@HopeinMT - love the idea of Facebook group! Can we combine MTs and Actors (BFA or BA). I feel like I’m following both groups!
Unifieds were tough! Having experienced both on campus and unified auditions with my D, I don’t think I would recommend unifieds for people who have the time and resources to visit campuses. Chicago was fun and we survived but it was chaotic and confusing. We didn’t use a coach…just wanted to tackle three auditions at one time.
Ultimately, my D had much better results with the schools on her list who do not go to national auditions at all. Better odds, of course! Less kids show up to audition. With walk-ins at unifieds, the schools there not only see hundreds and hundreds of kids at each of the three unified locations, most of them charge you an audition fee to walk in. I saw schools fill pages and pages of walk-in sign up sheets in Chicago. Seemed like quite a money maker for some of them.
Many of the regional schools who do not attend unifieds have amazing programs and working faculty. For those who are preparing for this, I would recommend including a mix of unified and non-unified schools in addition to safety schools. Definitely diversify your list.
@onewaytobroadway - last spring, we visited CCM. My S was checking out the BFA acting program. While touring, we saw the Freshmsn MTs rehearsing. 12 boys. 5 girls. I recently checked the YouTube of that class’ showcase. Same count. It’s very disheartening and seems really unjust that these programs can pull a class with such blatant disparity. Many more girls audition, yet the the imbalance persists.
Sorry to see a disappointment from W. MICH.
Hoping you reveal some good news in your next installment!
@Atreuh I heard that CCM originally invited more girls but several went to other schools (I know of one that went to BW instead) I don’t know if they tried to pull off waitlist but obviously the boys accepted and it ended up more unbalanced than usual.
@MTdreamz - we know a guy in that class. It is/was definitely more even in other big names schools. Now the issue is they compete with each other for roles and the girls don’t have as much competition. But I agree with you that I was SHOCKED to see the gender split like that!
Class of 2021 FB group is MT and Acting combined.
@cluelessandtired We called Texas Tech yesterday and they said that answers would be out early this week.
@belleforbroadway Thx. Early this week, lol. Mid April. We’ve already made our decision.
Let’s hope this posts fully in one shot: I’ve had a problem where my posts get cut off after one line or paragraph…
Ugh! Trying again. I definitely agree with @kmmt22 that many regional programs are fabulous and don’t get nearly enough credit, with faculty that are first rate and successful graduates. But I wouldn’t go so far as saying I wouldn’t recommend unifieds (as you said at the beginning.) It was stressful, yes, but a good taste of real life (if they want to do this for a living they better get used to cattle calls!) and while we were anticipating a lot of horror stories like we had heard about with stage parents and intense kids, my daughter met a lot of really nice people that she has kept in touch with. As far as it being a money maker for walk in schools, remember, you have to pay to apply to every school when you do it in advance. The walk ins my daughter did were mostly free, and the ones she paid for were much less than her application fee was when she sent in apps and made appointments online.
On the Unifieds thing…after prescreens- my daughter last year was told by several Universities that they wanted to see her at specifically the Chicago Unifieds. So for those looking on here for next year… be prepared to go to on campus auditions and Unifieds. We know a girl who went to, Chicago, LA and NY because of open/closed spots for certain schools and no time slots on campus… Unifieds is it’s own beast, yes…your job as the parent is to sit back and encourage your child. Your Senior in highschool is capable of handling the chaos and the schedule, and the stress of it all. I enjoyed getting to know other parents down at the bar and hearing their stories. Once the parents become competitive about their kids, it gets ugly…but change the subject and move on. It’s what you make it. Also use the time to enjoy the get away with your child…time goes by quickly.
And again… we re talking about college education here. It does not matter if your child graduates from a reach university with a BFA or goes to what your family considered a safety net school with a BA.
This is a stepping stone to their future. Let’s be happy we have children who want to further their education. Where the degree comes from does not determine if your child is a Broadway star.
Every kid is different. Sometimes you need to let them guide you instead of the other way around. You’d be surprised what your kid can do when given a little room to fly.
My son thrived and fed off the energy at Unifieds. He is a boarding student at a performing arts high school. I was very involved, yet very much removed from this process. He did campus auditions, Chicago Unifieds and NYC Unifieds all on his own — I didn’t attend one audition with him. Even the one close to home he insisted on being dropped off. Besides arranging hotel and transportation to Chicago his school was not involved either. He found flights, rides, dorm floors to crash on and couches to sleep on. He filmed/submitted all his prescreens, scheduled all his auditions, managed his time, and navigated his way around the cities, and more all by himself.
We are close and I’m also a control freak and it was difficult to let go, but he wanted to own this — and you know what? He did it beautifully. Was there some prodding, tears and fears (from me) along the way? Yes, yes and YES, but he kept reminding me “Mom, I got this!” — and he did 
I just found it interesting that some kids take the time to apply to the unified schools and get accepted and then 500 kids walk right in. But the entire process is ridiculous to me. And I still believe kids should visit campus if possible.
@kmmt22 not all school allow walk-ins we found only the non prescreen schools did.
We walked in to a school who had pre-screening so it just depends on the school and if they have any slots. That being said it is easier and safer to schedule ahead. So much chaos already! Haha. My d did not get an offer from either of her walkins but did from a scheduled unified audition. Guys might have better luck with that…
In 2017, we did unifieds in NYC and Chicago and auditioned on site only for the schools that required on site auditions (NYU, JMU, Wagner and BW). I would not recommend auditioning on campus if that school goes to unifieds. Your chances are the same (they want what they want) and you save a ton of time and energy if your kid can knock out 6 auditions in 3 days. We visited schools only after we found out our son was accepted. That was a wonderful, celebratory week of visiting the few schools that actually wanted my son. He was able to ask intelligent questions of the faculty about what education and training he would be offered. We know one kid who attends my son’s school that never even set foot on campus until the first day of orientation (and that was a huge risk). We know one kid who only attended on campus auditions and fell in love with many schools that in the end did not accept her. And can you imagine the hell of going to 10 different cities, paying for travel, hotels, etc. and then not getting in anywhere? Unifieds was kind of fun. Kind of stressful. And an education for sure. And my son did 2 walk-ins (Rider and Drake–two schools that should have been on our list but were cut to make the list more manageable). After the walkin audition he applied to Rider and got in. He didn’t feel his chances at Drake were that good because of their small class size. Rider was a final contender until the very end despite being a late add. We could have added more walk ins, but felt my son’s list was good (maybe a bit top heavy) and that we did not need any more “middles”.
I think NYU goes to a place close to Unifieds during the Unified auditions in NYU Chicago and LA. I could be wrong but the year my daughter did this NYU held their off campus auditions the same weekends as Unifieds.
@MomofMTBoy @Oaktree99 I also thought Unifieds was a great thing. For us, living in NJ an hour away from Pearl it was a no brainer. My D did 7 scheduled auditions and a walk-in over two days. I would not recommend spending a lot of money visiting campuses/programs that your kid might fall in love with and then not get accepted to. Our coach did not advise doing that as well.
@MomofMTBoy I totally agree! We did 2 college visits because they were close and that’s it. My son applied to schools Coast to Coast based on research, program reputation and recommendations from people who worked with him (teachers/directors/voice teachers, etc.) He was accepted to 6 schools and waitlisted at 3. We visited his top waitlist because it was close and his top 2 choices of accepted schools — he’s still debating between his top two, but doing it this way eliminated a LOT of additional cost and avoided that possible “connection without acceptance” hurdle. Our thought was we’d rather just pay the $75 application fee and see what happens instead of $1,000+ dollars on a college visit across the country and still have the possibility of not even being accepted.
@bisouu You are correct. My son auditioned for Juilliard, Pace and NYU during NYC Unified weekend, but they weren’t officially part of Unifieds.