March Madness 2017

Feel free to post any questions, anxieties, comments here about THE LONG WAIT…

My child still has auditions. It would be nice to know what the options will be. Unfortunately I can’t think of many comments or questions that I could post while maintaining my child’s privacy.

So after going through the waiting twice for my S for undergrad and grad music program decisions, we are now waiting to hear if he got into any of the summer musical festivals he auditioned for and next spring we will be waiting to see how he makes out as he starts to take auditions for orchestra positions. And waiting to hear if my D got a summer internship. Oh the waiting…

Was looking for the acceptance thread from last year – @Mezzo’sMama Maybe you can tag it at the top so people can see how the decisions came out in the past. Not that it guarantees they will follow suit this year, but it gives you something to look at while waiting.

At one of S’s auditions (jazz bass), he played their required 2 songs and felt like things were wrapping up, so he said, " Do you want to hear Donna Lee ar 220 bpm?". He can play the whole song’s melody well up to that speed. One prof quickly whipped out a metronome and the other his iphone video recorder. And then sent the video to another prof right afterwards. That turned out to be pretty positive. On the otherhand, I would recommend against over-stretching yourself to impress with a tempo or high note. I think showing good judgement to stay within your envelope can benefit one’s cause.

This wait is horrible. All I can say is, a lot of schoolwork behind, anxieties, ups and downs, and an inevitable sick D from all this change of weather, I sure hope it will all be worth it at the end.

Is it usual that if you had a reason to believe the audition went well, that an offer is made? If the professors specifically say that they want to see you come to their program, is that more generic well-wishing or a pretty good sign that an offer would be forthcoming?

Best to simply take it as well-wishing. Unfortunately it has not been unheard of for kids to even be told they’re “in” and then end up not being accepted. There’s so many things outside the control of individual teachers that the best thing they could do is say nothing. That’s why some schools have implemented policies where no feedback is allowed after auditions. So even the opposite is true: lack of comments doesn’t mean things didn’t go well.

What if the feedback is in writing? I have heard of students receiving emails from faculty after auditions, saying that they played very well and that the instructor would love to have the student in their studio? As far as I can tell, these notes are followed by official offers of admission. Or am I just not hearing of the cases where a student received such a note that was followed later by “While we were very impressed with you, we had a large number of talented applicants this year, and we cannot offer you, etc.?”

@unscripted I would think that would be more promising but don’t take anything as a guarantee until you have an official offer. There are cases like the latter part of your statement, especially if you auditioned early in the season.

As a side note, I thought I’d pass on a tip for everyone going through this:
If child has been accepted to a U but not the music school yet, or you’ve gotten an acceptance but are waiting on FA, it’s a good idea to go ahead and submit a housing app at your top one or two choices. Music kids are often waiting around until April to hear about merit aid while the non-music kids are gobbling up the best housing.

Ditto to everything DesignDad said.

My D did receive an email from a professor after an audition offering a studio spot for UG. I wasn’t on CC then but my gut said it was not an offer until it was official from the school. It was actually her first audition so she wasn’t even sure about the school or VP yet. So she continued on with auditions. The official offer came about 3 weeks later (a rolling admissions school). In this case, the merit aid did not come until the very, very end - over a month later.

I think you can take it as a positive. But I would not change course (meaning stop auditioning). I would just wait…for the official offer.

This was the final audition week for DS, which is good because it was a doozy! 3 states in 5 days, lots of car time, several days of school absences. We are exhausted. S is emotionally spent and has a lot of homework to catch up on.

DS has two acceptances in hand, very different schools but both likely to be affordable, so that helps a LOT with the stress. DS is still waffling back and forth on smaller conservatory environment vs. traditional college experience and (related) whether to prioritize strong Music Ed opportunities/network or a stronger performance program with higher level peers. He wants both, and that informed his list, but each school offers a slightly different balance of those two things. DH and I have similarly mixed feelings so find it difficult to offer advice, especially since S’s priorities and preferences are so different than ours were at that age. We are all contributing to a list of pros/cons of each school so DS can see them all in one place.

Thanks for the reminder about not taking good prof feedback as a sure thing - S has had one email and one post audition interaction of the “you’d be a great fit for my studio” type.

One school at which he auditioned has dropped off the list based on audition day - a good school but just didn’t feel like a good fit for him, and he prefers the two schools that already accepted him over that one. Every other school is still in play, which could make decisions difficult, if by chance he gets into all 6 of them.

Random anxiety #1: there is at least one, maybe 2 schools where S has a good shot of getting in musically but may not get in academically due to increasingly competitive academic admissions, and that would be a bummer. DS is a top 20% but not top 10% student (lots of overachievers at his school), and one school is very stats/rigor focused and allegedly doesn’t cut music students any slack. On the up side, if it’s a no that makes the decision a little easier.

Random anxiety #2: his worst audition was at his clear #1 pick which is also the most competitive of his choices. He was really nervous because that one mattered so much to him. He is pessimistic.

A few questions that have come up in our S’s comparisons of programs:

  1. Adjunct Faculty: We are comparing two schools that share a lot of similarities, but one has mostly full time faculty and the other has many adjunct applied music faculty. My gut instinct says the full time faculty school would be better, but the other is in a major metro area with adjuncts who are mostly professional working musicians, so the faculty is excellent, but may be on campus only one or 2 days a week. There also are a lot more performance opportunities at that school given its location. How much of a difference in atmosphere does more adjunct faculty and/or a "working musician" faculty typically create at a school vs. a school with mostly full time faculty? Is availability throughout the week important or is electronic communication normally sufficient when needed? Any thoughts?
  2. How important is it to switch teachers at the college level? One of his options would put him in his current teacher's studio. Current teacher (several years working together) is truly excellent and S would not be where he is without that teacher, but Is it best to move on in order to grow?

@DesignDad what do you do if the school requires you accept a spot at the school before submitting a housing deposit? That seems increasingly common. You clearly can’t commit to more than one school.

You’re correct @classicalsaxmom I should have included “if possible”. You’ll need to check each schools’ policy. Sorry for any confusion.

I hesitated to write this. It’s kind of gossipy but when your auditioning it may seem hard to understand how a verbal or written offer can fall through…but here is some insight.

After 6 years in music dept (and summer programs), my D has seen her share of drama and pettiness from certain teachers. We tend to project out to teachers thinking they are solely educators who care about our “children”. In reality they are human beings in “organizations” with competing interests; and they don’t always start as educators.

My D has seen teachers run hot and cold real quick based on their studio needs (teachers are competitive about studios). My D did admin work for one teacher who over a long audition season filled with teaching, reahearsals, studio classes and some travel would lose track of things. She had a good heart and was a good teacher when she locked into a student. But during the hectic audition season my D could see her changing opinions based on how much she wanted to fight something or how much she remembered. She definitely was the type who could make an offer in a moment of “YES” and then let it go if it became clear it would be a fight and she maybe had a masterclass to teach in NYC.

My D hasn’t experienced a lot of pettiness herself but some friends have. People advocating for their own studio and needs. Advocating with the administration very vocally for who they want. Studios can shuffle around. That can undercut an “offer”. The teacher is probably sincere with an offer but blind-sided by another teachers ability to sell their grievances and needs to the administration.

Still there are many good teachers and smaller, tighter depts may experience less of this. I don’t want it to sound negative prior to college. But of course there is competition and competing needs in any organization.

Always wait for the offer.

@classicalsaxmom good questions about the adjuncts. Best thing to do would be to work whatever network you have regarding the particular studios of interest. We faced that last year as one school that gave great aid had almost exclusively adjunct faculty in the division of my D’s instrument (voice). After sleuthing around, there was no universal answer- some adjuncts were as devoted to teaching as their professional career and others, not so much. And the same goes for full time faculty too! Plenty are not as invested in their students as their other activities. Only difference IMHO is that full time faculty are more tied to the university and a little less likely to up and move during your child’s time there. But even that isn’t guaranteed.

It’s an interesting time for sure. S has one audition left and here is where we stand:

2 full acceptances (both university and music school for one, the other is only a music school); received financial package from one, the other won’t come till March sometime
1 university acceptance but waiting on music school - have financial package from university, don’t know if a music acceptance might come with a bit more money
2 music acceptances, but waiting on university acceptance
2 “We really liked you!” from studio teachers but no official admission into music or university yet
1 heard nothing
1 still needs to audition

(plus admission to 2 schools for engineering and waiting on 2 for engineering - from back when he was worried about making aliving - he’s over it and ready to dive into music head first)

Good news - no rejections…yet! Bad news… we still know very little, lol!

@BassTheatreMom - that is a nice tracking list.

We have:
1 university acceptance with academic scholarship, waiting on music school admittance, had good feedback at audition.
2 visited schools with great feedback waiting on admission the university, school of music, and scholarship.
2 remotely-auditioned schools with, waiting on admission the university, school of music, and scholarship.

No rejections yet.

I have not heard of anyone doing this before, so I’ll mention it. For our driving schedule, there would have been a case of a long drive followed by returning home for a day of work, then followed by another long drive. So, for one of the schools it made sense to skip coming home for a day of work and just drive there earlier. So, S contacted the prof and mentioned we would be there Sunday night before the Friday audition. Luckily, the prof set up a whole plate of activities. During the week, there was only 1 evening where S had several hours off. Otherwise, he was in a class, at a rehearsal, meeting and having a lesson of sorts with various professors in their office, getting an auxiliary audition for voice with the voice prof, attending a class, and just getting involved in the program. It was really great. Even if not offered a spot, S came away with extra experiences.

We noticed something maybe not coincidental - one afternoon, the prof asked S is he could do a 3-octave scale, which S does on the upright, but not the electric. The prof asked if he thought he could learn that in a day. That evening, S sits down at the hotel and figures out 3-octave scale stuff on the electric. Next day’s instructor for electric bass asks for a 3-octave scale on electric bass. So, there was possibly some checking of S’ initiative, follow-through, and such, so we suspect.

That’s a great story, GoForth. One thing that teachers are on the lookout for is how quickly a potential student can absorb information and how quickly they can learn. Your son demonstrated his follow-through, as well as his ability to learn quickly (although I’m not clear whether instructor #1 was able to appreciate that, or learning the scale in time for instructor 2 was just a luck coincidence. )
For classical players in festival auditions (not so much as college auditions, which tend to be more rushed) it’s common for the panel leader to give some kind of instruction, i.e., to “work with them”. The purpose is to see how adept they are at responding to instruction and how easy to work with. Ease of working with, flexibility, and focus are important qualities in musicians.

DS has received a couple more of those “I’d like to have you in my studio, it’s up to admissions now” type emails from profs, plus a nice personal email from a student in one studio talking about his experience at the school and offering to answer any questions. DS also got a nice bit of musical (but non-college-related) good news yesterday so it has been a good weekend.