<p>Classact: Unifieds are a money maker???
How much do think it costs to rent space at AMA in NYC for 3 days and fly in 3 people from Boston plus hotel and meals? Then take the same people on the road for 6 more cities? These auditioners have strict budgets that they MUST adhere to. There has been spirited debates here on CC regarding on-site versus unifieds but one thing was always clear. Talented kids received the same amount acceptance letters from both venues.</p>
<p>Sandkmom:</p>
<p>I think your son’s professional resume did hurt him. When my daughter auditioned a few years back she was asked by quite a few of the top tier schools question like:</p>
<p>You are already a working professional in all of the unions why go to school?</p>
<p>Don’t you think you will get bored here?</p>
<p>You live in NY, are working, have done a Law and Order episode…?</p>
<p>Her response was she never had any formal training before and would like to learn so she can have a LONG career. It just so happened that those same 3 or 4 institutions did not accept her and there clearly was an intimidation factor. She wound up in the best place for her and could not be happier so keep the faith</p>
<p>I choose to respectfully disagree. $85 per person for an audition multiplied times two days times 60-100 students per day (and that is on the shy side)…could be $15,000+. And, I don’t know on what data you are basing the Unified versus on campus audition acceptance rate. If I knew more about that, maybe I could understand.</p>
<p>As far as the acceptance ratios of unifieds v school auditions I would refer you to SooieVT because she has moderated this discussion a few times.</p>
<p>As far as unifieds being money makers, I can’t see how. I would be willing to bet that a 6 city tour for three people all inclusive has to be at least a $50,000 cash outlay for each school. Even at 1,000 applicants, I would hardly call $35,000 a money maker. Imagine all the labor hour that gets incurred. I am also sure there are several costs that get entered on the ledger that I can’t think of/</p>
<p>Unifieds-May be a money maker, maybe not. But for many students and parents, between the costs of 6 -10 on site auditions (traveling, lodging and food) and the time commitment required, unifieds provide an economical option to onsite auditions which in the absence thereof would leave many students without the means to audition at an appropriate diverse group of schools. That being said, for a variety of reasons we elected to do on site auditions only and if going through the process now would make the same decision. In our case, my daughter applied to only 6 schools, all within a 6 hour driving radius from our home, she completed and submitted all of her apps by September 10, selected all of her audition dates by October 1 and was able to schedule them all for Saturdays, and as a result missed at most only 1 day of school (if that) for each audition. Logistically, on site auditions were very feasible and our travel costs were much more modest than if we had been required to fly to audition sites.</p>
<p>MichaelNKat
It is so nice that you were able to schedule your 6 auditions so close. For those of us in CA we don’t really have that luxury. The only audition school for freshmen is UCLA and that is a BA not BFA program. Those of us on the west coast must decide to do unifieds and a few local auditions with the masses and limit to those schools who come to LA or to spend the money on travel to those schools we deem the best fits for our kids. We chose mostly the latter (exception NYU and Syracuse which come to LA although not unifieds), with mixed results so far. We are still waiting to hear about some.</p>
<p>The west coast alternatives are a bit more limited. Those of you who live on East Coast have a distinct advantage as most BFA programs are much closer geographically to you.</p>
<p>The issue of Unifieds vs. On Campus auditions has been discussed a LOT on CC over the years. I don’t want to rehash the advantages and disadvantages of each of those options (and there are some on both sides), but one thing I am confident of is that the odds of admissions doesn’t differ with where you audition. The programs say this and my observation is that students are admitted both ways all the time to all these programs that offer both options (not all programs even do). </p>
<p>My kid applied and auditioned for eight schools and we did all on campus auditions and I could give you the reasons for that but it is not that germaine to the discussion. But it had nothing to do with the odds of admissions. </p>
<p>I do not think colleges that offer Unifieds do so to be a money maker. They try to make it easier for students to do many auditions in one weekend and also cheaper for the student, and they also likely get to see more students that way by offering this option. </p>
<p>I agree that it is tougher for those on the West Coast who have to fly to every audition (other than UCLA) if they don’t do LA Unifieds. It ain’t so cheap for those in the East either but often SOME auditions may be in driving distance. We don’t live near Unifieds anyway. Five of the eight auditions were by car and three were by plane. I happen to prefer on campus auditions for many reasons, but fully support families who opt to do some of their auditions at Unifieds. Again, I don’t think this has anything to do with odds of admission (with ONE exception…if you have most of your auditions at Unifieds and are sick that weekend…it will affect more schools than if you had one or two auditions in one weekend).</p>
<p>My daughter did all Unified auditions with the exception of 1 on-site audition the first time, and 1 this time (she is a transfer.) She had great results with her Unifieds including some walk-ins both times. For us, it was a matter of money as we live on the west coast. Given the odds of acceptance, we didn’t feel it was prudent to spend money going to campuses until we knew she had been accepted. She did not feel she was at any disadvantage by doing the Unifieds. In fact, she loved the energy and hustle and bustle of the Unifieds; talking with everyone and getting input from different kids and parents about the various programs. I would also be very surprised if these schools are making a profit on Unifieds. I would imagine like some of the above posters that the expenses run into the thousands. Even if there is a small profit, it was certainly less expensive for us than going to on-site auditions!</p>
<p>classact, I think you are very wrong in saying that your chances of getting accepted to a program are better if you auditioned on campus! That is completely untrue! I only did 2 on campus auditions this year…I got accepted to one and have not heard from the other! The rest of my auditions were through Unifieds or other Regional auditions! I have had some great offers through them! I have also been accepted to a school overseas…I think the schools are very aware that sometimes students may not have the finances to fly EVERYWHERE especially if the school is very far away from where the student resides.</p>
<p>I have many friends who were accepted to many places, including the “top” Acting and Musical Theatre programs through Unified and Regional Auditions.</p>
<p>I feel the only benefit of doing an on Campus audition is for you to make your own judgement of the school…it lets you know if the place would be right or not for you…other than that, I do not believe it has ANY bearing on your chances of being accepted or not!</p>
<p>The schools are not trying to make money when they go on the audition tour. They are trying to recruit the best candidates for their programs…they know they will attract a smaller pool of students if they only allowed on campus auditions!</p>
<p>I understand that you have assumed this based on your daughter’s experience, but I urge you to look at the experiences of other people who are going through this as well. I think it was just a coincidence that that is how your daughter’s experience played out.</p>
<p>I totally agree that so many students I know have gotten into all these programs by auditioning at Unifieds. There is no admissions advantage one way or the other. </p>
<p>However, I think there are advantages and disadvantages if you go to campus auditions or Unifieds and don’t agree with CCer2014 that the only advantage of a campus audition is exploring the school and program. </p>
<p>While this is rehashing this topic from many previous discussions on CC, I realize many of you are new to CC this year. </p>
<p>Campus auditions do indeed allow the prospective student to visit the school and the program and do an in depth exploration. Some do these visits in junior year and if so, don’t need to audition on campus as well. Those who do not see the schools either in junior year or for auditions, can see them after they get accepted, it’s true, but until that time late in the game can only compare their schools on paper and this is a BIG decision where to attend. Many admissions decisions are not sent out until late March or April 1, and that gives the family one month to make all these trips on short notice to compare the schools. I venture to say that some eliminate some schools from their acceptance pile and visit only their faves, but have never seen them all to compare them apples to apples. My experience is that often a student who has only seen one or two schools, prefers that school over ones he/she has never visited. I feel college visits are essential and help a student to also figure out what they really do want in a college and which one fits them the best. Also, while you can wait until April to visit only schools that admitted you, there is something to be said about seeing a variety of schools, even the ones that eventually turn you down, as you have a point of comparison. Again, these visits can be taken as a junior, or for auditions, or after all acceptances are in hand. But the latter choice is late in the process and has to be arranged on short notice and is a lot of travel in one month’s time. </p>
<p>When one does campus auditions, the auditions are spread out over a few months. Many find that they start getting better at these auditions over time. They can even choose to revise their audition material after some early auditions if they feel it is necessary. (my own D’s audition results seem to reflect that and she commented to me that she felt she was getting better at them as the audition season wore on)</p>
<p>Unifieds have the advantage or less travel and saves money too. The audition weekend even allows some to get into a “groove” of auditioning. One doesn’t get to see the school or meet current students or observe classes, etc. With Unifieds, however, if a student gets sick, that is a big problem as so much is riding on that weekend. If a student gets sick when doing campus auditions, it only affects one audition. The Unifieds are in the winter and for those going to NYC or Chicago, winter travel problems are a distinct possibility. Just this year, there were huge storms in the East and had they landed on the Unifieds weekend, and a student could not get to Unifieds, a lot would be riding on the line. The same can happen for a campus audition, but it may mean missing one audition. Some Unifieds schools don’t hold their dance auditions at the Unifieds, but hold them on campus, and so if you are a dancer, that is a disadvantage. </p>
<p>In any case, the chances of admissions are the same no matter where the school holds the audition. You have to weigh all these other factors and decide which audition sites work best for your own family. It is nice that many schools (not all) even offer regional auditions to make it easier for families. I strongly feel that no matter where you audition, you need to make sure to visit all your schools at some point to make a well informed decision, let alone including the “gut” feel for a school or program.</p>
<p>The only disadvantage we found to unifieds is that on the Monday before we left for NYC my daughter started to get a sore throat which continued to progress to a full blown cold. She felt awful and frustrated all weekend that all she had worked so hard for was being affected by something she basically had no control over. She was rejected by one program and waitlisted by 2 of the others. We are still waiting to hear from the 4th. We can only wonder if she had been healthy would the outcome have been different.</p>
<p>^^^I agree with that factor. My D’s first audition was in Dec. of her year and she also came down with a full fledged cold the day of the audition. She was deferred and eventually denied at that school. We don’t blame it on the cold but she definitely wasn’t at her best and I was thankful that it only affected ONE audition. She did not do Unifieds. These are all factors to weigh. There are pros and cons of campus and of Unified auditions.</p>
<p>I think I remember seeing in the past on CC that a possible disadvantage at the unifieds is if the student is a strong dancer- sometimes the dance space or dance audition is not as big a deal at the unifieds as it is on campus, where a strong dancer can better demonstrate ability. Is that still a current issue?</p>
<p>That is true for certain schools but not all. For example, I believe that Penn State doesn’t include dance auditions at the Chicago or LA Unifieds but does on campus and at NYC Unifieds. Some schools may not have the same kind of dance space at Unifieds. But this is not a given for all schools but one to look into when you look at where to audition for a particular school.</p>
<p>Also, there are certain schools (again NOT all) that only provide a live accompanist on campus but not at Unifieds and you have to bring your own recording.(examples that come to mind are Hartt, BOCO, Point Park, Ithaca, Webster)</p>
<p>I did my Penn State audition at Chicago Unifieds this year. We were TOLD no dance audition in all the materials…but there was a callback that evening for dance…surprise! Luckily I had my jazz shoes, but had to go quick buy some dance gear. It was a challenging dance audition! </p>
<p>I did not dance for Ball State audition same day, but did have to provide a CD for my solos.</p>
<p>Ah, that seems to be a change this year with Penn State in Chicago!</p>
<p>crna33851, we had the same thing happen with my D. Feverish with bronchitis at Unifieds, she got nothing. At the other four auditions, she got two acceptances and two WLs. She’s at BoCo now getting a GREAT education and having the time of her life. :)</p>
<p>Penn State also had dance auditions in LA, but my daughter was aware of it ahead of time. I don’t know if it was on their website, or if she was told about it when she made her appointment. It was a fairly challenging dance audition.</p>
<p>My kid (who is now at NYU Tisch CAP21) auditioned for Penn State at New York Unifieds and thought that the dance audition for PSU and for BoCo were probably the two most challenging dance auditions she did. She enjoyed BoCo’s dance audition (I think they did some routines to music from The Who’s TOMMY), but really liked Penn State’s, because the woman running her audition (Spence Ford, I think her name is) was so upbeat and positive. The kids were told something like “Look, we don’t expect you all to be Broadway quality dancers: but we expect you to show us you can perform! So go for it!” That set the audition off (at least for my daughter) on a good footing (pun intended.) She did that audition as a walk in and was so impressed by the folks who auditioned her (Ford and Raymond Sage and Cary Libkin, the program head) that she almost chose PSU when it came time for decisions.</p>