soozievt

I don't recall what we spent but it wasn't what you guys spent...it was less. My D applied to 8 schools total and did all auditions on campus. Most were in driving distance and involved hotels. Three required plane tickets but two of the three were combined into one audition weekend (one roundtrip flight) with a rental car between the two schools.

However, I do agree on the "priceless" part of the time one on one with my daughter.

Obviously, if you live on the West Coast or in certain other regions of the country, more expenses with flights will be needed. I just wanted to mention that not everyone has to spend as much as you guys did for the audition trips. Also, while some of you had 16 or 12 schools on the list, some applied to less schools.

Needless to say, the entire process ain't cheap between lessons and coaching, head shots, application fees, and audition trips and campus visits. Then again, it is a drop in the bucket when compared to the cost of four years of college.

impalanut

We live in Florida and did Chicago unifieds plus trips to three other schools totalling nine auditions. I chose to stay at the Palmer House and spent the extra for the upper floors, they had unlimited drinks and snacks which offset the cost. I also tended to choose the better hotels at the other locations as well. This put us in a much more relaxed state of mind for the auditions since the rooms were quiet, comfortable and roomy. The schools not at unifieds we were able to drive to. One campus visit after acceptances. Cost about $4000 for the applications,trips, a few hundred for clothes, plus food and incidentals. I guess traveling with boys is a little cheaper. Since there were a few early acceptances we were able to eliminate some of the later auditions we originally planned based on how we had rated the schools for us. You could certainly do it cheaper depending on where you live.

MichaelNKat

We live in Philadelphia and after doing a lot of preliminary research during her junior year, my daughter concluded that there were many benefits and few, if any, drawbacks to focusing on schools within a 6 hour driving radius. Tremendous diversity of schools within this distance, ranging from the Pittsburgh area up through Boston with Phila and NY in between. Easy traveling by car (or mini-van) for purposes of moving in/out, visiting at school and returning for family events and semester breaks. It also enabled us to visit each school to which our D applied and for her to audition on campus.

Between January of her Junior year and February of her senior year, my D visited 7 schools and thereafter applied and auditioned on campus at 6 of them for a total of 13 trips. Some of the trips were 1 day events, some involved staying over for 2 nights, some 1 night. I would estimate the costs (travel, food, lodging) at about $6000, not cheap, but as soozievt commented, a reasonable investment given the cost of 4 years of college.

Mainstage

Then there's those lucky few who fall in love with a school, decide on early decision and get in saving all these audition fees & stresses. Why couldn't this happen to more of us?

MomOfAPrincess

Soozie and Michael point out one way I view the expense - outside of just having had 'vacation' trips although to some places I would admittedly have never put on a US Top 10 destination list. The real ultimate investment for us is Forty thousand a year times four years or over One hundred sixty thousand dollars. So what we spent contributed to making sure that money would be going to the right place and was worth it in the long run. The extra money spent applying to non-MT BA backup schools was akin to trip insurance.

soozievt

Applying ED might save some money but not a lot. For one thing, while the ED application is in, it is very wise to also file all your other applications just in case and so you still have all the app fees. Also, in my view, in order to be able to arrive at the decision to apply ED which is a binding commitment, one should have VISITED other schools to compare. Remember there are many of us who did college visits BEFORE auditions. My D has wanted to go to NYU/Tisch since she was about 12. She considered applying ED. But there was no way to let her apply ED before she explored and visited some other options and so we did. She still had NYU/Tisch as a favorite but opted to do RD and not ED, and thus did 8 campus auditions and ultimately came full circle back to NYU/Tisch (and was fortunate to be admitted) but then could say without a doubt it was her first choice. But even if she HAD applied ED, she would have had to visit at least a couple of other schools to arrive at a well informed decision to commit to a school, in my view. However, it is true that she would not have had to have attended 8 auditions. The kids we know who DID apply ED, often still did a couple of other auditions in Nov. and Dec. and just didn't have to do as many as we did for RD throughout the winter.

Mainstage

True, however, if admitted ED the "just in case" backups are cancelled creating less costs etc.
We know of several who loved NYU and were admitted ED, therefore, that was their only audition. Same thing happened with two we know who applied ED @ Northwestern with no pre-audition (immediately canceling other choices).
It's a gr8 option - if it works out. :-)

Yes, this cost is a drop in the bucket compared to the expenses of the four (college) years.

MOP - LOL on your vacation destination remark - I too would not have viewed flying through snow storms to auditions as a vacation.

soozievt

Mainstage, I definitely agree that ED will mean less audition trips (if you get in). I was just saying that some expenses still are there and that it would still be important to have made other college visit trips in order to be secure in the binding decision to attend the ED school.

Anyway, I also agree that some of the locations of these trips/auditions are not exactly where I would go for vacation but oh well, I have seen some interesting places between the college visits for my two kids. Too bad there are no MT programs in places like the Caribean, LOL.

Mainstage

I understand although some kids decide on a school and have it in their minds that this is the only school for them so (unlike your D) do not visit any other schools.

Anyway, as I sit here reviewing my D's soon to be apt. lease (yes, the dorm is almost history), I'm dreaming of that Caribbean trip, and that tropical drink on the beach - WAIT - it's only morning....oh well it was nice while it lasted......thank's for taking me there Soozievt. ;-)

MomOfAPrincess

Well NYC was a wonderful destination although with 2 full days of auditioning I think we got a total - maybe - of 3 hours of rushed sightseeing on foot and 2 Broadway plays. I'd love to see Yellowstone, Chicago, Vail, Austin, Dallas, Boston and Washington DC - there are a lot of places in the US I'd like to see. I just never thought putting visits to Ann Arbor, Syracuse, Bloomington or Elon at the top of the list. (no offense to anyone that lives there) Course now Bloomington is my #1 destination for the next 4 yrs. Charming town lol

soozievt

Mainstage....I totally agree that many kids decide on a school for ED and that it is their dream school without having visited or even explored any others. Believe me, I know....I can't tell you how many families contact me with a child who ONLY wants to attend NYU/Tisch. Speaking as a parent, as much as my child wanted this school from a young age.....at the time she really only knew of that school and I would never let my kid apply ED anywhere without having compared the school to others and have visited some others. My kid now attends NYU/Tisch but I am so glad that she arrived at that decision knowing what else was out there AND along the way, she discovered many other fine programs she could be happy at which is SO important given the odds of admissions and I find too many kids with a "X school or bust" kind of thinking when there definitely is more than one school where you can be happy and flourish. These kids just have not explored what else there is. ED is a good option but I would personally not let my kid do it until she had explored other schools (and visited a few) and then if she was ready to commit to one, I would have surely let her apply ED (she almost did but then decided not to do ED to Tisch). I'm glad she did the whole college exploration and arrived back at this same school rather than only looked at one school. Just to be clear, I am NOT against ED at all, but would be if the student had not looked into any other schools and had not visited any other schools before arriving at the decision to apply ED.

Also, I fear for those who only want one school in a situation where the admit rates are so very low that it can be a set up for great disappointment. Best to fall in love with many schools, even if you have favorites. I will admit that in Dec. of my D's college admissions cycle, when several friends got into Tisch ED, she was knocking her head on the wall and saying, "if I had only done that, I could be done by now!" but came back to realizing why she had chosen to not do ED and to see what happened and explored many schools.

Also, I prefer to visit all options in junior year which is what I did with my oldest child. Howver, my MT kid decided midway through tenth grade that she wanted to graduate a year early which is nothing I had planned on and so her junior year was her application year and we had only seen one school in tenth grade (NYU)...let alone I was in the middle of return visits to my other D's school as it was her senior year and she was deciding among her acceptances. We did get to see three more schools in early fall of junior year before any auditions were done. My D then could have chosen ED as she had seen a total of four schools and that would have been fine by me. We purposely planned these few visits early in junior year in case she wanted to do ED, since we had only seen one school in tenth grade. She went with RD and then we did the 8 campus auditions, four of which were first visits since we could not see them all in tenth grade (I thought we were gonna do that in junior year but who knew she'd be graduating in junior year?? ) In any case, my D's process was a little different as she was applying as a junior in HS to college and was actually still 15 when making this decision.

soozievt

MOAP....in my case, since my D goes to school in Manhattan, it is indeed a cool place to visit. The negative aspect is that it is very expensive every time we go there to see all her performances and to move her in and out of living spaces.

triplethreatx3

soozie, it would be my dream to own an apartment in Manhattan, and make it available for rent (by the day, week, or month) for CC parents to utilize...at a reasonable cost, of course! Wouldn't that be great?!

MomOfAPrincess

I'm not an urban person but I absolutely love NYC. It's a nice-place-to-visit-wouldn't-want-to-live-there kind of love but love it nonetheless. I imagine it would be great for 4 yrs of college. I'm still getting over the hotel room service bill for 1 order of french toast, 2 glasses of OJ and a glass of cranberry juice - total $42 in NYC. (meals weren't included in my expense total).

I agree 100% with Soozie on ED advice. As I have posted before and will repeat for the new readers and next year's group - what had been for over a year one of my D's top choices, dropped off the list totally after visiting the campus. Another near the bottom rose after a visit. And one that was lukewarm is her new school which she fell madly in love with. So I can't agree more on the value of visiting. One of the schools on your list could be a hidden diamond you're not aware of.

Mainstage

My turn (?)- :-)
When my D was (constantly) asked which was her "top choice" school, she would reply "my top choice school is the school who chooses me."
There was no such top lst for her as she definitely wanted to have the options, and then research and decide for her own personal reasons. I, however, teasingly would ask why couldn't she have taken the ED route as life would have been so much simpler (she would roll her eyes & laugh).:-) She did not fall in love with any school beforehand not even at two pre-colleges, and so hence all the auditions. I'm still grateful for our time together on these trips (even though dad came with us twice - LOL).

Soozievt -I understand that as a M/T College Counselor you want to send important messages so that everyone is educated as far as what should be done i.e. Jr. yr. visits, pre-visits etc. etc., and you do it so well. :-)

Soozievt & MOAP....I'm sure we would all visit our children in Timbuck2,
but it's nice to have other options. ;-)

MOAP - We cross posted - I TOTALLY agree that you may not know of your gem, your "fit" into a certain
school without these experiences. I know this lst hand.