Every morning I ask my D if she’s sure she doesn’t want to be an accountant. Lol. She got another BFA Acting acceptance today – at Point Park - Yay! But alas, still no BFA MT. For those who did take a gap year, what did you do with your time? Last year, my D talked about taking a gap year in NYC, working, taking voice and acting lessons, learning about the industry (how?), building her NYC network (how?), AND working on apps and prescreens if she didn’t get into a BFA MT program this year. Does anyone know any student who has does this? I know it sounds crazy, but she’s pretty street savvy and knows NYC from past summers there. It’s such a huge leap, but isn’t that the point?! At least in NYC, she probably won’t be shoveling chicken manure.
I’d rather follow the results happening here than the stock market right now.
@Dance3Looks3 - Thanks 
@soozievt - This process has the same ups and downs of the market lately 
@MTMamoo - from what I hear there isn’t really that much downtime. People trained a little more over the summer and then hit the ground running with the new pre-screens, early auditions etc… Both kids I know expanded their lists a lot - like 30 plus schools. I guess right now they have some downtime - I’m sure they are working to pass the time. But both have great school choices already - night and day from the first time around. They also both told me they enjoyed the process - they went into auditions with a lot more confidence and selected material they felt a lot more comfortable with.
@DivaStageMom no way would I go through that again. My son went through it last year and we finally made a decision in April having waited through March for his acceptances/rejections.
My daughter is going to be an engineering major. She was accepted to UT and Texas A&M Engineering by December. Still deciding and waiting for some stretch schools. But the entire process was over and she had 2 very good choices by the first week of December. First week of December was when my son had his FIRST audition last year.
@MTAMoo I don’t know that I would start in NYC unless she has some equity credits. If you are an EMC, you can stand in line to audition for some shows, but I don’t think you can if you aren’t an equity candidate. Her better bet would be to stay at home and try to get a couple of equity shows under her belt… or even community theater. Just get in there and audition and perform. I think that would serve her better in the long-run… especially if she is hoping to re-audition for colleges next year.
@MTMamoo When we considered this idea, we found a company that provides dorm-style student housing in NYC… I loved this idea because she’d be with others her age, with some level of building security, and some group activities… so, sort of getting the feel of being at college. Their site is www.studenthousing.org The dorm at The New Yorker is right by the studios where NY unifieds were… so, close to Times Square and Broadway. They require you to be a student, but taking an on-line class counts, and we thought it might not be a bad idea to keep her mind busy in that way and maybe get a gen. ed. out of the way, so we didn’t see that as a big deal. Her plan was to work with coaches from either MTCA or MCA (both have coaches in NYC,) to take as many dance and master classes as possible at Broadway Dance Center (they have drop-ins all day, every day,) and to try to get either an internship at a theater or a part-time job. And, of course, like you said, to work on prescreens, applications, etc. My D says she’s happy to talk with your D about all the tough feelings she’s working through right now… PM me if you’d like to connect them!
Here is the timeline we used for the gap year (one male and one female):
- June - finish up their summer shows / I started looking and cutting monologues for them to try as well as finding songs that were within 5 years of their age, their type and within their range and making sure they were songs they could "act" through.
- July - give those kids a much-needed break! Started working on material about midway through July. Found a college level dance instructor willing to teach a private class specifically to prep for audition (private but three of them shared the cost). Included ballet, musical theatre dance and choreography for prescreen. One was a junior who was starting early. The other two were the gap year kids. Tried out the music and the monologues to see what felt right. The girl found additional music to work on as well. They both got jobs (neither had worked during high school at a regular job (only summer camps, etc.). Made college lists based on research and criteria they chose.
- August - attended the CAP mock college audition in August where Kaitlin Hopkins, Bob Westerberg, Dean Nolan and several others gave them feedback and workshopped their music. Learned their monologues were spot on, but they needed different music for their type. So, back to the drawing board on music for prescreens. Continued dance. Prior to mock college audition, I hired an accompanist to give them a "run through" with their sheet music (as they had marked it up) sight unseen. They learned some things about working with someone who has not rehearsed with you which helped a lot in the mock college audition.
- September - worked on prescreen music (finding music, then finding 16- and 32- bar cuts from each song). Needed at least two but both kids wanted to find two extras to be able to swap out for prescreens if they felt it might work better for. a particular school. Continued dance (and jobs). Started writing essays needed for applications. Made huge spreadsheet with process and steps and ways to keep up with each step (including app due date, financial aid due date, honors college due date, prescreen requirements, booked audition, audition date, etc.) Refined college lists (removed and added) based on continued research and talking to others.
- October - signed with College Audition Project small package to be able to attend CAP Atlanta auditions. They blessed the music and monologues chosen and did a few Skype sessions giving additional feedback. Also had sessions about image and "packaging." Boy was given some difficult-to-hear advice about appearance and image, but took it and ran with it. (And it was solid advice he had already heard but it took hearing it from someone else to do it!). Continued working on music and adding additional songs for rep book. Also songs that can be "acted" through. Finding 16- and 32-bar cut for those. Worked on choreography for prescreen. Continued dance (and jobs). They also attended their first on-campus audition (trial run before CAP Atlanta) which went well for both.
- November - filmed prescreens and started submitting. Because they were attending CAP Atlanta, most of those prescreens would be done live. Started submitting other applications, based on due date. Continued to work on music and cuts. Attended CAP Atlanta and got nice amount of callbacks. Then four days later, attended NTDA and got even more. (Both students swapped music cuts because they knew some of the same schools would be attending and they wanted them to see something different.) Revised college lists again. Met new schools at CAP Atlanta and NTDA that interested them. Continued dance ongoing to help prepare for Unified dance calls.
- December - more prescreens and apps. Lots to keep up with in a holiday month. Because both chose retail jobs (good thing to note), they did not have as much time as they expected to work on things in December! This is where it started to get crazy. Very little time before break for schools and lots of communication first week of December. Another on-campus audition. More writing prompts. Some due dates in December for them and they were scrambling.
- January - kept working on rep book and improving audition pieces. At end of month, did an audition run-through at a local theatre. Ran all of their pieces in front of a few theatre people and we critiqued them and gave them feedback about their acting through music and song choices. Another on-campus audition. More applications and financial aid paperwork before Feb 1 due dates. Stopped dance before Unifieds.
- February - Chicago Unifieds as well as several on-campus auditions. Crazy month -- especially the first two weeks. Lots of things to keep up with -- due dates, correspondence with schools, additional on-campus auditions that were previously scheduled, videos to be submitted in addition to Unified audition. The hardest month of all. Some acceptances started coming in by end of month. Additional schools asked them to apply based on Unified walk-in. Lots of travel!
- March - lots of financial aid correspondence. Additional forms, paperwork and lots and lots of waiting. Some late auditions but they (so far) have opted to skip them because they do have acceptances they are happy about.
@MAmum1234 - Thanks for the dorm tip. We also found a boarding type place for women called The Webster Apartments.
@odette - Wow, thanks for the play by play. It does sound a lot like what my D did for this year’s apps and auditions but with school (incl 3 AP classes), a part-time job, a show, and other extracurriculars.
@TexasMTDad - My D wouldn’t be auditioning for shows in NYC, but you definitely make a good point about being EMC vs. not. And doing this again reminds me of giving birth the second time. Really, what was I thinking?!
@MAmum1234 - And thanks for the offer to connect with your D. Will reach out after we’re done hearing from all her schools.
I wonder as this process evolves if more MT kids will do a gap year right after HS graduation to give them a better chance w auditioning. (Purposefully hold off auditioning during senior year of high school). It would make a lot of sense.
I sooooo wish I had found this forum earlier as I would’ve done things differently and insisted that my S apply to more schools. After nothing but rejection he is understandably down, especially on himself. At this point it is take a gap year and hit the ground running with training and do it all over again, or attend Pace as an undeclared freshman where he has been admitted to their honors college with a sizable scholarship. At Pace he could still be technically doing the training, etc… but he would be in NY and closer to unifieds, coaching, etc than at home in TX. I wish I knew which option would be better for him in the long run. Thoughts??
And 40% of the Magic Mike cast was accepted to Carnegie Mellon?!?! I guess we need to expand our idea of professional dance training!! LOL
@WombToTomb lots of gap year info on these threads, just use search function at the top…one big thing to consider is if you enroll & try to re audition you will be a transfer & there’s ALOT less scholarship $$ for transfers vs Freshman…generally speaking.
@WombToTomb - yes, Matt Bomer and Joe Mangeniello were classmates there. For boys, I guess that gives us a sense of what they’re looking for. LOL. Bomer actually IS a gifted actor, and Mangeniello wasn’t terrible in that Taco Bell commercial
This is a great thread. My D is considering a gap year as well. She has one offer but the cost is way out of our range and they didn’t give much money. Still waiting to hear from a couple schools but it’s been a tough year. She’s also been battling some health issues and did not feel like she was able to show her best this year. We live in MI though and I don’t know how she would find training if she took a year off. I believe our dance studios stop after high school.
Question: when you guys say that transfers get less scholarship considerations than freshman, if someone takes a year off will they still be treated like the high school seniors as far as academic merits and financial need and talent awards or is that different?
@StephKK pretty sure but not an expert that as long as you have not enrolled you would be considered a freshman for scholarship purposes, many kids in & out of MT take Gap years
@StephKK As long as your student doesn’t take any college classes (community or otherwise) during their Gap year, then they are still considered a true freshman regardless of taking a Gap year. When you DO take college classes of any kind, that is when you are then bumped to being considered a “transfer” student and not as much aid is available to you.
@WombToTomb - what part of Texas? That’s where I am! The two gap year students I worked with were both honor students and have gotten large merit scholarships at schools that offer them. They are both kids who are from Allen and did not do anything in NY to train but both have gotten a decent amount of acceptances (15 for the young man, who is an actor/singer/mover and 6 for the young woman who is the same). They both considered starting college at Collin just to keep busy during gap year but it would have made those large merit and honors scholarships not happen at most of the schools. Unless you are a first-time freshman, it is difficult to get those large scholarships. The other thing I would worry about is the cost of living in NY for a year if you just went to train. Quite a few of their offers came from CAP Atlanta and NTDA (Collin College) — maybe 1/3 to a half? The rest from submitting prescreens and Unifieds walk-ins and auditions. NTDA proved to be surprisingly fruitful but there is no dance call there.
Thanks! That is good information. I might have had her take a couple classes while home but probably not worth it in the long run.
@onette We’re in Wichita Falls, about 2 hrs northwest of DFW. Do you do coaching?? That’s one of the things I want to look into. I just read about NTDA this week on another thread. S received that last dreaded no today we were anticipating from Pace. He’s down and I’m sad for him but I’m also ready to look ahead and get better prepared for next time. He’s a dancer so I hope he has the same kind of results your male student had after this gap year!!
@WombToTomb i am - but not for compensation. The kids I work with have all been working with me in productions and training a long time. Most of the time, I direct. I promised these two I would help them especially since they ended up taking a gap year. They are both pretty dear to me! I don’t know anyone on that side of the universe but I do know there is some amazing talent and teachers in Ft Worth. I think that some of the instructors at Ft Worth Fine Arts Academy coach and you might be able to find someone through Casa Manana. Also, I know some of the teachers at Grand Prairie Fine Arts Academy do college coaching also! Their kids have done very well this year from what I can tell…Hefty drive, I know, but maybe you can find someone to do Skype coaching as well.