@DrummerDad18 - Thank you for that tip. I found it. “This application is Complete.” (As I knew it was.) I think I’ve seen it before too. Don’t know why it disappeared. No green dot though.
@sunnysar… I wish he had said nothing… then she might have been unaffected by the Hogwarts effect… crazy world of auditioning for these 17 and 18 year olds. I for one, could never have tolerated the stress my (and I am sure your) daughter has throughout this audition process~ polar vortex and blizzards nearly knocked me out… Hogwarts doors? come now:)
As JeJeJe points out, I’ve heard of plenty of musicians and dancers being called off the waitlist. There is so much movement and they can’t predict yield - that’s why they have them. I think the key thing (and I would imagine that most of us on here abide by this) is that musicians that are offered the spots let them know as soon as they can whether or not they are going to take them. SFCM is fairly small so I would think that getting off the waitlist would be easier than most.
As a triplet mom who has been on plenty of waitlists - for pre-schools, etc. (try getting 3 spots for anything!) - the most important thing you can do is to express extreme interest in getting off the waitlist. If they know it’s your musician’s top choice, then that makes a BIG difference. Send in an updated music resume, recent accomplishments. You don’t want to grovel but make sure that they know it’s their top choice and you will be surprised what happens. I have seen waitlisted students get good scholarships, too. Wishing everyone on waitlists good outcomes. It’s never fun but good things do come to those who wait.
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@dsinha My son’s wait list email was not worded exactly like yours, so that tells me they are looking at each applicant as a unique situation. In a way, I would rather have be on a wait list with still the chance of a scholarship vs. an admit with no scholarship. I know some of the bigger schools over accept. I think it is harder for such a small place like SFCM to do. Of course, this is all speculation on my part.
Just remember a wait-list doesn’t always mean no scholarship or admit. My son’s biggest financial offer came from a spot that he initially was waitlisted for. The school accepted one musician for that spot and when he turned them down our son was next in line. They must have decided they really didn’t want the next person on the list because they really threw a lot at our son, to the point where even though I did not want our son to go there due to location and logistics and our son was also concerned about location, we had to have a serious sit-down about his possibly going there for financial reasons. In the end we decided the risk of having our son at a distance was not worth it and also we were worried about our son dealing with the dark days up north. We put mental health over $$$.
@dsinha My son specifically asked his waitlist school if he would still be considered for merit aid (it would be academic in his case) and the answer was yes.
Still, DH seems to recall them saying they were going to accept 11 or 12 students for 3 or 4 spots, so it seems unlikely he would get off the list unless a lot of top kids used the school as a safety. I’m surprised they even feel they need a waitlist but I guess it was nice of them to throw my very average kid a bone!
Thanks for the info everyone. My son went ahead and declined the waitlist since SFCM was #4 on his priority list. Waiting for #1 fingers crossed for Friday/Saturday 
@Choirsong It actually was said to lighten the atmosphere and encourage the students that they all are amazing. There was no way of knowing if it was a doctorate student or undergrad practicing… D never participated in high level summer programs, youth symphonies, all state band, competitions… so this was all new and intimidating. She saw and heard all these polished musicians from all over the world and started doubting herself. It’s all good, these are all lessons in her journey. She mourned a day or so and then moved on to the next audition. She has been blessed to even be able to audition at these amazing schools. D gets to do it all over again in four years so she can redeem herself then. Still waiting…
I remember this time of year so well! Last year on this Friday, we were waiting to see if the big admit box from USC-Thornton would arrive. My wife and I were in the hot tub with some friends, drinking a little wine and enjoying a beautiful spring early evening, when the mailman arrived and S18 emerged with the big white box and his USC admit! We toasted his success, took a picture and hoisted the USC flag (which we had bc my older D goes there), before treating him to one of his favorite meals. It was a special moment because it was his most prestigious admit, even though he ultimately chose to attend elsewhere. As your kids receive admits that they’ve worked so hard to secure, do something special for them as a congrats, and savor the moment. They, and you, have earned it!
@sunnysar my S is the opposite. He’s not mature and not aware of his surroundings. When we were in Austin, it was me who approached other students and made small talks since I didn’t find any other parents. It turned out that most of them were graduate students. I was hanging out with a parent of a 7 year old taking Suzuki lesson at the time and the topic was what size of the violin a 7 year old should play. When we were at USC, I heard a student warming up and she sounded very good. The piano accompanist told me that she was a graduate student.
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I love how I wake up to so many new posts and lots of good news. Congrats on all these new acceptances and the wait listed folks too! I have also heard that wait list kids often move into the accepted column within a few weeks and even with good money.
@tripletmama I agree that now is the time to celebrate this amazing victory and try not to worry about the money side yet. They may just come through for you! It’s hard to be patient and I have no idea why they would wait so long but if you made it this far, you can push through these final weeks! How is your daughter feeling? Must be a big relief to get that first acceptance when she had to wait this long!
Happy Green Circle day to my patient Frost posse! There is a green dot appearing for my daughter and the message of application complete. Still not sure exactly what that means (trying not to read too much into it) but hoping it’s a good sign.
Given the strange CalArts audition experience (Escape room, ax throwing signs, long story if you didn’t read my post about it in January. Lol) there was NO WAY this one would be straight-up or traditional in nature.
Here are the latest chapters for CalArts:
-A few weeks ago, an admission person (one of the people who was at the auditions) reached out to my daughter hoping to set up a phone conference for the following week. She responded with best times but they never got back to her. My daughter was a little disappointed and confused by that but didn’t want to “bug them” and just let it go.
-I called that next week just asking about general notice info and they said they would be releasing decisions in the last two weeks of March with wait list and declined candidate notices to follow.
-Around March 14th, here on CC, @jacole announced his son got into to CalArts for experimental pop, her major of interest. I didn’t tell her about it but (assuming all majors get notified around the same time) started the “Mom prep” for a rejection or possibly wait list. It was never a top school due to location (45 minutes from LA-we live on the East coast) cost, and it’s very tough to get into-so it wouldn’t a huge let down other than maybe an ego bruise.
-I checked her portal yesterday and noticed her major was incorrect so I emailed the Herb Albert School of Music admissions person who was at the audition (the same person who wanted to call my daughter.) She responded that she’d like to call me at 3pm (6pm my time) with no other details. So I said sure and gave my phone #. I didn’t even tell my daughter about this because I thought maybe it might consist of her giving me a polite “sorry but we had so many candidates and she did not make the cut.” Or my most hopeful scenario was maybe a wait list offer. I also thought maybe it was just an application issue or more documents needed, something clerical. Well, the whole night went by and no phone call. I’m really getting used to this waiting thing! I went back and forth with @SpartanDrew about how strange it was and how they never called my daughter either when they said they would. Didn’t really know what to think, but she helped me through the “night of the unknown.”
-So then I wake up to an email this morning written at about 10:30pm (I was fast asleep) saying sorry that she was caught up in meetings. She said that they DO want to admit my daughter to CalArts but they had every department look at her materials and videos and even researched and found a YouTube video of her singing with a top jazz sax player (through a program her school offers every year) and wanted her to enter as an “undecided” major, rather than experimental pop, and be assigned to study under a big whig performer, composer, educator and scholar. Whaaat? So, as I eluded to before, she is very gifted as a jazz vocalist and I think they wanted her to be open to that path through working with a mentor (who seems to have a solid jazz background) but also be exposed to other types of music, including pop, and to challenge/immerse herself in those areas too. Which is the beauty of CalArts-they want the students exposed to all kinds of music and art and not be “married” to one type or direction. They even mentioned wanting to move forward with an acceptance so they could start looking at the “award” stage. Whaaat? So maybe a scholarship too? It’s all so insane! I responded with my daughter’s contact info and good time to reach her tonight or this week. I know it’s a really small school (1200 students) and known to shape and individualize programs (described as a glorified arts high school by some) but I am so impressed with the time they took and all the people involved with this decision. Even finding YouTube videos she did not submit in her portfolio. She is incredibly flattered and pretty shocked.
The irony is that this was always a reach and not the most realistic option and stemmed from me letting her apply to one California school and us feeling this was the best option because it was more about the art and less about the academics/test scores and they really embraced well-rounded art students and she is passionate about visual art and photography, things like that, in addition to music. I still don’t know if it’s the best fit, but now we have to at least explore it more, especially if they offer a scholarship.
So that’s my crazy story of the day! I feel a little guilty for thinking she didn’t get in. What kind of a supportive mom am I? Lol. I just try to be realistic I guess.
Good luck surviving another day! Can’t wait to read more updates!
Wow @AmyIzzy!! What a crazy and great story! Can’t wait to hear how it all turns out!
Yay and HUGE congrats to all of your kids hearing on admissions today, tomorrow and over the weekend @AmyIzzy @tripletmama @DrummerDad18 @akapiratequeen and everyone else!!
First, I am cracking up at the “happy green circle day” comment AmyIzzy! If any of you Frost applicants want to go through a day of torture like many of us did last year, check out this thread from last year.
This is when the green circle madness started lol. My D didn’t get the magic circle at all I think, her main page of student info on her portal just populated an entirely new section at the bottom that said “Admissions” and finally had a green check saying “Admitted”. Frost letter and scholarship came later in the day on Friday so you may be able to get a sneak peek on whether your kid was admitted or not today and by tomorrow you’ll know if there is money behind the admission.
@lkbux64 We got New School admission and scholarship on Monday after the Frost admission on Friday. Others didn’t find out until a day or two later which was crazy. It was a rolling notification. For NEC last year that was our last admission. I emailed admissions there saying D hadn’t heard anything and we saw others had been accepted so I assumed she didn’t get in (since we knew NEC only takes maybe 2-3 vocalists) and they emailed back saying she should be excited to be receiving a yellow envelope in the mail soon. And so she did, the following day with a giant BRAVO on the front! They still notify by snail mail although perhaps this year may be different, not sure.
Good luck everyone! SO exciting to hear everyone’s news!!!
Congrats, @AmyIzzy ! You must feel you have whiplash!
Unlike regular universities where thousands may be waitlisted and a waitlist notification is scant hope, waitlists at conservatories tend to be serious, and they do tend to show movement. And it is not at all unheard of for conservatories to give financial aid to waitlisted students. I can’t speak to SFCM, but I can cite examples from other major conservatories where waitlisted students were accepted and given significant financial aid.
It’s always a numbers game, but remember that the top students tend to apply to multiple top conservatories–they, too, are looking to see which teacher studios they’ll be placed in and what the financial situation will be. And each can only go to one program. Hence, there may well be movement on such a list, although it’s by no means guaranteed. (Oh, and some will in the end opt to go to academic programs instead of conservatories.)
Wow @AmyIzzy - that’s amazing! What a rollercoaster. And I think it’s really exciting that they have taken so much interest in your very talented daughter and want to develop her in a way that is outside the box. It sounds like a wonderful opportunity!
You guys have me hooked too now! Informed delivery just emailed that there’s a package for delivery from LA and my first reaction was UCLA! or USC! … turns out my son bought a Playstation controller on eBay 
@dsinha Tell your son to stop ordering gadgets for the next week!
dsinha——— Playstation controller? Yes, your son deserves it!!!