<p>This is one reason why I suggest scheduling auditions early: students are less likely to be sick early in the year – those terrible colds seem to really take hold in January/February. And, if you have an October/November audition scheduled and you get sick, you still have time to reschedule.</p>
<p>Kedstuff, my D had the exact same experience…so my key bit of advice is to schedule early in case you have to reschedule.</p>
<p>some great advice we got right from the horse’s mouth about where to do auditions…the admissions staff at UofM said that you should always audition at the school campus because the entire staff is there…at unifieds and blitzes colleges usually only send a partial staff. You don’t get the benefit of everyone seeing the audition.</p>
<p>Interesting, because UM does admit people regularly from Unifieds. Also, there are times when the entire staff is not at the on-campus auditions - even at UM (although this is rare). CMU and CCM also definitely admitted people from Unifieds this year. I think if you are truly ABLE to do so, go to the schools which are you truly top choices, but if finances are an issue (and when aren’t they, in this day and age?:)), Unifieds is a great solution.</p>
<p>Last year when I was reading these boards in anticipation of my D’s college audition season, I didn’t quite believe it when people contended that it did not make any difference if kids auditioned at the various schools or Unifieds and that many kids got into schools doing walk ins. Well, I am here to tell you that it is true: kids do get into great schools via Unifieds and even through walk ins. My D and I found the Unifieds in New York to be a wonderful convenience and a big money saver (though staying several nights in New York is not cheap!) and neither of us noticed the competitive atmosphere mentioned by other posters on this thread. In fact, my kid enjoyed seeing and meeting lots of other students from all over the country who shared her love and passion for musical theater and acting, and I had a lovely time talking with other parents who shared the parents’ side of the experience! If I were to give students and parents of the Class of 2009 any advice, it would be to definitely seriously consider doing auditions at Unifieds and then visiting programs to which you are accepted afterwards. You will save a lot a lot of money this way. Also, consider doing a walk in audition or two. My daughter did a walk in and was accepted to a program that she ended up falling in love with and which she only decided not to attend (in favor of another program) after a lot of soul searching, hand wringing and many late nights of conversation.</p>
<p>Just to add to NMR’s advice to consider doing auditions at Unifieds, my daughter’s 6 acceptances were from Unifieds in Chicago and all but one were walk-ins. Two of those walk-in acceptances were on the spot. She only had one on campus audition (MMC). I would highly recommend doing Unified auditions.</p>
<p>I would like to offer a compromise-we decided to schedule some audtitins early in the season for two reasons. One, to take advantage of schools with rolling admissions that would accept him before Christmas and two, to audition before cold and flu season was at its peak. My S loved his on-campus auditions but I would recommend taking 2 days at each campus if possible to sit in on classes and to meet the students. The Unifieds were unfortunately held during a period of severe illness for my kid but he was accepted to two great programs-including the one that he will ultimately attend-at the Unifieds in LA. We did have to fly to those schools to evaluate the programs and campuses in person but it was much more convenient and economical to travel to one location and audition.
I would thus recommend combining an approach of early and late, on-campus and unified auditions.</p>
<p>I concur - the Unifieds are highly recommended! It’s a less expensive and less time-consuming way to increase your possibilities, and it can be a wonderful experience if the student is well prepared. For our family, it was the highlight of the audition season. And after a year, my D is still in touch with some of the kids she met there.</p>
<p>I can only speak from our experience, but last year my D scheduled early and was able to do 6 auditions over 2 days. She found them to be much more relaxing than the ones she did on campus. Doing several auditions right in a row got her warmed up, and made each one less precious (and pressured!) than doing just one per weekend. She was accepted into more of her Unified schools than her on-campus ones. We visited her final choice after acceptance.</p>
<p>Don’t forget that colleges make the make the great effort of attending the Unifieds in the hopes of accepting some of the candidates they find there!</p>
<p>glad to hear from so many that on campus and unifieds are both successful…good news!!! I wonder if some schools prefer one over the other…that is the impression my d and I got at UofM. </p>
<p>Please help…my daughter is a rising sophmore and we are just getting our feet wet, trying to learn as much as we can…how do you find out about unifieds?</p>
<p>There is a website that posts info about the unifieds. I don’t know the link, but I’m sure someone else can help there. We didn’t do unifieds. Some schools don’t participate in them. Also, you might want to check on regional auditions. For us, Atlanta is a couple of hours away and a lot of schools do a regional audition there. It saved us staying in a hotel and the cost of further travel. We figured if he was accepted by a school, we could always visit it later before we made a decision.</p>
<p>[n</a> a t i o n a l u n i f i e d a u d i t i o n s](<a href=“http://www.unifiedauditions.com%5Dn”>http://www.unifiedauditions.com)
There are several threads on CC devoted to the Unifieds.</p>
<p>Also, regarding Unifieds—Along with the schools listed that participate; there are a great number who are there who aren’t “official” Unified participants. In one of the Unified threads awhile ago, Dr. John from Otterbein gave a pretty comprehensive list of all the schools that would be at the same hotel at the same time.</p>
<p>BTW My son is one who successfully auditioned at the Chicago Unifieds!!</p>
<p>lesrenne, I honestly don’t think it matters if you audition on campus at Michigan or at Unifieds: kids get in from both sets of auditions. Read upthread a bit, as Coach C talks about this.</p>
<p>Regarding Michigan on campus versus Unified auditions:</p>
<p>I visited about 3 weeks ago and had a meeting with Brent Wagner (the head of the department) while I was there. One of the things that we talked about (and that had been alluded to before that conversation) was their admission system. Auditioners are scored by the panel of faculty that see their audition in each of the three areas, these scores are tabulated, and decisions are made based on these scores. I auditioned at the Chicago Unifieds, Mr. Wagner was not there, and I was accepted - so it seems as though Michigan really doesn’t give an advantage to on campus auditioners.</p>
<p>thanks for the feedback! great to know!</p>
<p>We didn’t really understand the value of the unifieds and scheduled 7 on campus auditions…however we did end up at the chicago unifieds and our son decided to do some drop-in auditions. He did well and was accepted by programs from both campus and unifieds. I wish we knew more a year ago. Our recommendation is to do both.</p>
<p>Bumping thread…</p>
<p>Great thread to bump…thanks. One piece of input from my D is that she received a lot of good information as different adjudicators were working with her on her songs and monologues. One school had her put a spin on her monologue that worked so well she kept it for all the rest. As a result I think I would highly recommend keeping your top choices toward the middle or end of your run because you will be the most polished and confident. I really don’t believe schools get more selective as the auditions go on, we know too many kids getting in after auditioning late in the season. I suppose one other thing to think of is your child’s health. Early auditions probably are safer from the nasty winter cold but if you are really diligent you should be able to ward off evil spirits until audition season is over. We did 8 auditions in NY from a Thursday through Monday. We were warned that it might be too much, but in fact found that she could have scheduled walk-ins if there were schools that she was interested in. We did one a day on Thurs,Fri and Mon and 2 on Sat and 3 on Sun (2 having no dance call and therefore only lasting 15 minutes.) The only concern I had was her catching something on the flight to NY and being sick…she took everything-Zicam, Airborne, steam, herbal teas and lots of sleep and fortunately it all worked out fine. Last of all I strongly encourage future MT kids to get their applications and audition dates EARLY. If you start right away you will get your first choices and have no problems with scheduling. If you wait until late November or December you will have to take what’s left and possibly miss out on some good opportunities. But most of all as many cc’ers have suggested in the past…HAVE FUN WITH YOU KIDS!!! It is such an important time to spend with your child and no matter how things work out you always have the great memories of this special time together.
Good luck to next years batch of families through this process, and Best of luck to all of our children who are (im)patiently waiting to find out where they will be next year.</p>
<p>mtmama, thanks for bumping this up. There’s a lot of good information in the thread that may be useful to those who are newer to the forum. I enjoyed reading the posts of some of my old ‘friends’ on CC who don’t post anymore and I encourage everyone to read jamimom’s posts and to heed her great advice and knowledge. It was also kind of fun to see a few usernames that I hadn’t thought about in a while, and whom we don’t particularly miss. Those of you who have been here for a while will know who I’m talking about. ;)</p>
<p>PUT THOUGHT IN TO THE SCHEDULING ORDER OF YOUR UNIFIED AUDITIONS</p>
<p>I didn’t read through all of the posts so excuse me if this is written above…</p>
<p>…my d’s first audition of the day at the Unifieds happened to be Webster. The gentleman was EXTREMELY warm, kind and compassionate. His demeanor put my daughter at ease for that audition and the rest of the day. </p>
<p>As not everyone can schedule the first Webster auditon, talk to others that have been through this and determine which audition would be a good choice for your first one at the Unifieds. It could make a difference that reflects how you feel throughout the entire day.</p>
<p>On the same note, schedule intense auditions at the end of the day as they can give you the feeling of being completely zapped.</p>