Somewhat similar experience at CMU for my D…
First, to sign up for auditions that year, it was all done online and I registered her and got an appointment the very first hour it became available. This was around Oct. 1, if I recall that year. She had a February audition time slot on campus and I had the receipt for the payment, etc. During the winter, on their site under her account, it said that she still had not signed up for an audition! Say what? We already paid, had our flights, hotel, and so forth. I called and while they had no record of it, I said I had the receipt and confirmation in my hands (thankfully, I kept everything in a folder for each school). So, they honored it. Whew, one hurdle.
Auditions were either for the morning session or the afternoon session. My D was afternoon session. I asked about how long it takes and if it was realistic we would be able to make our flight home. They said it wasn’t a problem and to remind the sign up desk when we arrive that she had the flights and should have an earlier turn (you didn’t get a time slot specifically).
So, we did that, and then the afternoon wore on and various kids were called to audition and we were one of the last people left! Finally, it was my D’s turn. She was gone a long time. I was in the waiting room and started to think we might miss our flight home. I asked the students manning the desk if they knew how much longer it would be as I might have to reschedule our flights. So, they said they would check. But what they did was enter my D’s audition and said something like if she needed to leave, she could, in order to make her flight! My D was like, "no, I’m staying until we’re finished. " Well, of course, we spent all that money to go there, she wasn’t gonna cut her turn short. I have no idea why she was one of the last to go, when they promised she could be one of the first. And I wasn’t thrilled that the student asked if my D could leave, when I only asked if they could check on the time frame.
But she was back there a LONG time. Apparently she got passed around from auditor to auditor. She ended up doing four monologues for the head of the program. Thankfully, she had prepared four in total due to requirements among all her schools. She performed two songs. She was passed around for that too. Then, like someone else wrote, she was asked to sing a specific song not in her book, but in this case, they asked her to sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Granted, most people know that. The year before that, my D happened to play Dorothy in her high school’s production of The Wizard of Oz! She had to sing it over and over taking it up each time to higher keys/steps (?). I understand why they did this. Neither of her songs really showed the higher end of a legit soprano voice. This was something she was working on with her voice teacher at the time (she was 16), and didn’t choose high soprano note songs, and so they vocalized her. One other program also vocalized her (with scales) and she got into that program (Penn State). UMichigan told her they didn’t get to hear her legit soprano (but didn’t bother to vocalize her). At CMU, she ended up Priority Waitlisted for Acting (that year they took 3 or 4 girls only for MT).
After the audition, we raced to the airport, returned the rental car and when we got to the gate for our flight, they were closing the doors and would not let us on. We missed it. We had to get a hotel room and it snowed that night and we had trouble getting back to Vermont the next day.
See how we don’t forget these things??? 