<p>How do you figure out what summer programs might work for your rising senior when you have no idea where they will attend college in the fall and how to you deal with it when
you know some of the colleges have sumer orientations they need to attend during the summer? What do most rising seniors do in summer? This year my child does not want a long 6-8 week program but instead a couple of shorter ones but it is hard to plan around the unknown. We are late of this this year because of focus on college auditions.</p>
<p>Bard has a very early freshman orientation. A few other schools also start before labor day. A lot of music student I know have ended up doing either a half-session of a longer program or a short program the summer before their freshman year. I agree, it’s difficult to plan when you don’t know what your calendar will look like. My own daughter opted to do a half-session the summer before her freshman year, on the theory that, no matter where she ended up, she would like to spend August at home with her family, preparing to go away.</p>
<p>As for the schools that have mid-summer orientations (like IU), I think it is possible to opt out of those (I recall being told that others have opted out.)</p>
<p>My son chose to attend a program where one of the teachers he auditioned for was teaching. His reasoning was that if he didn’t get in to that teacher’s studio, he wanted the opportunity to study with him for awhile and if he did get into that teacher’s studio, he was going to be ahead of the game. However, none of his schools had early orientation sessions so we didn’t have to put that into the mix. He attended a 6 week program which did give him a few weeks at home before school started in Sept.</p>
<p>We also had that question. D had a great opportunity and invitation to a vocal program which was fairly expensive. We ultimately turned it down because they needed an answer and D had not even done all her school auditions. Our issue was that we did not know what our financial commitment would be to school so we were not comfortable paying significant dollars for a summer program. Ultimately D got a good scholarship and we lament not going to the summer program. Hindsight is 20/20 and you just have to make your best choice now based on the information you have and live with it.</p>
<p>D chose to do a short program over the summer, and also signed up for the orientation session just prior to the start of classes. Like a lot of her friends, she felt that she wanted to spend her last summer close to home.</p>
<p>My son did DCI last summer, he had to miss some high school and college to do it. He also had to leave the DCI camp afor a few days to attend the college summer orientation (which the DCI people were jerks about).</p>
<p>It really wasn’t a good situation and didn’t make anyone happy. Find a very short summer program if you do one at all - the summer between high school and college is a very awkard time anyway.</p>
<p>I would suggest that maybe just taking a few general education classes at a local community college might be more valuable for this “tween” summer than a full fledged summer music program. thats what my son wished he did instead of the summer music program.</p>
<p>I agree with POTO Mom. And would add - don’t drive yourself or your child nuts. What’s the worst that can happen. You child gets into school, didn’t take a summer program and didn’t take any gen ed classes (I differ from imagep and his/her son in that I wouldn’t do that. Have fun this summer.) It won;t be the end of the world. If you have to be up to a certain level on a particular subject, then do that. My son had to get prepared to enter Theory 1 so he got up to speed at home using Musica Practica.</p>
<p>I don’t “get” the whole take a summer music program thing. What is the point? I’m not trying to be negative, just trying to understand if I am missing something.</p>
<p>Rosie 26, Have you ever been to a summer program yourself? The ones I went to as a student were life changing and memorable and I still go to a music retreat each year that keeps me motivated throughout the year. And both of my kids have been to many wonderful summer music programs and I see what it had done for them. And for us it is always a reach to afford them but I think it is worth it. But it is a matter of chosing the right program. Interestingly enough a lot of these summer music now have adult session for people like me who want to recreate their summer music camp experiences when living vicariously through there kids is no logner enough. Thanks for the interesting responses to this question. Helpful as always. We have such a late graduation date there are many programs we cannot do.</p>
<p>As Ben and Jerry would say, “if it’s not fun, don’t do it.” Besides the chance to focus on music and work with specific teachers, summer programs are just plain fun. You get to meet other people who share your obsession with music, often in a beautiful setting. And you get a nice t-shirt at the end!</p>
<p>LOL - ok ok I get it. We’re more of a hang out kind of family in the summer… to each his own! My daughter did mpulse last summer ( 2 weeks) but that was about all we could handle! ha ha</p>
<p>Rosie26 - Our D’s must know each other! Mine was at MPulse VAI last summer too! She’s only a sophomore now and has reapplied for this summer. She can’t wait to see her friends who have also reapplied. We just sent in the audition recordings last week. I’m hoping that it’s just a formality and she’ll get accepted again.</p>
<p>Too funny! My D graduated and is heading off to college so she will not be there again this summer. We are heading to the lake and doing nothing until she leaves (sniff sniff)…</p>
<p>*correction… “is graduating” :)</p>