<p>Thanks for all the support guys. It will help us get through the week. Berklee is his top pick and naturally we are thinking the worst and hoping for the best. But he has Denver Lamont, which he already passed through the prescreen (yay) and upcoming has an audition at Five Towns in NY, so he’s just focusing on his music. At this point, he’d be happy to get in and even if the scholarship is low or not even there, it would give him some confidence.
Compdad, I have heard that there are basically four answers: accept, accept but defer, put in the “regular decision/action” pool, and reject. So we’re hoping the odds are against a total rejection! I could hear his audition from the other room (we auditioned in Atlanta) and to me he sounded great. But he and I are both astounded at how much he has improved even since then. We listened to his prescreen for Denver, which he taped the first of Jan, and he’s gotten better even since that. He feels like even a gap year wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, 'cause he could focus solely on his music — which he almost does anyway! lol</p>
<p>shellybean - It sounds like he will feed off the vibe at Berklee quite well. Certainly hope he gets the chance.</p>
<p>Shellybean - Other options besides USC and Miami (deadlines have no passed) we looked at were Columbia in Chicago and CU-Denver. I have heard good things about the Columbia program and one of my son’s friends who is a very talented jazz singer and I believe could easily get into Berklee decided to go there instead. They accept a fairly high percentage of students with auditions just being for scholarships (although I think the deadline has passed for scholarships), and they have rolling admissions. Their 1st year classes looked the same as anywhere else. If my son didn’t get into Berklee he was thinking of going there and then auditioning the next year to enter Berklee as a transfer student. Another program we were going to apply to (they are just starting their admissions process now) is The University of Colorado Denver which is a state school in Denver. Less of a campus experience than some but the contemporary music program is strong. Isaac Slade, lead singer of the Fray, graduated from there and we met him and talked with him about the program and he had good things to say about it and drops in there from time to time. The following is a link to an interesting site I found on popular music programs which are beginning to take root in more campuses these days - [APME</a> | The Association for Popular Music Education](<a href=“http://www.popularmusiceducation.org%5DAPME”>http://www.popularmusiceducation.org) Sending good thoughts your way!</p>
<p>Thanks bonski and Compdad. S is pretty adamant that if Berklee doesn’t work out this year, he’s taking a gap year and doing some intense studying. Then next year everything is back on the table: Denver/Lamont, Five Towns, etc. We will look at some of those you mentioned as well. And he’s still waiting on Lamont and Five Towns this year (and Berklee), so he still may be headed off to one of those in the fall! Thanks for all the encouragement!</p>