I think a problem with these boards is that there is so much speculation and misinformation. Kudo’s to @CoachC - obviously she knows what she is talking about. She is MTCA. And it is a great, supportive, knowledgable organization. I have said in the past we used them for monologue coaching and my daughter’s coach was studying in the graduate acting program at Yale. She was wonderful and totally qualified for the job.
Kudo’s also to @soozievt - a very knowledgable college counselor with a big focus on performing arts who can guide you from years of experience in the field.
What I notice is that this is a hard process with successes and disappointments and when it is your child - you are always looking for a reason to make sense out of it or to feel a sense of control in an uncontrollable process. That’s why you get the “oh they are building a class” reasoning (they aren’t - at the prescreen level)… or my daughter is a blonde (oh please! my daughter’s class at Michigan had 5 (out of 10 girls!) - don’t tell me they are discriminated against…).
Have a well crafted list, with a wide range of schools, have a non-audition safety, consider a gap year and more training and most of all enjoy the process and traveling with your children! Best of luck to everyone!
@NYKaren - I think the answer is - you do exactly what these kids are doing. You strive, you put yourself out there, you suceed and you fail. The competition is not always fun but it’s probably necessary.
@MTisNutz - that’s great to hear this motivated your DD! That was my hope, that sharing my family’s experience would help someone else get started early… http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/21889872/#Comment_21889872
@BWmama @lithpool I feel the same way about walkins. Why not try? If you’ve already been rejected on a prescreen, so what? You are already at “no”, so you have nowhere to go but up! Chances are they will still say “no”, but again, so what? At worst its another learning experience in how to present yourself in the face of likely rejection. From what I have read here on CC, the higher reputation schools likely won’t take a walkin (as they probably will have a full schedule of prescheduled kids). But again, so what? They might say yes. Life favors the bold!
@SoCalPops obviously it is your choice and you need to do what you feel is best. But I think that because many people read these boards hoping for guidance in a confusing process that is universally frowned upon. I have heard from all manner of college coaches (both Mary Anna Dennard and MTCA) that doing a walk-in after not passing a prescreen is considered wasting their time and is not looked kindly upon. These schools are not stupid, they have computers and databases and they know if you have already been passed on. You are also taking the chance away from someone else - there are limited slots. I think better advice is to accept it, move on, re-evaluate your list, add some schools you may not have looked at initially and if it really is the dream - consider applying again next year (perhaps as a transfer!).
I enjoy periodically popping in to read these boards. Obviously I am still missing those years of music all around the house and shows to see every weekend. So occasionally I check back - out of nostalgia. But as you can see from above I have some pet peeves!
Get some good advice! There are very knowledgeable people on here who have been working professionally in this field for years!
You say to pass the walk-in opportunity to someone else. Who is that other person? A lot of these kids did ALOT of work doing multiple prescreens requirements for various schools. So pass the chance to someone who didn’t write the hours of essays and prescreens? Kinda sounds like an edge on a stress free environment for an audition. Is the best advise really being given when it’s a highly competitive field. Maybe it makes available spots for someone if everyone says don’t try and move on.
@soozievt and @CoachC re. the assistant staff and prescreens, is this idea accurate? I recall reading a while back that regular mt faculty are assigned to review, and often more than one per submission. I’m sure each school is different, but it is my understanding that the videos are reviewed very carefully.
Also, I want to reiterate what I said in a previous post; national coaches provide a wonderful and helpful service, but to encourage anyone for next year who can’t go that route it is very possible to create a school list and film prescreens on your own, even without starting months in advance or submitting early. The schools give you very specific instructions and it is great training for self taping, which is currently such a big part of this career.
Thanks to all for sharing on this forum. It is a really helpful tool, with such interesting advice!
Re: prescreens - the reviewer for Pace prescreens is one of the founding faculty of their MT program. It’s a little tricky to apply what has been said about one program to every program.
@singoutlouise, I actually agree with you about not doing a walk-in if you did not pass the prescreen. However, if the “no to prescreen school” is participating in a consortium audition at Unifides like the NY Combines, I don’t see anything wrong with that. A student can’t stay away from a consortium audition just because a “no” school will be there. I wouldn’t expect them to change their minds but I do wonder if it ever happened
I don’t think anyone would expect someone to skip a consortium audition just because a prescreen school attended! but I would only consider doing a walk-in at a school that rejected your prescreen if you feel your prescreen didn’t represent you properly. At the very least you risk annoying the reviewers - if the auditors are also the prescreen reviewers then they won’t appreciate seeing someone at a walk-in that they’ve already rejected. And they will notice it.
RE: walkins you already got prescreen rejected on. Again, so what if you risk “annoying the reviewers?” So what if you risk “wasting their time”? If they truly feel that way, they probably won’t even let you sign up for a walkin. If you’ve been rejected already by prescreen, and they are open to taking walkins, then take the chance. You might change their mind. And if they say “no” again, so what? You didn’t lose anything. And you took a chance that might of paid off. Avoiding the risk of “annoying” people or “wasting their time” is not a good lesson on getting ahead in a very competitive industry.
Enjoying these discussions. Congratulations to those who have received acceptances already, and good luck to those with upcoming auditions over the next couple of months.
Regarding review of prescreens, imagine a school that receives 1500 prescreen applications, and say 7 minutes to review each one. That’s 175 hours of video! Even if 10 full faculty members participated, that is a huge amount of work, even before face-to-face auditions happen. They’ve got to teach in there somewhere too! I’m only speculating but I’d guess there are some grad students or TA’s that help, if only to sort them into piles for definite YES, NO WAY, and borderline for more review. It makes sense that some very capable kids get denied, it must be really hard to keep a unified standard. If I were a reviewer or audition faculty, (thank goodness I’m not), honestly I’d have my decision on somebody in about a minute.
Can’t help but reiterate what has been said above, getting applications and prescreens done early if you can. My D is pretty organized, but the essay writing especially is a killer, and she only applied to 8 schools. I say only 8, which seemed a lot at the time but not in comparison to some on here. The prescreens weren’t too bad, actually kind of fun. It would not be fun if you were scrambling against the deadlines, or your kid got a cold at the last minute, etc. We didn’t use a coach, had no idea there was such a thing, and as somebody already pointed out, all the kids have enough skills with their phones and video editing to put together something pretty polished quite quickly.
Wishing you and your kids the very best of luck in the New Year…
Last year my D did not pass a pre-screen from one of the schools attending Combines. I contacted that school and asked if she did Combines, would she still be considered for the program. I was told in no uncertain terms that she had been given her one chance via pre-screen and was no longer a candidate even though she was welcome to audition at Combines for the other schools. Time is extremely limited at Unifieds, especially NYC. Why use precious time auditioning for a school that already has you on their “no” list? Just my 2 cents.
@collegemom2000 Time is valuable, and certainly a factor. My D is going for BFA Acting programs. The audition slots at many schools at Unifieds are often short, like 10 minutes or less. I know that is not the case for MT programs. Adding on a couple of walkins for Acting is not the same time drain as it probably is for MT. So adding on a couple of low probability walkins could be easy/not a big time impact for an Acting kid. That may not be true for MT. Also, at Chicago Unifieds there is more time all around as it is 4 days, and not 2 (like NYC or LA).
@collegemom2000 - Exactly! why waste your time and the schools if you have already been told no? Better to use that time to do a walk-in for a school that will actually consider you for their program. My D works in theatre recruitment and they would not allow someone rejected from a prescreen to walk-in. All the faculty reviews their prescreens and if it’s a no- it’s a no.
@SoCalPops - you may be underestimating the importance of reputation in a fairly “small world”. The auditors aren’t of no account - they will potentially be your student’s mentors, their professors and/or their future employers. You say there’s nothing for a student to lose in annoying those people - I would disagree.
@SoCalPops Even if there is more audition flexibility with BFA acting, I would still advise against sending D in to audition for a school that already said they don’t want her. I know it’s tempting, but there is a reason she was rejected and it may have nothing at all to do with talent (they already may have enough of her type, etc.) I agree with @CaMom13. She will be running into these people again in the future (it truly is a small community). She doesn’t want to present herself as desperate or unable to move on from rejection.
I know someone who received a “no” and did Combines. The “no” school actually was interested and asked them to apply. So is no really no?
@FROG65 what happened when they said that they had already applied? Also, Combines is very different than walking in to a single school who has already told you “no” (if you can even get a spot at Combines, which is another struggle.)
@CaMom13 Reputation. Now that is a valid consideration. I know to some degree these professors move around from school to school as they wish to advance their careers. I still think that if one asks professionally and respectfully to be considered/reconsidered can that really hurt? A professor would have to be kind of vindictive in my view to hold it against a student in the future that they were persistent and kept trying. Now if the kid were a jerk/brat about it, that’s a different story. But tenacity with cheery professionalism? I would admire the kid for trying, even if I said no you can’t do a walk in. And yes, the kid got “denied for a reason”, sure. But I know from two schools I talked to in depth that not all of the staff reviews the prescreens. Much has been said about that here. So there could be a different mix of staff at unifieds than reviewed your prescreen. Or their criteria for what they want can evolve during the audition season. Two department heads told me they hold over some students from Early Action to Regular Decision sometimes in case they want to see how some kids match up to the remaining pool that applies later. That right there tells you there’s a gray area. What one person says “no” to in October, might change after they’ve seen a lot of students by February. Now it might not - sure. This is definitely a low probability endeavor . But if this is a school you really wanted, I see it as a risk worth taking. And later in their careers, taking the same risk… not willing to take no for an answer will serve one well. Professional persistence is what I advocate.