Ugh sorry that really stinks. Especially since he was excited for his solo adventure. Crossing fingers this later flight gets off without a hitch!
Nothing can top the 30 plus inches of snow in the DC area on Presidents Day weekend in 2003. DC never gets that kind of snow. It was a huge mess for both those there for auditions, and the faculty who couldn’t get back to the area because the airports were closed. Big mess.
But everyone made it…eventually…even if rescheduling was needed.
Good luck to you all.
1 Like
I went on one graduate audition to NYC with my D. After we arrived (in a snow storm) my H called to check on us bc it was being reported that a Delta flight skidded off the runaway stopping not far from the water. Multiple people were injured. It was within the hour that we arrived. We were fine. But I do remember walking in the middle of the road in deep snow in NYC to get to the audition. Luckily our hotel was close enough to just walk as all transportation was snarled. It was surreal to walk in that storm down the streets…and I would guess that there were many cancellations for that audition. Seems to happen every year.
Hang in there. I do feel for everyone’s stress and disappointment. Ugh…
1 Like
Is anyone else headed to McGill this weekend? We have run into the same pool of kids at many of the voice auditions so far. I guess the good news is everyone is only going to end up at one school. I think that if anyone gets on a waitlist it may not be a terrible thing. It seems to me that once people declare their choice of school a lot could change. We know several great vocalists who ended up at their dream school after a brief period on the waitlist.
This will be our last audition trip. March is going to be a long month of waiting for results.
Best of luck to all traveling by plane!
1 Like
I was wondering if this happens much with musicians, so thanks for answering my unspoken question!
It seems crazy that it can work for anyone. If most kids wait to decide close to May 1, then of course a school won’t know what spaces it has left until after May 1. But one’s kid would have committed somewhere on 5/1, too. So, a call up from a waitlist would be too late.
You can still take a place from the waitlist after you have committed elsewhere. It happens all the time . You simply lose your commitment deposit at the first school.
Edited to add: occasionally a waitlist position will be offered at the end of the summer.
2 Likes
Oh! I didn’t realize you could do that, since the word committed seemed so final, and I figured it was extremely difficult to get out of. Losing a fee is not a problem if that situation arises. Although, I can hardly imagine my kid changing his mind after going through the whole process of choosing and committing. I suppose if it’s a dream school, all else flies out the window. 
1 Like
Yes, it can be stressful.
Sometimes, it’s a whole musical chairs situation, since if a student uncommits from one school to take a waitlist offer, then that frees up his/her original spot which can then be offered as a waitlist spot to someone else.
I would not want to be in charge of a college’s yield managment department!
2 Likes
Agree with the above. Waitlists do move (my D was WL at two schools and came off both…neither was a top choice for her).
It’s best to keep an open mind about being waitlisted. Many kids who are waitlisted and get in later…go on to be very successful in the program. Some times a student can feel a bit “less than” but it’s important to remember students are accepted for a variety of reason. If you are waitlisted you are “good enough” for the program. And after you get to the school, no one will care that you were waitlisted. So if you can keep the “sour grapes” in check…be mature…it could be a great opportunity if its your top choice.
And yes, you can commit and make a change due to coming off a wait list…no problem. It may sound like they’ll sue your pants off…but they are just trying to protect themselves from people doing multiple acceptances. It really is reasonable process in the end if you just communicate the change.
2 Likes
I am following this thread for S24 but we had a ton of experience with waitlists for S21 who is in a BFA acting program. There is a small pool of the same kids who audition for all of these programs and once one takes a spot they are removed from many others, so there is a ton of movement (as opposed to a general waitlist which is considered a soft rejection).
4 Likes
I was thinking of your story. I was up at 3:30 hanging on the line with Alaska Airlines, and I thought: this is our adventure story for the future. Unfortunately, the adventure has been mostly me and H staying up all night on three phone calls at once, spending almost 1K on a single plane ticket. My kid has gone with his friends to shovel driveways for money to go to the movies, like they are age 12. 
3 Likes
My D was WL at the one acting program where she auditioned and an MT program. It’s important to remember for VP, in particular, that one spot opening up…doesn’t mean that they go to the top of the list…instead they will look at the type of voice (soprano, tenor) along with the type of performer before they make the next offer. That is why acceptances can feel confusing…as a “frenemy” with less experience and different voice can get an offer due to need.
Also schools do anticipate yield so they will make more offers than spots. So if one person declines that doesn’t automatically open up a spot. It takes some time…and spots can open up later as WL may be used in May and even June and beyond.
It really is a rubik’s cube that will hurt your brain if you think to hard about it. So it’s just best to wait through “March Madness”.
5 Likes
Yes, I didn’t realize that even though my kid has some decisions, we don’t get complete information (that is, financial aid info) from some of them until mid-March anyway. Most important among them is Loyola, which I think is #1 on his list right now, but without some aid it’s going to be a maneuver and I would love if they’d just tell us already!
1 Like
BTW, bless the woman who answered the airline call. She was exhausted, sounded more tired than I was. Her dog was barking in the background. She was probably sitting there staring at her bed. And we got disconnected–a nightmare–and she called me back.
4 Likes
So, is this right? If a school has 5 spots for PVC-marimba players, they might admit 10 and put 30 on a waitlist. Out of the 10, if 7 commit, they are over-enrolled and I guess would just deal with that. But if only 3 commit, they can pull 2 from the waitlist, then more if necessary. If it didn’t represent real kids’ futures, it would be kind of fun math.
I think that’s pretty much how it works!
3 Likes
Ahhh, it looks like the April waitlist discussion is starting early this year. And this brings up a question I had back when my kid was in this whirlwind process several years ago.
If the top ranked candidate for a program was offered say $40k per year to attend and declines the spot in the program, what happens to that money? If the first person on the waitlist is offered a spot, presumably they do not get $40k. But do programs redistribute some of that money? Do students accepted off of the waitlist get some merit money?
I am guessing the process of merit distribution is as mysterious and nebulous as the rest of the audition/acceptance journey. But still curious…
3 Likes
I don’t even understand how music schools make the numbers work, particularly smaller schools/studios. My son’s studio only wanted 2 freshmen last year. He visited while he was on the waitlist, and we got the impression that they already knew then that he was very likely to be admitted, but the actual offer didn’t come until maybe a week later (but before May 1, which was very nice since he hadn’t deposited elsewhere yet). But my best guess there, with such tiny numbers, is that they probably only made initial offers to the actual number of students they wanted …or very close to that and then they knew where they’d go with the waitlist as soon as someone turned them down.
3 Likes
And I think if too many kids say yes one year, that means fewer offers the following year to help balance things out.
2 Likes
The other thing that can happen is then the following year, they might only take 3-4 instead of 10 if they over enrolled the previous year. And it’s not necessarily like anyone is going to volunteer that information purposefully. Especially if you haven’t visited campus and asked some pretty direct questions. With my older, we did have the good fortune to do visits and a number of sample lessons and a couple of schools faculty members slipped some info that the average applicant would likely not be privy too about their funding or needs, how auditions roll, etc it was fascinating.
I can’t speak to straight conservatories, my kids didn’t apply to those. But like my son 4 years ago was applying to a mix of LACs and Universities w/music programs. At one LAC they had an elaborate and drawn out music day that included a mixer with faculty. We accidently eavesdropped on a few faculty members talking about working the room for every unusual applicant - from further flung locales, unique programs, etc that would bring some sort of interesting diversity/mix to campus. My kid that was there was from a relatively short drive and the nearest metro and it would likely be easy for them to populate their program with my kids and their clones lol. Having watched admissions locally for a number of years now at this school, I really think they’re trying to get a good mix of talented and prepared students who need varying levels/types of financial support and I suspect that is true for many schools. And to be clear, we highly regard schools that had a great mix of students and not just all cloned students from the nearest metro. I just hadn’t thought really about it in terms of a smaller campus/program and music admissions. And my kid was admitted with decent merit, but he definitely wasn’t “wooed” like he was at some other schools where maybe he stood out more as a unique applicant.
I just think there can be lots of reasons a music student might not get an offer somewhere even as a very strong applicant or may not get as much merit, etc. I’ve spent hours listening to various performances at a wide variety of colleges. I’ve seen amazing stuff out of programs no one talks about and fairly mediocre performances out of schools that have single digit acceptance rates. And vice versa of course. Admissions is complicated! Kiddo this year is working with a teacher on faculty in a school of music at a university, that has given us an interesting picture/insight too. All good paths and you only need one to work!
5 Likes