<p>I agree with Christie2. It sounds like your D has great experience locally. So it is nice to go to some of these summer programs and get a sense of the talent you will be auditioning with and working with in college and beyond. Our D went to OCU’s MT camp the summer between her freshman and sophomore year in high school and then went to mPulse at the University of Michigan the summer between her sophomore and junior years. Both experiences were fantastic. It was great to be on a college campus and see what life at those schools would be like. And what it is like to seriously study MT 24/7. It also gave her a realistic view of how competitive college auditions would be. she had other friends used to getting all the plum roles at home who have been shocked at the number of really talented kids are out there. going to these camps made her aware of what to expect and also gave her lots of friends to meet up with during the audition process! Some other schools I know that have summer programs are Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, CCM, Boston Conservatory, Boston University and Texas State. I also know kids who learned a lot at camps like Interlochen, Stagedoor Manor and Frenchwoods. But I do not have first hand knowledge of those programs.<br>
Like Christie2, our D also used an audition coach who we’d highly recommend named Mary Anna Dennard. She is based in Dallas but we were able to work with her both in person and via skype. she also connected us to a great vocal rep coach in NYC and made all sorts of master classes available to her students as well. she also was on hand at the unified auditions which was a great help in understanding how that worked. We began working with her the spring of our D’s junior year and spent the summer between junior and senior year working with her and preparing for college auditions. There are many thoughts on CC about coaches. We found it helpful but it is certainly not necessary.</p>