<p>Hi all. My son is a jr and will be applying to schools in the fall for music ed. He's got about 7-10 schools right now on his list. So we are not in thick of this right now but as I read through this forum a question keeps popping up. In doing research on the various schools I have noticed a lot of them have auditions the same weekend. How do you manage to audition for all your schools if the auditions fall on the same 3-4 weekends? I see a lot of you saying they are all day affairs which doesn't lend itself to doing an audition in the morning at one school and hoofing it over to another school for one later that day (and none are in the same general vicinity). I realize he can do some regional auditions but have also heard not to do this if at all possible - it's better to go to the campus - but don't see how this is avoidable. Makes me a little nervous and we are not even at a point where I should be worrying about this yet.</p>
<p>Your son will probably want to narrow down his list somewhat. Most music students do 6 or 7 live auditions at most. To do more is too expensive and too exhausting, and takes too much time away from school.</p>
<p>All but one of my son’s auditions were scheduled for weekdays (Juilliard, Colburn, CIM, Rice, McGill, NEC were all weekdays). After favourable feedback at the first couple of audiions, we cancelled two auditions. All of these schools gave a choice of days and most of them had a few weekends from which to choose.</p>
<p>Some schools do some auditions prior to Christmas which helps spread things out. </p>
<p>Do some visiting of schools between now and this fall to help eliminate a couple of schools. Arrange a lesson at each school. If you end up having to send a recorded audition, then at least the lesson instructor will have heard your son live.</p>
<p>I think that most of the schools that confine their auditions to single weekend with no choice are probably on the low end (attracting a relatively small group of mostly local students who apply to only one or two schools and thus do not need multiple choices of audition weekends). For these types of schools, it usually is unnecessary to apply to 7 to10 schools.</p>
<p>Even with 6 schools, you will find it necessary to set up the calendar carefully to space things out to avoid conflicts.</p>
<p>I should also have mentioned that some schools will schedule an audition outside of he official audition days if you ask and explain the circumstances. They are particularly willing to do this if you are travelling a large distance (in most of the instrances that I am familiar with, several thousand miles were involved but I’m sure some schools will do it for somewhat shorter distances). </p>
<p>The most competitive schools are least likely to do this, but they usually have so many days to choose from that conflicts are less likely.</p>
<p>When my son did his, he only did 4 schools and it was still pretty complicated. He did one regional and the other 3 on site. As soon as we had dates, we got out the calendar and penciled everything in. We also had to take into account weekends that he had competitions and ensemble performances with school and community groups he belonged to senior year. We were fortunate that there was at least one day at each school that didn’t conflict with anything else. </p>
<p>Also, the 3 major conservatories in NYC - Juilliard, Mannes and Mahattan - do coordinate their auditions. They are all during the same week. It is possible to audition at all 3 during the same week, but you have to plan on being in the city for a week to do it. </p>
<p>As much as we encourage kids to be in charge of the application process, this part really needs to be handled by parents because of all of the logistics involved.</p>
<p>Once we had the schools identified I made a spreadsheet with all the possible audition dates and tried to map out which schools for which dates. My D (and usually at least one of her parents!) was basically traveling on and off from mid-January to the end of Feb. (7 auditions, + 2 LACs where she submitted recordings for their arts supplements). As violindad said, most schools have multiple dates, and my D was able to get all her preferred dates. She did wind up doing one regional audition (for Peabody) since they only have one on-site audition date and it was the day before the McGill audition. Much too challenging to plan to get from Baltimore to Montreal in one day, esp. in the winter when you never know how the weather will affect your travel plans. She did go to Peabody twice, the second time to have a sample lesson once she was sure she would not be able to do their Baltimore audition. </p>
<p>As sheenie mentioned, some schools do coordinate. When we were at Oberlin, many of the kids were traveling the next day to the CIM auditions in Cleveland. Same for BU and NEC.</p>
<p>Finally, I wish we had known to try to set up sample lessons when we toured schools during junior year. It was much harder to do during the auditions.</p>
<p>
Although this is supposed to happen, my daughter’s MSM and Juilliard auditions were scheduled for the exact same moment. It took a couple of calls to change the date of one of them; then, they were a full week apart, which meant another trip to NYC.</p>
<p>Two other schools assigned her auditions on the same day, but in different parts of the country. She was able to send a video audition to one of the schools, by arrangement with their music department (she had to call and ask; that option was not offered on the application.)</p>
<p>Some schools allow you to state your preference for audition dates. It takes some planning, but it is possible to schedule 6-7 schools or more. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Also, since your son is interested in Music Ed, most music ed schools have multiple audition dates on weekends and you can spread them out from Dec through March. The top conservatories will be less flexible and you can save their posted dates as possibles when you set up your spread sheet. The best advice son received was to try to schedule one or two early auditions as warmups because your son will be better and more confident at the end of the audition season than he was at the beginning. I’d also recommend placing one or two safeties first, both musical and financial, so he’ll know he is going to have a place to go in the fall and you’ll be comfortable that it is affordable. I remember having major anxiety wondering if he’d get into a place we could afford. I’ll also add that the conventional wisdom for music ed is to attend a school in a state that you want to teach and/or will get instate tuition ie audition at your state’s top public music school(s).</p>
<p>Lots of good advice already, especially the concept of planning it all out in advance as much as possible. (You could even do a trial run with this year’s dates if you’re feeling in a sudoku-esque mood some evening and then you’d have a sense of where the issues are likely to arise next year.)</p>
<p>D3 did nine auditions and lived to tell the tale. BUT we live in close proximity to almost all the schools where she applied AND three of the auditions were before xmas break. The rough weekend was the one where we were in Boston on Thursday, Cleveland on Fri-Sat, and Baltimore Sun-Mon. By the end of that weekend, she was as burnt out as I’ve ever seen her, and in no way ready for the big test scheduled for Tuesday morning.</p>
<p>My son’s auditions were primarily on the weekend so realize they could fall any which way. That was a problem because he has musical commitments on weekends. </p>
<p>He asked two schools to reschedule (both said on their webpages they would) and only one did. The other school went off the list. As he progressed through auditions, several schools were discarded when better options made his admissions clear. </p>
<p>In retrospect, I would say that the entire process is not only time-consuming but expensive. Being able to keep your list manageable from the beginning will save you time and money. Also realize that having too many auditions can interfere with senior year classes.</p>
<p>And if the auditions are anywhere where there is winter weather…this will really stress you out!</p>
<p>. . .or if you live anywhere that has winter weather! (We live in a northerly place that is very cold but rarely ever gets airport-closing weather; yup, first audition, the airport closed down).</p>
<p>We know of someone that did 16 auditions at the schools the past few months (flute of course). Their plan started over a year ago by documenting historic audition dates and creating a “pretend” schedule. Their D applied to 20 schools and did no pass p/s at 4.
A lot of frequent flier miles used for this adventure. Imho 7 does not sound too daunting.</p>
<p>I tried the spreadsheet method to map out all of the possible dates, but D and I are more visual and needed to see actual calendars that included orchestra and band commitments. I printed out our calendars and penciled in the possible dates then circled the ones that we chose. D. nicknamed this the Calendar of Doom and for months, we joked about the COD.</p>
<p>President’s Day weekend is a big weekend, especially for those that only have one audition date. Already having had four auditions, this was our Grand Finale. We took a train to Pittsburgh on Thursday night, toured CMU on Friday, auditioned on Saturday, and then flew to Boston on Saturday night. There were four flutists on our flight, judging from their flute packs. We had one audition on Sunday and one on Monday, then came home Monday night. </p>
<p>After reading advice on this board, I planned our travel so that we had one day as a cushion before the audition day - just in case there were weather delays. We were extremely lucky and had no snow for any of our trips. However, it still worked out because D could have that day to get oriented to the layout of the school, meet students, and relax for a bit. I think she missed a total of 7 days of school, but her principal and teachers were very supportive.</p>
<p>Thanks all. A lot of good advice here. In response to some comments, he is not looking at any conservatories, and he will be applying to the state schools but there are only 2 of them that have the music ed program (and both are far away in northern NY. One is not even anywhere near an airport). We are in NY by the way. Quite a few of the schools are in the northeast - hopefully next winter will be as mild as this year’s so we don’t have to worry about weather but I will plan for the worst case. Again thanks. Anyone has more advice would love to hear it but am sure I will be checking this forum alot over the next year!</p>
<p>SJSMOM, if any of the schools offer multiple audition dates, it would be good for your S to get his application in early, that way he will have first pick of audition dates.
If you will be needing hotels at any of the school locations, those would be good to book even 4-6 months out. You can always cancel later. BassDad and others have always suggested if possible, trying to get hotels within walking distance of the audition, in case there are weather issues.
I really admire all the people who have said audition time was fun. It was stressful for us but we made it! And we got a lot of really good stories out of it.</p>
<p>Ditto,CLRN8MOM. Especially, book your SUNY Potsdam Crane motel as soon as you know the date. There are only a few motels to choose from and if Clarkson has a hockey game or anything else going on the weekend of the Crane auditions you will be driving from another town on questionable backroads to get to your audition.</p>
<p>My son auditioned at 6 schools. You need to plan this out well in advance. We drafted a schedule with audition dates that worked , and then worked backwards from there. I beleve that most of the schools had the audition dates posted by the end of October. </p>
<p>You need to pay attention to when applications are due for different audition dates. For example, to get the only audition date that worked for us at the Hartt school, my son’s application had to be in by December 19.</p>
<p>He submitted his earliest application in mid-November for a December 10 audition date. He also had pre-screening tapes he had to do in addition to the live auditions and the applications. We were very, very busy with college stuff almost from the beginning of his senior year through March 3, when he finally finished auditions. </p>
<p>I bought a 4-month white board calendar and posted it on the back of our front door with all of the relevant dates. This minimized free-floating anxiety about when things were due (mine) and cries of “I didn’t know that was due this week” (his).</p>
<p>I just want to add that if the musician can prep repertoire early and be confident, plus craft essays and complete applications promptly, there are some nice EA audition opportunities in November and December, like Michigan, Oberlin, and in our case, Berklee. That helps spread out your options in the winter audition season.</p>
<p>Just want to second what Momofbassist said about booking a Potsdam hotel early. My D submitted for her February Crane audition date back in October and was notified fairly quickly that she would be scheduled on the date she requested. </p>
<p>I didn’t even look at the e-mail again until I was scheduling all her travel plans in December. All the Potsdam hotels were completely booked, as were all the bed and breakfast in town. I was in near panic mode as registration was very early in the morning. Fortunately I found a room at the Econolodge in Massena (we had never stayed at an Econolodge, and thankfully this hotel was very clean). We had about a 35 min. drive from Massena to Crane.</p>
<p>As far as juggling the audition schedule, I also found making a spreadsheet very helpful. D started out with 9 auditions scheduled, but canceled 2 as the season progressed. </p>
<p>As electricbassmom said, pay very closed attention to the application deadlines. D wanted to apply to Indaina/Jacobs and this year they moved the deadline for all applications to Nov. 1st. We had done all the common ap applications first and assumed we had until December 1st. By the time we realized the deadline was changed, we did not have enough time to submit. She has done very well with her auditions and acceptances, but she still wishes she had gotten to audition for Jacobs.</p>
<p>Good luck! Some how it all gets done!</p>
<p>Great advice on here - as soon as the dates are published at each school, get them all on paper and figure out how to schedule them without conflict as much as possible. Its inevitable you may have 1 or 2 conflicts if you’re auditioning at more than handful, but as stated most of the public U’s will provide an individual date if you ask (not all but some). Son auditioned at 6 schools, it was a challenge and got tiring at the end, but he got into every one of them…</p>