely and openly for an audition for a paying job, and vice versa.
Have I gone off on a tangent? My apologies if I have, I'm just a bit addled from the fact that it's a Wednesday night and tomorrow is Thursday, and I still have so much homework to complete. BroadwayWannabe will tell you that you can find me schlepping a suitcase around every Thursday without fail, so I can carry everything I need to my myriad classes and then some!
