@frisbee3 - I just took a personality test and learned (no surprise) that I am a planner. That personality trait can also be described as a worrier when living in an unplannable world! So know that this trait of yours is not a bad thing. It is an extremely useful thing. From reading these boards through the years, it seems like the folks who did well with GAP years used that year to fix weaknesses. If your kid is already extremely well trained in singing and acting (note: I am not saying talented because all the kids on these boards with "worrying/planning parents are likely already talented), then use the year to match your kid’s dance training to that in the other three areas. If you did not use a coach (and/or didn’t focus on fall audition schools), then focus the GAAp year on coaching - and that more fulsome audition schedule. If I were you (the planner), I would focus my energy on finding those training programs (but not sharing them with my kid). If the worst happens, then (1) come onto these boards and ask for more suggestions both local and summer-travel options; and (2) pull up the neat list you already prepared. It will keep you slightly more sane. Also - I’ve always found that preparing options meant I didn’t need to use them as much (superstitious I know).
@frisbee3 , we discussed “Plan B” with my daughter at the start of the process (too late for you now, I realize! :)). She is a good student so she is considering a non-MT pursuit if she doesn’t get in anywhere, but also leaving the option for a gap year. She decided to only go for programs that were strong with no real ‘safety school’ so she knew going in that she was shooting for the stars and that was her choice. She has gotten academically accepted everywhere she applied that gives the acceptance separate from the MT program and she even applied to a couple of strong academic schools to give herself additional options. We decided that it is easier to have the options in place ahead of time rather than trying to make them in the disappointment of all no responses. We’re hoping that is not the case, but with this approach she will have academic options if she decides to go that way, but also allowing that we could do this over again if she chooses. But here’s hoping, as we all do, that we don’t have to exercise plan B!
@ZukAndSowash My S has his accompaniment recorded on his cell. (Don’t know if that’s good or bad, but it’s what we’ve got!) LOL
Another note re: identifying each other…I’m thinking maybe something w CC on it (as I’m not sure I’m going to want to walk around w ‘Hello…my name is Lithpool’ on my chest! :))
@lithpool that’s what we did for recorded music and it worked fine. Just make sure you have some sort of little speaker to hook it up to. Not every school has one.
One thing we did was have 3 non audition safeties. All 3 were LACs with strong theater programs (Muhlenberg, Denison and Kenyon). I wanted to make sure that my D had choices no matter what happened at auditions.
@pegski same! I wish we had found this site earlier.
At my daughter’s school, literally everyone just think you apply to the state schools you want to attend, and they just accept you. Luckily we went to a meet and greet on October 30th for one of those state schools, and that’s when the madness began!
We found out we were too late to sign up for auditions on campus, and that’s when we learned about Unifieds. It has been a mad dash towards the finish line since then!
I put my daughter back in dance lessons, after not being in any formal dance program since elementary school. We’ve watched every YouTube video we can find on Unifieds, college auditions, college essays, improving ACT scores. We’ve filmed pre-screens like crazy. Cut music, cut music again. Spent hours digging through plays for monologues that aren’t “overdone”. Cut more music. She’s written more essays than probably during her entire high school career. She’s missed some deadlines, barely hit a few others, received some pre-screen rejections, and passed some too. All within the span of 72 days! I feel like she (we) have crammed a years worth of work in to 2 months.
Her English teacher tried to convince her she didn’t need to do all this work, and wherever she applied she was going to get in, because she’s talented and smart. She’s like “That doesn’t matter. I literally might not get in, because I have the wrong hair color, or I’m the wrong height, or they have too many sopranos.”
After she received three pre-screen rejections the teacher was finally like, “…Oh, I see!”
In two months she’s probably applied to more schools than anyone in her class, and now we are starting on back-up plans, non-audition schools, music majors/minors and BAs.
Good job @Tulsa-Mom - better high action late, than not at all!
I don’t see anybody talk about the MT program at NYU-Steinhardt. It seems everybody looks at NYU-Tisch, even though on the OnstageBlog top 10 BM programs they are ranked number two, behind only Baldwin-Wallace and ahead of so many others (Oklahoma City U, Manhattan School of Music, Belmont, etc) that get a lot of mention on these pages. Any thoughts on that?
Just a note that I saw in a video - Drinking tea/honey helps a sore throat but not your voice. The steam from the tea helps your voice because that’s where your vocal chords are . The best thing to do for the voice is sleep with a room humidifier and/or use a personal mister. Maybe that is obvious to most but I was like ‘oh yea, duh’
@ZukAndSowash - Tisch’s MT studio is larger and part of their very large Drama program so statistically you’ll see more Tisch MT people than Steinhart people. You can only apply to one of them so many performers (like my D) who are interested in NYU will choose Tisch. That doesn’t mean Steinhart isn’t good - I think it may actually be harder to get into - it just means you’ll hear about it less.
You go @Tulsa-Mom ! No one else really understands how different auditioned program applications are from normal college apps. BAL to your D!
@ZukAndSowash my daughter does not attend NYU Steinhardt but she was accepted to their MT program and she attended their MT Summer Program right after junior year. She loved the summer program and very much loved her professors (two in particular). She made many friends - several that went on to attend the program. What we loved about it was the emphasis on music - (my daughter is a musician with 10 years of piano experience). What she had reservations about is that the emphasis is on classical training. As you probably know, what they offer is a BM with emphasis on Opera Studies or Musical Theater, and that is telling. I think they lean very much toward golden age and do not train in contemporary MT musical styles. In the end, even though my daughter loved the vibe, the city, the faculty and her friends, she decided she wanted to be able to sing in a diversity of styles, and wanted training for her belt as well as her high soprano. She also found their dance training not particularly rigorous. But take a look at their curriculum - if a music degree is what you want - it might be perfect. (Lots of great people have come out of this program - you can also attend for a Masters degree in MT. Ruthie Ann Miles is one of them - she came in and taught some of my daughter’s summer classes. It is a pretty amazing place!)
@junior72 we heard back from Illinois Wesleyan in less than 24 hours after hitting submit, not sure if that is the norm or not
@luvbloominroses last year I had my D’s pediatrician prescribed tamiflu for our whole family. We traveled with it just in case needed during this intense part of audition season. Her coach made her drink an orange flavored Emergen - c vitamin packet in water bottle daily. Was super on everyone in our family to wash hands & drink tons of water. Got them in the habit of not touch communal door knobs at school or elevator/stair railing. She slept with a humidifier nightly. She was in shows and traveling all of Jan & Feb. Our 4th six weeks of school was a beat down due to this. She was carrying several AP classes. But we didn’t get sick. Keep a little drug store of “go to” drugs for cold etc when on all these auditions trips. Someone will need something. It can be done. But it’s a chore. Also bought the travel humidifier but she never needed it while at hotel rooms during trips/shows/auditions. And she flew a ton!
sorry - what is lac?
@rebadee Liberal Arts College is my guess by context clues LOL
@frisbee3 regarding your thoughts for planning for the ‘what if?’: you are thinking realistically. While we all want to tell you (with about 99% certainty) that it will all work out, it may take some last minute effort on your/your child’s part. Those who have been through the gap year process are incredibly helpful, and admittedly most of their kids actually had acceptances, but chose to try again. So it may not be a matter of getting no acceptances, but perhaps not the right fit.
I don’t think you need to be planning the itinerary for the gap year (in the event that you/your child choose that route). But you could certainly be thinking about other opportunities in programs that have late/rolling application deadlines and late auditions (to have in your back pocket, just in case). This is something I had a crash course in last March. My d needed a couple of ‘Hail Mary’ auditions, and one of them ended up being the school she is attending. My d felt strongly about not taking a gap year, so we took a leap of faith by committing to her school (not having been to accepted students day, and only a last minute visit a week before she committed). It all worked out, and she kicked first semester’s ass!
If you search my posts, or keywords such as ‘late auditions’ or a thread (where I ended up meeting a mom I am very friendly with now) titled “no acceptances?” circa March 2018, there are many helpful posts by parents who pulled me off the proverbial ledge last spring. Or message me, and I’ll help you in any way I can 
@rebadee - LAC is CC speak for liberal arts college 
sometimes the acrony,s can get confusing - when I 1st started reading here (many moons ago) it took me forever to figure some out
@DramaQueen219 - Thanks for your post. I will do a little digging to see some of the things that you spoke about on cc in the past. Not sure how to private message from your user name. Hopefully the Gap year is not something we’re going to have to worry about. But I know my daughter would like to be attending college in the fall so I’d like to donwhat we can.
Did anyone’s child receive a JMU decision yesterday? S has an academic decision but MT still says pending. My admittedly sketchy memory was that they were going to be released at the same time.