<p>I was recently accepted academically to one of my top choice BFA schools (yay!), and will be auditioning in March. However, I wasn’t award as much merit aid as I was hoping, and unless I receive a talent scholarship or something, I will be unable to attend the school. This is causing me to shed some doubts on the other schools I will be auditioning for, so I am hoping to add one more school to my list.</p>
<p>My parents are allowing me to audition at one more school, but, for financial reasons, I have to audition regionally, and I am having trouble finding schools that are doing this, and that are also affordable for a student from California.</p>
<p>So, I am asking for some advice or suggestions of schools auditioning in LA on February 9th & 10th, or the weekend of February 16th, 2013, that are affordable, or give substantial scholarships, and are still accepting applications. Currently, I am auditioning for schools in suburban or urban areas, with a liberal arts base. Nothing conservatory, but some are conservatory style. If schools are auditioning regionally in San Francisco, that would work as well, as long as they aren’t auditioning the same weekends as those above.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for any help you can provide.</p>
<p>Can you clarify - you are able to attend school on the east coast, just can’t afford to travel to many auditions, or are you mostly looking for west coast schools? And where are you with academic stats? That will help us help you find schools where you can get good merit aid.</p>
<p>Many wonderful BFAs are at schools with not very stringent academic admissions requirements. Some are very competitive audition-wise, others not so much.</p>
<p>If you have good to very good academic stats (B+/A- GPA, high 20s ACT, 600s or higher SAT) I would apply to Adelphi. They accept auditions by video and have excellent merit aid. Their BFA is exactly what you describe - conservatory style, with a liberal arts base (meaning you will have solid gen ed distributions, can minor in academic subjects, and theatre classes are heavy on reading and writing). If you are very academically inclined, there is an Honors College with a Great Books focus. My D is currently in the BFA and the Honors College, and considering a minor as well.</p>
<p>Adelphi is on Long Island, in a suburban setting, with a very convenient 40-minute train to Manhattan. My D knows many students there from CA, and many of them got in with a video audition.</p>
<p>Sorry for any confusion! East coast or west coast is not a major issue for me, as long as scholarships are available to bring down the price – $35,000 a year is just not feasible, nor is travelling back east for auditions. </p>
<p>My academic stats are 27 ACT, 1920 SAT (700 CR, 610 Math, 610 Writing), with 4 AP Tests (three 4s, one 3.) I have a 3.87 weighted GPA, and I am currently taking two AP classes. I have pointed out merit aid not because my stats are exceptionally high, but because the chances for receiving anything need-based are slim to none, and I really do need some sort of scholarship in order to afford school.</p>
<p>Adelphi sounds wonderful, and I will certainly take a good look at it! Thank you for your suggestion. However, I am a little wary about auditioning via video. I have always thought that the quality of the actual filming itself could affect auditors, and I don’t have any access to a high quality video camera. Any thoughts on whether or not the quality affects auditors?</p>
<p>You can take a passable video with a good smart phone. But I bet if you just did a little bit of asking around of your friends, someone has a reasonable video camera you could borrow. Think about any friend of the family with very young kids – that is probably the best source of someone with a video camera. Anything of recent vintage is really easy to work with as the camera saves it in a digital file you can easily copy right from the camera to a computer.</p>
<p>I don’t think they expect a pro quality video. They just want to see you doing your best. They understand that these things are hard to make. And I know for a fact that Adelphi accepts kids regularly by video. </p>
<p>My D applied to Montclair State and did get excellent merit aid (her stats were similar to yours). However, their audition percentages are low - they audition many hundreds for a class of 16 in the BFA. They also have a BA, which looks like an excellent program. My D was rejected for the BFA and chose not to apply for the BA - which requires an interview, which can be done by phone. Make sure you read all of the instructions and cover all of the loose ends with them.</p>
<p>I’m sorry you only can add one more school - that could be tough. Do you have any other safeties, financial and otherwise? I hope your parents understand that with the auditions included most kids need to have a fairly long list in this process, unless they have a rock-solid safety that they are completely happy with.</p>
<p>University of Rhode Island has an excellent non-auditioned BFA and also gives excellent merit aid. I can’t remember exactly what my D’s cost of attending would have been, but I believe it was well below $30K with her scholarships (and she wasn’t eligible for any need-based aid).</p>
<p>Thank you everyone for your guidance on auditioning by video, I will certainly look into this more.</p>
<p>Montclair seems like a viable option as well, so thank you for that suggestion.</p>
<p>@EmmyBet: I certainly don’t have a long list. I was only allowed to try out for four BFAs (again, for financial reasons), and while I do have some safeties, none excited me quite as much as the top choice school I mentioned earlier, which had a great BA program had I not been accepted to the BFA. It seemed doable financially when we spoke with a counselor from the school, so the low merit aid came as a big disappointment, and has left me a little heartbroken to say the least. We will be calling the school when they return from winter break to see what happened, but it’s looking a little dim at the moment. Outside of that option, very few of my safeties have wonderful theatre BAs, as my parents preferred my back-up options to be something outside of theatre. It’s all been a little discouraging, really.</p>
<p>@austinmtmom: Yes, I will be attending the LA Unifieds. And thank you for the link, it’s very helpful!</p>
<p>Aspiring - My D did the LA Unifieds several years ago and enjoyed them. She was able to fit in a couple of walk in appointments where there was no audition fee. So that’s one thing to keep in mind when you are there, is checking out walk-in possibilities.</p>
<p>The financial piece of the puzzle is such a big one. My D received some really great merit aid offers with academic stats similar to yours. So there’s hope! Best of luck in your search!!</p>