Utah gives anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 freshman academic scholarships based on ACT or SAT scores. This was very helpful to us as we were too late to take advantage of the WUE tution deal with California. Coming from California we actually find the apartment rents to be very reasonable and she had no trouble finding a place at ~$500 a month. Agree on the car for outside auditions. However our daughter LOVES being there…she is very happy. It was her favorite audition by far at LA unifieds last year and she really enjoys all her classes. Happy to answer any questions.
Congratulations to your daughter, @Reckless!
My D is close to making a decision and Utah is on her list of options. You mention housing. Is this a commuter campus? Are there no dorm options? Does she feel like the school provides a good job placement program since there is no senior showcase?
I guess this is a better time than ever to post my journey as I have been a long time lurker and all of this is coming to a close for me. In the beginning I had virtuously no idea what to expect. Thankfully, I had supportive parents, teachers and an amazing acting coach guiding me through the process. Even in these past months, the idea of what I want in a college and in life has changed so profusely, its weird to think its only been a few months. Terrified I would have no options, I decided to audition at a total of 23 schools(walk ins included) and you could say that at that point auditions started to become ritual and it was bittersweet to end that process. Some responses trickled in, but by the beginning of April, I found out where I was admitted: Viterbo MT, Millikin MT, Shenandoah MT, and OCU Acting. After a lot of soul searching I narrowed down to SU, and OCU, when literally two days ago, I received a phone call and I am now in Ball State for Acting. Unlike most of my friends(even theatre friends), I am still not sure where I will end up, but I just want to thank you all for being so helpful throughout this whole process.
Congratulations @Abbaroo98 Sounds like you have some excellent options
@itsnotovertillthe Utah is not a commuter campus. In fact, some of the residence halls were built for the 2000 Olympics. There is a good bus system and a light rail to downtown SLC and to the airport.
Does waiting for audition results for shows ever get any easier? For the parents? :-& This time the culprit is Merrily We Roll Along.
From the vantage point of end of sophomore year, I’d have to say “no”. S REALLY wanted to be one of the guys who sings in his skivvies in Heathers next fall. A mother only wants what’s best for her boy. . .
Nope- still super stressful
Agreed - still stressful & my D will be a Senior! When she was auditioning and then visiting schools, the Juniors and Seniors seemed so MATURE. In some ways, they are, but they’re still our kids & I doubt I’ll ever get over the waiting-for-audition results nerves - will any of us?
Why yes, yes indeed it does. They won’t tell you about auditions. You will not know about most of the auditions your kid attends because detailing every move will quickly become the equivalent of discussing whether or not they had a ham sandwich for lunch or the pasta special.
Sounding glib and I wouldn’t have believed it either a few years ago but trust me, this is the equivalent of everyone who said to you the following things that you couldn’t believe were real but then found out … yeah, true:
- it goes by so fast referring to raising kids and all that goes with that. My "baby boy" turns 20 in exactly two hours and 30 minutes (west coast time... technically he is already 20 in Boston). I am no longer the parent of teenagers of any size, shape nor major.
- It's so much easier to lose weight when you are younger. I still curse my beloved Aunt Maryellen for being right about that.
- _____ insert the next equivalently annoying thing that I was easier to disbelieve than trust that turned out to be true.
You will always care about the auditions but you will not know about most of them and you will need to let it go even if you do know. It’s their life. Focus on ham vs. pasta. It’s likely just as important.
And no… if someone like me told younger me that 4 years ago I’d not have believed I’d not know nor care either. Well full disclosure, they did tell me (soozieVT, alwaysamom etc) and I didn’t believe it and yeah… they were right.
At some point they go to so many auditions and calls it’s not possible to obsess over them all. The focus on these kids getting ready for college has been the school plays, community theater and the occasional regional professional production that’s in their world in the immediate future, it’s what they’ve got and what they care about in their immediate circles. My youngest kiddo has made a college decision she’s comfortable with based on her acceptances, but we’re still waiting for the final results of one waitlist. But I have a 23yo model/actor living and working in LA. Her job most days is to go where her agent/management team sends her for auditions, meetings, looks, calls, etc. Several every week. She rarely stresses over waiting because you generally never hear a thing, just go, do your best, then focus on the next shot. I only hear about things that go especially well or especially bad or that are different or interesting for some reason. It takes a specific kind of personality to stay healthy in this kind of chosen profession. My kids have it, I couldn’t do it myself!
Agree with @halflokum 100%. And, to add to what she said, you (as a parent) learn that college casting really doesn’t make a whit of difference, so you learn not to care. While it may make the kids feel good/talented/validated, it is pretty meaningless in the scheme of things. There are kids who rarely/never get cast in college productions who graduate and go straight to Broadway. There are kids who are cast every single semester at college who can’t find a professional acting job when they graduate. College casting is an educational experience, and roles are given for a variety of reasons. The goal for your child is to have enough professional credits on their resume by the time they graduate so that there are few, if any, college credits left. As one professor said, “It’s better to be Villager #3 in a professional production than the Baker’s Wife in your college production of Into the Woods.” I think this is a hard lesson not only for us as parents, but also for the kids themselves. It’s a good conversation to have with them before they leave for school. Trust me. Their lives - and yours - will be easier if they can understand this.
My S is a junior in college and I still stress over college auditions. You can’t help it. You know when they are. I do hear, and subsequently stress, less about outside auditions now, and that’s been a change over the last year.
To me real world auditions are way easier than the college process. As the previous poster said you go you do your thing you hear or you don’t. It will be soon comforting to make the final college decision.
I will add a caveat to my earlier post - I think it gets easier for the kid (and really, it always has been easier for her)- but so far, not so much for me. Guess I am still waiting for that lightbulb to go off. And I get that there are more things out there- and the kids lays it out and lets it go for a lot of them- and that’s fine. But there are other moments- and those are still hard for me to be a part of at a distance. We all take the parenting journey at different paces.
It’s funny, because when I read this comment/question last night, I considered posting how it does change when your kids are in their professional careers. But I hesitated and decided not to post, because I thought the parents of current 17 and 18 year olds would not believe me or think maybe I didn’t have a close relationship with my young adult daughter.
But, alas, @halflokum posted #2410 so eloquently my exact thoughts! LOL! Others followed. And it really is true, but hard for those with high school and college aged kids to really know what this will be like. Sure, I knew every audition my kid had in high school and college! And I knew for a tiny while after college ended too. But then, I knew less and less to the point where my kid no longer shared about auditions at all. She said it was just part of her work life and not anything that is a big deal. She said none of her friends tell their parents about auditions any longer. So, I don’t know if my kid has had an audition, unless she actually is cast, and then she does tell me right away of that news. I honestly don’t think she auditions much, as she is booked pretty solid now. She did tell me AFTER the fact, a few times when she got final callbacks for a lead or major role on Broadway or a tour or the like. But otherwise, I don’t know much about auditions. Same with other types of major contracts…she tends to share these when they are a done deal, signed and sealed. She did recently share about something major to do with a new musical she is developing that is quite exciting that appears close to becoming signed and sealed, but waited a while before revealing that development until I guess she felt it was pretty certain to happen.
I know a lot about my young adult daughter’s life and career, but I don’t know every audition or move she makes like when she was younger. Heck, even I sometimes find out she is in a concert in NYC or some event, by reading it in the press and she forgot to mention it as it wasn’t that big of a deal I guess (she does share about more major things she is in of course).
It is hard for those not up to this point to fathom this or even believe it may be this way with their own kid, but I think this is more common than you may realize as they grow up and become professionals.
Summer stock auditions created stress for me. Not that I knew much about them – my S scheduled them on his own - but I got some low down just before they left and as they returned (and considered offers). It is a strange ritual to be sure! Now we are helping him figure out how (or if) to get a car to Colorado (his summer stock extends into the first week of classes – it’s better for him to fly home lest he miss a week + additional days) and how to move into his house in Berea while he is working in Colorado.
My sisters are working actors in their 50’s and my mom stressed about their auditions until she passed away. Sorry, people - it NEVER ends! 
I think as parents, we continue to stress that our kids will find work, be happy, reach their goals, and so on. I’m just saying that many parents of working professional actors are not aware of every audition our kids attend.