Auditioning for 2017

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Dogcop
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Re: Auditioning for 2017

Post by Dogcop »

DS got his funding through from Bird in May. We easily found accommodation with a host family (as he was only 16) after that date
Cats pyjamas
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Re: Auditioning for 2017

Post by Cats pyjamas »

Hi all
I'm new to this site this is my first time posting but I've been following this thread with great interest as DD has been auditioning this last month.
Hoping a few of you can shed some light please?
DD received an acceptance letter for the diploma at bird yesterday, first para tells us "this is currently an unfunded place" the letter then goes on to talk about their recent application to the education funding agency and how they do not yet know the result and they are hoping to know by April.
Third paragraph then goes on to say the scheme will be means tested and so whilst there are no guarantees of the outcome they hope to be able to offer her a "means tested DaDa" so my questions are......is.there anyone out there who has had the same letter? Is this a typical letter from bird? Or has it been worded this way due to the application for EFA?? Finally.....does it sound likely that she will be offered funding when they know what's what??
Apologies for all the questions but it's left me a little confused

:D :D :D :D
Mummyofthree
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Re: Auditioning for 2017

Post by Mummyofthree »

Hi everyone, I'm new on here and my daughter is auditioning for the first time this year. She's had auditions for Musical Theatre courses at Edgehill uni, Cumbria Uni and GSA and Mountview and SLP college Leeds, also AlRa drama school. She's got in at Alra, Edgehill, Cumbria she has a recall for a dada or scholarship at SLP Leeds but they want £45 to re audition which I think is ludricrous and £100 registration for a scholarship and then she may only be offered foundation. She wasn't accepted into GSA after only doing 1st round singing auditions. We are waiting to hear from Mountview. She also had an audition at Hammond but had to cancel because Mountview was the same day but they haven't rearranged is that normal? Also if she goes to Alra she only gets £6k towards tuition fees and we have to pay the rest I was wondering if the rest could be paid from part of her maintenance loan it's so confusing. Hope someone can help!!
Robin64
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Re: Auditioning for 2017

Post by Robin64 »

Mummyofthree wrote:Hi everyone, I'm new on here and my daughter is auditioning for the first time this year. She's had auditions for Musical Theatre courses at Edgehill uni, Cumbria Uni and GSA and Mountview and SLP college Leeds, also AlRa drama school. She's got in at Alra, Edgehill, Cumbria she has a recall for a dada or scholarship at SLP Leeds but they want £45 to re audition which I think is ludricrous and £100 registration for a scholarship and then she may only be offered foundation. She wasn't accepted into GSA after only doing 1st round singing auditions. We are waiting to hear from Mountview. She also had an audition at Hammond but had to cancel because Mountview was the same day but they haven't rearranged is that normal? Also if she goes to Alra she only gets £6k towards tuition fees and we have to pay the rest I was wondering if the rest could be paid from part of her maintenance loan it's so confusing. Hope someone can help!!
As far as I know you can use your maintenance loan as you wish but obviously it means you have not got that money to actually pay for your maintenance eg accommodation, agency fees for accommodation if it isn't halls, deposit etc then food, transport and all the rest. There is no reason you can't factor it in for fees if working part time or over the holidays will help cover expenses. You get maintenance loan in 3 parts so a third each term in the first week (well that is our experience with DD at uni). If you want the Hammond audition I think you will need to call them as they might not automatically reschedule and some places require re-booking and paying again for the audition. Is the £100 a refundable deposit? I don't have experience of the colleges on your list but always worth asking on here. Yes it is a fairly confusing and expensive process but well done for your DD for her offers. Give the places a ring with questions, I think they must be used to getting plenty of enquiries this time of year.
2dancersmum
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Re: Auditioning for 2017

Post by 2dancersmum »

Cats pyjamas - congratulations to your DD on the offer of a place.

Basically, the colleges are waiting to hear I think for the exact amount they will receive this year for the DADA funding. Colleges receive a 'pot of money' to allocate to students. Basically each college will rank their applicants and the amount each student receives is means tested and based on family income. So they will offer DADA funding (in various amounts) until they have allocated all the money. Your DD may be offered funding at this stage, depending where she is 'ranked' by the college.

However, students may well be offered funding from more than one college so each time they turn an offer down, their 'DADA allocation' goes back into the pot to be offered to the next student on the list. This whole process of funded offers can take quite a while. Some students may get several offers but hold onto all of them until they hear from everywhere they have applied, others will make decisions more quickly.

So I'm afraid it is a waiting game now. There is likely to be an initial round of funding offers - not Bird but DD heard at this stage that she was unsuccessful in obtaining funding and was on the reserve list (in March) but in May we heard from the college again with an offer of funding. If your DD does not get funding when the initial allocation is offered, it is not end , it may come later. Some colleges allow you to phone up and see where your child is on the reserve list, but as I say there is considerable movement on the reserve lists for all colleges for a few months at least.
jennifer1972
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Re: Auditioning for 2017

Post by jennifer1972 »

Cats pyjamas wrote:Hi all
I'm new to this site this is my first time posting but I've been following this thread with great interest as DD has been auditioning this last month.
Hoping a few of you can shed some light please?
DD received an acceptance letter for the diploma at bird yesterday, first para tells us "this is currently an unfunded place" the letter then goes on to talk about their recent application to the education funding agency and how they do not yet know the result and they are hoping to know by April.
Third paragraph then goes on to say the scheme will be means tested and so whilst there are no guarantees of the outcome they hope to be able to offer her a "means tested DaDa" so my questions are......is.there anyone out there who has had the same letter? Is this a typical letter from bird? Or has it been worded this way due to the application for EFA?? Finally.....does it sound likely that she will be offered funding when they know what's what??
Apologies for all the questions but it's left me a little confused

:D :D :D :D
Hello and congratulations on the offer. If it is an unfunded place, your DD will be on the reserve list for funding (probably quite high by the sounds of things!) and once people start accepting or rejecting offers, you will be able to call and find out how high on the list she is. Good luck!!
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2girlsmum
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Re: Auditioning for 2017

Post by 2girlsmum »

Cats pyjamas wrote:Hi all
I'm new to this site this is my first time posting but I've been following this thread with great interest as DD has been auditioning this last month.
Hoping a few of you can shed some light please?
DD received an acceptance letter for the diploma at bird yesterday, first para tells us "this is currently an unfunded place" the letter then goes on to talk about their recent application to the education funding agency and how they do not yet know the result and they are hoping to know by April.
Third paragraph then goes on to say the scheme will be means tested and so whilst there are no guarantees of the outcome they hope to be able to offer her a "means tested DaDa" so my questions are......is.there anyone out there who has had the same letter? Is this a typical letter from bird? Or has it been worded this way due to the application for EFA?? Finally.....does it sound likely that she will be offered funding when they know what's what??
Apologies for all the questions but it's left me a little confused

:D :D :D :D
Hello Cats pyjamas
Congratulations to your DD on her offer - that's great news :D
My DD received her letter from Bird yesterday, but hers is different from your DDs
Hers says it is a Non-Funded place, then later in the paragraph says, if you would like to accept this offer you will also be placed on a reserve list for a Funded Place on the Diploma. Earlier in this thread someone commented of students in previous years being offered places without funding, they went on the reserve list and were offered funding during the summer (although this is not guaranteed).

From a funding point of view, my understanding is that it will all depend on how much DADA money each of the students above them in the list is eligible for. If they are all from families that don't qualify for very much DADA amount then the money will go further down the list than if the families all qualify for the full DADA amount.

As previously mentioned, everything is all very fluid at the moment as there will be places (and funding) handed back by students who have more than one offer to choose from.
islandofsodor
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Re: Auditioning for 2017

Post by islandofsodor »

Mummyofthree wrote: She also had an audition at Hammond but had to cancel because Mountview was the same day but they haven't rearranged is that normal? Also if she goes to Alra she only gets £6k towards tuition fees and we have to pay the rest I was wondering if the rest could be paid from part of her maintenance loan it's so confusing. Hope someone can help!!
Hi Mummy, was your daughter auditioning for the degree or the diploma at Hammond? Did you tell them, you wanted to reschedule when you cancelled.

The final audition for the degree course is 7th March and the final audition for the diploma is 20th March so I wouldn't wait for too long before contacting them.
Danceandsing
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Re: Auditioning for 2017

Post by Danceandsing »

Hi Cata pyjamas congratulations to your DD. You can find details of the DADAs and the scale here

https://www.gov.uk/dance-drama-awards

but this is only for 2016/17. This will probably be updated in April when the government announces the total pot of money available, but hopefully it will give you an idea.
Mummyofthree
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Re: Auditioning for 2017

Post by Mummyofthree »

Hi heard back from Mountview today she's not been offered a place. Such a shame as she really liked it she there seemed to be a lot of 19 year olds reauditioning my daughter is only 17. They said in there email as you know we didn't offer you a place at your audition (they never said anything to her in audition which was strange ). MAnaged to contact Hammond she's applying for the degree course they are letting her audition on the 7 March so thanks for your comments (Fingers crossed for her).
lbm1e14
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Re: Auditioning for 2017

Post by lbm1e14 »

Not sure about Mountview procedure this year but last year I seem to recall that they did the whole day audition and told the successful ones at the end and they were recalled to a final audition? May be mistaken. All a bit of a blur now. Our DD certainly knew on the day.
Robin64
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Re: Auditioning for 2017

Post by Robin64 »

There is a free audition for mountview BA going for YMT alumni - it was emailed but is probably on ymt website? you need to reply pretty sharpish I think if you want to do it as the offer is not for long. Mountview not on our list as the BA funding only £6000 student loan.
JayLou62
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Re: Auditioning for 2017

Post by JayLou62 »

My dd auditioned for Bird last year and was offered a non-funded place. We accepted the place and I added a note to add that she would only be able to accept the place if she had funding.
Dd had a phone call on the 3rd June last year offering her a DaDA and she's now in her first year and loving it (around the same time she also received DaDAs from Bodyworks (4th June) and Performers (6th June).
It's a huge waiting game and not great on the nerves!
Nickyh
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Re: Auditioning for 2017

Post by Nickyh »

Hello everyone. I haven't been on this site for many years - since my dd was a young performer. Now she's just turned 18 and applying for Drama schools to do MT. She has a GSA recall this weekend and found out yesterday that it's a no from Mountview for BA Musical Theatre, however they have offered her a free audition for their BA acting course. The email states that the audition panel felt that her acting demonstrated potential for this course. Can anyone comment further on this? Just wondering if we should accept this as ultimately she would love to do acting but she has so much MT experience with a great voice we felt this was the natural route for her to take. Congratulations to everyone's dc so far and good luck with future auditions x
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2girlsmum
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Re: Auditioning for 2017

Post by 2girlsmum »

JayLou62 wrote:My dd auditioned for Bird last year and was offered a non-funded place. We accepted the place and I added a note to add that she would only be able to accept the place if she had funding.
Dd had a phone call on the 3rd June last year offering her a DaDA and she's now in her first year and loving it (around the same time she also received DaDAs from Bodyworks (4th June) and Performers (6th June).
It's a huge waiting game and not great on the nerves!
Thanks for this info JayLou62, could I ask whether you had viewed/reserved accommodation before receiving the DADA phone calls? So far we haven't received any info from any of the colleges that have made offers but when/if that info does come through I'm not sure what to do as, like you, if funding isn't available then my DD won't be taking the Diploma offers, she will take the degree offer.
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