<p>I'm wondering if anyone else is going to the Music College Open House at Eastman in November (11/6). My daughter and I are going - she is a junior and she's really scattered right now about what she wants, but she knows she wants music, so I thought it might be helpful to let her talk to the schools, ask some questions, see if that provides some focus for her. </p>
<p>Daughter is a violist and a soprano, she's leaning towards pursuing vocal because the viola has done a number on her shoulder.</p>
<p>My DS is now a Junior in college but his high school TriM sponsored a trip every year to the Eastman College Music fair and he came home very excited with a few new names to add to his list. It helped him to narrow his choices by talking with schools. I didn’t attend but he felt it was worth the trip! Despite all his research, he did end up going to the school he first saw his freshman year of high school but at least he was able to make an informed choice.</p>
<p>The Eastman College fair is great. Took my son in his junior year. Actually shouldn’t have bothered. He had wanted to attend Eastman since he was 11. We attended and had a great night talking to the different colleges that were represented. He is now a freshman at Eastman and is absolutely in love with the place. </p>
<p>Well worth attending! We began going to the Eastman FairThe year it began, and for the next two years. By the time audition time rolled around in senior year, she knew the admissions people at the schools she had on her list and felt very comfortable talking with them.
It can get really, really crowded so have a plan so that you can hit the schools you are interested in and take a tote bag to store all the materials and hand-outs. Don’t overdress- even if it’s cold outside, it is quite warm when those corridors are packed with people! Parents, be aware that your student might be better able to navigate through the throngs without you- make good use of your cell phones for setting a meeting place- or better yet, settle in a Java Joe’s (next door to the school) for some good coffee and meet up there.</p>
<p>Be sure to bring preprinted labels with your student’s contact information. Use the labels instead of filling out information request cards by hand. It saves a lot of time.</p>
<p>It meant 11 hours total in the car, but I’m very glad we went this year. They had a Q&A for students and parents, walked through the admissions process and what kinds of things factor into decisions the schools make (they used kazoo players as an example - the gentleman from Eastman said if they had 10 really great kazoo plays audition but they only had 4 spots in their kazoo program, they would maybe accept 6 of the auditioners, but if the next year they had 6 openings and 4 auditioners, everyone could get an offer).</p>
<p>The vocal faculty had an open studio, so we got to sit down and talk with them, which was extremely helpful. They were very enthusiastic to hear that there were vocal students who were taking music theory - my daughter will have 2 years of theory before she graduates. </p>
<p>The fair part itself was nutso, mostly because the space they used was too small, at least for the schools A-N - there was much more space in the hallway they used for O-Z. My daughter added a couple of schools to her roster of possible schools, and took a couple off as well. She’s interested in music ed and music therapy, not performance (although I think this is her being practical, I think she’s actually very interested in performance).</p>
<p>Oh, and LGSMom, we took your label advice and were told we were “brilliant”, so credit where credit is due! You’re brilliant!</p>