Peabody jazz audition invites finally out! Son’s audition is 2/19.
Is it just me or are audition notices going out later than last year ? for 2018 fall, we got back all the dates before Christmas of 2017, except for Bienen which announced the dates in the 1st week of January.
@SpartanDrew Is Frost different from most other schools? I thought all schools gave EA accepted students their award money earlier than regular decision. My S has had his acceptance and financial aid package, including his academic merit and music merit, in hand for at least a month now from the school he applied EA to.
Yes actually they are different. Because the EA kids that get accepted to UMiami still have to audition at Frost and those auditions are with everyone else. When D applied EA to Loyola she got her full package early on. Like Berklee does as well. But she also auditioned early, also like Berklee does. But maybe since this kid had their audition waived they got their package. Again just trying to clarify because this seems to be new ground for Frost. They’ve never done it this way before.
@SpartanDrew I see, makes sense. He did audition early, back in November. It would be nice if these schools would just standardize all their application/audition processes. It’s almost impossible to keep up with all the different methods and requirements the different schools use. Just when I think we have it figured out, a school quirk pops up.
Son got his Peabody notice too, and we’re also on 2/19. See you there, @lkbux64 ?
@SpartanDrew - I will clarify what my daughter reports from her friend about Miami - stay tuned! Of course, it would help if I could speak to her mother - which I might try to pry from her. Wish me luck! 
The jazz bassist is exceptional according to my daughter. She got $30k from Berklee at the summer program and is going to audition again.
@WestOfPCH, that’s great! Would love to connect at Peabody but I’m not accompanying my son to that one. Baltimore is an easy train ride from NY so I think he’s doing that one on his own.
Son also got his Peabody notice and we are headed to Baltimore on 2/19 as well.
Leaving for Cincinnati tonight for son’s audition tomorrow. Flight is already delayed six hours! I’m starting to freak out!! Son is calm. LOL…
Best of luck, @musiciseternal and son! It’s funny when they have to calm US down…
My D got the invite to select her audition time slot for The New School. Such a civilized approach with so many options! Why can’t other schools do it like this. Picked a nice easy Sunday afternoon slot in early March so it’s not stacked up with anything.
One of her friends/bandmates is auditioning at Frost for Jazz today, so will see if we can get any good insight or color commentary when he’s done.
@DrummerDad18, my S got his invite from The New School today too and I had the same reaction as you – so nice to have little bit of control for once!
Like @momlurker we took a ladder approach to the question of which schools to apply to. However, in our case, D applied to multiple schools in a tier because on the front side of presceens (and now on the front side of auditions) it is so hard to predict not only where she will be admitted but where she will receive enough financial support to make a school possible. We know from a friend’s experience last year that even within a similar tier of schools, results can range from not being admitted at all at one school to receiving a full-tuition scholarship at another school.
@dsinha , Thanks for posting about your book. I will have to show this post to my husband who continues to feel anxious about a daughter pursuing a classical music performance degree. Better yet, I’ll give him a copy of the book when it comes out–hopefully before D graduates and hits the job market. Fortunately he’s not quite as freaked out as he was when he first learned about her plans to get a BM rather than a BA.
Greetings from the University of Miami Frost School of Music where S has his audition today. Generally speaking, the day going somewhere between well and very well, though S hasn’t had his actual audition yet, so ask me again later tonight.
Here’s the midday report of my impressions (so far):
- Free parking was arranged before we arrived. There was a minor glitch in the pre-registration website, but was fixed before it caused a problem
- They asked us to arrive at 8am to pick up audition packet, which included specific audition time (unknown until revealed in packet), along with full schedule for the day. They asked/warned us to allocate the entire day; jazz candidates in particular were asked to participate in a 5-6pm jam session. Alrighty then! Good thing S loves that stuff . . .
- We actually arrived at about 7:15am, with plan to go to Starbucks on campus and grab coffee and breakfast. Did so, relaxed sipping coffee in front of the lake, walked over to the registration desk (which was very close) and discovered many others already there. Also discovered that Frost was kind enough to provide coffee and bagels, and that the first scheduled activity on the calendar wasn't until 9am. So it turned out we had set aside more time than we needed. No big deal for us, but would have been nice to know ahead of time since we flew in from SoCal and could've used a little more sleep due to time change
- First session was a 30min welcome from Frost's Dean, Frost Admissions Director, UM admissions person, UM financial aid person, Frost Assoc Dean for undergrads, and a current student, plus a couple of rah rah videos to start and end things.
- After that, parents got kicked out and students were given a theory test. S was confident he did well or at least well enough not to be stressed about it at all.
- Parents had a 10am session w/ Assoc Dean for undergrads. He talked for about 10 min about academic curriculum layout, then spent the next 45 min answering Q&A. During this time, S roamed around campus exploring, making a stop in the campus bookstore (and managed to refrain from buying any paraphernalia of "The U").
- The schedule included opportunity to sit in on a studio class and a larger "forum" class related to student's specific discipline (though no studio class was available for jazz drummers). Also available was a 30min tour of Frost given by current students; tours started at 12noon or 3pm, and you are encouraged to attend the one that best fits into the rest of your schedule.
- Lunch was whenever it fit into your schedule. We chose to eat on the early side (11am) before the tour, and chose the Ratskeller, the bar/grill/pub on campus. Sat in one of the legendary glider booths overlooking the lake. Food and service were good.
- S's audition time is 3:30pm. Was told that there were warm up rooms. Technically, that is true, with three stories worth of rooms in one building; however, they seem to be first come first served; there are no sign ups, none were allocated to auditioning candidates, and current students want/need them too. On top of that, the number of rooms with drumsets is very limited, so S is foregoing a warm up room and is loosening up on his own. Oh well. . . . This is really the only thing that has been less than ideal. My S takes these things in stride but I'm sure others would be extremely unhappy by it.
(One quick additional note since my original post: seems to be lots of jazz and students here today. Maybe it’s just me, or maybe it’s because there aren’t regional auditions allowed for jazz instrumentalists)
That’s it for now. Will update once we’re done with everything. To any parents who are also here (and I know there are some), please feel free to agree or disagree as warranted.
Hi @MeritHopeful, my D visited Puget Sound although she did not end up applying because she wanted to be in a larger studio for her instrument. However, we really like all the people we met there. We contacted the instructor for her instrument on relatively short notice to ask for a lesson, and he rearranged his schedule to accommodate her. The director of bands was great. Welcomed students to drop in and chat in his office; told us about interesting multi-media projects he was doing in a non-auditioned ensemble. Just felt like a small, but dynamic environment. Sorry that it didn’t work out for my D, but she really wants a bigger pond to swim in.
My S is trying to cut the number of auditions he has to do. We are waiting on a pre-screen result before we do that. But I thought what about a video audition. I asked if he would be willing to record one time something that could be sent to multiple schools. There are still a few that are rolling admissions that don’t require pre-screens and his GPA and class rank just went up. So why not throw out a couple applications of comparable schools for comparison. It may help in financial negotiations, or he may go to an admitted student day and fall in love.
Good luck to everyone at auditions this weekend! I’m especially looking forward to hearing back from everyone going to Frost this weekend since we we will be there in February. D is going to BU, Rice and Chapman next week. Its a tight schedule, so I’m hoping we can escape unscathed by weather or chaos from not paying TSA employees.
@WestOfPCH thanks for your detailed update and good luck with the actual audition! Sounds like a fun day overall so far!