<p>huburt and steamedartichoke, it is unfortunate that you are going through this, but the schools themselves warn that audition slots do fill up early. We started getting my D’s auditions in May of last year…(one school actually allowed you to request your audition date in May the year prior to the auditions!). It takes a lot of organization and hard work to get through this process, and unless you have help from a parent or someone who can really commit the time, it is even more difficult. But, look at it from the schools’ perspective: they can only hold so many auditions - that is completely understandable. My only concern with your approach is that by limiting your list to 3 or 4 schools, you could be limiting your chances of acceptance. As you know, these schools are very, very competitive, and it’s not so much a matter of “quality over quantity,” but rather hedging your bets by applying to more than just a handful of schools. My D applied to 16 (I know some people think that’s too many, and maybe it is), but she would be THRILLED to attend any one of the schools on her list. In other words, there isn’t one school on her list that she is ambivalent about. If I were you, I would definitely fly to your top 3 as you are suggesting, but stay on the radar for Unifieds if you can…keep calling the schools to see if there are cancellations. Or, if you can afford it at all, go to Unifieds and try to do walk-ins. I just think that by limiting your list to such a small number of schools, you are putting yourselves in a dangerous situation. If worse comes to worse, send in the video auditions. Because after what you’ve been through already, I doubt whether you want to take a gap year and do this all over again in 2014. Good luck to you both!</p>