Have you gotten started yet?

College Majors Musical Theater Majors
1

<p>Well, after a YEAR of reading, researching, planning and plotting on spreadsheets, we’ve finally started! It’s been quite a journey so far and we’re just getting started! It took months, but I think we finally narrowed the list down to the “final” 13 schools. It was sort of a surprise to see which of them bubbled to the surface and which “big name” schools didn’t make the cut. </p>

<p>I cracked the whip on poor D’s back all summer to get those stinkin’ essays done but now that she’s pretty much done she’s SO glad she did.</p>

<p>She’s actually completed and submitted 7 of the applications so far. </p>

<p>She has 2 auditions scheduled this fall and the rest she’s planning to do in February, either on campus or between 2 Unifieds locations. Two of the the Unified auditions have been scheduled.</p>

<p>She needs to send 2 pre-screen videos, and we haven’t done those yet. </p>

<p>3 of her schools haven’t put the new application up online yet so she can’t do much about those. (But to be honest, I’m a little relieved. She needed the break!)</p>

<p>She also sent emails to all her academic/artistic references asking for those letters of recommendation and giving them all a deadline of October 1. She got one compliment from a teacher, saying that more than 30 days’ notice was WONDERFUL and that she so appreciated it.</p>

<p>While she was doing all that, I went online and requested all of the SAT/ACT scores for her and also requested the transcripts from the high school and the community college. She’s been working her butt off and I figured I could help out with that. I’ve also been keeping track of all the stuff we’ve done and still need to do for each school in a spreadsheet so we can see where she’s at. </p>

<p>It’s been a CRAZY 2 weeks but I’m so glad she’s got so much under her belt before school starts this next week! I think we both deserve a spa day or something, don’t you?</p>

<p>Still have to make all the travel reservations, but I think that can wait a day or two!</p>

2

<p>Fantastic! She’ll feel great (and maybe a little odd) later when her friends are sweating bullets and she’s finished with her applications, and she’ll be glad she’s free to focus on auditions instead. Another bonus was that we found teachers and councilors willing to bend over backwards for any last-minute needs after D had been so proactive initially in starting to work with them.</p>

<p>Also, consider creating a DVD audition for YoungArts (deadline Oct. 14?) when she’s putting together pre-screen videos!</p>

<p>Congratulations on all of her progress!</p>

3

<p>My D as well has submitted several applications but has not scheduled any audition other than with Muhlenberg. Did you request the auditions or did the school set them up. My of the schools my D has applied to will not schedule auditions until the application is complete.</p>

<p>My MT D is the youngest of my 3 D and the other 2 are in the science/math field. I have to say the application process for MT is so , so exhausting but at least our essays are done!</p>

4

<p>Last year, D1 tried to have all of her applications in by October 1 and then scheduled auditions as soon as possible. The number of kids auditioning for MT is increasing by leaps and bounds, so auditions are getting more difficult to snag. It helps to schedule those audtitions early, even if you change your mind and cancel later.</p>

5

<p>tracyvp, I too cracked the whip, and my D wasn’t thrilled to spend the first part of her summer writing essays either. But now that school is about to start, we’re both thankful that she spent the time in June. It’s still very time consuming just to do the basics of the online applications and she had to wait until they became available to do that until recently, but we both feel a lot better that most are done and there are actually dates on the books.</p>

<p>She’s done with 12 applications (except for transcripts, ACT scores, a few counselor forms) and partially done with three. Some schools still haven’t posted supplements or opened up the applications for 2012. </p>

<p>She is also going to apply to a few other schools - kind of her “reserve” schools. That way she has some options if she needs them depending on how her fall auditions go.</p>

<p>We have scheduled five auditions so far. We’re waiting to get a code from a school to schedule it first at Unifieds since it takes a good part of the day, and then we can schedule the rest of the schools based on that audition. </p>

<p>She hasn’t filmed for the pre-screen DVDs either - we have that scheduled for November. </p>

<p>Thanks for your post - it made me compile the data and then I shared it with my daughter. It made her feel good about all the time and energy she’s spent. :0)</p>

<p>And by the way, yes, yes you do deserve a spa day! haha!</p>

6

<p>Every one was different, actually. One school you had to call one day after you had finished submitting the application online, two you scheduled online by clicking a link on the school’s website, one was scheduled through the school’s supplement to the common application and one you had to fill out and mail a separate application to the MT department, on which you selected your date. </p>

<p>Of the remaining 2 completed applications, one is a non-audition school and the other says they will send us information on accessing the audition request system once they have processed the application.</p>

<p>Still waiting on those pesky 3 schools that haven’t opened up their online applications yet. I really don’t know why they wait until almost the busiest time of any school year to start accepting applications! It would be so much easier if the deadlines were BEFORE school started!</p>

<p>Now we need to get working on those darned pre-screen dvds. Although I must say I like the idea and frankly wish ALL the schools would do it. It might save SO much time and effort and money if they did!</p>

7

<p>I heartily agree about the pre-screens. I wish all the schools did it. S2 is planning on majoring in VP and most of the top conservatories prescreen. Saves us the time and money of going to an audition, if he doesn’t stand a chance. Luckily, MT has unifieds, which doesn’t exist for VP.</p>

8

<p>I am a year behind you. I’m working on my D’s list…</p>

<p>I was thinking of visiting several schools this year while no pressure and no time constraints because next year auditions will usually require missed school time.</p>

<p>Did you visit some or all schools on list in advance??</p>

<p>It’s such a challenge to keep the list realistic…I want D to pursue her dreams, but at the same time don’t want to her to graduate with a ton of debt!! Trying to come up with the right balance of good MT schools, within day or two’s driving distance, that gives good merit aid…UGH!!</p>

<p>I’ll be following all of you on your journey this year!!</p>

9

<p>My D went through this process last year. We did visit a few schools (mostly her safeties) and if she was auditioning on campus we didn’t spend the money twice unless it was easy to visit. She did eliminate one school by visiting ahead of time and definitely loved another. Make sure you schedule auditions as soon as allowed. For the schools that don’t require the app to be completed do asap. It will allow you to coordinate your schedule that is best for you. Break a leg to all your kids!</p>

10

<p>mom2them… you and your D may want to look at the HS Auditions at SETC (this year in Chattanooga, TN in March) – <a href=“http://www.setc.org/theatre/undergraduate-school[/url]”>http://www.setc.org/theatre/undergraduate-school&lt;/a&gt;. While many of the auditioned programs in attendance would still require an audition as a senior for admissions consideration, the junior auditions are a great way for a student to get a college audition experience under their belt, AND schools do callback juniors to talk about programs, scholarships, etc… while there are schools there from all over the country, many of the schools that attend are southern schools that may be a closer drive from New Orleans.</p>

<p>:-) KatMT</p>

11

<p>We have NOT visited most of the schools on her list. Because we live on the West coast and almost all of her schools are in the East, we decided to only visit the ones where she is doing on-campus auditions for now. </p>

<p>WHEN she gets some acceptances (staying positive here!) we will look at the financial packages offered and go visit any that are within reach. We have already discussed it and have decided not to even go look at any schools that we simply can’t afford. No sense in setting herself up for a broken heart and/or dissatisfaction over the program she ends up with. </p>

<p>I think we ended up with a fairly balanced list, and that she will be happy with any of them if she gets in and we can afford them! (We tried to balance schools financially as well as academically and “reputation-wise.”)</p>

12

<p>Because of devotion to the ballet studio, we couldn’t get out and see many schools ahead of time. I figured we’d visit the one or two schools she was accepted to come April 1. Well, um, it was impossible to visit all the accepted schools in the short time alloted, and she still had ballet rehearsal, so it made that month of decision ghastly. She didn’t know the schools well enough to have confidence to make the choice.
So if I were to do it again, (and there’s a thread here somewhere about if we only knew then what we know now) I wouldn’t wait to see schools but would do everything I could to get out well ahead of time, see shows, watch classes, visit voice teachers, eat the food, inspect the closets and bathrooms (!) and most of all, talk to current students. Most of the suggestions we got from CC were right on target, but I do regret following the advice we saw here to just wait until the acceptances come in. At least in our case.</p>

13

<p>I also wanted to say that when the acceptances and scholarships came in, the ranking of the schools by price went all topsy-turvey. The most expensive school came down to the middle, etc. In other words, NYC, with its breath taking price tag, dropped down to the middle of our list when ranked by price minus scholarships. I imagine if my girl were more a student of math it would have been even better. So perhaps, if there’s a school that looks just right but is pricey, it’s worth a go at it because if they can take the sting out of the tuition, in many cases. You just won’t know if you don’t try.</p>

14

<p>I agree that you can’t really know the price of a school until the financial aid and scholarship offers come through. NYU, for example, is a very expensive school, and out of Fin. Aid / scholarship offers from 7 schools, NYU’s was the largest of them all in my daughter’s case.</p>

15

<p>I agree with classicalbk about visiting schools. I’ve always advocated visiting as many as you possibly can, early on. So I can say that it wasn’t me who suggested you wait, classicalbk! :slight_smile: Many here continue to recommend waiting until the acceptances come in, but the time frame is very short at that point of senior year. You may not even get some of your decisions until the end of the first week in April, even though they’re supposed to be out April 1. At that point, do you really want to be having to quickly make travel arrangements and reservations, so that you can make your final decision by May 1? If you have it narrowed down and just need to make one visit, that’s one thing but if you have multiple offers, there’s no way that you’ll have time to give each school the attention you need to, and should, in making this decision.</p>

16

<p>We’re planning to visit schools during breaks and summers now while D is a junior, because LA only allows 5 absences throughout school year. So if we go for auditions next year, it would be flying in and out quickly to minimize absences.</p>

<p>KATMT: Thank you so much for suggesting SETC! I’ve been researching that website and noticed the list of schools who will be in attendance and discovered a few new schools to add to initial list. Thanks!!</p>

<p>Also, my D is taking 3 APs this year and had anticipated taking about the same next year…BUT we may reduce that to just one or two now. Some were in courses that wouldn’t necessarily help her in college (Spanish IV AP vs. Spanish III Honors) and allow her to take other courses that would be more beneficial such as music theory or voice.</p>

<p>Thanks for all the great advice and good luck to everyone going thru the journey this year!</p>

17

<p>I’m with classicalbk and alwaysamom regarding college visits. I understand the expense and time involved, but this is a BIG decision as to where to apply and eventually where to attend, not to mention the high cost of tuition. </p>

<p>In my view, it is ideal to visit colleges in junior year. This helps in also exploring and figuring out what one wants in a college and where to apply. This doesn’t overlap the application process that is so busy in senior year either. I agree that waiting until acceptances are in hand is very late for the visits because there is about a one month window from the time all schools have sent out decisions and the time one must commit to a school and that is hard to see so many schools in a short period and on short notice. It is a good time, however, at that juncture, to revisit the final choices (1-3 schools). College visits are not only about where to attend, but also where to apply. Even if you can’t visit all your schools ahead of time, it helps to have some visits out of the way before spring of senior year. Some visits can be accomplished when doing campus auditions (killing two birds with one stone). </p>

<p>Here is what my family did…</p>

<p>D1 (not for MT)…visited 8 schools in junior year. Eliminated one. Visited one new school in fall of senior year that got added later in the process. Revisited two favorites in fall of senior year for more in depth and overnight visits. Applied to 8 schools. In spring of senior year, once acceptances were in hand, revisited three favorites to make final decision (these were accepted student day events/overnights).</p>

<p>D2 (MT)…had planned to do what we did with D1. Kink came up in that plan when in 10th grade (her sister’s senior year college process!), this kid wanted to graduate a year early which would have meant doing her visits in tenth grade. We only got to see one school in tenth grade (NYU/Tisch). Spring school vacation was already booked with a school trip to Greece/Italy, not to mention I was on revisits with D1 then to pick out her final school. So, in early fall of junior year (her admissions year), we got to visit three more schools and so had seen a total of four. She applied to a total of 8 schools. We went to 8 campus auditions, thus revisiting four of the schools and then getting to see the other four for the first time. In April, once all acceptances were in hand, this D knew where she wanted to go and didn’t need to revisit to make that decision, but we did attend the accepted student events at NYU. I’ll just mention that it was a very good thing that we did not wait to visit schools once acceptances were in hand, because one week following my D’s final college audition, she was severely injured and hospitalized and confined to a hospital bed for a long while and would not have been able to make any visits (thankfully this happened right after her auditions and so those got done). In fact, the trip to NYC for accepted student events at NYU was my D’s first day out of a hospital bed and she had to attend in a wheelchair. </p>

<p>My suggestion is to see schools in junior year or fall of senior year and see some schools during the campus audition process and not wait until spring of senior year for initial visits, when possible.</p>

18

<p>In addition to the above, it is a good idea to visit during your junior year or summer following, as the one month ‘window’ following acceptances might be even smaller due to ‘bumps’. Because so many students are now each auditioning for so many schools, a domino effect is set in practice once they start to decide on their final choices. </p>

<p>For instance, Student A may decide on School #3, which opens up Schools #1 and #2 and any others to Student B who was not originally accepted to them, but was placed on the waitlist. Then, when Student B decides, that opens up all his/her other choices to everyone else. Last year, waitlisted acceptances went all the way up to May 1 and some even after! Kids who thought they had made their final decision were suddenly accepted to a school they thought they hadn’t made it into but was higher up on their choice list.</p>

<p>That would leave no time at all to make school visits before having to make a final decision.</p>

19

<p>NYU came out a week into April with the studio decision (having announced the general Tisch acceptace earlier) and OCU came out about the same time, meaning that the “month” was actually something like three weeks.</p>

20

<p>Christie, you bring up a good point. I recall last year that a student of mine got off the waitlist at a BFA program after already sending in her deposit at another program and she had not yet visited this program (3000 miles away), even though she had visited the ones she originally was accepted to. She would have had to squeeze a sudden visit in a few days time, with various other commitments at that point and just never did (too difficult) and stuck with her original choice in the end.</p>