<p>@Divamamacita she has a great outlook for sure! </p>
<p>Are there any other programs like Otterbein which allow you to submit and received a decision on the prescreens BEFORE submitting the academic application? I like that idea!!! </p>
<p>@hanaliy Elon</p>
<p>I too learned to appreciate the pre-screen, though I was extremely intimidated by the process at first.</p>
<p>Thanks @tmygirl and @MTMajorCook. And congrats to all of you who passed :)</p>
<p>Jewel15 - My son was rejected by seven schools that did not do pre-screens. I think it is far better to be able to put a school behind you now, and put your time and energy to look forward to the exciting path ahead of you. I think it is safe to say my son would have rather known in October that the school wasn’t the one, rather than in March. As MTMajorCook said, it really is about what the school needs, and does not mean you don’t have what it takes. I’m rooting for you and am excited to follow your journey to “where you are meant to be” :)</p>
<p>While and early “yes” is a fantastic thing (in the weight off the mind category) and early “no” can be constructive too. If you do the November audition at BW you get an answer in December. D had a friend do that last year - excellent singer, handsome, great dancer- the type you might figure would be a “shoo in”. He got a “no” from BW. It rocked his world, he buckled down, revamped his audition strategy, got some additional coaching (which his parents hadn’t assumed he would need, he’d always been a superstar) and he hit the ground running again. Ended up with 5 BFA acceptances- great choices. Now odds are that things would have worked out regardless, but I had a chat with his mom where she said the best thing that could have happened was the early “no” - b/c he’d always been the big fish</p>
<p>I think Coastal Carolina is another school you can Submit a pre-screen without an academic application…if memory serves! :)</p>
<p>I am stressing over the production of D’s pre-screens this weekend. When a school says ‘One Song, No More Than A Minute,’ does that include the time for slating? Is it a rigid 1 minute? Doing 32 bar, 16 bar, 45 second, 60 second cuts of songs plus 60 and 90 second monologue cuts is a much bigger process than I imagined!</p>
<p>Keep in mind that your 16s or 32s might actually fit the bill for a 1 min request. 
That said… Between 16s, 32s, 1 mins, contrasting monos (we used 1 min for all… even if they said up to 90 sec), separate intros, etc. the total number of recorded segments we did was 17. We worked for about 4.5 hours with a short food/recharge break.</p>
<p>Timing does not include the slate and five or maybe even ten seconds over is probably no big deal but if the “bar” versions are much longer than 45 seconds or 60 then you do need to trim them. There’s not likely to be any complaint about the cuts being shorter than requested. </p>
<p>It is a complete pain in the neck. Also, some schools want a single chunk of video uploaded, others want separate clips, there are variations in how they want the bits slated and a couple want “Why this school?” filmed statements. And, oh yeah, if it’s a continuous piece you are uploading they may ask for a single comprehensive slate. Acceptd is your friend. Even having these professionally taped and assembled, the uploading took time and was pretty frustrating. Also, Decision Desk.</p>
<p>It does seem to me that the schools might acknowledge that this is burdensome and come to some agreement about standardizing lengths (either bars or seconds).</p>
<p>@MTmom2015, that’s exactly my quandary. The 32 bar cut is about 1:07 of song plus the slate. When the Acceptd directions state ‘No More Than 1 Minute,’ does this count against my daughter if we are not exactly within their stated time?</p>
<p>As more and more schools are using pre-screen videos, it certainly would be helpful for them to agree on some standardization of the submission. </p>
<p>Seven seconds over is fine, based on everything we’ve been told. In fact, the odds that the entire minute will be viewed are pretty slim. They know if they like what they see in ten or fifteen seconds. If you are interesting enough to hold attention and avoid FF for a minute, seven more seconds is nothing.</p>
<p>This was a big concern of mine, but her MTCA coach assured us it was fine, as long as it wasn’t significantly over. My daughter’s “one minute” is more like “1:07” not including slate. Just submitted them on Wednesday and already have a YES from Pace. </p>
<p>I’ve heard that time limits are more flexible than ‘bar’ limits. Some schools really mean 16 or 32, even of it creates an odd cut. </p>
<p>In my head, I’ve created an Auditioner’s Bank where you store your audition materials online… 7 total videos (32 bars of ballad, uptempo, pop and two 1 min contrasting contemporary monos + 1 min classical mono and a short introduction). Things like song/show/composer/playwright are typed in and appear automatically when your video is viewed. Headshot and resume are accessible there, too. Schools are then sent an access code or password with your application. All videos in one set of formats/lengths in one place. They can see all or pick and choose what they want to see. Anyone want to invest? LOL… </p>
<p>I am so with you MTmom2015! Absolutely silly that they need to be this customized. Luckily, we got the. Done and in early. Don’t know how we would juggle that with school and fall musical. We tried to do YoungArts and Hal Leonard in the same session, but that was just too much. D opted out of YoungArts this year – just too much stuff!</p>
<p>Most schools will grant you a small grace period on the time/bar limit. However, I would not go over the stated requirements for Michigan. They are sticklers for,that kind of stuff. </p>
<p>I had such a disappointing reaction to my D’s videos that were shot yesterday with her coach. Would the pre-screen really be so objectionable with a visible mic? </p>
<p>We bought a condenser mic on eBay for less than $40. It plugs right into the camera & we had it on a stand, just out of camera range. It certainly isn’t ‘studio quality’ but it was a vast improvement over the mic built into the camera. Also, keep in mind that we (parents) look at these videos from an audience perspective. I think the colleges are looking for specific things… from a completely different point of view. Look on YouTube. There are quite a few pre-screen vids uploaded there. Compare the quality of those to yours. You might find yours is better than you think. :)</p>
<p>I remember feeling a certain level of hostility around this time last year due to the many hoops need to be jumped through ~X(
I never saw my son’s pre-screens, which reduced his stress and mine. He passed the three he did, so I was very glad I stayed out of his way. He was very clear he did not want my “artistic” input. He did allow me to give my opinion on his audition attire </p>