@dsinha - so very jealous! I really, really wanted our daughter to apply to Oberlin - it seems like such a neat school. Sounds like a very low stress audition! Good way to start out the audition tour. I think we are going to miss you by one day at the New School. 
Actually - our daughter is going alone (her brother goes to school in NYC). Let’s hope I don’t have any drama over the phone - that is never fun - trying to troubleshoot from a distance.
Good luck to all who are auditioning this weekend! We are still waiting on hearing about auditions from NYU Steinhardt Jazz, Peabody Jazz and New School Jazz (application submitted on 1/6/19). I see the New School is sending invitations on a rolling basis. Does anyone have insight into timing of NYU and Peabody invitations?
@tripletmama We liked Oberlin, but it is a very quiet school in a very small town. Might not be a good fit for your D. The kids need to make that choice sigh 
We actually nixed New School a while ago after my son got accepted to Berklee. He got rejected at Juilliard so we’ll probably nix NYU as well and just not worry about New York.
Best wishes to your D on her auditions. End of the day, she just needs to be who she is, and the right school will find her and they’ll choose each other
@lkbux64 and others . . . I spoke to people at both Peabody and NYU Steinhardt about jazz audition invitations. Both said they’d send official invitations out by end of next week or early the week after.
@dsinha - I need to remember your last quote (and repeat it myself over and over: “End of the day, she just needs to be who she is and the right school will find her and they’ll choose each other”. Wise and I hope true words!
Has your son decided on Berklee then? Or exploring options?
@tripletmama, the fact that your daughter is so confident probably bodes well for her chances, although I completely understand the financial fit situation. That was a big part of our selection of schools. So in our group, there is quite a range with only one (NEC) being a pretty likely financial misfit.
I do agree with the potential risk of students not feeling challenged at a school where there may be few other performance majors; however, any institutions that have good teachers and a sizable cohort of majors should be a decent place to focus on developing one’s skills.
My daughter is doing her first audition tomorrow at a school where she’s been accepted (so just for the music scholarship). I’m hoping that is a good first experience before the crazy of February!
We we made through the first weekend somewhat unscathed. Snow storm in the midwest made yesterday’s audition a little more challenging to get to (Oxford, OH is on accessible by little state roads). Here’s my recap:
- Jacobs School (IU) - BIG school with 1600 music students alone (grad/undergrad); percussion studio has ~55. As always there's a fair amount of camaraderie within the group, so S enjoyed hanging out down in the basement where the practice rooms are. Audition went well - he did a summer institute so the professors already know him and he was able to do the audition and interview at once. It's hard to not be impressed by the size and sheer amount of instruments and relationships they have with all the manufacturers. Music students seem happy - they had a nice student panel talking about their experiences and there's good energy in the building. I'm more concerned about the size of the rest of the school and the issues that brings up (housing, scholarships, being more of a 'number') and the fact that grad/undergrad 'compete' for performance opportunities.
- Miami (Ohio) - my spouse went here and it's such a lovely campus/school. They've already given S a HUGE merit scholarship and the academics are really strong. Music school is tiny (200 students many are MusicEd) and everyone was amazed we had come from so far away for the audition (and drove in the snow). Percussion faculty are members of the Cincinnati/Dayton symphonies so they are a little more real-world than academic and super nice. Audition went extremely well - S is probably at a higher level than most. He did get an email about an hour or so later from the professor asking him how serious he is about the school. So, somewhat the polar opposite of IU - small school, way fewer performance opportunities at the school (but maybe more with local orchestras?).
We’ve counseled S to email him back and express his concerns about performance opportunities and to be honest that it’s only his first weekend of auditions so he can’t really decide where he’s at right now.
Going to enjoy a few days at home and get ready for Round 2! We did get a curve ball and sadly the CIM professor who was supposed to hear S’ audition passed away suddenly, so we have to reschedule. Going to cram it in the same weekend as BU.
Good luck to everyone and please report back!
@Lendlees – great feedback. Congrats on a very successful first round!
@Lendlees sounds like a fantastic experience. Good job to your S! Thank you for this excellent feedback. It’s so helpful.
You raise an interesting question about how to handle schools where our kids are at the high end of admittees. There are so many reasons to choose a school. At this point, we’re leaving everything affordable on the table as a serious option, but this will almost certainly change during the audition process. Would be interested to know how others handle that question.
Another thing I totally forgot to mention is how great it was to connect in person with other music families. I had great conversations with parents who were waiting for their kids to finish up. I highly encourage all of you to chat with folks while you are waiting - you can get some great perspectives on schools and journeys.
@akapiratequeen - that is the dilemma and hoping others can chime in.
@akapiratequeen @Lendlees My son’s perspective is to respond by saying that he is serious about every school he’s applied to, and would like to decide based on a combination of resonance with faculty, cost, and potential for career growth once he knows his choices. A couple of EA places have been writing him and this is how responds. Not sure if it’s totally relevant or helpful to your children’s situation.
@BayAreaMom2016 I would absolutely have your D drop that AP class and anything that is non-essential at this point. Her GPA is great and she doesn’t need the added stress of more AP classes. @tripletmama New School is all over the place with merit money. We appealed twice to bump our amount which was great. But that being said I haven’t heard of many instrumentalists getting great money for some strange reason. But you never know. I have no idea how they are on need based aid. Your girl will be fine. It will all work out. I know, easy for me to say with hindsight. Believe me I was just as stressed this time last year as you all were but all of the parents before me told me what I’m telling you now. Keep the faith and trust that they will land where they are meant to be.
Tripletmama! When we had a tour at The New School, a guide (saxophone senior student) specifically told that bigger scholarships would be given to certain instrumentalists for the school’s needs in general. Bassisists have the highest chance of merit scholarships. As I know, The New School has 270+/-undergrad jazz students, offers so many combo trainings (not many big bands), I can imagine any rhythm section instruments, especially bassists will be needed for the school.
So exciting to see these audition reports coming in. Way to go Lendlees S and thanks @Lendlees for some great advice including the value of interacting with other families.
dsinha, what a great response by your son, so articulate and leaves options open while being totally honest.
@akapiratequeen , @Lendlees and others - I am also interested in knowing what other people think about schools where you like the teacher and program but where your own kid is maybe coming in at the high end compared to peers in the program. I’m particularly thinking about this in light of @glassharmonica 's very interesting comments. Would this be a compromise? Too much of a compromise? D likes to challenge herself and have peers that will challenge her. However, I live in perpetual fear that D might get admitted to one of her top choices but not get enough financial support to be able to afford it.
@Pikachu’sMom - thanks! She was confident when she made her small list - but now when the rubber meets the road she is getting very nervous. She called me today and said “Mom - you are right - I should have auditioned at Frost!” (OMG - you don’t know how I cajoled her to audition there!). Her bassist friend is getting wood by Frost right now. And I think she regrets not throwing her hat in the USC and UCLA ring, too. Oh boy - sometimes, just sometimes, mom knows best.
How did your daughter’s audition go? (where was it?).
I’m right there with you and your D, @tripletmama — except I veer from thinking S doesn’t have enough schools to thinking there are too many, from being sure he should have had more reaches to worrying that no one will admit him or, if they do, give him a dime. I think we just have to go through the process at this point, while acknowledging that we’re nuts and likely to remain so until it all shakes out in a couple of months. It only takes one school with the right offer, and your D has a crazy talent. All will be well.
Sending you a virtual hug!
(It helps me to read last year’s “Journey” thread from right around now and realize that those moms and dads were batsh*t too!)
Information on Jacobs School of Music auditions - D (soprano) auditioned Friday. She had done the CAP program in the summer which prepared her for this audition. Her voice teacher invited one of her professors. My daughter invited 1 professor from the CAP program she meet (who also waived her prescreen video based off her singing at the summer program) as well as another professor she had met during her college visit (talked but didn’t sing for him). Feel like the room was stacked in her favor. All the auditions that day were approximately 6 minutes - basically 2 songs. No feedback or discussion. She felt good coming out but you never know. Now we wait to hear. Hope this helps for anyone with later auditions to mentally prepare yourself.
Keep those audition reports coming. Congrats to all who successfully got through the recent auditions. My daughter auditioned for CalArts Saturday. This was her 5th audition. We were able to secure an off-site audition in Chicago, which helped with travel cost and was a time saver. We took a Saturday flight to Chicago, arrived a few hours before audition time and left by train a few hours after the audition so that my daughter could return for her theater school commitment which involved 4 shows on Sunday. Yep-that’s how we roll these days. Lol.
The CalArts audition went well but it was a strange, stressful pre-audition experience. Sorry for the lengthy description but hard to summarize in a few lines!
We showed up at the room indicated on the 8th floor 20 minutes before the scheduled audition. Very vacant in the area around the door they told us to go to. They have no signs about auditions and the door is locked. There is a sign that says" ring bell" so we do. No response. We start to panic a little, wondering if we are in wrong place or had the wrong date. I triple check emails (one which was sent to me as recently as the day before) and all checks out that we are where we should be. Just to be sure, I am calling and emailing my contact person and no answer or response.
The only thing active on the floor is an escape room filled with young adults (at first we thought it was the audition waiting room) with a sign that says “ax throwing next door” and a bunch of people excitedly hearing about the zombie room. Starting to feel like the Twilight Zone. Lol.
It’s 5 minutes past the audition time and still no sign of anyone, but we did notice an empty orchestra room with a light on, so that gave us a glimmer of hope that something musical was happening nearby. Finally, about 10 minutes after the audition time, a cheerful person comes down and says “Hi, are you ready for your audition? We changed the auditions to the 10th floor so I’ve been coming down for each candidate.” Whaaat?? Why wouldn’t they have a sign?? She referenced the orchestra room with the light on and says “oh, that was the practice room you could have used” as we pass it. Nice to know now! It didn’t have a piano so probably wouldn’t have helped much, but again, no signs or email to explain. Very friendly and sweet but aren’t these basic courtesies?
So she walks us up 2 huge flights of stairs and we are both out of breath. My daughter is introduced to to the other person conducting interviews (it’s 2 people total) and they have her perform her songs right away-no rest. Since she was auditioning for the “Performer-Composer” program, she did 2 original pop tunes, She is solid on her singing but sometimes shaky on her piano playing but she nailed both-sounded great to me. She said interview went well but they told her she was perfect for the “experimental pop music" major while the “performer-composer” major included Chamber music or those who were into traditional composition. Said Experimental Pop would be for writing songs for movies, etc, We did email the school a while back when she was determining a major but never heard back, so now we know. They indicated no problem to change it if she is accepted (acceptance rate is quite low-under 25%- so not holding our breath.)
When we were leaving we heard them going back to the 8th floor and the one woman was singing the chorus to my daughter’s first original she performed for them which was cool!
One thing is for sure-we are building great memories through this unpredictable audition season! It was stress overload for awhile, but now we can laugh about it!