My D is 99% (maybe 100%) sure where she is going and 100% sure she doesn’t want to go to this other school.
We think she should cancel the audition. What do you think?
Do you think it’s fairly common for a kid to change their minds and KNOW that a school won’t be right for them?
…Also, there are still two additional auditions at two other schools that she would consider going to, if anything changed with her first choice.
Thanks for your input!! ((Good luck to everyone at your auditions!!))
Is she accepted at the school she wants to go to?
Would she like to attend the audition for experience even though she does not want to attend that school?
Is the audition for scholarship as well as admittance to the program?
Personally, I think if she has no intention of going there then why bother with an extra audition?
My S applied early acceptance to his first choice, and when he got a yes from them, he cancelled the other auditions he had scheduled. It saved us thousands in travel costs. We debated about keeping the one local audition that was scheduled for the experience. It was a school that was holding regional auditions in our area for just one day. He ended up canceling because we thought that another student who might actually attend the school could use that audition more and we could save another family the cross-country trek for an on-campus audition. He will have lots of chances to gain audition experience soon. If he didn’t already have a yes, he would have continued to attend auditions.
Thanks for replying momsings… Very good first question about acceptance! She had a wonderful audition and was told she would receive a notification letter as soon as possible and scholarship $$ info would come later! …As far as why bother with the extra audition, I think I agree with you!
Just a note of caution until your daughter has an official acceptance offer in hand, I would wait on canceling the other auditions. Son received very positive feedback from a studio teacher at an audition. The studio teacher even came out after the audition to say how impressed he was with son and that we would be hearing very good things and scholarship money was promised. This was his first choice school! After weeks of waiting, son’s private teacher received a call from the studio teacher to tell the teacher that son was #1 on the wait list but not accepted because it was an unusual year, etc… Fortunately, we had continued auditioning and still had other choices.
Thanks for replying Palomina… Very good point. Yes, she would gain experience by going and she’s not against that idea, but I feel that if her heart isn’t into it, with the usual feelings at an audition, then maybe it wouldn’t really be a helpful experience. I do believe it is for merit scholarship as well as admittance.
okay, just to play devil’s advocate here, I see a couple of things to think about:
1)How did the notification come that she would be getting a notification letter? Did this come from the admissions department or from a teacher? And was it in an e-mail, or was it told orally (over the phone, in person?). I have heard over the years more than a few stories of teachers in the program telling a student they would be admitted, would get a great scholarship, etc, and in reality it didn’t play out as said. If they notified you by e-mail telling you that you would be getting a letter, then you have proof of it, if it was oral I quite frankly would be very, very loathe to trust it, because it has pretty much zero legal standing if something goes wrong (and especially, quite honestly, if it was a teacher, not the admissions department, saying it), If it is in writing, then they have committed, legally oral committments are worth not a lot, as they come down to he said/they said kind of things. If in e-mail, you could hold them to it.
2)I don’t know your financial position, but if you are depending on a lot of aid (merit or otherwise) to go to the program, what if the scholarship info comes through in a month or two, and it isn’t so good, could you afford to send your kid there? Yes, you can always appeal the scholarship, but it is always possible they might say “we have given you the best we can”…again, unless they told you, in writing, that they planned on giving you the money you indicated you would need for D to attend, I would be careful.
I am not saying that at most schools this would be a problem, but you have to be careful who says what and how, because quite honestly it does happen that people say things they aren’t authorized to. A teacher who loves a particular student might assume because he gave a glowing recommendation the kid be admitted they would be, then they find out the school cut the number of slots they had and he had no openings, the teacher writes a glowing recommendation that the kid receive great merit aid, and it falls on deaf ears, it can happen.
One thought, contact the admissions department and confirm what you were told was true, that she will be admitted (especially if the original message came from a teacher, not admissions). And also, if scholarships are critical, ask the admissions people if it would be possible to see if the game plan is to give the kid a sizeable scholarship, because you could end up admitted to the school, and find that the aid won’t allow the kid to attend financially.If it looks like she in fact will be admitted, tell them that the scholarship is critical to this, that if you knew that they were planning on making sure it was affordable, she would love to accept, but it has to be the two together, but until you know both she cannot accept or something like that, there is nothing wrong with that.
If you can’t get a straight answer, if for example the money issue is “oh, that will go out in April”, I would hedge your bets and audition at the other places, just in case it falls through or you otherwise are uncertain. If you are certain she will be admitted and that the scholarships and such will be enough, then you may not want to bother if she is so set on going there.
I agree. If acceptance is not officially in hand I would not cancel other auditions.
Congratulations SongandDanceMom to you and your son! The early acceptance must have saved a lot of time, money, and stress. Sounds good to me!
Oh no Momofbassist, that’s the last thing I wanted to hear… That must have been very difficult, but, yes, at least you kept auditioning. Thank you for sharing that. We truly have faith in the wonderful highly respected person who gave us the very positive impression, and have every reason to believe and be patient, but we are aware that it is someone else that sends out the acceptance letter. (I wish my mail didn’t come so late every day!)
Thank you for your detailed reply musicprnt… I have thought of most those things and I will continue to. Much appreciated!
I definitely agree with the others, if you do not have a written acceptance, keep auditioning! My niece had a similar experience in musical theater, after auditioning at her first choice school, the people she auditioned for raved about her, telling her they couldn’t make her an on-the-spot scholarship offer, but she should expect to receive a generous offer soon. After hearing that from her top choice, she only auditioned at one other school. Not only did she never receive a scholarship offer from her top choice, she was wait-listed. She got lucky and got both a yes and a full-tuition scholarship from the other school where she is now very happy, but she just as easily could have ended up with two no’s.
@ symphony-
at the very least don’t do anything about the other auditions until you have the official notice. Put it this way, I know directly of a lot of kids who had a similar experience with very highly regarded teachers, who gushed about them, told them good things were coming, you name it, and ended up with a fistful of air. While in music you need a lot of faith, especially in yourself, to succeed, you are still talking about an admissions process that can seem to be as capricious and unthinking as any bureaucracy is, and until you have a real offer in hand, believe me, there is not insignificant risk that it could fall through, that’s all. If you are seriously thinking of cancelling the other auditions, can I suggest contacting the admissions office and ask them if they have any update on the status of your kid,they would know by now if in fact they were offering admission, even if the letter hasn’t gone out. Again, there have been enough cases where kids ended up with ugly surprises to tell you to verify what was said is at least partly true (that she will be offered admission), when there is so much in music that is nebulous by design, when you can verify things, go for it.
I agree to keep auditioning. Besides the other reasons offered, you might want to have another school’s offer if you appeal your financial package. The additional cost of auditioning might pale by comparison to the extra cost of four years with a mediocre scholarship.