Haha @tripletmama I’m the drummer not my kid. My S’s a senior at NEC (jazz guitar in CI - contemporary improvisation) and it’s been a great place for him!
Sorry drummergirl! I know there is a parent of a drummer senior girl on here - what’s his name again anyone?
I’m sure that NEC will be my daughter’s top choice next week 
She seems to have a new top choice every week - usually based on something she has “heard” which may or may not be true. She walked out of the NEC tour this past summer because she thought it was “too classical” - I nearly screamed at her in front of the tour guide but contained myself. Glad to hear that your son is enjoying NEC.
I’m the parent with the senior girl drummer
We are making some slow but steady progress on apps and prescreeens.
The nerve wracking thing is she’s currently only planning on applying to 3 or 4 schools.
So far that includes Berklee, USC Thornton and UM Frost.
She has recently said she might add a school in NYC (like new school or NYU ).
Despite us living right outside of nyc (or maybe because of it) she has wanted to avoid the city.
And she’s there every weekend for MSM precollege jazz, so I can’t say it’s an uninformed POV on her part.
The short list of schools is driven mostly by her desire to go to a school that has both jazz and a broader contemporary program side by side. So that she can meet and collaborate with a broader variety of musicians vs. just locking into a school that is limited to jazz. So with a list that short, filled with audition schools, there is obviously no such thing as a safety. So her “plan B” has always been to take a gap year and work on her playing if she doesn’t get in and re-apply. The dean at USC told her that was a very valid approach when we met with her. And i find it more appealing than spending 70K for her to do her freshman year someplace she doesn’t love just so she can transfer.
We had already visited USC/UM last spring, so Berklee was the only one left to visit.
She and my wife went to the open house for the new Institute for Gender Equality in Jazz in October.
As @tripletmama knows it’s being headed by Terri Lynn Carrington and they both came away pretty impressed by what they are trying to do there. Seems like one of the only schools trying to tackle this issue head on and in a system wide fashion. “Jazz without patriarchy” is their slogan and they are trying to drive for school wide change, not just putting together a single women’s ensemble. I hope they have an impact.
Anyway, Berklee app is in, and her audition is scheduled for 12/8
For USC/Frost we filmed her pre-screens for both popular and jazz requirements last weekend and we’re just editing down and deciding on which takes to pick now. So now she just needs to finalize a few more recommendation letters and finish those apps and we can hit that December 1 deadline!
What a process. None of our friends in the area are going this route with their kid so it’s been invaluable to have this site. Your average college counselor or high school resource doesn’t know anything about this stuff.
@tripletmama Yes, we did get to meet up with her daughter, which was SO nice of her! She was very helpful and she answered lots of questions from my daughter about Loyola and New Orleans ?
@DrummerDad18 Good luck to your daughter in her search! Wow-great schools on her list! My daughter also auditions for Berklee on 12/8 but my husband has audition duty that weekend so I’ll be staying home and sending her all the positive vibes I can from afar. My daughter has been talking more about a gap year. First, she thought about working at our friend’s recording studio (he mentioned free recordings for some nanny help too) but lately she has been mentioning a program where she can live in Spain and babysit (for room and board) with weekends to travel Europe. Didn’t realize she was so worldly but she and her close friend have been plotting. Lol. I’m not opposed to a gap semester or year (and most of her college choices seem flexible on that) but I may just encourage some travel this summer so she can get her European travel fix and start college on schedule. Any other students talking about a gap year?
I should add that when I asked her how music fit into her gap year, she reminded me how she writes music all the time so this would provide new experiences and inspiration for her music.
Personally, I think parents should be able to take a gap year! Who’s with me? Lol.
@AmyIzzy - I would love to take a gap year! Where are we going to go?
@DrummerDad18 - your daughter sounds like mine. She only has 3 to 4 on her list. You are very blessed to have a Dec. audition date for Berklee - they are this weekend in LA which was too early for our daughter - so she’s going to have to wait until Jan. and then the long wait to hear. I was so hoping that she could do Early Acceptance. Oh well!
Gap year isn’t being discussed by our daughter - but I think that’s likely where she will end up if none of her choices come to fruition - I completely agree with the USC guy - why waste all that $$ on a school that they aren’t excited about? Seems to be a good strategy. There are some “feeder” schools to Berklee DrummerDad that you might want to check out. Maybe our girls could take a year in Spain? I keep asking her to ask Teri Lynn which country is good but she doesn’t want to go there just yet.
Any YoungArts winners on here? I think they started notifying today.
@tripletmama Yes, my daughter received an email from YoungArts saying she won Honorable Mention for Popular Voice! She is so excited! Did your daughter hear from them? I’d be shocked if she didn’t get an award! She’s amazing!
That’s so very exciting Amy!!! Did she sign up to the Master Class week thing??? Nope - nothing here yet. Two of the guitarists in her jazz program got emails (not sure what level). She said she didn’t expect anything since her videos sucked… so much so that she doesn’t want to use any of them for her college pre-screens (her shoulder was killing her from playing so much on others tapes). She cracks me up! I listened to them again today and I thought two (Ballad and a Monk tune) were amazing! (but what do I know??? I guess I probably don’t know much but still…
Does anyone know if Bienen at Northwestern has a minimum required gpa or test scores to get in? Our daughter likely has neither. We have both heard that the jazz bassist instructor there is good, but the pre-screen audition requirements will be time consuming and she doesn’t want to waste her time if the chances of being admitted on the basis of gpa/test scores is slim. Thanks!
@tripletmama Yes, she clicked on the link to sign up for the YoungArts Regional Program right away. They sent a reply saying they time stamped it and would let her know if she got in by November 29th. I’m really surprised your daughter didn’t get an email but maybe they are notifying over a few days? Sounds like your daughter is being really hard on herself. She is mega-talented so I hope she doesn’t let this get her down if she doesn’t get in.
@AmyIzzy - I hate that they make it a race to sign up for the Regionals. Pretty nuts, huh? (very stressful!).
She’s not upset about YA - I think it’s been a learning experience - don’t wait to the last minute - and don’t play on a ton of other YA tapes before you record yours. (she was worn out and her shoulder was killing her). Very good life lesson. She is too stressed with pre-screen auditions to really notice, I think I keep telling her that the pre-screens are just to get an audition spot but she is being a perfectionist and not listening to me. We will see her for a 1.5 day next week for Thanksgiving (she wants to get back to practice and can’t travel with her bass). I hope she can relax!
I wish she was such a perfectionist about her schoolwork! LOL. (but I guess if that were the case she would wear herself out more than she has already).
I’m sure that your daughter will get a spot in the Regional - that was pretty darned fast response time!
Anyone else? As I recall there were a few on here that applied to YA? (they say they aren’t done notifying yet - can’t figure out the method to their madness this year).
Will we see you on the audition trail? NEC, the New School (I couldn’t find dates on their website - so I’m hoping we can combine it with NEC - if she gets through pre-screens). You are so lucky to get Berklee out of the way in Dec!!! They aren’t on the West Coast until Jan now. 
To answer my own question about Bienen - I called them and they told me that they judge music students by the same standard as other students (e.g. you have to be a stellar student to get in) so it’s off the list. One less pre-screen!
@tripletmama we were the other family from this thread that applied for YA late this season. It was a last minute thing she filmed two days before the deadline. Like you, I felt it was great (but what do we know right?)
Anyway, no mail means I think it’s not gonna happen for her. And she’s 18 so this was her only shot.
I poked around on instagram to see if any jazz instrumentalists had won and I saw a post from a fellow student she knows from her pre-college program who won the finalist position on percussion. So that was helpful calibration on our end, as she knows where she stacks up relative to him from her experience at MSM. He’s a terrific player so it’s well deserved.
The bummer is there are so few spots for an individual instrument that it’s such a long shot, even at lower recognition levels. While there seem to be at least twice as many spots at each award level for vocalists from what I can tell glancing at last year’s winners. (although I’m sure there are more entrants as well)
Anyway, congrats to this year’s winners! And @tripletmama like you we won’t be using those videos for pre-screens lol
DrummerDad18 - yup, onward and upward! Time to focus on those pre-screens and college auditions.
Another audition down and it feels great! She had audition # 3 at the College of Saint Rose on Saturday in Albany (sandwiched between Friday and Sunday “Newsies” shows-we sure like to live on the wild side! Lol.)
The day schedule was:
-sign-in
-an hour of warm-up/practice in a private practice room
-orientation/info session by music department for students and parents
-students left to take music theory placement exam (she described as a bit tougher than Loyola but she felt she did pretty well.)
-parent meeting/Q&A while students took exam
-auditions spread out over the next 2 hours/lovely food spread offered during the wait time
Since her audition was a later one, she actually had an extra hour to rehearse in her private practice room. She had a busy week so she was SO grateful to have so much practice time before her audition and felt very ready when she walked into her audition.
The audition went very well. The pre-audition packet had her select songs from a list so she told them the title of her first song. There was a little confusion when the pianist asked her for the music which she did not have. The website said that she only needed to provide music if it was NOT a song on the list. They realized it was a mistake on their end and she offered to do her original first while they found the backtrack for her. They were apologetic and made her feel really comfortable. They gave positive feedback on her songs and then interviewed her. One of the music professors was from our area and knew some of her music teachers so they chatted a bit. When others asked questions, she felt very relaxed, like it was just a nice conversation. They asked if she could send a few of her recordings and seemed very interested in her songwriting process and ideas.
It was a very positive experience. She even received a nice follow-up email today from a vocal professor who was part of the audition panel. They told her they would notify her of her status within the next 2 weeks which seems pretty fast! My husband and I are hoping for this one since it’s only 4 hours away and the closest of all the colleges on her list (among many other things we like about it.) My daughter seems to really like it too (Music Industry Program and the overall vibe) but we are all keeping an open mind as we let the audition process play out in the next few months.
Any other early action audition reports? Hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving!
Congratulations @AmyIzzy on getting another audition on the way. The prescreen wait over here is torturous. At least for me. The kid seems not to mind. He did get a question about his application from a school yesterday and that felt like something at least. He has a few hanging application things to finish up, one by Dec 1 so let the nagging on that one begin!
We’re heading back to Saint Olaf to look a little closer at the music stuff. I find their website really tedious to navigate. He already applied, but hasn’t interviewed so he will do that.
@MusakParent and @AmyIzzy et. al. thanks for the updates! We’re hung up here because S has a recording date for his prescreens – next Monday – which was set up by his teacher, but which doesn’t leave a lot of time to get them uploaded. The rest of those two apps are done so it’s just a matter of getting the recordings. He’s got college players set up to fill out a small combo and someone to make the video. Here’s praying no one cancels.
On the up side, his teacher says he’s sounding great, which is exciting since his (the teacher’s) standards are very high. Playing with all-states definitely kicked S’s chops up to the next level, and the timing (last week) couldn’t have been better.
All of the other auditions are set. There are five, of which four will be on-campus and the fifth will be a regional audition in NYC. He nabbed an early action slot at Berklee and will be up there Dec. 1 with an 8 am call time! Luckily we are going the night before. I don’t know how quickly they notify people but that should be his first response.
The other auditions will start Jan. 11 (Lawrence in NYC) and then proceed from Jan. 26 through Feb. 16 basically every weekend. It’s funny – two months ago I had NO IDEA how we would get all of this organized. Yet somehow, here we are. Reminds me of that line from Shakespeare in Love. Just substitute “audition process” for “theatre business”:
Henslowe: Mr. Fennyman, allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.
Fennyman: So what do we do?
Henslowe: Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well.
Fennyman: How?
Henslowe: I don’t know. It’s a mystery.
Also–once your auditions are set, please pm them to @“Mezzo’sMama” for inclusion on the auditions thread! This is a great way to connect with other parents and for future applicants to see where our crew chose to apply, as well as where they ended up. It’s an amazing resource, so please participate.