I wonder if the jazzers are different. We have no after-the-audtion emails, but got more verbals during the audition visit
My D’s experience was a mixed bag.
Actually I don’t really re-call any comments during auditions. But all schools for classical voice ran pretty tight audition schedules. She had her 5 - 10 minutes in front of a panel. We were also overwhelmed by the process and asked for only one sample lesson at the first school and then were too exhausted to try that again. Not model audition behavior…but oh well…
She did get a few follow-ups…for VP and MT … sounding like offers were coming. And they did. So communication is always positive but not a guarantee.
Note my D also got NOTHING from some schools until the offer. So don’t despair if there is NO communication. That is the policy for some schools and some teachers.
This is an anxiety time because basically all you know is the school’s are supposed to give results by April 1st…but that is the outlier. Some schools based on past experience let you know quickly (also depends on when you audition, schools who finish their auditions early or do rolling obvious can get decisions out sooner). My S just came off a hell week for grad auditions when he literally flew all over the country for a bit over a week (my bank account is gonna cry!) and still has a couple of auditions, one tomorrow and one I believe next week…then comes the waiting.
I agree with others, I would be careful to put too much on what a teacher says or even e-mails after an audition, while getting positive feedback is always nice, it doesn’t necessarily translate. Things like “I would like to have you in my studio” may fall through if the teacher isn’t given enough slots (and yes, schools can do that…depends on the teacher, they are a lot more likely to do that with one of their ‘normal’ faculty, as compared to let’s say someone of the stature of Perlman at Juilliard, who likely may be able to get them to open up a slot for someone they like)…it isn’t the teacher is lying or out to give the kid false hope, things happen, if kids who they expected to leave the school stayed, if their yield formula was off, could affect that.
I also wish there was a magic formula for these things, to make the kid feel better. My S had an audition where he got upset, he said he played his concerto (a difficult one) as good as he ever played it, did well on his solo bach, but felt he didn’t do paganini well (personally, I wish they would bury paganini in a lead container and drop it to the bottom of the Marianas Trench, never to be heard from again lol), and was upset, and I pointed out that he often felt that way, and also that even though this is grad school, it may not have hurt him, they understand nerves and such, and if he played a very difficult movement of a difficult concerto and did nail it, that shows a lot.
He had a very top notch teacher, one of those who everyone wants to study with but takes very few students, be very encouraging, asking him if he was serious about going to the program and when my S said a lot of it came down to financials, said he was willing to help go to bat…sounds good, but you never know how far that will go.
My take on it is after the UG experience and now with Grad school looming, to try and not make too much, bad or good, of what seems to come out of the auditions, and let the fretting start when the notices come back from the schools (and yep, that period can be even worse, especially if the kid has choices to make, like several good programs, or where financials versus level comes into play). I know, easy to say, and I suspect you can tell your kids that until the cows come home and it still will be agonizing:). One of the things I have learned about music, from my son’s experiences and from others, is that you can never let any one thing, or even couple of things, get you down, or let you assume either you are great or stink, it doesn’t work like that. Everyone can bomb an audition, you can run into where a school over auditions for no slots, you can run into where they have less money for merit aid, or a year when a teacher gets flooded with students because someone somewhere decided this was the greatest teacher in the land, you just never know, you could be a world class flutist and audition into let’s say Curtis, have an incredible audition, and not get in because they don’t have slots (and that could be they decided to audition to see what happens and if a slot opened up, could be you played great but a teacher had a student in mind for the one slot, that stuff happens).
@classicalsaxmom regarding adjuncts, take this as just food for thought since obviously every decision is very personal.
I know a kid who will be finishing his Bachelors this spring and going on for his Masters. I was talking to his dad when he was a Sophomore and he told me that, when he was auditioning, one of his son’s teachers advised him to not get starry eyed about the famous teacher who happens to be principal in a top orchestra, but for undergrad he should look for a teacher who “is not trying to establish their reputation and is committed to teaching at this point in their career”. He told me his son did not follow this advice and regretted it because his teacher was pulled in so many different directions that teaching wasn’t his top priority.
That is obviously not an absolute, but just something to consider. There’s probably great adjuncts out there, and terrible full-time faculty, and vice versa. I guess the best thing would be to try to get a read on where the teacher’s priorities lie, if that’s even possible.
@DesignDad that sounds like good advice, and dovetails with my own thoughts. I’m not so much worried about the sax profs on S’s list, who we already have vetted in that way, but does a high proportion of pro musicians across the faculty who aren’t necessarily a frequent presence on campus tend to change the atmosphere of the music school overall?
This is petty, but it’s kind of bumming me out. S is a soccer player and at the last regular game of the season they have the seniors and their families walk out onto the field. They introduce the senior and tell his plans for college. But of course, S won’t know his plans - he won’t even know if he’s accepted most places. They’ll just have to say studying music at a school yet to be determined. They also print up a little keepsake booklet with the info. It’s not that big of deal in the scheme of things, but his teammates will be celebrating their big plans, and he still won’t know.
Of course this bothers me far more than it bothers him, LOL!
Pardon if my wording is not comforting, but my view, at least on my S’ plans, is he is pursuing professional musicianship. One of his proposed tools will be college experience.
BassTheatreMom I am confused most conservatories let students know about acceptance at the same time as liberal arts schools. Why would the celebration for senior soccer players occur before then? Won’t there be other kids who are waiting to hear from schools? It is my impression that many top schools send out acceptances at the same date.
I don’t think its petty @BassTheatreMom ! My S didn’t know for certain where he was going until after May 1, which was the day all the kids wore their chosen college “gear”. He just barely squeaked his info in on time for the final concerts of the year, (similar ceremony to what you described). He was SO frustrated and tired of saying he didn’t know, or listing his possibles. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, of course, but bothersome, nonetheless!
@StacJip - well they honor the students during the last game of the season, so the date is kind of set. This is a large public high school and most kids end up going to one of the state universities, or one of the larger private universities in state. Those acceptances have been out for a long time. Each year there are a couple of students who don’t know yet because of the March notification date, but it’s always a small number.
@indeestudios thanks for commiserating! The soccer banquet is April 24 and final concert isn’t unti May, so I think he’ll have made a decision before then. I hope!
Hi, just joining this conversation. Hey @classicalsaxmom my DD is also a classical sax player, but hasn’t gotten any definite acceptances yet (she applied/auditioned for 8 schools.) Did your son apply early action?
Hi @jahphotogal - my DS applied early action to an in-state public for Music Ed and did an early audition there. That was his first acceptance. The other seems to have rolling admissions and he got that acceptance in mid-Feb. Good luck to your D!
Just wondering… I’ve seen a number of people get waitlisted for music programs this year. How big usually are waitlists at some of the top schools?
I am confused as well @BassTheatreMom , I just took a look at admission decisions for regular colleges, and it looks like most schools are end of march or april 1st, least according to this link, which is the same as music schools… https://blog.■■■■■■■■■■■/blog-0/class-of-2021-regular-decision-notification-dates
So I don’t see why the other kids would be any different, the ones going to academic schools, unless maybe they were ed or something shrug.
As far as the great teachers go, that is a fundamental problem in music schools, especially when said teacher is an active performer. With such teachers it is possible they aren’t there much, because they are doing so much, so you end up not seeing them as much as you would a more ‘regular’ teacher. My son had lessons with someone who he potentially could study with in grad school, and he told my son that he was so busy his students ended up spending more time with other teachers than him. Obviously, people who are working musicians have a lot of advantages in any kind of music, they can talk about what it takes, who to talk to, what to focus on (for example, my son was given advice from someone who is the CM of a top level orchestra not to go to some programs, because the way the kids are being taught will make getting into ensembles). The other one of course is just because someone is a great performer, they may not be a great teacher, they may not be able to teach what made them great.
It is one of the reasons it may be wise to ask of the teachers you are interested in if they have a lot of committments and such, if they will be there a lot or if they are away, who would do the teaching.
@musicprnt Most kids don’t go to the schools listed on a website called “Ivy Wise,” College Confidential does skew it to look that way, though. There is a reason big public universities are big and small LACs are small. 
He has teammates going to places like Texas Tech, Baylor and University of Arkansas. They do rolling admissions. So really, I’m not making this up. And like I said - small in the grand scheme of things.
Just a reminder to have your kids check their portals. Sometimes admissions decisions are posted there in advance of sending out e-mails. I can’t recall in particular which school it was, but there was definitely one acceptance last year that was listed as a status change on the application portal but she had not yet received info (I think because FA was not complete- It was one that sent both out together). At least it give you something active to do!
DS got another music school acceptance today! He has to wait a bit for academic acceptance. This is a school that moved up his list several slots after audition visits, so he’s pretty happy about that.
@basstheatermom:
A lot of the schools on that list are not ivies, though most tended to be private universities, and most universities in this country I would bet don’t do rolling admissions, most as far as I know are in the late march time period (but I can understand the frustration if kids in your son’s school focus on schools with rolling admissions:). It has nothing to do with big versus small, I went to NYU which at one point was the largest private university in the world, not all private universities are small LAC’s or whatnot…
FB reminded me recently of a memory from a year ago - a picture of my daughter at Vanderbilt and a note that it was our 9th (!) consecutive night out on the road completing the last round of auditions and a scholarship interview thrown in there.
It was wonderful, exhausting, splendid and anxiety-ridden all at once. A roller-coaster. (And yes - being under the weather and the mountains of homework on return. #notfun) But the process of visiting schools and the time between the auditions, acceptances and offers allows a lot of time for reflection and synthesizing.
So I’m enjoying the trip down memory lane here, and wishing that all of the talented kids and dedicated parents find their way to a decision that is right for them.
@jce0246 I don’t think one can generalize about length of wait lists at music schools. It will be different for every instrument (or voice type) at every school because kids aren’t generally competing for admission with every other applicant to the school of music, but with applicants on the same instrument. They can’t accept 45 trombone players in any one year, but in another year, they may only have 1-2 applicants on trombone.