@UniversityMomOf2 thanks for your kind words. Double bass families have an understanding only paralleled by the Harp families so its no big deal really. Anything we can do to support other budding musicians.
In any case, I consider this to be my attempt at teasing Karma into smiling at my daughter and making her auditions go smoothly! One can only hope! 
@HereWeGoAgain2018 Percussion families also have the same understanding! (and thanks for that kind offer to double bass families) Good luck everyone. We leave tomorrow for the first round of auditions and I think I’m more nervous than S is.
Good luck to your daughter, @HereWeGoAgain2018 !!!
Good luck junior @Lendlees ! Where are you off to? Report back please!
Good vibes all around!! Love music/band parents. We’re pretty cool!
Good luck to all who are gearing up for this weekend’s auditions. Can’t wait to hear all about them!
Yes, good luck to @Lendlees and all others who are starting their auditions!
@akapiratequeen Friday is Jacobs School of Music at IU and Saturday is Miami of Ohio. The only two we could combine in one trip. Fingers crossed the predicted snow for Saturday isn’t too bad as we have to drive back to Indianapolis to catch our flight home.
Ack! It’s really starting for all of you!!! Best wishes to everyone hitting the audition trail! Eagerly awaiting your reports!
Good Luck people. Safe travels and Happy Auditions !
@HereWeGoAgain2018 - not to be glib, but your daughter needs no karma to knock her auditions out of the park. She is truly gifted! For the rest of you - yes, the bass world (or even the music world) is fairly small. Turns out that I heard “Here’s” daughter play when our daughter’s were at a Bass Convention (yes, they have those!) in Ithaca two years ago. My daughter was doing classical at that time (since moved to jazz). It’s such a small music world. I hope that we can meet up when our daughter goes to Boston. Here’s the rub - NEC hasn’t gotten back to us about moving the audition…so my daughter wants to just go ahead and do TWO West to East Coast trips - to break up her auditions a bit. I completely understand that but my checking account doesn’t Also - I would love to go to both of the auditions, too (to help her - she has ADD and can be a bit scattered). So - I guess we are going to have to bite the bullet and do two trips (sigh). I guess the good thing is that I can go see my 94 year old mother in PA, my son in NYC (triplet brother to the bassist) and various friends in Boston. So - there is a silver lining.
Thank you so much for the kind offer of the bass. It turns out that her bass mentor (crazy good bassist from her school is at Berklee and has a jazz bass that she has played before (didn’t know there was a difference) that she thinks she can score for her audition. If not - we will definitely hit you up!! And we are in the same boat - I’m not sure if your daughter is the same, but our daughter insists that she needs a new bass about every other week - then she falls back in love with hers and that yearning goes away. It’s a never ending saga.
So - NEC or bust on Feb. 3! And the New School last week in Feb or first week in March. Berklee on Feb. 16 in LA (she is still confirming pianist and drummer for that). And SFCM on Feb. 23. Time for me to start booking flights. It’s great to finally have a schedule coming together.
We will survive! (that’s my latest motto).
Congratulations on getting your D’s schedule set @tripletmama. I understand the anguish that comes with the scheduling. We went around in circles debating whether to try to reschedule one or more of our S’ auditions and settled on sticking with the original dates and doing all four in 10 days. So we’ll be flying Philly to Miami to LA to Philly, 3 days rest then fly to Cleveland for Oberlin, fly home for one day’s rest then drive to Baltimore for Peabody. S thought it would be best to get in the groove then just ride the wave and he also wanted to sandwich the auditions between the Berklee HS Jazz Festival, state thespian competition, and the school musical—I assume he’s no different than a lot of kids with so much going on but just thinking about all of this is all making me want to take a very long nap.
Best of luck with upcoming auditions!
Sounds good. Its great to have a known instrument with the right setup.
Congrats on getting the schedule set and committing to it. We’re in the same boat on flight arrangements as well and I’m finding the cost of Boston / LA flights on the rise… I think more of us making those bookings is giving airlines the demand trigger… Sooner the dates are fixed and flights / rooms booked the better!
I like your motto! Keep up the great work and remember next year this time you will have 3 kids in college / conservatory and will be wondering what to do with your time. 
At least that’s how I try to motivate myself full well knowing that our kids will continue to keep our hands full for quite some time even after being admitted…
All the best
My daughter is starting to get invitations for “accepted student” days. As much as I hate to spend more money on travel, I do think it’s a great way to really get a true vibe of the campus and will help her make a decision. She told us she is interested in possibly participating in these:
College of Saint Rose (one day focuses on meeting faculty and the other is a shadow day)
Columbia College Chicago (an overnight)
Loyola New Orleans (an overnight)
Saint Rose is an easy drive for us, but we would likely send her solo to the others (by air) to save money. Anyone else considering the accepted student days or am I way ahead of the game? We will probably sign her up, but then cancel if she seems to lose interest in a school. Thinking it makes sense to consider accepted student days for her top 2-3 schools (as long as they fit our budget) so we can focus on the realistic ones. The problem right now is she likes them all so far!
We are also starting to get a sense of bottom line costs (subtracting scholarships/financial aid and adding room/board) and realistic offers vs. those that would require a huge sacrifice. Thanks to the scholarships offered so far, the above schools would be “workable” for our budget. Does that mean it will be EASY to do? Not at all. Unless some of of the high-priced schools shock us with generous offers or accommodate our financial needs in the final hours after pleading, I think I am starting to narrow down the “realistic” vs. “unrealistic” options in my own mind, although I will remain open to all options until all offers come in. And who knows? Maybe we will win the lottery in the meantime and easily send her to Berklee, CalArts or Frost. In that case, I’ll fly us all to a private island for some exotic drinks! Lol.
My son, a cellist, has his first live audition on Tuesday at Cal Baptist. He’ll take a trial lesson right after the audition. Nice when he can do both on the same day.
Best of luck as your students move into full-on audition season! As you book hotel rooms, some colleges/conservatories have reduced rate deals with local hotels. We found that those were sometimes but not always the best deal (because they were negotiated a year in advance). Search for other short-term deals - for ex, Restaurant Week in Boston got us a much better hotel price than NEC’s deal. And the hotel staff let my vocalist use an empty ballroom to practice (cello next door). It’s a stressful time but a great time with your musician!
For those of you heading to Frost, we rented a great VRBO in Coral Gables. After the audition week, when weather cancelled our flight home, we stayed overnight at The Mutiny in Coral Gables. I’ve stayed there before and it’s such a great location. Full kitchens, pool and great accommodations. I had totally forgotten about that place. You can walk to all of the great little restaurants in the Gables. I bet they would work out a good rate for you if you ask. Oh and we found a fantastic VRBO in a great location in Boston right next to Copley place. 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms (which D needed to take hours to get ready) full kitchen etc for substantially less than a hotel room. If anyone wants info on where we stayed feel free to PM me. I love staying at VRBO/AIrbnb over a hotel to get the comforts of home.
@AmyIzzy I’ll join you on that island! I just made my last “double tuition” payment for my son and daughter. Son graduates in May thankfully. Now just to get the daughter through another 3 years. then maybe that island…
Hi everyone! I have a QQ. My D just received her grades for first term senior year, her GPA going into college was a 4.1 and she got all A’s (2 AP’s) and 1 B (in an AP class) this past semester bringing her GPA up to a 4.23. HOWEVER, that B was incredibly hard to get and caused a lot of anxiety plus the teacher is not lenient for her to miss classes which as we all know is inevitable the next 2 months due to auditions. In addition to auditions she has a bunch of honor choir trips etc coming up. Which brings me to my question: She wants to drop the class but wants to ask the schools first to make sure it would not impact their decision. Does anyone have experience with this and would you suggest contacting the music admissions or general admissions? Help.
@Bay Area Mom 2016 : PM’d you a couple of minutes ago.