<p>I agree with you, Bissouu, about the auditions. I was talking to a man who had judges auditions for years and he said point blank that what he could see in the auditioners was as much previous training as talent. Northwestern, whose great nonauditioned BA program produces as many successful actors as any auditioned program, proves the point. </p>
<p>So it’s unfair, and maybe even more unfair than the ordinary college process which is its own kind of crap shoot. But it does seem to work, very often. Most kids who go through come out with some good choices. The ones who don’t often take a gap year to prepare and do brilliantly the second time around. And when you look around, you start to see how many actors started with a BA in something else completely, from a college with not much of a theater program at all. </p>
<p>So, find the places you like, help your D see that it’s not an irrefutable judgement of her talent, but a decision made on the basis of a few minutes of her work, by people who may be in a dreadful mood during those minutes, or who may already have too many of her type in their program already. The calmer she is about it, the better she will likely do. </p>
<p>If you have the opportunity for good coaching, it’s almost certainly worth it. (D did without coaching, and I regret that, which is funny of me as she could not be happier in her BFA!) But having a coach means having another person you can trust during a process that can be bewildering, and that in itself is calming. And then, as much as you can, encourage her to enjoy the process and remember that the life of an actor is always full of uncertainty, of performance under pressure, of sailing along on a wing and a prayer. And a lot of satisfaction comes with that too!</p>