<p>Had to switch my Michigan audition from on-campus to Chicago Unifieds due to unforeseen circumstances regarding an illness in the family. Just wanted to ask, are the chances of being accepted to the school altered in any way if auditioning at unifieds instead of on-campus? I know it’s incredibly difficult to get into regardless, but I have heard that they tend to accept more from on-campus auditions and I just wanted some clarification. Thanks! 
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<p>It really does not matter IMHO. If you stand out to them, you’ll stand out anywhere. I think those hyperinterested in Michigan, and live nearby/can afford to fly in, tend to audition oncampus. So it might appear there are more acceptances from on campus, but I don’t think it has anything to do with the audition place. Has more to do with who not where.</p>
<p>I am not certain about Michigan specific numbers- but I think there is a fairly even balance. Actually, I heard schools say more than once last year that they often end up with MORE kids from unifieds- both schools and students get in a “zone”. </p>
<p>^Wouldnt be a bit surprised if that were so.^ </p>
<p>I’d take that phone call at face value. If no one else reports receiving such a call it’s hard not to see it as an indicator of strong interest in the applicant at this time. There is still a road ahead.</p>
<p>We were told during pre-audition visits to CMU and Michigan (anecdotally by students and off the record both times) that there could be a slight advantage to auditioning on campus where the auditors may be less concerned with staying on a tight schedule and may spend more time with each student. I can’t say whether that is true; it so happened that our student-guides for those schools had both auditioned on campus and received offers. </p>
<p>Shenandoah called my S too, then sent an email. Every school has their own method to our madness :-)</p>
<p>@MTmom2015 it probably doesn’t mean anything! Ithaca has been known for its bizarre prescreen process, there is no way to follow it!</p>
<p>I suppose the proof would only come from a numbers breakdown, which we are unlikely to get…though we could encourage our kids to take surveys- I’m sure my D would be thrilled (heavy sarcasm intended) I knew two students auditioning last year where one chose to do primarily on campus auditions (I think there was one at NY unifieds) and a student who did vast majority at unifieds. (again, one or two campus). They auditioned for a similar # of schools, for many of the same programs in fact. All highly competitive programs. They each received the same number of acceptances; campus person’s from campus auditions, unifieds person from unified auditions. There was one school that accepted both (though neither ended up choosing that program)</p>
<p>And for what it is worth - our tour guide at CMU had auditioned at unifieds (he was from west coast, said he did not set foot on campus until he showed up on move in day)</p>
<p>My son auditioned in NYC (when they used to do an audition not connected to unifieds there). Two boys were accepted from that audition which was the week before Michigan’s last on-campus audition.</p>
<p>The thing I find the most fascinating about this process is that the schools make any offers without seeing the entire pool of candidates first. I think the supports the argument above, if you stand out to them you stand out and it does not matter where or when you audition.</p>
<p>@evilqueen - I completely agree. I was collecting some information about a particular program- found out that 1/2 of a freshman class came from single audition early in the process…</p>
<p>It sounds like Shenandoah has a highly personalized approach to their admissions process. That’s really nice and also smart recruiting on their part. I could be wrong, but in the age of social media I’d find it hard to believe that if their process includes making calls, I’d assume they that they would do that for everyone they want to see. Otherwise how would you want to discover at the audition or in advance from Facebook or CC that you were the one guy/gal in the room nobody bothered to call? I would guess they are smarter than that and see showing personal interest as a key part of their recruiting strategy. It must be so nice to be on the receiving end of that kind of attention in this crazy process. Congratulations now go kill the audition!</p>
<p>Through the years, this question about auditioning at Unifieds, vs. on campus always comes up. If anyone has Dr. John’s response to this question from several years ago bookmarked, maybe they could link it here. I think the consensus is that there is virtually no difference in your chances for admission between the two options. Where auditioning on campus is an advantage is that you will have the opportunity to get to know the school; speak to admissions, faculty and current students; perhaps sit in on classes; see the dorms and eat in the dining hall; maybe even see a show; and probably get to spend more time with the auditors at your audition than you would (for some schools) at Unifieds. </p>
<p>Lots of kids are admitted each year who auditioned at Unifieds and lots are admitted from on campus auditions. Don’t let these little details drive you too crazy. :)</p>
<p>Another frequently mentioned caveat with on campus- falling in love with one specific campus/program…</p>
<p>@toowonderful – that is the piece we are going through today with Elon and Penn State – letting go of the visualization of my D being on a specific campus, living in a specific dorm, working with particular faculty. Reframing the daydream and moving on.</p>
<p>Not to contradict @toowonderful who is mentioning something I’ve heard too but personally, I’m not so sure that doing an audition on campus vs. unifides really impacts the love factor. Or at least I know 3 years ago it didn’t for my daughter and she did all but one on campus - all of which involved plane rides. On campus auditions are really busy events. In many respects, they are the least friendly environments for window shopping the various programs because everyone involved with the program is busy administering the auditions and can’t spend time with you. Plus, if you were like us, you were flying in and then out and had to skedaddle to the next one wherever it was to minimize the time away from school this whole mess takes. We could not do unifides for scheduling reasons but believe me, if we could have, we would have.</p>
<p>@Roro101, with respect to U Mich, and know this is data from 4 years ago… we visited the campus when my daughter was a HS junior in the spring before her senior year. We got lovely attention from the department and one thing that was suggested was that the chances of getting any department awarded scholarships goes up if you do on campus. We bought that at the time and thought, OK this is a school we need to show up for on campus. So we did.</p>
<p>Even if it is true (and who knows… perhaps someone will chime in with stories of students who got department scholarships from a unifides audition), it is advice that only has relevance if you manage to actually get into the school. Otherwise it is additional time and expense for something that may or may not ever materialize even if you do manage to beat the long odds and get in. So if it were me, I’d not sweat the switch to having to see them at Unifides. </p>
<p>@halflokum- I totally get your point about campus auditions, D only did a couple, and there were very busy events. But still, there were tours, and you could see the building, classrooms, theaters etc. I have read a number of anecdotes (my favorite being by Mypenny2x) about the dangers that can come from that. As I have mentioned, we were fortunate enough to tour almost all D’s schools before the audition season- so she had already done the visualizing </p>
<p>toowonderful brings up an excellent point. It’s always nice to have visited schools prior to audition season. We had done that, too. I realize that isn’t an option for everyone but if you can swing it, even with some of the schools on your list, it’s nice to have that information going in. My D eliminated three schools after visits and when auditions rolled around, she knew she would be happy to attend any of the remaining schools. As it turned out, she auditioned ED and got into Tisch and cancelled the remaining auditions so it became moot, although she was not doing Unifieds.</p>
<p>And we didn’t find the tours all that useful. They were generic, not geared towards the theatre kids. And every tour started with the Library. I’m thinking ‘this is like the LAST place my kid would hang out on this whole campus!’. We end up walking around on our own after ‘the tour’. Would love to meet a theatre kid at these schools when we visit. </p>