@Mezzo’sMama :
lol…yeah, I have heard those kind of posts, seem to recall seeing some on here as well, a parent saying “oh, at school X the audition panel was entranced by my kid’s playing” and the like, then when acceptances came in mysteriously the person disappears. My favorite was someone on a violin website (might have been violin.com) claiming how he auditioned for Juilliard, that the head of the panel (course no name) said he was another Heifetz…someone I know knew who the kid was in real life, and the kid didn’t get into Juilliard or any other high level program. Not to mention that I know a lot of people who auditioned at Juilliard on violin, kids who already had artists management and the like, kids who had won major international competitions, and basically their audition was like every audition my son has gone through, the people on these panels have seen kids from all ends of the spectrum, same for any other high level school.
And yes, there is a lot of gamemanship, I have heard or hear of parents and students deliberately spreading bs stories like these in the hopes of getting someone else to drop out and so forth.
My feeling about parents saying that was…how in the world do you know? I was never allowed in the room so…I couldn’t tell anything. And I wasn’t about to take my kid’s impression at full value.
These parents always seemed slightly high too…like they found some Koolaid container in the common area that I was unable to find. I was just jittery and uptight from too much coffee.
I know this adds little to the conversation…but I’m trying to avoid reading the news…
@bridgenail:
lol…yeah, music parents can be a trip, but then across the performing arts spectrum always seem to be more than a few like that. Some of that is just the parents are obnoxious idiots who think their kids are the epitome of (X), others deep down they know how hard this all is and are doing that to bolster themselves up, especially the parents who see whether their kids gets into a top program or not as a reflection on them and their family…I think I told the story before on here, when my son auditioned for the program he is graduating from this year, the mother of the kid before him was having a very vocal argument with the panel (I don’t know if she felt like her daughter should be given another chance, or what it was about, and my son was too nervous to pick up the gist of it; I wasn’t anywhere near the building, was in a hotel room dying at the time from some nasty respiratory crud lol), and it kind of shook my son, he never saw anything like that, even with the crazy parents among the ones at Juilliard pre college. I don’t think the girl got in, and I to this day can’t figure out what the mother thought she was doing, yelling at an audition panel as a strategy, well, makes about as much sense as craziness anywhere.
All great stories. Thanks everyone for the input. Although my child played an instrument, competitions (except All State) were never in the cards. Not a competitive kid at all so we avoided all the crazy parents (I have another child who is a stellar athlete and those parents are CRAZY). My husband, who is more “calm” went on the visits, except one. Anyway, we too have experienced the same aggressive competitiveness as all of you. Another child announced that he got into a top tier program way back in December - before the admissions committee ever met (ie he was lying). He also found out where my child applied and then subsequently applied to all of those schools. Then he announced his audition date for the top-tier school I mentioned, which to his shock was the same date as for my child. Of course, he announced he got in right after the audition while everyone else had to wait three weeks to hear! In the end, my child also got into this university and could not be more happy.
As a side note, he felt very positive after the audition. They professors didn’t say too much, but enough to make it clear they liked him, his work, and felt he had potential. I will let everyone know how the rest goes once we hear (late March), but I have learned a lot and appreciate all the feedback everyone has provided.