<p>am planning on taking D to visit some campuses over her break - the mid-west contingent (we live in the south where nothing is near us) seems to be where we are headed, and possibly set up the sample lessons that are oft suggested on CC. D is definitely going for VP.</p>
<p>The schools on her list in the area are: U of Mich, Oberlin, Northwestern, Cleveland/Case Western, CCM, and Indiana..</p>
<p>This seems like a lot to fit into one trip (Sun. through Sat),.... but, probably the only chance to visit this area as the summer will take us to the northeast, (and then she wants to also fit in Houston and Nashville!)</p>
<p>But, how can she pare down her list without visits? And if she is then asked to come back next year for an audition....Wow, that is a lot of traveling ( & traveling expense!)</p>
<p>Is there a better, more efficient way to visit schools for musicians?</p>
<p>thanks,</p>
<p>You should try to get in touch with some current students so that your daughter can ask them any questions she might have. I can can answer any questions you have about the Oberlin voice department. That might also cut down on the number of schools she wants to visit.</p>
<p>DD dd not really pare her list until auditions. We could not travel to all the places she applied to before the auditions since she decided so late on VP. So she just used the audition to help decide. The ones that were close enough and we could do before the applications helped her decide city vs not and other characteristics. We used the second trip for a return visit to the final 3 and did lessons then. Some dropped out after the audition and so we might have saved some applications had she gone sooner, but it worked for us. There isn’t really a single answer. her orignal list took a lot of research and talking to people to decide on the teachers she wanted and schools. The visits and lessons firmed up the final decision.</p>
<p>Make sure you check college vacation calendars vs. your D’s school calendar. Faculty may not be around if students are on break.</p>
<p>You may also find, after the first trip, that she’s narrowed down the type of school she’s interested in, and you can cut some future visits out.</p>
<p>Have fun! I really miss those days. (Can you tell D3 went back to school today? S, college grad, visited for a few days last week, and D2 goes back to school this weekend. Insert sad empty nest face here.)</p>
<p>We did three sample lesson’s D’s junior year and decided she would wait and see where she gets live auditions to try additional sample lessons her senior year.</p>
<p>Some schools insist on live auditions and do not accept recordings (at least for clarinet). This would be worth checking into and may influence your choices.</p>
<p>We solved the problem by going to summer camps that the teachers from the schools we were interested in were going to be teaching. My son was able to meet and work with them for a whole week as well as meet a few other teachers from other schools, too. Last summer he did three camps/workshops and worked with teachers from California to New York and Canada. It saved us a lot of time and made the college selection process easier for his senior year.</p>
<p>I don’t know when your daughter’s break is, but if you visit UMich you may want to try to visit on an audition date (downside is everyone will be busy). In our jr. year, my son visited and sat in on two classes (a freshman and a 4th yr), did tours with the auditioning students, etc. It was very helpful and ultimately his choice. He was much more relaxed the following year at audition/interview day. His department head was exceptionally accommodating to have arranged all this (which told us a lot about the department and philosophy, all of which we’ve now seen to be true).</p>
<p>We deleted half the schools on D’s list by visiting junior year and taking sample lessons. Actually she only wanted to apply two places but that scared me too much.</p>
<p>badblonde: Yes, 6 schools in 7 days is too much, especially given the large distances between schools. You could physically get to all 6 in 7 days, but you would have little time at some schools, and it might be next to impossible to arrange trial lessons at all six given how constrained your schedule would be. </p>
<p>You do have a large variety of schools on the list: locations are very different: college town (U Mich, Indiana), cowtown (Oberlin), wealthy suburb (NW), core of city (Cleveland); types of colleges very different: large public (U Mich & Indiana), small liberal arts (Oberlin), etc… If your daughter has an idea as to what sort of overall environment she would like to study in that you help you pare down the number. Does she need/want the stimulation of a large city? Would she prefer the all-encompassing stimulation of the small liberal arts college in a small town?</p>
<p>If your daughter can’t reduce the list, then just be prepared for the fact that you won’t get a full taste of the educational environment of each school. It may be especially difficult to set up lessons on weekend days, and you won’t see classes in session or get to hear ensemble rehearsing on most weekends.</p>
<p>Cleveland and Oberlin are very close and very different environments, so given your time constraints, I would tend to keep both of those on the list. </p>
<p>Even getting to three or four of the six schools on the midwest list would give you and your daughter stronger feelings for what she wants in a school and a teacher. Those visits will help pare down the NE list. My son did not get to any of his schools prior to auditions and had only one trial lesson prior to auditions (the lesson was done electronically)–not ideal but we still felt he was able to make a fairly informed final decision.</p>
<p>I am starting to think we will do maybe 4 visits…as D doesn’t really know what type of environment she prefers, (as we live in a small town, she is thinking a larger, city type environment might suit her, but she is just guessing), it is hard to pare anything down by environment yet…This trip might give her an idea of the differences</p>
<p>She is very conservative, and a disciplined student who likes things to be on the ‘concrete’ side… </p>
<p>I have heard from former Oberlin students that is not the atmosphere fostered there…so, even though it is a most excellent school for classical voice studies, maybe we should bypass that one…</p>
<p>While Oberlin as a whole has a reputation as being a liberal place, I think that there are many very disciplined and even conservative students in the music conservatory and they don’t feel out of place. She might want to choose her dorm wisely if she goes to Oberline, but that is easy because Oberlin does have a wide range of dorm choices.</p>
<p>I would suggest visiting Oberlin before crossing it off of your list. I have plenty of conservative friends on campus. Feel free to PM me if you want to know anything else about the school.</p>
<p>Has your daughter looked up the CV and listened to some of the work of the various vocal profs at the different schools? I would suggest she do this, and then perhaps make email contact with the department asking to speak/mail to a current student.
A careful review of the works of various department heads and profs really helped my son reduce the number of schools he visited. He only went to visit ones where the body of work aligned with his own style/goals. The result was the school he chose was run in a particular way that suits him really well. Without getting too specific, he discovered that one important person at an excellent program elsewhere did not embrace collaborative, cross departmental work as much as the person in charge of the program he selected. These are the types of things you can only discover by a close look at a person’s body of work, standing/reputation within their respective associations, direct questions of staff and students, etc. So a pre-review should help.</p>
<p>When you say Cleveland/Case Western, are you referring to the music program at Case or the VP major at CIM? They are very different programs, and share very few classes, and the vocal faculty for each is completely separate.
If you have any questions about CIM, feel free to PM me and yes, it’s very possible to visit Oberlin and CIM during the same visit, but I’d allot a day to each to be fair, since the campuses are as different as can be as are the faculty.</p>