At Montclair you can miss 2 of each class a semester before your grade goes down, so auditioning is not that easy. Yes, most auditions in the City are on weekdays, and the kids’ schedules are very full. But hopefully people don’t go to college to audition. It IS nice to be able to get to shows and just in general get to know the City, and having working faculty from the City is great too. But of course there are many wonderful programs no where near the City that have many advantages, too. There is no one size fits all. My daughter really wanted to be close to a city, mainly because she grew up in the middle of no where and wanted a different experience, and she has enjoyed being so close to Manhattan. And on a few occasions she has been able to go in and audition for summer jobs that she would not be able to do if she weren’t so close. But in general, that is definitely NOT a reason to go to school near NYC.