<p>Call this step # 1.5 in Chrissyblu’s list above - Visit Colleges/Universities that interest you.</p>
<p>It’s likely that you have more time now in the summer than during the school year to visit campuses. It may still be difficult to go across the country to see that ONE place that is NUMBER ONE on your list; but it’ll be time well spent. Don’t rely 100% on reputations, things you read on CC, advice and opinions that you may have from others, etc. Talk to people in the programs that interest you; professors, students, administrators, etc. Look at the campus and do your OWN assessment: Am I comfortable in these dorms? Will I be happy with this meal plan? Does this large or small, urban or rural or suburban, BA or BFA, near or far from home environment suit me? Nobody knows your wants/needs/desires better than yourself. Check things out in person, and then go forward with your audition/admission strategy.</p>
<p>My S applied and auditioned at a well regarded BFA school “sight unseen”. At the audition on campus, he had a very bad reaction to the school’s environment and ended up auditioning poorly. At our “post mortem”, we both concluded it was a bad decision for him to even apply to this school, even though he met all the thresholds of their typical student body, and had friends that were already attending there and recommended that he apply. We would have saved both time and money had we visited the summer before the audition season; he would have known then that this school was not for him.</p>
<p>Remember that auditioning and program selection is not necessarily an objective process, but can be very subjective. You can’t control the admissions decisions that schools make, but ultimately you do decide where to apply, and where to attend. Doing the “up front” filtering so you can focus your energy on those schools where you will be happy.</p>