@MusakParent “He’ll probably apply until he’s sick of it.” LOL same! Love that list.
Does Lawrence do EA? I thought it was ED only but I could be confused. I’d love for A to do 1-2 EA just to have something under his belt.
I would love to hear your opinion of Michigan and CMU after you visit. He’s not applying as of now, but Michigan is a good fit to n terms of program—we were put off by the comments that they give so little aid out of state.
As far as favorites, Berklee and NYU are still at the top of her list. For awhile there, she could not imagine other alternatives, but as we visit other schools, I feel she is opening her mind more and can envision herself at other colleges. She is also becoming aware of the difference in attention she might get at Berklee (with 1000 vocalists around her) vs. CCPA which has a total of 250 in the whole music department. I’d say the College of St. Rose is now in the top 3. She was very impressed with the Music Industry Program and loved the vibe there. The good news is she can see herself being happy at several colleges (including “safe” and “reach” schools, schools with reasonable tuition and schools that are crazy expensive) and she understands our final decision must encompass cost, travel considerations, etc. So we are comfortable with her list and will consider all she wants to apply to but I’m sure it will come down to merit aid packages and final cost as we don’t want her leaving college with huge debt no matter how prestigious the college is.
@akapiratequeen -I am a special education teacher and my first teaching job was near Syracuse so I decided to pursue my Master’s degree in Learning Disabilites there (a cheaper option would have been SUNY Oswego but I felt Syracuse had a stronger program for my focus.) I found it to be very research-based as opposed to my undergrad at Buffalo State College which was more hands-on/classroom-based. You need both research knowledge and experience in teaching so I felt I had a well-rounded education overall! As long as he can handle the hilly campus in the cold, snowy winters, he’ll love it!
Funny you should mention your son seeming to avoid a city setting. My daughter is all about an urban setting so I figured St. Rose in Albany would not make the cut (the town is full of Victorian homes, not an urban feel at all.) But she justified it by being a quick train ride to the city. Our tour guide was from Queens and she said she was just tired of city life, wanted an escape. Lol. Sometimes they want something a little different from what they are used to.
@akapiratequeen I am a bit put off by lack of $$$ at possible merit at many of these options! But I do know a couple local kids who did get enough at Michigan to make it work and since we’re heading east mostly for Oberlin, that makes CMU and Ann Arbor in pretty easy range to check out. My kid really liked UW Madison, I think Michigan would be right up his alley. I’m actually really hoping he likes Oberlin though! I think that could be a great academic fit for him too though I’m sure that’s a very competitive pre-screen/audition. He may apply to both the conservatory and the LAC? He’s pondering that.
Anyway - Lawrence definitely has EA! Auditions are November 10. I was hoping if he got that under his belt and was accepted with a decent financial offer, maybe some other safer auditions could drop off? He is a little tentative about Lawrence and could use another visit while school is in session. Maybe audition weekend could clarify for him. It was pretty quiet on campus when we were there. That Nov date is actually rough scheduling for my kid (he’s going to be in a holiday show) but he has about 36 hours he could be in Appleton! Deadlines are here! 
https://www.lawrence.edu/admissions/apply
https://www.lawrence.edu/admissions/conservatory
I will report back after our trip! It’s 3 cities we’ve not visited so we’re looking forward to playing tourist too! All 4 of us are going.
This is why the visits are so crucial, I think. A had no idea he’d like rural campuses, or that he’d gravitate to smaller music schools within larger liberal arts institutions. Yet he’s had immediate, positive responses to schools in that category. He also discovered he didn’t want a BA at a liberal arts school (Vassar) or to be right in NYC (NYU), or most cities (Temple). All amazing places but not right for him.
@MusakParent thanks for the heads up! Checking it out today! That’s a lousy week for my kid but might be worth it to get something in his pocket. It’s getting real now for sure!
It is! I intentionally chose to do a large competitive urban private, a large public, and a smaller LAC to visit for our last trip coming up. They kind of speak to other potentials on his list we would not get to before auditions and hopefully will help direct his final application list! Financially, I’d like him to keep options open because the money does matter, especially with possible grad school on the table. If he could be in NYC or LA he would get on a plane tomorrow and go to any school that would have him. He has been to LA and NYC the past few years, just not to visit schools. So I’m trying to help him keep a clear head about paying for a musically and academically sound education and keep schools on the list I’d at least be comfortable with.
@MusakParent please let us know how your visits go! I’m interested in all three of those places.
Since A has down time for a few weeks now, but will be crazy busy starting August 20, he’s been getting a head start on applications. In addition to Berklee, he sent in a couple of common app schools. He’s hoping to get early audition slots in a couple of places (Berklee looks like Dec. 1, hoping Rutgers or others have December options as well). If he can get feedback from even a couple of his top choices, then he might cut back the number of auditions in the winter.
The common app is also helping in terms of the list itself. If a school isn’t one of his top options and is not on the common app, for now, he’s dropping it. Too much trouble to do additional essays and application work for a school he doesn’t love. On the flip side, he decided to move forward with a least one school because it was on the common app.
Well, I got called to jury duty in September. Is being the homeschooling/dual enrollment parent of a senior applying to music schools enough to be excused? Time will tell! So much more paperwork to put together as a homeschooler. I have every credit documented to the letter. He is DE too so has some legit A grades and a 34 ACT, so I’m not super worried but still SO MUCH WORK!
Also, does anyone have tips/tricks to including music/theater extra curricular activities in the common app? The 10 activities section is so ridiculous! I was thinking he should include a resume in extra info?
And then we need a separate music resume, correct? Is it ok if that is many pages?
I am hoping my kid sticks to common app schools!
A resume will definitely come in handy. My S uploaded one for Berklee and has emailed it to any people he wants to meet. Though we’ve been told it’s not important, at least one professor told him “it was great to see he’d checked all the boxes.” Have others had that experience?
PS Another music professor we’d asked for advice told me, “My condolences, you’ve raised a musician!”
Oh - music resume to teachers you want to meet is a great idea! My kid will be e-mailing some teachers soon for our upcoming trip. I was also going to dig around and see if I could set up a recent private link video in youtube if we have something appropriate to share.
That’s cool too! Resumes have helped us I believe.
For music resumes for VP (and could extend to others maybe) I would suggest balancing the need to show accomplishments vs the need of the busy reader (professors). I saw two page music resumes in 10 point font with 1 cm margins going back to elementary school (not kidding).
Does a professor/school need to know you sang a Disney sang in 5th grade?
Does a professor/school need to know you were Annie in jr high?
Does a professor/school need to know every song and every award…just in case another candidate lists 9th grade honors choir and you don’t?
No, imho.
Does a professor/school need to know music you have recently mastered/completed?
How about recent awards?
And how about past songs mastered in the past couple years that show a progression (and that you love and could still sing)?
Sure.
I would attempt to keep it to one page highlighting necessary work and notable accomplishments. For VP, it would be good to list art songs in 3 possibly 4 languages (English, Italian, French and/or German). That would mean something. We did list some classical musical theater work too as that is common enough. Notable awards from late high school like honors choir and competitions were listed. If you have a few notable ones I don’t think you have to list that you lettered in choir in high school (which was a thing at my D’s high school).
I would think of it as a quick, helpful snapshot for the professors to know the level of work for your musician. Note that I did not say to determine talent. They’ll have to meet your kid for that…and in VP you can certainly be singing less serious music and still have great talent/potential. So don’t sweat it. Simply give the professors a helpful snapshot of current work and past music so they can see the relevant years and some progression.
And @MusakParent I think you may be referring to how to get all that community theater work on the common app. It’s been some years for me but in the end I think we never figured it out completely - maybe others will have a better answer. I think we left it to the music resume and the audition in the end. The app was more academic and general “stuff” like leadership. I do remember wondering if being a lead in a high school musical could be “leadership”. Lol. How do you communicate all this “work” to the school? The answer is through the audition. All those experiences are “shown” at the audition and on the music resume. I wouldn’t sweat the applications too much. I would be concerned with good pre-screens. The apps are just … get them done and be sure you fill in the boxes with something. My D never had a lot of “leadership” so I remember stretching on and worrying about that. It never mattered. But the pre-screens do matter.
And some schools may ask for more detail in a resume. And some instruments may require more of a background. So my 1 page comment is opinion. But it did work for my D for VP and MT. She did have two separate music resumes based on the program. I don’t think it’s bad to have 2 pages. I would just be careful with the “desire” to list everything. It’s a “resume” not a “laundry list”.
I wasn’t thinking of including much MT stuff on the music resume for the most part except as a possible line item and a couple blurbs? He does have a couple interesting things - like a couple small intensive G&S shows where he was a main character. He WAS Hansel in a large production of Hansel and Gretel in the 6th grade though! LOL. 
I was more thinking of how to include theater on the common app in the more general portion of the app? He’s done 15 shows since he started high school some performing for many and has been selected for some more unique auditioned opportunities. He’s also had some paid singing opportunities this summer. It makes him look like a huge extracurricular slacker if he doesn’t have some way to show that on the common app? But using 1 of 10 slots for like a single show doesn’t make much sense either. I’m also struggling a little bit as a homeschool parent on the divide between transcript and extracurriculars. I do have him getting credit/grade for music on his transcript. But he does much more than your average kid getting an A in high school choir or band. So it feels unfair not to include music on extracurriculars too.
So I was more thinking he’d have a general extracurricular resume to attach to the additional info section of the common app and then a more music oriented resume to send to music schools/conservatories.
I was also wondering about references? Can my kid’s music teachers be a reference both on the general portion of the common app and as a music reference for those music school/conservatory apps?
Keeping each to 1 page is a good guideline and makes a lot of sense. I will just include some recent repertoire in a variety of genres. I wasn’t sure how much detail they wanted there but it makes perfect sense they just want the general gist of what type of music student you are. This has actually been really helpful. I’m having a clear sense of what the music resume will look like anyway.
Hopefully some parents who just went through the process will respond too as I feel like my comments should be more general due to distance from the process. If you can attach anything additional to the common app I can’t see how that would be bad. I would just be “thoughtful” about resumes to music schools/professors.
I do remember feeling frustrated and confused about listing my D’s outside community theater work (including performing at the fringe festival in Scotland as well as mpls - as well as all the other opportunities in the area). I’m sure I listed theater and music (macphail) as extra curricular work in some way…just was maybe a bit liberal in definition. I can’t really remember now. But I don’t think I included work like fringe festivals for example. I couldn’t assume everyone would know it. So I picked more traditional, recognizable accomplishments.
My OPINION is still that the list on the common app just needs to be “sufficient”. The audition matters. No long list of shows will matter if the audition is sub-par. And a skinny list may not matter if the audition and talent potential is high.
I would hesitate to send resumes to teachers unless asked. If you meet with a teacher, you can bring it and, again, produce it once asked.
Your mileage may vary, of course. Sending in advance has been very helpful for my S — it shows teachers he is a serious candidate. That said, he’s kept it to one page and limited it to true accomplishments.
My kid is applying possibly to some BA programs too so I feel like the extracurricular portion of the common app needs to be a little more complete than if we were sticking to programs where admissions would always just come straight from the conservatory or school of music.