Class of 2025 Undergrad/Class of 2023 Grad: The Tours, the Auditions, the Journey

College Majors Music Major
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Bit by bit our list is getting shorter - good. Personally I’m about ready to be done!

FSU released decisions last week, but in my daughter’s case, they did not provide a decision and claimed that she had not yet provided her audition pieces. I told her she needed to write to them to figure out why they can’t see her uploads. She replied she wanted to withdraw her application since, thinking about it, she would pick Arizona or AppState over FSU. Same for UTK, she is declining their offer.

More news: she got accepted to Lawrence, hooray! They offered her a great merit scholarship as well - bringing Lawrence well within our comfort range for price. We have been trying to be very open all along about what we can afford and that Bard, Lawrence, and St. Olaf might ultimately not be in range. So this was a really happy acceptance!

That leaves two - Bard and St. Olaf. We are tempering our Bard expectations based on her audition. As for St. Olaf, we had written them off entirely since their “live” (zoom) audition weekends were scheduled for 2/27 and 3/6 and we hadn’t heard anything from them. But they have recently updated their site to indicate that they are not holding the auditions. So … maybe?

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@stringbird people seem to love Lawrence. Congratulations!

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This is indeed excellent news, and it arrives as early as February! Lawrence is a great school with an excellent reputation and is well funded. Congratulations to your daughter!!! It is such an encouraging sign for the rest of the kids that hard work does pay off. Thanks for sharing.

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Sounds like your kiddo has some great options and potentially more good news to come - congrats and thanks for the update! Also more than ready to be done on my end…

A little update on my kid - I’d say she also has a couple good options and potentially more good news to come. I’m pleased with her pared-down list - I think she could be happy and get a great education at most of them, and hopefully she’ll be able to pick one with the right cost for what it provides. Her high school musical wraps up next week, which will give her lots more time to research the remaining options, attend admitted student zooms, meet professors, do sample lessons, etc. This probably looks like a crazy diverse list to those of you with instrumental musicians, but I suspect it’s not that weird for a singer.

Univ of Miami - admitted - likes the flexibility of the music program and quality/flexibility of academics - worried about lack of opportunities for acting - cost is [surprisingly ;)] ok, with Florida’s national merit Benacquisto program (amazing! had I known about it many more FL schools would have been on her list!) - I am really interested to see what more she learns about this program, it was really surprising to us that she was admitted to Frost EA, I’m hoping that is a good sign that they need her voice type and she’d have a lot of opportunities (even though that would be kinda weird because she is a soprano like a zillion others)

Univ of Oklahoma - admitted - loves the music people she’s interacted with - seriously so nice! - a little worried about fit and she hasn’t applied for honors college yet, eye-roll - cost is very low, they have a superb national merit scholarship!

ASU - admitted academically and to the honors college - interview was fantastic, and honestly I might encourage her to go even if she has to re-audition during freshman year - it’s a good fit for her academically, inexpensive because of good national merit scholarship, and most importantly, it offers the flexibility to do everything she wants: BM in VP, BA in acting, minor in musical theater, etc.

UCLA or USC - acting BA - (surprisingly, lol ;)) she passed the UCLA prescreen and the interview went great - USC is video audition only for the BA - both schools have great academics and acting BAs are rare - would be sad to give up VP as a major, but I bet the extracurricular opportunities are pretty good, even outside of school

Highly unlikely but not a no yet: Yale - would be a good fit program-wise - BA in music or theater

Nos and probable nos: Vanderbilt (withdrew application because she was “only applying because Dad loves Nashville”), BU (did not seem like a good fit during zoom audition, which probably not coincidentally also did not go very well), Northwestern (did not pass music prescreen, could still be admitted for acting BA, but long shot and would not be worth cost), Minnesota (did not pass BFA acting prescreen), UBC (did not pass BFA acting prescreen - music still a possibility but I don’t see it)

Good luck to everyone!

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My son has also been accepted to Lawrence in the 5 year dual degree program in the university and the conservatory. We saw it last year right before COVID19. FYI despite the ‘big name’ schools he’s interviewing with he loved Lawrence and it is holding high on his list.

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Personally I love Lawrence and I’m ready to quit my job and enroll, haha. They’ve been fabulous in all our interactions with them. Too bad I don’t play viola!

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@MathandSinging I may have already offered this, lol, but please PM me if you want info about USC’s BA theatre program and extracurricular activities. My D graduated with that degree from USC a few years ago. Also have some suggestions about music and academic merit from Miami. My son was a NMF VP applicant who almost went to Miami.

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Yep. I definitely remember when dropping my D off at college thinking “I wish I were a college student again!”

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@MathandSinging Congratulations!! Question about UMiami Frost. Was your daughter admitted as a VP or MT major? My D is also a soprano. Frost told her they wanted her & she was in on their end, but she received a deferral from UMiami 2 days later.

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BAL to your daughter! How wonderful that she’s already developed a relationship with the people at Frost and they know they want her!!! I think you should put more weight on what they have told her about wanting her vs the fact that she was deferred - they do say on their website that they defer most music applicants - presumably so they can finish auditions before putting together their class. Is it a top choice for her? What are her other favorites? I’d love to hear more from soprano parents - it feels slightly more uncertain, because they are still “growing” their instruments and because my understanding is there are more of them compared to other voice types.

Ours was indeed admitted for VP at Frost, not MT - have no idea why they decided to do that. My best guess is they have a need for the specific type of soprano voice she seems to be developing. Or maybe it’s academics. Or money - my kid will qualify for a nice scholarship paid for by the state of Florida, which may make them feel they don’t need to offer as much (let’s hope not, lol!). Or randomly pulled out of a hat? Impossible to say! :slight_smile:

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That’s all amazing!! I wish her the best!! It is a top choice for her, but we are from NJ and since deferred most likely no scholarship. So the money would be a factor if admitted. She is also waiting on Ithaca, Boston Univ, Carnegie Mellon, Oberlin, NYU Steinhardt, and Manhattan School of Music. Accepted to SMU, Baldwin Wallace, UDel, Hartt, JMU, Furman, Temple Boyer, Rowan. Trying to do info sessions, trial lessons & observe master classes. It’s a lot. I agree it’s so hard to figure out fit virtually !!

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That’s quite a list!!!I see Boyer on it. Were you given a date that scholarships would be sent out ?

Congrats to everyone for all of the successes!!!

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No info from Boyer yet. We are having issues with their financial aid forms, so not sure how that will work. They haven’t reached out after acceptance and have not responded to emails.

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@vistajay I’m very interested in hearing about music at Miami! Trying to gauge undergrad opportunities for classical voice

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Will PM you

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MT and VP are completely separate auditions and depts. To be admitted to MT, she would have had to do MT auditions (they require singing, acting and dance…with no art songs in foreign languages). My D auditioned/was accepted to MT at Miami. She auditioned for 3ish VP, 5ish MT and 1 acting program (it’s been awhile so it gets blurry).

Generally, MT and VP do not “cross-over”…however some programs are doing a bit of it. Oklahoma does it for sure. It’s one of their draws. IU does it a very little…but does have path requiring a separate MT audition. Still most programs are pretty siloed. So you need to use extra curricular opportunities for MT or acting (if in a VP program). The silos will always cast their people first…and then fill in with a VP or two…assuming there is time in the VP schedule, considering ensemble and chorus requirements.

My D was a student who wanted it all…but found that very hard to find in a school…and once found, very difficult to accomplish due to time demands. She is happy with her choice to have done VP now. She can make a decent living teaching voice (she has a MM) and gets paid better for her musical skills. She does do some theater and MT professionally (as well as commercial and industrial on camera work). In theater and MT, she says that she is most often cast as “ensemble” lol. Her best and highest pay per performance is still classical voice. But that may be a reflection of her skill set.

I hope that this helps some of the “voice” parents that are trying to make decisions.

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Even though mine is generally a kid who wants it all, she decided not to do MT auditions. Very very grateful about this! Every now and then I browse the MT board on CC and feel really happy to have dodged that bullet.

You mean Oklahoma City U for crossover, right? I think at OU they are quite separate. One of the reasons I really like ASU for my kid is that they do offer a BA in acting (application after 1st year) and a MT minor within the school of performing arts and we have heard that they cast fairly freely between MT and VP students. But my suspicion is that a music degree is right for her, as it seems to have been for your daughter.

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My daughter goes to Baldwin Wallace and it is a fantastic school. We, as parents, are so impressed with everything about it!! I would highly recommend it!! Good luck with everything!!

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My DS21 looked at BW but ultimately took it off his list. His twin applied and got accepted in the college (non-music major) so I think he didn’t want to go to the same school :slight_smile:

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BW is at the top of my D list for VP! She’s been accepted and really likes what she has been learning, everyone is also so nice!

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