@AmyIzzy - your list of studies reminded me of someone we know at Berklee. That person studies jazz guitar and singing and just added a double major in music production.
@AmyIzzy - I don’t know about your particular field of study so take my comments as very general and see if others have better answers. My D auditioned for 2 programs at a few schools always on the same weekend (VP and MT). A small LAC knew she was doing that…and it didn’t raise an eyebrow. The bigger schools may not have even known as audition season is very busy and they are focused on their applicants and talents (not really fishing around for what else you are doing). Also in interviews, it did come up…but again it is very common for VP/MT applicants (and the competitive is tough) so it did not seem to matter. The kids are so young still and the audition process can be a real learning process so it shouldn’t count against them. That being said, it can matter once a kid enters a program. Some teachers will want dedication to one art form…and some will be fine with exploring…however that may be more relevant to classical training only. I only mention it as I do think a few teachers may be looking for students “locked and loaded” for the one art form…but I think it is a very small risk…and one that should be taken if your kid is still exploring (and that teacher/school may not be the best choice in that case). It is interesting and informative to see how schools react to these questions. It can really help you get focused on the right schools.
Double posted…oops.
Questions for parents who have been through this…when did/do the kids start preparing for auditions? Trying to get a sense of timing for next year. Do they do the regular applications first, and must they be admitted academically before they audition? How do prescreens work? Do they happen on every instrument or is it mostly a vocal thing? Any other advice for those of us with 2019 kids looking down the barrel of senior year?
@akapiratequeen For voice, start thinking about song selection now. Discuss with the primary teacher to find several appropriate selections. Review the audition requirements of the target colleges/programs to see what type of songs you will need and any prescreen video requirements. This summer, practice, practice, practice. If ready, try and prepare a video by the end of the summer so you can keep honing it. Each school has its own deadlines, some don’t have prescreens at all. Deadlines will usually be late fall. If you wait until October to work on your prescreen video, it will be tough to do a good job with all the other academic and social activities of senior year. Our summer was too busy, S18 could not work on video until the fall, and it suffered as a result. I am quite sure that resulted in one prescreen rejection from a top program (Oh well!).
Also, S18’s February 2018 auditions were SO much better than his December 2017 auditions. The general advice given here by other parents was to get some early auditions in for practice, but if you can save your harder admits or favored schools until later. That worked for us but your child may be better prepared.
“That worked for us but your child may be better prepared.” LOL clearly you haven’t met S19. Good advice!
@akapiratequeen I agree with vistajay. Do your research and know whats needed and all deadlines. Trying to organize your plan over the summer. The days fly by once school starts and things get crazy.
My D had her best audition in Dec, just they way it played out for her. Also flu season can wreak havoc on auditions.
@AmyIzzy You may want to look at Loyola New Orleans and CU Denver.
I agree with working on song selection and practice over the summer. We relied heavily on her voice teacher and did not get involved. Also, while I do think the earlier audition warmed her up, she was more relaxed and sang better as she progressed during the audition season. Jitters went away. There was much less stress. She was more comfortable singing in front of an audition panel. She knew what to expect. With that in mind, scheduling the more important auditions middle to late the process might be a reasonable strategy.
However, the two schools she favored the most after all the auditions were completed were not even on her initial radar. And if she had not been deferred on her early application, would likely have canceled these auditions. So you never really know how a kid is going to respond to a campus/program/audition/teacher until they are actually on campus and performing. So it can be hard to know which is the most important audition for scheduling purposes going into the process.
Just getting caught up on here after a much needed absence to relax and regroup! I put S20 on a plane to Paris last night for a semester engineering study abroad program in Germany so I was up most of the night worrying about him getting from plane to train to train to his pickup in Germany. AAACK! The worrying never ends LOL. He arrived safely and I imagine is hoisting a giant stein of beer with his University buddy over there as I type this.
D started working on her prescreen songs when she got back from her summer at Berklee. Since they needed to be recorded with a jazz combo and I had to pay the professional musicians here that back her up, I wanted her to be really ready and do it all in one or two days max. As it turned out, she got really sick before we headed to NOLA for her audition at Loyola. She was supposed to record her prescreens and YoungArts audition when she got back but we had to put it off for 2 weeks. She had her songs down but it took a couple of weeks for her to feel that her vocals were back. Ultimately we made the trip to Loyola, she didn’t sing but met them all there and we submiitted her prescreen videos for her audition which didn’t hurt her at all in merit money.
Depending on your kid, I feel like the earlier you can get those prescreens done the better. We aimed for mid September so we could also make the YA deadline and I think ended up getting them done the first week of October. Then she started working on different songs for her auditions. It’s a lot on a kid’s plate, especially since my D was in the high school musical which she absolutely regretted doing. Eliminate the non essentials and get things done earlier rather than last minute is my advice!
Just an FYI:
Very big Performing Arts/Music College Fair: NOVEMBER 5, 2018 NYC
Most of you probably already know about NACAC but wanted to let you know in case you didn’t and wanted a way to “one stop shop” for colleges. There are certain campuses we really want to visit but others that my daughter is on the fence about, so this may be a good way to eliminate some colleges or add a few before applications are due (without spending a fortune on travel.) They only have a few colleges listed for the Nov. 5, 2018 NYC college fair since it just opened up but below are the colleges who were there last year. Here’s the link to sign up (this links to NYC college fair but there are others throughout the country as you can see on main page of website.)
https://www.nacacfairs.org/attend/pva/new-york-city-performing-and-visual-arts-college-fair/
Here is the list of schools from 2017:
University of Connecticut
Savannah College of Art and Design
Five Towns College
West Chester University
University of Florida College of the Arts
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of New Haven
Tisch School of the Arts New York University
Roosevelt University
University of Delaware-Dept. of Music
Ithaca College School of Music
Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama
Northern Vermont University - Johnson
Bath Spa University
Fordham University
University at Albany (SUNY)
McNally Smith College of Music
Manchester Metropolitan University
New York Film Academy
University of New Hampshire- Department of Theatre and Dance
The College of Saint Rose
Los Angeles College of Music
Ravensbourne
American Musical Theatre Academy
Marist College
Mary Immaculate College
Concordia University
H+ | The Hip-Hop Dance Conservatory
Manhattanville College
Binghamton University (SUNY)
New York University Steinhardt Music & Performing Arts
University of Miami Frost School of Music
Cogswell College
Drexel University
Berklee College of Music
Columbia College Hollywood
SUNY College at Fredonia
Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts
SUNY College at Oswego
University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance
Interlochen Center for the Arts
Boston Conservatory at Berklee
Bloomfield College
Jacksonville University
DePaul University
James Madison University
Dean College
The Catholic University of America
SUNY College at Oswego
Bard College at Simon’s Rock
FIDM
The University of Arizona
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Muhlenberg College
Virginia Tech
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Academy of Art University
Sweet Briar College
Marymount Manhattan College
Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University
University of Cincinnati College - Conservatory of Music
Rochester Institute of Technology
Butler University
Columbia College Chicago
University of Toronto
SMU Meadows School of the Arts
The New School
Plymouth University
The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts
Point Park University
Buffalo State College - SUNY
Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance
The Glasgow School of Art
Miami University
University of Maryland Baltimore County
SUNY College at Potsdam
Rice University Shepherd School of Music
University of Illinois at Chicago
Oberlin Conservatory of Music
Montserrat College of Art
Neighborhood Playhouse School
Columbus College of Art and Design
Goldsmiths, University of London
College of Staten Island, CUNY
London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art
Laguna College of Art and Design
Syracuse University
CUNY New York City College of Technology
Tufts University
Florida State University-College of Music
Gettysburg College
Nazareth College
Regent’s University London
Lawrence University
Studio Arts College International
University of Southern California
California Institute of the Arts
Purchase College, SUNY
University of Colorado Boulder
Cornish College of the Arts
DePauw University
University of Roehampton, London
West Virginia University
University of North Carolina School of the Arts
Rider University
Peabody Conservatory of Music of the Johns Hopkins University
Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance
Columbia University
School of Visual Arts
SUNY College at Cortland
AMDA College & Conservatory of the Performing Arts
Cleveland Institute of Art
Wagner College
The University of the Arts
Western Michigan University
NYU Tandon School of Engineering
The Ohio State University
Manhattan School of Music
Emerson College
Stevenson University
Sarah Lawrence College
Western Connecticut State University
New York Institute of Technology
Performing Arts Abroad
Long Island University: Brooklyn & Post
William Paterson University
Studio School
Fashion Institute of Technology
New York School of Interior Design
Montclair State University
San Francisco Art Institute
Sewanee: The University of the South
New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts
Fairleigh Dickinson University
American Academy of Dramatic Arts
Rowan University
Sacred Heart University
Ramapo College of New Jersey
DeSales University
University of Salford
Northeastern University
Caldwell University
Pace University
University of Wisconsin-Madison
University of Maryland School of Music
Molloy College
Full Sail University
Eastman School of Music
CUNY Hunter College
Merrimack College
Adelphi University
The Juilliard School
The Hartt School, Hartford Art School
Illinois Wesleyan University
Idyllwild Arts Academy
The College of New Jersey
Nottingham Trent University
Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Indiana University Jacobs School of Music
Schulich School of Music of McGill University
Bennington College
University of Kent
Richmond, The American International University in London
University of South Carolina School of Music
Ravensbourne
New Hampshire Institute of Art
University of Puget Sound
Penn State University
Kean University
Harold Ramis Film School
Greetings fellow journeyers,
I was wondering if you’re setting up summer visits for your rising seniors yet? If so, where?
We’ve either seen or are going to see the following (S19 is jazz saxophone with possible music ed double major–we live in New Jersey and he’s primarily interested in the Northeast but not NYC. Of course, he’s 17 so that may ALL change.)
Berklee (did five-week last summer; he’s applying)
Ithaca (visited last fall/had a lesson; he loved it and it’s his current first choice–those mountains!)
Rutgers U./Mason Gross (visited on conservatory open house day – he was impressed and is applying)
Peabody/Johns Hopkins (visited this spring/tour but no lesson as jazz faculty is new for fall. Probably applying)
Syracuse (planning summer visit)
Eastman (he’ll do two-week workshop there this summer, will decide after that)
Bard (planning visit)
Oberlin (planning visit)
Vassar (visiting because his dad’s an alum and feels strongly about it. As of now, not a real contender because he wants a BM/conservatory-based program. )
My S (a composer and jazz pianist) has visited/ is going to visit the following schools, all through participation in summer programs:
University of British Columbia
Boston Conservatory
University of Michigan
Oberlin
University of Illinois
Eastman/ University of Rochester
Frost/ University of Miami
@akapiratequeen Our kids will meet at Eastman this summer:)
@akapiratequeen if you’re going to Oberlin by car, I think you should consider continuing on to Ann Arbor to see Michigan! It’s another couple hours, but could be worth it.
@akapiratequeen , if possible, be sure to visit Oberlin while classes are in session OR during a jazz summer program time (if during the summer). There are zero summer classes at Oberlin, so your S would get to see facilities, but that is likely all (if you visit during the summer months)…it will be a ghost town, and I think it will be very hard to get an accurate feel for the school and students!
@Compojazzmom Is your son in the jazz program? Tell him to look for Andre! Big kid (6’3"/built like a football player) on tenor sax. See you at the final concert! 
Also, were any of the other places you saw standouts? He’s still working on his list…
@dramaticsopranomom, we may not get there in the summer-- my brother lives in Columbus so we might do a day trip if we visit them, but my guess is it will wait for fall. @classicalsaxmom is it really only a couple of hours from Oberlin to Ann Arbor? My geography of those parts is very fuzzy…
@akapiratequeen Google says 2 hrs 15 min.
Yes, Ann Arbor to Oberlin is a few hours away. My D auditioned in Ann Arbor on a Friday and Oberlin on Saturday. If you are fortunate enough o be invited for audition to both schools, it can be done on the same trip.
Our rising senior bassist daughter will go kick the tires at Berklee (she will be at the 5 week program) and NEC this summer (hopefully a practice lesson if any faculty are around). And likely tour MSM and the New School since it’s not far. Dramasopranomom - that was my fear about touring in the summer - many of these campuses are likely to be ghost towns, or at least, not similar to what they are like when they are in session.