SeansMom, DD started with her voice teacher over the summer before Senior year selecting a range of songs that would fit almost any audition requirement. As a baseline, they used the requirements for the NFAA ARTS competition:
NFAA
By having those selections done by the end of summer she was ahead on preparing for the auditions. By end of summer most of the programs had their audition requirements posted. All had requirements that fit within what she had selected for the NFAA. We prepared a spreadsheet to track which schools wanted which kinds of material, which had pre-screeing requirements and what the deadlines were.. Then she and her voice teacher selected what would be submitted each pre-screen and then audition. The recording was done in October.
She also started on her core essay. One essay that speaks to why music or what music means in their life is pretty common and she was able to use it in various forms for most of her applications.
By doing these early, some of the stress was reduced when trying to get all the applications in by the early deadlines required to get auditions.