Glad the rescheduling as video was allowed.
On the note of losing interest, had the exact same experience with my older kid during a school tour when we saw the tunnels connecting buildings on campus in a Minneapolis school. Student giving us the tour joked saying he can spend the whole winter in shorts and flip/flops without ever having to go out but it wasn’t enough to sell!
My oldest was always interested in the U of Chicago (not for music, for philosophy.) Her dad took her on a college visit there in March and they found it windy and bitter cold. But everyone they ran into remarked on how much better the weather was that day. She was shocked and realized she would not be happy in a climate so cold. She never even applied!
My Arizona D visited the school in Chicago she ended up attending, during a polar vortex (2014). She’s still in Chicago, so go figure.
That said, S and I are glad to be traveling to Texas tonight for auditions rather than to the Midwest, and the parents from colder places I chatted with at ASU auditions last weekend had ASU rising in their kids’ rankings. Even my son came away liking ASU better, where previously it suffered from local school negativity. Amazing what a beautiful winter day under palm trees can do.
Sorry things didn’t work out for Berklee @Leao114
And how frustrating the document didn’t open properly at first, causing even more anxiety and stress I’m sure. Ugh. We are all having ups and downs during this crazy process, but I have faith our kids will find the right place in the end.
And for everyone avoiding the cold-weather locations, I totally get it! I’m from Buffalo so we are used to it but I’m sure my daughter would love to end up in a sunny, warm place for college. Speaking of which…Frost is coming up : )
My daughter is a lead in her school musical so she’s been non-stop busy and has had no time to get ready for the Frost audition on 2/8. She was starting to get sick again with a sore throat which didn’t help matters! Luckily, she was blessed with 2 snow days this week which helped a ton. We didn’t enjoy the -20 wind chill and blizzard conditions but it was worth it so she could sleep in, rest her voice, and rehearse. She has to be prepared with 3 originals for the MADE/CAM program. Crossing my fingers she gets it all together!
Has it been cold? Says the person from MN.
As a warm country person, I can understand the experiences of people that visited colleges / auditioned in mid-winter and changed their minds about applying to colleges in those areas / towns.
Before my S applied last year ('18), we went on multiple visits in Feb 2017, to colleges in Ohio, Illinois, upstate NY, and Boston.Our local high school has a week off for Presidents day - when, one would think that winter would be in full force in most of the midwest and North East. We landed in mid-February in Cleveland to 70 degree weather. And then onward to Boston, more beautiful sunshine. Then back to Chicago/Evanston, to some more of the same, before we headed home. We came back with our S convinced that he wanted to go to school out east.
Then audition time in Jan / Feb 2018, same story again - except for the Jacobs trip in early Jan (where it snowed as we got into town), every other trip across the midwest and north east left our son convinced he could deal with it. Now, S is a shorts and t-shirt kinda guy - he thinks wearing slacks and a polo shirt is “formal”. Luckily for us (and him), he picked his first choice school on the west coast. If it had been this year, he definitely would have had a different experience.
Safe travels people. Good Luck for the upcoming weekend auditions.
I’d love to weigh in about University of Michigan as my eldest D is a junior there. She absolutely LOVES it! We are from California and all we did was purchase her a Canada Goose coat (in May from Nordstrom’s at a huge discount) and a pair of sorrels. It’s such an incredible school and Ann Arbor is the ideal college environment, please don’t let the few months of cold weather deter you.
SMTD is such an incredible department!
Go Blue!
Did anyone hear from UMiami today? Wondering if Frost kids won’t hear until a later date? I thought acceptance into UM was separate from getting into Frost, so I thought we would hear either way today and find out down the road about Frost, but no update on portal.
@Propinquity4444 At the auditions Kim Kerr told us we would hear mid to end of March.
end of March feels like a lifetime away… sigh
Good luck and safe travels to everyone auditioning this weekend! DH and son head to Ithaca tomorrow for the big long shot audition on Saturday. It looks like there will be a little snow in our parts and through part of PA, but nothing major along the way.
Son was going to go to school for half a day tomorrow, but they just called for a delay, so I guess he can stay home and do one last practice (chances of DH wanting to take him to the music school to use a practice room late at night in single digit temps - after a 6 hour drive - are slim to none).
@BayAreaMom End of March!!! Just to know if we got into UM? I can understand Frost, but c’mon. If UM isn’t going to take someone that applied EA, why hold out hope for Frost? That’s insane!
We were told that Ithaca might reach out as soon as late Feb/early March. I also checked last year’s acceptance thread to see exactly when people were notified. Interesting reading!
On another note, we have made it to Rochester in spite of a car snafu and are warm and cozy in our hotel. Weather was bright and sunny all the way, just bitterly cold. Our wiper fluid system froze and the only way to wash the windshield until we get it fixed is manually. The cursing mom on the side of the road on Interstate 90 in the bitter wind this afternoon — that would be me. Once we arrived, I thankfully parked the car and we got dinner in the hotel.
This is S’s third audition and he’s gotten progressively less nervous with each one. There seems to be no correlation to how competitive the program is — Eastman is arguably his most complicated audition, and he had to add a new song at the last minute. He just seems more comfortable with the process overall. He was far more anxious in December for a far less taxing audition.
After we finish at Eastman, we’ll jump directly in the car and head for Syracuse. Loving the time with S but I think we’ll both be glad when “double whammy weekend” is over.
@akapiratequeen - glad that auditions are getting easier. I’ve heard that happens. Our daughter’s first one is this weekend in Boston - so hopefully she will get the jitters out of the way. Good luck with Eastman and then Syracuse.
Is anyone going to be in Boston at NEC this weekend? Our daughter is flying into Boston from LA tomorrow on her own - and although she is fairly independent - she is also pretty scattered (they don’t call them “space basses” for nothing 
. She’s hoping to sneak her bow on the plane - we’ll see how that goes. She really only uses her bow for tuning purposes - so it’s not the end of the world.
Stay warm everyone!
S auditioned at U of Delaware this week. He’s primarily looking for a Music Business program, although going the Voice route when there is no business program. UDel wasn’t his cup of tea. He already auditioned at UMaryland, so the comparison didn’t help in the ‘schools within driving distance’ category. They were running behind and told him ahead of time that he should pick one song and that he would be cut off half way through. I was glad they warned him so that he didn’t take it personally! They thanked him when he was done and told him he had a beautiful voice. When the decision letter arrives, we’ll know how much those words were worth! lol
One of the students guides told my S that it takes him 30 minutes to walk from his dorm to the music building and that he has taken an Uber to class when it was really cold outside. That didn’t go over well with S!!! All good things to know because at one point I was worried that Belmont was too small, but after UDel, I think it might just be the perfect size!
@akapiratequeen I really enjoyed the Eastman audition weekend last year. If you have an opportunity to attend a presentation at the Institute for Music Leadership while ds is auctioning or otherwise engaged, I recommend it. I found it a very forward thinking aspect of Eastman; I enjoyed that talk. Also enjoyed the elevator music.
Hi everyone! My bassoonist had her first of five auditions last weekend at Baylor and tomorrow we are heading down to audition at UT Austin for audition #2. Baylor was great and she absolutely fell in love. They actually allowed her to audition on Sunday (not a standard audition day) so that she wouldn’t have to miss her scholarship interview on Saturday (a full day process and the day that everyone else was auditioning). That went a long way with me and she felt really good about the audition, the campus, the dorms, and everything. On Saturday, they really rolled out the red carpet and even gave the parents free tickets to the Baylor vs. Alabama game. I told her that if the schools are doing things right, she’s going to fall in love with every school, every weekend, lol… We are really excited about the UT Audition though. It’s actually my first choice for her. Her first choice, however, is MSM.
The prescreen process is interesting. It seems like for bassoons, the number of available seats really drives how many they invite down to audition in person.There were two prescreens we didn’t make it past. One of which was Juilliard. Many of the Juilliard professors are also at MSM, so I asked the bassoon instructor if it would be worth it for us to apply to MSM as well as Juilliard or to just apply to one. Initially I was thinking, “Why spend the extra money on the second app…If they don’t invite her to audition for one, why would they invite her to audition for the other?” To my surprise, the professor advised us to apply to MSM as well, due to the likelihood of Juilliard only possibly having one undergraduate bassoon opening this upcoming school year. I didn’t tell my D this until after she received news of not passing the prescreen, but it did make her feel better. Of course she said she wished I would have told her that to start out with so she wouldn’t have wasted her time on the essay… That response was exactly the reason why I didn’t tell her! This process is definitely an ongoing adventure and I can’t wait to see where all the cards fall.
Congrats to everyone who has already received acceptances and good luck to all auditioning!
I forgot to mention a good read for our young musicians. I highly suggest purchasing the book Failing Up by: Leslie Odom Jr. (of Hamilton). This book totally reinvigorated my D and her attitude about the auditions and prescreens. It’s like $10 on Amazon, but is worth way more!
@Leao114, I’m sorry Berklee didn’t work out… It’s hard to receive a no. Hugs to you and your son.