BassoonMom2019——— First of all, congratulations on your daughter’s successful audition at her #1choice school!!!
It sounds very positive!!!
I have a same question since my son’s auditon had all four instrumental faculty plus head of jazz director as panelists. My best guess is, each panelist / judge rates all applicants using some form of numbers or letters, then average those out to rank applicants. The particular school faculty may gather(ed) later on the audition day(s) as a group to discuss and agree on ranking and maybe studio, too. Or department director (if she/he was at auditions as a panelist) may have a final call. Then, all results might depend on how many openings or how many are qualified for an opening(s). I would like to hear more if other experienced people had a thought.
Is there still time to show interest? Or has that ship sailed? My S can get a cheap flight to a school he hasn’t visited yet, but wasn’t sure if it was worth it at this point? (one school he did a regional audition, and one school is a non-audition major)
@Propinquity4444 - I would ask the school when the committee meets. I think that visiting always helps and if you can do so without breaking the bank is worthwhile. There are other ways to show interest, too. Send in more information - any updates, more recommendations.
I’m disappointed that our daughter didn’t set up any practice lessons at any of the places that she auditioned at despite me bugging her. She told me today that’s more common in the classical world (vs. the jazz world) - is that true? Too late to second guess, just asking for the future (and others who are reading these posts).
Here’s a funny thing - our daughter had a few lessons with JB Dyas who wrote that article about how to Get the Big Scholarships - one of the suggestions was to get as many recommendations as possible so she asked him to write one. He has been very complimentary of her so she thought that he would. He wrote back and told her to read his article and they can talk. Huh? Recommendations seems to be the most difficult part of the process - it’s like pulling teeth to get them. One of her biggest fans wrote just two sentences. He is an 80+ year old old jazz cat - so maybe he doesn’t have the energy? It was disappointing to say the least.
Tripletmama——— I guess our jazz musicians are same on this…My son refused to schedule any sample lessons with any schools before his auditions. He just doesn’t believe it is needed. But we were willing to pay if he had arranged some. Anyway, knowing faculty can be an advantage. But I have heard and also seen this… getting college faculty lessons before applying to the college wouldn’t gurantee anything, particularly in jazz. So, your daughter saved your money! Mine did! We just wait now. And depending on offer(s), we will need to make sure pushing them to arrange lesson(s) or meeting(s) which shouldn’t cost us, I hope.
@triplenickel@jeneje our jazz son did not do any lessons at the schools he auditioned for either. I am feeling a lot better about it after reading your posts.
Same here. My D sat in on some classes and ensembles when we did our junior year visits to the music schools she applied to this year. During that time she met/said hello to the drum teachers that were around. But she never did practice lessons or anything like that.
Based on other posts, it looks like my S was an outlier with respect to having the lessons with jazz faculty. He did set up a lesson either before or after his auditions at his top 3 choice schools. With one of them, he was only able to schedule a Skype lesson and, now that he’s been admitted to that school, has reached back out for an in person meeting/lesson. I don’t know if it will help with the admission decision, but it helped my son get a feel for the teachers and, by extension, the programs.
The answer varies from program to program. In some conservatories, the teacher has total control over who to admit to a studio; in others, it’s the department, or it could be other factors, as well (in nonfreestanding conservatories, for example, an academic denial could keep the instructor’s top pick from being accepted.)
In terms of the lessons, for us it was more a practical issue vs a philosophical one.
We did our initial campus visits in early spring of Junior year. And my D’s perspective was that she would be a better player with almost a full extra year of study and practice. So why give them a taste of her playing that wouldn’t match her audition level of playing. First impressions and all that.
And then when we were back on campus for auditions, it didn’t make sense to her to do a lesson before the audition itself as that felt odd. She also assumed the teachers were busy prepping and dealing with auditions themselves. And then after the audition but on same trip also felt weird to her. She was happy with how she played in audition, so why not just let that performance stand?
The downside, as others have said, is that if she has a tough time deciding between schools, she will likely have to find a way to do a sample lesson to help her understand what she can expect at each school as far as private instruction goes.
Note both schools in our case are a plane ride away. If we were closer maybe she would have made different decisions.
My D did a sample lesson with Kate Reid at Frost during spring break the year before her audition. Kate could see her potential and also her growth a year later at her audition so all good in my opinion. And she did get a very large scholarship there so in our case anyway, having D on her radar was a very good thing versus a random kid auditioning that she had never seen or heard of. It showed an extra level of interest in the school and she was known when she got there. She also sent her music to the head of the CAM department and had a dialogue with him as well prior to her audition so he knew her original music as well.
For us lessons were very important each time we visited a school. D is going for vocal performance as a soprano.
Definitely felt like at more than one school D was able to have an advocate for her in the room. At least one school we were told by the professor we took the lesson from that she specifically asked for D to have an audition without looking at her video audition. Also a great way to start networking, especially when grad school comes around in 4 years, D will have contacts at schools she would want to attend.
My S did a lesson with each professor prior to the audition. Some where months to a year before and one was the day before. In all cases my S thought having the lesson made the audition much easier if only to have a familiar face in the room.
Also I would think that it is helpful for the professor to have a feel for the student is in a lesson situation before making a decision. We have always heard that they are NOT looking for perfection in an audition but POTENTIAL. They also want students that are teachable and they can only get an idea on that with a lesson. Plus if you have a lesson prior and don’t feel the situation is a good fit you don’t have to spend the $$$ and time to even audition although that wasn’t the case with my S.
Yes, my D had lessons at all but one of the schools she applied to, spanning from last summer to the weekend of the audition. Some were complimentary, but some charged. In all cases it helped her get a feel for the campus and teaching style. After the lessons held last summer, one teacher contacted her private lesson teacher to follow her. She had a second lesson with her this spring and she’s been accepted to the program and the financial aid package is coming together nicely. The one held the weekend of auditions was done so to save on travel expenses, as it was cross country. My D didn’t want to do that one because she thought it was odd, but I pressed it and it resulted in her having a strong advocate in a highly competitive conservatory. Even if she doesn’t get to go there, he told her to contact him if there’s anyway he can help during her studies, @glassharmonica hence my previous post about what all goes in to the decision making process since it is a conservatory.
This whole process was new to me as I’m not a musician and she’s my only child. The lessons were recommended by her private lesson teacher so I took it and ran with it. A friend of hers is a jazz studies major. He had a private lesson at one school and none at another and was accepted to both, UNT and UT Austin. I do think its more common in the classical realm, but can’t hurt. I’ve talked to parents whose kids actually cancelled auditions after sample lessons because they couldn’t see themselves working with the instructor. Either way, at a minimun, I would advise doing one before accepting an offer.
My son has had 5 trial lessons (cellist) and will be going to a 6th one next Friday at a school where he’s been admitted with a large scholarship. Maybe it is different between jazz and classical. These are the 6 schools that he’s considering with a 7th as a maybe, but he would need to take a lesson. However, until a music scholarship offer arrives, I think he won’t do anything at the 7th school.
He’s realizing it’s super important to know both the teacher and the students, so I’ve encouraged him to revisit one of the schools where he only had a trial lesson but didn’t get to meet any of the other cellists/strings players. Trying to get it all done this month will be tricky but that’s the goal.
It’s relatively easy for him because all the schools are within a 2 1/2 hour drive. Much harder for those of you considering schools a plane ride away!
There’s a letter from UMichigan in my informed delivery email. It’s for the family not the student. Is it about financial aids or scholarships? This whole process is driving me crazy!
To be fair, our daughter did try to get a practice lesson at the New School but they said that the instructor was too busy. So - I guess I can’t get too mad at her And yes, I do think there is a difference between classical and jazz. Jazz musicians are just “too cool to ask for a practice lesson”. :-c
Regarding NEC, I don’t even know how they can decide who to admit and scholarship based on a 10 to 15 minute audition. There was no interview, no sight reading (that I heard about) - nada except a few prepared pieces. Baffling.
@pdxtigermom - I hope it’s good news!!! And it will be given that it’s addressed to you!!! Yeah!!! Stalk the mailman and report back to us! Our daughter signed up for informed delivery but I have a feeling it was to see if her traffic ticket arrives to us (the one she didn’t tell us about it until the other day…on her way to SFCM audition).
@tripletmama@JeJeJe@jazzboydad@DrummerDad18@lkbux64 My son did the opposite. We heard from the Juilliard kids that they select the people they want before any audition (I guess from the arts feeder schools?), and that a 10 min audition isn’t really enough to judge, and that if there are 2 kids who are about the same, its a safer choice to make going with the kid you spent more time with. All of which made sense.
So our son did a summer program or practice lessons with every school he applied to, and some he ended up not applying to after meeting the faculty and not liking their vibe.
Based on the results so far, I’d say they were mildly helpful, at least in making him more confident at auditions because there was a little bit of familiarity. On the flip side, it meant we made 3 trips to NYC, 2 to Nashville, 2 to Chicago, 4 to LA, along with 2 summers in Boston and 1 in LA… It’s been a fun year!
I think the USC summer seminar was quite helpful since the program is taught by the guitar faculty, BUT I don’t think it’s anything that would get him accepted there.
As we all anxiously await these acceptances, I thought it might be useful for us to all report what the range of merit scholarships that we have “heard” about at any of these colleges. I’ll start…
Berklee (Tuition is $44k) - merit packages seem to range from $14k to $30k (the $30k ones are usually given out at the 5 week program the summer before). Outlier: the bassist that our daughter took the place of at her high school got a Presidential Award at Berklee last year - which was full tuition/room,board and a laptop (Wowser!). This is extremely rare!
The New School/Mannes (Tuition is $48k) - merit packages range from ?? up to $30k? (with a rare $35k to $40k).
NEC - I have no idea?
SFCM - again - I have no idea???
Frost - ??
USC - ??
I’d be glad to compile these if you all message me. Will give me something to do besides check email and stalk the mailman.
For stand-alone conservatories, do they really break down the money and call some “financial aid”
and some “merit aid?” I am assuming that since they are not part of a larger entity, all money comes from
the same pot.
And yes, I do think there is a difference between classical and jazz. Jazz musicians are just “too cool to ask for a practice lesson”. :-c