<p>We found the audition experience to be very similar between Unifieds and the On-Campus auditions. Unifieds allowed my D to audition to many more schools. It would have been impossible time-wise and money-wise to do all of the travel. We also thought that, should she get accepted to any programs for which she auditioned at Unifieds, we would make the trip/visit then. Nice idea, but it didn’t really work for us. She ended up being accepted to two programs from On-Campus auditions and two programs from Unifieds (schools that she had not visited). By the time she got her acceptances, there wasn’t a ton of time before the May 1st deadline for making a decision. And she had so much going on at school during that time, that she ended up not wanting to visit the schools from Unified auditions and instead chose one of the programs she had done On-Campus auditions. It turned out just fine – she loves where she landed and it seems a superb fit for her so I can’t complain. I wish she would have visited the other programs and made a fully informed decision – but it just didn’t work out that way.</p>
<p>My D will do both on campus auditions and the Unifieds. We are coming from SoCal so it is more difficult to do campus auditions as well as try not to miss too many school days, plus the added expense of having to fly everywhere.</p>
<p>As far as monologues go my D spent alot of time this summer reading plays and I believe she also received some suggestions at the UARTS precollege program.</p>
<p>Wow. My wife started it by reading this web site months ago. I’m unemployed and an experienced engineering project manager, so I have really dug into it and have put in over 60 man-hours so far of filling in general information on the forms and setting up a “to do” list for my son with all the writing, short answer, and essay questions. My son & wife narrowed down the number of MT schools he will audition at to 10: </p>
<p>Cincinnati Conservatory of Music,
Michigan University
NYU Tisch
Boston Conservatory
Emerson
University of Hartford (Hartt)
Ithaca College
Syracuse University
Carnegie Mellon
UNC (University of Northern Colorado)</p>
<p>(Yeah, he’s aiming pretty high. We’ll have to see what he gets accepted into and what we can afford after auditions and financial aide determinations.) I’ve figured out all the references needed for each school and he finished he “packages” to give to all the teachers and his counselor for requesting references this weekend. </p>
<p>So far, here’s my first impressions of the application process and MT schools:
The process sucks. This is Soooo much harder than getting into the top engineering schools! Frankly I’m amazed at all the obstacles that must be overcome to get into choice MT schools. The fact that the real decision is audition based means you have to fill out endless forms just to get to requesting an audition. If the ten minute audition doesn’t pan out, the weeks of working on the application and references is a waste of time and energy.</p>
<p>The two bright exceptions I have seen are 1: Carnegie Mellon (why bother filling out the application, the main stage-gate is the audition, so schedule that first they told me. They are perhaps the only school that lets you audition without a Rumpelstiltskin sacrifice of paper and time before you can audition.) and 2: University of Hartford (Hartt) They have a true “quick” application that is the easiest and most rational of all the schools. In general the conservatory schools were the closest match to what my son is seeking. They also have the most rational application process and when you phone them you get a real person who is enthusiastic about their work and not a government drone who stands in opposition to your reaching the next milestone in your quest. I have similarly been impressed with Cincinnati Conservatory and Boston Conservatory. Straightforward application and they are looking for references from Music, Acting, and Voice teachers. </p>
<p>Straightforward and simple is Not the case with the big colleges. The absolute worst so far was Syracuse. The only MT school that STILL doesn’t have their application available, the ONLY school without their Common Application available, and the worst phone system of any school I have phoned. After waiting in their que for 30 minutes going from caller # 6 to #1, the system hung up on me. When I reached someone after the next phone purgatory, they were totally unhelpfully and still didn’t know when their application would be available. The attitude projected though was loud and clear: “this is a MAJOR University and you are lucky I am talking to you.” University of Michigan hides all their phone numbers. If you want to “talk” to someone, you are funneled into a chat system much like if you are contacting MicroSoft. Frankly, you wouldn’t know if the chat operator was in India or Bangladesh, and like Syracuse you had to wait in a cue for a half an hour to “talk” to anyone. </p>
<p>These are just first impressions but there was a vast difference between large colleges and art focused schools or conservatories. I was shocked that most “common application” Eastern schools only want academic teacher references - music, acting, drama teachers… nada. They won’t take it and don’t want their input. Only Math, English, etc. teacher references are accepted or asked for. For MT majors, this is well… odd. My son already has AP credit in Calculus BC, and tons of IB and Honors classes in science, math & english but the very lack of most schools wanting reference letters from any teacher in the arts seems insulting (and I’m a professional engineer, although currently a homemaker). </p>
<p>OK, that’s just my first impressions. It’s a fun & fascinating wild ride we are on now. My son just landed one of the lead roles in his Senior HS musical and he’s in two other serious choirs at school. Plus auditions for All State Choir are coming next month, he needs to take the SAT next month, and he is taking private lessons to prepare for auditions. What a busy young man. He wakes by himself to leave out the door before 6am for choir practices, has play practice after school, and gets home after 6pm. Nights with private lessons he is gone 7-10pm on top of his 12 hour day. Eat, sleep, sing, study, sing, act, sing, repeat. I must say I admire his passion & hard work. But how are we going to squeeze in more time to complete all these applications & select audition dates!!! I guess prayer and working the to-do list is the only answer… this process sure takes a lot of faith & steadfastness!</p>
<p>Welcome to this ride! I always wondered how my kids would fit college applications and auditions and so forth into already packed lives but they did and it does get done. </p>
<p>I just want to point out one misconception you have about the teacher recommendations. Yes, most colleges require that the required recs be from academic core subject teachers, and yes, you must comply with that (as an aside, I will just comment that I agree with this because the student is trying to get into college and not ONLY the theater program, after all and that aspect involves review of everything about the student as a student. Colleges need to know a student’s academic record and to hear from those who work with the student in an academic capacity!). HOWEVER, this requirement does NOT preclude a student from also sending non-required supplementary recs from people who know the student in a different capacity than in an academic classroom. For a theater applicant, this would include artistic recs. My own two children included two supplementary non-required recs in addition to the academic recs that are required. These were NOT additional academic recs but from those who worked with them outside the academic sphere. All my advisees also have two supplemental recs and for theater applicants, these are artistic ones. The academic recs AND the artistic recs both have value but for different reasons.</p>
<p>Also, regarding CMU, yes, your audition may be before your app is filed (if you have a fall audition) but this doesn’t mean you don’t have to file an application. You won’t be considered unless you file the application and do so by the deadline. Many audition dates are AFTER the app deadline in fact. The only true difference at CMU is that it is one of many schools that doesn’t require an app to be filed in order to get your audition scheduled but this is also true at Syracuse, NYU, and Ithaca for example.</p>
<p>Yes - good luck with this challenging, but fun, process!</p>
<p>I don’t understand your comment that the University of Michigan “hides all their phone numbers” - there are many phone numbers on their website if you click on “contact us” - there are numbers for different departments within the School of Music, Theatre and Dance in addition to numbers for faculty and staff members. Have you tried the “contact us” phone number provided on the Musical Theatre Department page? It is 734-764-0593. Good luck!</p>
<p>I’m interested in Soozievt’s comments about non-required supplementary recommendations. It never occurred to us to do this! We were under the impression that one should supply exactly what the individual institution/program asks for…no more, no less – partly to demonstrate that one is capable of following instructions.</p>
<p>Applicants need all the help they can get. It’s good to know that non-required supplementary letters are acceptable and can help.</p>
<p>So…for people embarking on this incredibly exhausting and challenging journey (best of luck to you all!): </p>
<p>To whom should the non-required supplementary recommendations be addressed? The admissions office? Probably better to mail them to the head of the department?? </p>
<p>When would be the best time to mail these letters, relative to the audition?</p>
<p>Should the letters be gathered together in a sealed envelope, with the guidance counselor’s signature across the flap?..or just mailed (or possibly e-mailed?) individually, by the person who writes the recommendation…or even by the applicant?</p>
<p>NJTheatreMom…when an applicant sends in additional pieces, that does NOT imply NOT following directions. An example of not following directions, would be to get an artistic rec writer INSTEAD of the required academic rec writer. </p>
<p>Just so you know, all my students, as well as my own children, sent in annotated activity resumes with their applications (this is NOT the Theater Resume brought to auditions). That is not a required piece, for example. Further, it is VERY common (not simply for ARTS applicants!..visit other forums on CC and you will see…) for candidates to send in non-required supplementary recs that are not more academic recs at all but are from people who know the applicant in an entirely different capacity. For example, one of my kids had supp recs (this is in addition to the two required academic core teacher recs) from her ski racing / tennis teams coach and one from an architect with whom she did an internship (her intended major). One of my kids had a supp rec from her private voice teacher of five years and one from a theater production director/choreographer with whom she had worked on several musicals, as well as dance classes, over a 7 year period at theater camp. These recs have no required forms and need not be confidential since they are optional. As with academic teacher recs, they can be mailed directly to admissions from the rec writer or else some have their guidance counselor gather all the recs and send them in his/her package (I prefer that and that’s what our GC did). Applicants should not be sending in recs themselves to colleges. You asked when the best time was to send these…they should be sent by the app deadlines just like the academic teacher recs, no different.</p>
<p>I, too, can appreciate the stress in the paperwork. But, as soozievt says, the student isn’t considered for complete admission until that application is filed. For what it’s worth, (our son is a senior this year at Otterbein), we required our son to submit all paper apps before his audition date if it fell before the app deadline for each school simply to gauge his investment in the whole process and help him appreciate that the process is a long one and that every school on his list was important. He did not apply to as many schools as most, but we still were not about to have flight and hotel expenses when he wasn’t truly interested in a school. His first school audition was at the end of October and he was ready with the app. In the end, I think he was grateful to have done it this way as all but one app was sent in before Christmas, and he actually had the availability to tack one more school onto his list during the winter. As you are all discovering, timing is critical and a decent pace is very helpful to these kids who already have very hectic schedules. Good luck with your searches!</p>
<p>I was thinking we would send references from music and acting teachers too, but when reading CCM’s application instructions, they claimed to only use the first one they receive and toss the rest. We’re all geared up to provide more references if they should help. We’ll talk more with his acting and audition coach on what he recommends. It sure is big favor to ask of the teachers to write so many references though. </p>
<p>I was on a bit of late night rant when I wrote last night so I take responsibility for not being too balanced in my views. For instance I was sure the Michigan site had phone numbers some where, I just couldn’t find them easily. I poked around on a lot of pages too. There really is no consistent way the different school web pages are laid out, and for the record I’m sure Syracuse and Michigan are incredible schools. Our son would love to go to any of them.</p>
<p>B’dwayMom, there is no real “shortcut” to finding the right monologue. It takes time to not only find a monologue that seems right but to also read the play from which it comes to understand the context of the monologue and the character. What my daughter found helpful was to get suggestions from english literature teachers, directors and from performance related teachers/instructors who knew her well. She also spent a lot of time perusing monologue books with monologues for young women from published plays (as opposed to monologues written as stand alone pieces). In this fashion she was able to compile monologues that had potential but then she read the plays to really hone in on monologues that were a good match. We spent hours sitting together at our local bookstore pouring through the monologue books and plays.</p>
<p>As to “safety schools”, as has been discussed on various threads, there is no such thing as an audition based “safety” school. The process is too subjective, the number of applicants far in excess of the number of openings and the admission rates too low (3-9% or so, depending on school) for anyone to be able to identify any specific audition based program that could be viewed as a “safety”. The only way to come up with a “safety” is to find some non-audition schools (usually BA’s, but there are a few non-audition BFA’s) with strong theatre departments where theatre majors are admitted on the same basis as all liberal arts students and where your daughter’s GPA, SAT and other aspects of her academic profile put her in the upper echelons of the freshman student profile. There has been a lot posted on this thread about how to to compile a diverse list of audition based programs so as to maximize the potential that from the programs applied to there will be an acceptance(s). There has also been a lot posted here as well as on other threads about suggestions for non-audition based programs.</p>
<p>My daughter also submitted supplemental recommendations. She had 3 academic recommendations (2 english teachers and 1 social studies/history teacher) which she submitted unless the schools instructions specifically stated not to submit more than 2. However she also submitted supplemental performance recommendations. She had 3 of those on tap: her voice teacher during high school, the director of the h.s. shows she was in and an instructor from a university run summer MT program she attended. One or more of these were submitted to all of the various BFA programs she applied to. For one school, she also submitted comprehensive evaluations from 4 instructors at that school which my daughter received at the end of another summer program she attended at that school, but that was limited to that school only.</p>
<p>My daughter also prepared a comprehensive resume covering academic awards, extracurriculars, outside activities etc that was a more elaborate and comprehensive statement of those sorts of things than is permitted by the space on the typical application. This was submitted as part of the application process and was separate from her performance resume submitted at her auditions or to the department (although her performance related stuff was included on the resume submitted to the admissions office).</p>
<p>Ditto everything Michael wrote in terms of advice and what we did and/or sent too. </p>
<p>The only exception I would make to what he wrote is that the academic teacher recs should not exceed two and the non-required supplemental recs (which should not be MORE academic teachers), such as artistic ones, should not exceed two. At some point, the file is too thick and they won’t read it all. This is already beyond what is required and should be a full picture of the candidate.</p>
<p>The rule of thumb with admissions officers is “The thicker the file, the thicker the kid.” You definitely don’t want to overdo the recommendation letters.</p>
<p>Last year, students auditioning for the SUNY/Purchase College BFA in Acting program were asked to bring artistic recommendation letters with them to the audition. </p>
<p>Because Purchase didn’t specify the number of letters, we actually had four or five. Then, when my son’s name did not appear on the callback list an hour or so later, we figured that the letters had been pretty speedily discarded. </p>
<p>Oh, well. :-)</p>
<p>Four or five are too many artistic recs. Do not do more than two. If a school such as Purchase asks you to bring the artistic rec to the audition, then follow those instructions. Otherwise, artistic recs can be part of the application package, such as sent in with the academic recs.</p>
<p>NJTheatreMom, in the case of Purchase, clearly they were going by the audition FIRST, but then once they narrow it down to who has the requisite artistic talent that they are seeking, they surely examine the candidate’s file at that time and the supporting materials such as the resume, recs, etc. So, this doesn’t mean things like the recs do not count but it means that once you pass muster in the audition phase, these other pieces are part of the decision process as they still have too many kids who passed the audition phase itself.</p>
<p>Schools would not ask for these recs or resumes or essays, etc. if they did not consider them. </p>
<p>Here’s an analogy, in the admissions office, if a student has test scores well below the range that the school is willing to accept, then they may not bother to read the recs or essays either. This doesn’t mean essays and recs don’t count. They do. These things can set one candidate apart from another. The student must pass muster on the academic qualifications though in order to really weigh all these other important pieces as well.</p>
<p>Just to clarify my post, as a general rule, we did not send all of the academic nor all of the performance recommendations to all of the schools. We carefully checked the limits on the number of academic recommendations each school wanted. We also carefully checked each school to determine if there were preferred sources for the performance recommendations. We tailored what was sent based not only on a school’s expressly articulated instructions but also based on whether we thought a particular recommendation was better suited for a particular school. When in doubt, we called the admissions office or the department and asked. The schools we dealt with were pretty candid in advising what they wanted.</p>
<p>This is my first post here, although my S and I have been reading all the posts on CC diligently for the last couple months. We are in the process of trying to compose his list of schools to apply to, and are already feeling the daunting effects of this process (at least I am!) He wants to major in MT and is hoping to get into a BFA program, however we are trying to round out his list of reach and target schools (all audition programs) with the safeties. Since there are not alot of MT non-audition programs, we are wondering if anyone knows of schools that offer good BA programs in both Theater and Vocal Performance, where he could either double major, or major in one and minor in the other. His SAT scores are 640 in reading and writing, and 620 in Math. His ACT is 26, and his GPA is 3.2 (weighted) and 2.9 (unweighted) with lots of AP’s. One more thing, he would prefer to go to a school on the east coast, however we live in Colorado, so preferably a school that has a good % of out-of-state students. Any suggestions that anyone could give would be much appreciated!!!</p>
<p>macefran,</p>
<p>I would strongly recommend Muhlenberg in PA. They offer a BA in theatre, but a strong MT emphasis in productions and training. Students can double major or major/minor in theater and music/voice, and there would be no additional cost for voice. Students do not have to audition, but can audition for scholarships. There are a multitude of performance opportunities for theatre oriented students there. We have a son who will graduate as a BFA/MT elsewhere this year, and our daughter just transferred in as a sophomore for Theatre at Muhlenberg. So we’ve been around a while and investigated a fair amount of schools directly. So far she has been very pleased and, overall, it’s a very welcoming environment, especially from faculty. Most students are primarily from the Northeast and Mid Atlantic, but I believe you’ll find a fair % from all over the country. What I do know is that the theatre kids, no matter where they’re from, have so many demands on and backstage that you won’t find them leaving for home very often. Good luck with your search!</p>
<p>Welcome macefran. </p>
<p>I don’t have enough information about your son to assess his chances at Muhlenberg. But just using the little information you have provided, I would not consider Muhlenberg a safety school for your son, but it is in his ballpark and he surely could and should apply.</p>
<p>Your son’s test scores are in the ballpark for this college…I’d consider that one aspect to be “match”, but not “safety”. </p>
<p>Then, the average GPA of admitted students to Muhlenberg is a 3.4 (these stats for colleges are stated as unweighted usually). Your son’s unweighted GPA is a 2.9. In this one regard, Muhlenberg is a reach. </p>
<p>You say your son has many APs but of course I would need to see his transcript, but it seems like he has taken a demanding curriculum and so that is favorable and his weighted GPA is a little higher (but the stated GPA of admitted students is given as unweighted and so you have to compare apples to apples). </p>
<p>You did not give your son’s class rank or percentile. Those admitted to Muhlenberg’s freshmen class are: 45% from top 10%, 81% from top quarter, 98% from top 50%. Do you know if your son is in the top 25% of HIS high school class? He may not be with a weighted GPA of 3.2, but I can’t say. But if he is not in the top quarter, then Muhlenberg is reachy for him. </p>
<p>You must also consider the acceptance rate. The overall acceptance rate to Muhlenberg is 45% which is pretty selective. They accept a great many in the ED round and so the acceptance rate in the RD round is even lower than 45%. </p>
<p>I don’t have enough information to assess your son’s chances but just based on these few things alone, I would not call Muhlenberg a safety for your son. It may be Match school, but I’m not certain of that without more information about him that the adcoms will get that are not posted here. He should consider applying but not consider it a sure bet school. </p>
<p>Remember that not all non-audition schools are a safety. Also, one person’s safety may be another person’s match or reach.</p>
<p>Without knowing more specifics about your son, some non-auditioned schools to look at are:</p>
<p>Rollins (FL) – BA in Theatre with MT opportunities
University of New Hampshire – non-auditioned BA in Musical Theatre
Christopher Newport (VA) – non-auditioned Theatre with an auditioned emphasis in MT… you audition after your freshman year.
DeSales ¶ – non-auditioned BA MT (I believe)</p>
<p>Schools may change their audition requirements from year to year (ie. a school that has not required an audition in the past may now decide that they do want to audition students this year), so it is important to check each schools website to confirm that they are still a non-auditioned school.</p>
<p>Depending on his full academic profile these may or may not be safety schools for him.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>