My daughter did her 1st round of auditions in 2008, and had no pre-screens then. She entered a program that year but was not happy there and left it. She ended up re-auditioning in 2010, and found that in those 2 years, admissions to programs had become more competitive, and that it had become more difficult to schedule auditions at Unifieds, due to the increased number of applicants. (She only auditioned at Unifieds both times). The series Glee started up in between, and musical theater became immensely more popular over the next few years. While she still had no pre-screens in 2010, I remember there were a few schools that had started them, and they became increasingly common after that. I believe Penn State started using them while she was finishing up her program there, or maybe the year she graduated. I am so glad she got through the whole thing when she did, as it seems to have exploded since then!!!