<p>One of my tracking options (either UPS or US Postal service) offered to send me an email confirmation for free, which I did. It may be that both of them do that. I did not create my label online - used one of those UPS stores and also the PO. Basically, I knew they were going to deliver at 10 am so I went online around 10:30 and tracked the package to see that it was there.</p>
<p>Phew. Pre-screens recording session completed after 5 hours! S is exhausted and wondering what he loved about jazz in the first place. Well, kidding.</p>
<p>Now just to get the right pieces on the right discs with the right labels sent to the correct addresses.</p>
<p>Oh Jazz/shreddermom I remember it well! Congrats on the finished recording session–and good luck with the sorting!!</p>
<p>SJTH, I get the feeling you are one of many parents who come here just to share your experience with us, having already loaded your kids off to school. Or are you in the midst of doing the entire process over again with a second son or daughter? Either way, I’m impressed and grateful for your expertise–all of you! (I suspect I will disappear as soon as it’s over - how selfish of me!)</p>
<p>My younger S is one of those people who plays an instrument but has no musical aspirations beyond the hobby level. At this point, my guess is that his college process will not involve auditions. I must say… it will seem like a piece of cake.</p>
<p>SJTH–I keep telling my younger daughters that their experience will be a breeze after the music major route. And that they will benefit greatly from my vast knowledge of the process that will make up for any slight they feel in the attention department this year!</p>
<p>So far, we’ve had notifications via email that the cds have arrived–I didn’t think to ask for a signature receipt, but it is a good point!</p>
<p>The waiting is very hard indeed.</p>
<p>LOL, yes I’m a “vet” with S1 who applied ED to his dream school, got in and that was all she wrote. THEN there was S2, a jazz musician last year. I’m still around because without the wise people on the Music Major forum, not only would my son not have gone to a summer program between jr. and sr. year, I’m pretty sure he’d be at our state univ, because we would have been completely at sea. Trying to pay it forward. Fortunately, though, S3 is probably not doing the music route.</p>
<p>There are many “veterans” here and we’ll all be here for ongoing therapy for you. I know there will be people here who will truly keep you sane!</p>
<p>not going anywhere…</p>
<p>Do most people submit their application before, after or around the same time as the CD/DVD is sent? My S is still working on some of his music essays, so it’s likely the prescreens, transcripts, etc. will all get there before he clicks “submit”. I imagine that’s okay? </p>
<p>Obviously, I’m not talking about ED apps, which I realize were already due.</p>
<p>We sent hard copies of music resume (except to Oberlin, whose application basically includes all that info,) music teacher recommendations (when there wasn’t a specific form the teacher sent him/herself), repertoire list and CDs all packaged together in the lovely differing formats all the different music schools required. Transcripts went separately from HS. Because online technology was even a step behind LAST YEAR, sometimes supplemental essays went too.</p>
<p>Actually my teacher recommendations went in sometime in September because I tried to get a jump on those. My D’s applications went in mid-October and a week later we sent pre-screening (mostly DVDs). We only had one application that wasn’t online, though, so the packages were typically separate.</p>
<p>Well, my D, like so many others is in the midst of college applications, with one completed and several others nearly finished, with some deadlines Dec 1, others in January. Pre-screens recorded but not sent out yet… Very stressed to say the least. But one milestone completed is her first audition (“safety school”), but it’s a good program and she’d be fine if she went there. She was accepted for vocal performance by the conservatory. Yay! She has to wait to hear from the college, but we’ve been told that she more than meets the requirements. So, it’s not an official acceptance yet, but we’re 99% sure it will be. She hasn’t yet had a lesson there, but the teacher she’s interested in comes highly recommended by my D’s voice teacher and others, and we’ve heard her students sing really well. Since this school isn’t one of D’s top choices, she’s not all that excited, but I hope having an acceptance under her belt gives her a bit more confidence for the next ones. </p>
<p>It’s going to be a long haul until May 1st, but I’m really looking forward to the travel times together! Good luck to everyone!</p>
<p>Hey Dads! time to start the new acceptances thread :)</p>
<p>We made the mistake of filling out the schools deadline on the “teachers’ letters packets” S’s system S’s school uses - now we realize WE need some of those letters in hand to mail with his prescreens next week. Hadn’t noticed that a couple places want everything mailed in one packet. ARghhh. It’s really a big deal to go back to the teachers now and ask them to A) write the letters pronto because they’re not postmark deadlines like general admissions tend to be, and B) give them back to us instead of mail them themselves. I think S is going to call the schools in question and alert them the letter are coming separately. Why oh Why do there have to be so many different systems?</p>
<p>Congrats Sopranomom–that’s great news! Getting through that first audition is fantastic! And Jazz/Shreddermom, I completely agree! The “Unified App” could be SO much more “unified” (like the actual Common App.) For some kids (and mine was one) just filling out the name, rank, serial # stuff eight times caused his head almost to spin off–let alone filling out the short answer essays and choosing the individual songs (per requirement) for each prescreen…etc. etc. </p>
<p>One of “Dads” here would become a world hero if they could do this 
That and have unified locations for auditions, like they do for musical theater… Of course this is probably just CRAZY talk!</p>
<p>S only has two schools on the unified app - and just realized one requests his counselor write a rec. (He hasn’t submitted yet, but had chosen to designate his private and school music teachers, not his counselor). Well, turns out counselor has already mailed a rec snail mail to every single school as a matter of course. So does he still put her name/email in one of the boxes, prompting her to get an email from the school asking for an online rec? </p>
<p>And the school that “prefers” the rec’s with the prescreen? Not gonna happen. Prescreen is ready, rec isn’t because teacher thinks he can mail it Dec. 1.</p>
<p>It’s just too ridiculous at this point!!! Not good for OCD mom and son. I’m ready to be just waiting.</p>
<p>You know, none of our recommendations went via the internet–they all went “snail mail” and made it to the designated spot. If there is a spot for “additional information” is it possible to note that the teacher’s recommendation is coming under separate cover? I would put her mail/email in the form, so the school knows you’ve got it covered. They are used to things coming at different times–because they do realize that getting others to do this stuff (recommendations, transcripts etc.) is really beyond the student’s control.</p>
<p>Twas the night past Thanksgiving
And all through the home
Not a creature was stirring
Not even the gnome.</p>
<p>The turkey was eaten
The game had been viewed
We were all in a stupor
From family and food.</p>
<p>The forms had been sent
Neatly filled out
Exuding confidence
And nary a doubt.</p>
<p>The rep list was printed
Summer festivals too
Awards and some prizes
Too many? Too few?</p>
<p>The transcripts were mailed
The teachers all spoke
The required fees
Made us feel broke.</p>
<p>The essays were written
So brilliantly phrased
It felt just a bit
Like we’d been hazed.</p>
<p>Where to be in ten years?
Confront your deepest fear.
Challenges faced.
Visions made clear.</p>
<p>Most significant moment?
Which invention or tool?
How have you saved the world?
Why did you choose this school?</p>
<p>The prescreen recordings were
Stacked on a chair
With hopes that the Fed Ex truck
Soon would be there.</p>
<p>We sat in the darkness
Content with our lot
We’d done all we could
Given it our best shot.</p>
<p>When out of the night
Like a beacon of hope
Came one long, clear sound,
A musical note.</p>
<p>Followed soon by another
And then more and more
The notes filled the darkness
And rolled out the door.</p>
<p>A bow across strings
Breath over reeds
A voice from a throat
Fingers on keys.</p>
<p>A scale, an arpeggio
An etude or two
That orchestral excerpt
The concerto, too.</p>
<p>No more time to relax
Don’t just gaze at the moon.
The applications are done
But auditions come soon!</p>
<p>Bravo, Stradmom, that is fantastic!!!</p>
<p>Perfect Stradmom. Brava</p>
<p>AUTHOR!!! AUTHOR!!! A music major classic. </p>
<p>In a similar vein, to the tune of Lightfoot’s “Early Morning Rain”</p>
<p>In the early morning rain
With a fiddle in my hand
And an aching in my head
And my rosin’s full of sand
Goin’ a long way from home
And I’ll miss my teacher so
In the early morning rain
To audition I go</p>
<p>Out on runway number 9
My 757’s movin’ slow
Cause they’re stacked up 20 deep
I don’t think we’ll ever go</p>
<p>Now the donut tasted bad
And security was rude
Wish I picked a different flight
Best get in audition mood</p>
<p>This whole process got me down
It’s no earthly good to me
Got an ice cube’s chance in hell
For Juilliard or NEC</p>
<p>Podunk U’s a shoe in
And my teacher is on staff
Glad I made my safety plans
My gc ain’t gonna laugh</p>
<p>Podunk U’s a shoe in
And my teacher is on staff
Glad I made my safety plans
My gc ain’t gonna laugh</p>
<p>bravissimi!</p>