He should try to contact the private teachers and see if they do trial lessons. Some places do, and some don’t. Some charge for them and some don’t.
My kid contacted each school, and arranged for a lesson with the trumpet faculty he hoped to get as a teacher if he went there.
DePaul is worth a look, especially if you will be in the Chicago for Northwestern. The ongoing construction of DePaul’s new building was a disruption my D didn’t want to deal with (despite assurances that the school was operating normally, and gives very good merit aid).
If you can afford the travel (time and $), definitely go to on campus auditions, especially if you haven’t visited or have visited in the summer. On campus auditions were important for D to learn about programs and get the vibe of a school while it was in session (attending classes etc).
I have to relate a really disappointing experience with Northwestern. S put together and recorded the required pre-screening songs; and spent several hours trying to upload them, without success. The next day–which was a school day–we attempted to help by trying to upload them from home. After a few hours of no success, we e-mailed the school; and received a reply from an Associate Dean at the music school indicating that we should compress the files. We did that; and the upload appeared to be a success (screen stating “upload complete”). Then, we heard nothing for 7 weeks. We assumed they decided his pre-screen recordings didn’t justify a live audition. After 7 weeks, S got an e-mail from the same Associate Dean, indicating that, because he’d never uploaded pre-screen recordings, NWern would not offer him a live audition. We e-mailed this Dean with the details of what happened, including a copy of the e-mail chain; and never got a reply. Very disappointing and un-classy action by NWern.
This is unfortunate, but if your child still has interest, why don’t you call the school directly? The on campus interviews are still in process and talking to someone directly is often more persuasive than email. Good luck.
Northwestern’s admin really came through & salvaged the application process for my son, and will accept his prescreen recordings as his audition. Very classy. I wish I could amend the comment above in which I vented my frustration–I had not stopped to think about the sheer volume of e-mails they must’ve been dealing with.
S got accepted to Berklee, CU, and Nevada-Reno. Small scholarships from CU & Nevada-Reno; but a $21k/year scholarship from Berklee. He’s over the moon excited. Even with the scholarship, Berklee will be a stretch for us financially–& no grant $ in the picture.
Congrats on the Berklee scholarship! Did you file FAFSA/CSS with Berklee? They did give my son a grant and it came well after the acceptance and merit announcement. We weren’t expecting it, and the amount was a surprise.
Thanks! We did file FAFSA/CSS with them…If you don’t mind my asking, did your son’s grant notice come before or after accepting offer of admission/paying tuition deposit? Thanks again!
@Montane, it came before he accepted but separate from the merit offer.
Thanks! We’ll keep our fingers crossed.
Hey, thanks for the encouragement! We appealed the initial financial aid decision; and Berklee came back with a really nice additional grant! We’re ecstatic.
Congrats, Montane!
@Montane, congrats to your son. My S will be happy to hear about a good jazz horn player coming to Berklee. 
It’s worth doing a little research about the audition and placement-testing that happens during orientation week and being prepared. Incoming students get an instrument rating based on the audition that will determine ensembles, teachers, etc. Also, if your son has a decent grasp on theory as many jazz students do, it may be worth buying the textbook during the summer and brushing up in order to test out of the first course.
Thanks! He got a “3” ranking on his audition & lowest placement was a “2” for sight reading, so he’s pretty happy
I echo @ScreenName48105 college suggestions. Western Michigan has a fantastic jazz program, Michigan State as well but not as known nationally as WMU. I don’t think you mentioned U Miami/Frost did you? We were hugely impressed with them! And they are very generous from what I hear with merit money.
Oops just re-read @ScreenName48105 post and every single jazz program was covered by them.