My D, my wife and I were at Frost’s audition/program yesterday, and the only thing I would add to @WestOfPCH 's great summary is that we felt the music facilities tour in particular was miss-able. Our tour was lead by two nice, well-meaning band/music-ed/ instrumentalist freshman, and it consisted of them walking us by the outside of the buildings and talking about what was in them. D had been in every building for other things by that point in the day. It would have been worthwhile if they had card-swiped us into some of the performance spaces we hadn’t seen. It was a good chance to ask Frost freshman a few questions. But if you or your kid needs some downtime (the Frost day is a bit of a grind if you add in all the optional stuff) take that time slot to relax.
How were the actual auditions at Frost? I heard they are more formal than some and not always warm and fuzzy. Hope your kids all felt great! How did the jam session go for the jazz kids? My daughter would love to do that but I don’t think they have it set up for MADE candidates. Did anyone get a practice room? My daughter would love even 30 minutes in a practice room ahead of the audition but sounds like they are impossible to snag. The College of Saint Rose was great with practice rooms. She was given her own practice room when we arrived and, due to a late audition time, had a few hours to use it. She felt so prepared and confident when she walked into the audition that day.
This has been incredible reading everyones experiences so far, thank you all for taking the time to be so thorough! My D’s start next weekend in LA. Question : if she is accompanying herself does she bring her keyboards with her? I thought I have read that some colleges provide the basics. It seems so crazy to have to set up a keyboard and sing and interview in 10-20 min.
I will jump in here. Yes I agree that the Frost tour of music facilities was less than exciting. We only saw the outside of buildings.
@BayAreaMom2016 Most schools should have a keyboard or piano available. Maybe check their website to confirm. My daughter only had to take her guitar with her. Never her own keyboard.
@AmyIzzy our particular Frost jazz jam was more jam and less jazz. Truly impressive that these kids can get up there after a long day and play whatever’s called out with complete strangers. But also brought out some real hot dogging and ours had an exhaustively competitive vibe. My S managed to find a practice room, though didn’t have it long.
Today’s Boyer School (Temple) was super low key. Only two percussionists (and one was MusicEd) so lots of practice rooms and students to chat with. We had met one last year and he was around so S talked with him a bit.
One nice touch was they gave each kid a bag with a bottle of water, a granola bar and a Temple USB keychain.
Parents were on their own (or they could hang out with their kid until audition) until an info session at noon. They did tours which we opted out of since we did one when we visited last year. While waiting one of their vocal choirs sang and answered questions.
Kid said audition went well - they suggested he take a snare drum lesson with our symphony’s head percussionist…and gave him a message to send along. They also gave him some feedback on one of his excerpts as well. And afterwards the department head walked him out and we all chatted for a little while. All in all really nice people here.
Great to hear so many positive experiences so far. Congrats!
@AmyIzzy The practice rooms at Frost were first come, first served, without any set aside for auditioners, as opposed to current students, but auditions are spread throughout the day. My D (who didn’t need a room with drums) had no trouble grabbing one. I didn’t get a “formal” feel about the auditions (everyone was friendly and welcoming), but I would say the were efficient and kept it moving.
D liked Frost and the broader UM; the campus is beautiful. It seems like a great place to spend four years. However, Frost is a musical reach for D. She needed to wow them, and she’s not sure she did that. It’s a shame that a less than confidence-building audition comes a week after getting stopped a step short of All-state and a week before receiving what will almost certainly be bad news from UNC Chapel Hill this coming Friday. I know the best growth/lessons come from disappointment, but still, on some level, it would be nice if our kids only had successes. D is excited about Univ. of Colorado Boulder auditions in two weeks; hopefully that carries her through.
As expected, I don’t have much feedback from my son about his audition at UMD. He arrived about 90 minutes before his audition and found a practice room with plenty of time to warm up.
The day included a panel with faculty and students (this happened while he was auditioning); a meet and greet (the faculty for his instrument didn’t particulate); an information session and tour (he had already done this) and a faculty recital (no bass faculty participating). DH and S ended up just going out for lunch after the audition and coming back home.
He auditioned for two bass faculty members and played his entire audition repertoire without feedback. I don’t know if this means they wrote him off after 10 seconds and didn’t think he was worth talking to or if this completely normal. I couldn’t get any feedback on how it went beyond “Good.” Based on my son’s personality, the only possible options were going to be “eh,” “OK,” and “good,” but there is no way for me to gauge how good the good was!
eh1234, Your son sounds like my son! Just add two more “Don’t worry!” “It’s fine!”…for everything…
Everyone seems having a nice audition week. Congratulations!
I have a question particularly for jazz musicians. What do you / your child usually wear for live auditions? No suits / no black dress shoes? Or better to be formal?
@JeJeJe - I think “business casual” would work well.
@JeJeJe - my son, a jazz guitarist, wears a suit and tie to his auditions as advised by his music school.
My S used to “suit up” (he plays jazz sax) but recently switched to dress slacks, nice shoes and a button-down shirt with no tie. He finds playing a bit easier and his teacher said as long as he looks nice, it’s fine.
My son chose pretty casual (but a little better than regular “go-to-school” clothes) for a Berklee audition at Berklee; campus. But it’s Berklee, variety of music and people, not particularly for “jazz major” auditions. His judges weren’t specialized in jazz (We thought that at least Berklee categorized auditions / judges in music styles at Berklee campus but they didn’t). My son would need to reconsider for other conservatories. Thank you for your feedback!
@DrummerDad18 - looks like our daughter’s will get to meet! Her audition is at 2pm on Sunday, March 3 at the New School - so sounds like about the same time. I haven’t booked her flight back yet because she’s going to try and get a practice lesson with Linda Oh if possible (our daughter worships her). We will see if that’s possible. And I completely agree with the ease at the New School - NEC had only one audition date. Really???
@WestofPCH - sounds like you are enjoying Miami. Let us know how the audition went and what your son thought. (I’m still giving my daughter a hard time about bypassing Frost - I don’t she will ever hear the end of it from me 
Well - maybe someday.
I’m in Mexico so better run - it’s an all inclusive place (with my company) - when my daughter talked to me she couldn’t believe that I’m not drinking my weight in free drinks! LOL. I’ve not had that many so I guess that makes me an old, boring fart.
Trying not to stress about my two daughters and their college admissions stuff - we put a deposit in on a college for our other daughter at a great aviation school where she also got a golf scholarship (waiting on the National Letter of Intent) - but it’s in NORTH DAKOTA! (she says she doesn’t mind cold weather and I just keep telling her that having lived in MN for a year, she has NO idea what cold is. 
Good luck everyone - anyone else auditioning this weekend?
Congratulations @tripletmama on your (other) triplet’s college selection!. She sounds very cool. I wouldn’t worry about Frost. I think your D has a good sense of herself.
Feedback please: Yesterday I was talking to my jazz bassist daughter about her upcoming auditions (she has NEC on Feb. 3). She said that she was approached by a fairly successful female musician in the LA area to play a gig with her (rock) at a large venue. I said “that’s fantastic” - but she is reticent because the rehearsals will be before her NEC audition and the gig in between that and her Berklee second audition (she’s already in but trying to increase her scholarship).
Anyway - she asked me my opinion and I said “well - anytime you gig, it helps you”. And let’s not forget that NEC isn’t known for giving good scholarships so you can view it as a practice audition".
Well- she went ballistic and said that I am not supporting her and I think that she won’t get in, etc. etc. I said “wait a minute - I never said that! Just that you might not get a good scholarship because they aren’t known for that and I’m just trying to realistic!”. Wow. Thoughts?
Also - regarding gigging - our bassist daughter can get a gig every weekend if she wants to (she has slowed up to prepare for auditions). I think the difference is that she lives in LA. So - any of your kids that are looking at schools in LA, know that gigs are easier to come by.
I hope I survive the audition season…
And high fives to all of you who had your first auditions this weekend!
Wow! @tripletmama so exciting that your daughter is so sought after. We all know how much you support her. Kids just can’t see that sometimes. I would take the gig, BTW. It can only help her in the long run.
S auditioned at UMD yesterday for VP. Went very well. He wasn’t prepared for the size of the hall that he would audition in…guess we just thought it would be in a smaller space (it’s was our first experience)…and I think that intimidated him at first, but they took the kids on a tour of the concert hall first so at least he wasn’t surprised when it was his turn. He was very excited after it was over and said his voice sounded amazing with the acoustics in the space (not bragging, just in awe!). Practice rooms were easy to come by, so no stress there. There were little breakout sessions throughout the day. Q&A with current students; professor (although they made it sound like it was more than one and it wasn’t); tour (SOM is within Performing Arts Center, so we only got to see the performance spaces and not the classrooms…would have liked to see where the kids would be spending most of their time); and I think a Music Ed session, but S wasn’t part of that. Music Ed seems to be big there and they said they have 100% placement after graduation.
For voice, they said they would audition about 80, take 30, and expect to yield 15. Decisions would be end of first week in February. They talked about scholarships a bit and said if they want you they are going to work with you as much as they can, even if the money doesn’t appear until the last few days in April they will keep trying. They also said that you need to let them know that you are interested. One of the professors at the audition approached my son afterwards and said he would like to do a Skype lesson with him, so S was excited about that. After he sang, they asked him to come to the table and put him in the hot seat a bit. Asked him why VP? What other colleges he applied to.