Welcome swipersmom! My D’s preferences also changed during the process. I don’t envy you traveling with a bass for audition season!
Hi Everyone,
I stumbled on your wonderful community some months back as my son began his applications for college/BM programs. I’m grateful for all who have shared their experiences; it has been so helpful. S is a jazz pianist, senior at a large, “selective enrollment” high school in a big city. I feel like we’re just beginning to come up for air, after the whole extended process of applications, prescreening videos, auditions, and financial aid apps. He ended up applying to:
UMiami Frost
USC Thornton
University of North Texas
UCLA
Loyola Chicago (accepted, presidential scholarship)
He auditioned in person at Frost, Thornton, and UNT. For UCLA and Loyola, we had scheduling conflicts, so visited and met with folks, but submitted video auditions. S had great experiences at each school; if he has a preference in his heart of hearts, he isn’t ready to share it! May as well wait for admission decisions and award offers.
swipersmom, my S also had a strong preference for staying in a city, but he really liked UNT and could see himself there.
Hello all! I’ve been using this forum as a resource for a while now too, and thought I should sign in and at least say hi! I am the father of two musicians - my daughter is a senior in college in vocal performance, and my son is a violinist who has just finished the college/conservatory audition process and is currently trying to decide where to land. Thanks for all your great comments and information. They have been very useful to us.
Hello Everyone! I’m the father – TiggerDad – of a violinist son who’s now Junior in IB high school. My son’s been a very serious violinist since he was 5 with lots of competitions under his belt. At this point, though, he doesn’t know whether he wants to pursue violin or Pre-Med in college, so we’re in the process of exploring all different options. One thing for sure is that he’ll apply to about 10 colleges for BS degree as well as about 4 colleges for BM degree and perhaps 1 conservatory – he’ll make the final decision after all dust has been settled. In the meantime, this Junior year has been one crazy year as he’s taken New PSAT, SAT Math II, New SAT, ACT with another round of NEW SAT, ACT tests and SAT Biolology test coming up. Along with a packed IB courses, he’s also taken two AP classes this year, so he has the AP exams coming up in May to prepare for. Let’s not even bother mentioning of violin auditions and competitions, etc. in between. To all moms and dads of musician/scholar high schoolers out there, my hats off to you!
I am hoping to learn as much as I can to prepare for my younger D, now a sophomore and soon to be junior. My older D is a freshman, majoring in. Music/music industry at Monmouth University. She was clear she wanted an LAC near NY music scene that would prepare her for working in the industry. So, older one was not conservatory or BM bound. It took a while to figure out the world of contemporary music, but we succeeded in finding her a place. Now, onto number 2. She is more traditional. She has always been clear that she wants to seriously focus on music and only music in college. Indeed, that is her life. She is a vocalist with a crazy rock voice who started off rock trained, but for high school we commute her an hour to go to a performing arts high school so she can major in vocal music and gain her classical and theory training that will help her be flexible as an artist. Of course, she is interested in Berklee, but I fear the cost will prohibit her from going. Im wondering if anyone has found vocal music programs, whether in conservatories or LAC’s that are contemporary-friendly and still very musically rigorous?
Hello! The CC community has been a huge help finding colleges for our two older kids. The first is a rising junior in an engineering program, and number 2 moves in at her LAC in a couple of weeks. With those college searches done, I will be turning my attention (on CC anyway) to number 3, a rising sophomore in high school with some serious interest in studying music in college. He’s played piano since age five, showed some talent, quit lessons a year ago (much to his parents’ dismay), and recently began playing more seriously again but hasn’t restarted lessons. He also plays cello, with lessons, and is a top player at his high school (but not near the top in our very competitive region). In addition, we recently discovered the kid can sing. He started school choir in 8th grade while his voice was beginning to change :-), and continued in 9th grade, surprising us by making both regional and all-state honor choir. He has not started voice lessons, but we are considering it–just need to find a teacher. He also has shown some talent at composing (for piano and string orchestra) and is planning at this point to study music education and conducting in college, which are likely good fits for him. So I’ll be researching options for him for a while while he focuses on enjoying high school, making music, and getting good grades so he can afford some more college choices. I’ll also be making sure we understand the audition and application process so he can be ready for that when the time comes.
Hello All! I am the father of two young women. The first is heading off to college this next week and the second has started her junior year. My junior is a singer and is considering vocal performance/music. We used CC extensively for my first and I am now starting to peruse the music forum. She is open to all options and, although she is a very good “pop” singer, she has started to enjoy choral and classical music. She is a bit unusual in that she has a deeper voice and I think her vocal coach and choir director are starting to encourage her more. While she is passionate about singing and practices often, she is not particularly ambitious in the classical college confidential way.
I have started to figure out that the music route may be a little more difficult that the purely academic route. At least with the academic route, you have more measurable criteria for admission and fit. Measuring artistic talent is another matter. Hanging on for another ride…
Hello, I’m trying to learn and share thoughts as my two daughters are interested in studying music. Older one is a senior in high school interested in pursuing violin performance. She’s looking to apply at Juilliard, Rice (Shepherd), USC (Thorton), NEC, IU (Jaconbs), BU, UMich and Johns Hopkins (Peabody). It’s gonna be a tough and hectic few months, I’m sure.
One thing to think about EstherDad is what type of music does she want to play after she graduates. Does she want to be an orchestra musician? A soloist? Does she want to play a wide variety of music styles? Although all the conservatories you list are extremely good and have amazing faculty there are subtle differences between them and the cultures that exist at the schools. It might be helpful for your daughter to start thinking about that now.
Welcome @EstherDad from another parent of a senior! We’ll be going through this together.
I’ve been lurking and learning for a while. My son is a HS junior. He is a singer/songwriter/producer There is no denying it - nervous as it makes his parents - its in his soul. He has no desire to major in anything other than a commercial music program. So we fully support that decision. (fish gotta swim, right?)
Its a tough balancing act between strong academics and advancing his musical career (as you all know) He’s produced and released two albums. He plays local venues and charity events. He’d like to play out more but he’s committed to being a HS student. He does the musicals, plays baseball, and takes a load of AP courses which are very time intensive.
His high school grades have been perfect so far. He’s prepping for the SATs later this fall. As a reward for his hard work we have visited Berklee, NYU/Clive Davis, USC/Thornton, and Belmont. He liked all of them.
Sure we are hoping for some academic money (not at Berklee obviously) but we were thinking that he might be able to help us pay the bills by applying the AP credits to reduce the time spent at school by a semester or two. Anybody here have any luck doing that?
Thanks
Freshman in high school interested in pursuing vocal performance at a conservatory (I’m a soprano)
Oh and also, I signed up to get information about different colleges and information about auditions and the like… it’s always good to start early. 
I’ve been lurking for a while, but I’m a high school senior in NY interested in flute, debating performance vs education. Good grades, top 10% of class, National Merit Commended Scholar, etc. Less concerned with academics than with auditioning on such a competitive instrument. I’ve visited and loved SUNY Potsdam Crane and Queens Aaron Copland School, but I’m also considering Hofstra (free application+30min from my house), Vanderbilt Blair, Rice Shepherd, and Purchase (I toured Stony Brook but hated it). Any other flutists who are looking at the same schools, PM me!
I’m jumping back into the game. My 3 sons all entered college as music majors. #1 and #3 switched but #2 is a senior sax player at Frost. Now my daughter, a HS junior wants to be a music major, clarinet performance no less. Yes my name here is NYsaxmom but I no longer live in NY and my sax is the one about to graduate, so really I should be FLclarinetmom. Going to enjoy this ride as (a) it’s my last, and (b) my daughter (unlike her brothers before her who did not apply themselves academically) has excellent grades
Hello Everyone!
I am a parent and a long time lurker here. My daughter is a senior in high school and applying for vocal performance. She is a soprano so the odds are definitely not in her favor, although she has been told she has a beautiful voice. She has also applied to four schools for business degrees as a back up because she is also interested in marketing, being the flaming extrovert that she is. She has already received acceptance to The University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, which is a relief if she gets bad news from her prescreens. Should she attend Minnesota, she will seek a music minor there as she is a violinist as well as a singer. What a nerve wracking time this is. All our prescreens are almost submitted and she has no safeties in that department. I guess our feeling is if she isn’t good enough to make it into top schools, then an opera career isn’t really in the cards anyway. She had a sample lesson with the chair of the voice department at Indiana in September which was an incredibly valuable experience. She is sending prescreens to : Indiana Jacobs School of Music, Rice, BU, Vanderbilt, The Cleveland Institute, and USC. Best of luck to everyone here, as they navigate this stressful but exciting application process.
I am a parent of a violist son. This is such a stressful process. I have a Freshman in college daughter who applied to one conservatory last year in flute and did not make it in. My son has 5 auditions. I wish I had a better idea if this is even a possibility.Two of the schools are university conservatories, the other three are not. I think he wants to dual degree. Fingers crossed. And good luck to all of you!
Hi all! My son is a Sophomore Choir major in a Performing Arts High School! I’m so happy to meet you all. I’ve only been on CC for a short time but the wealth of information is awesome! My son would like to pursue a double major in Opera Performance and either Liberal Arts or Science. He also wants to continue in a school with a strong choir program. He loves conducting too, totally self-taught, but most programs seem to be MM.
Hi, I really wish I had found this forum sooner!
I’m a mom of a senior double bass player. He is trying to transition from classical (Texas all-state multiple years) to popular music with recording engineering. We’ve been going at this whole thing pretty blind, so I"m realy happy to have found this site, even it’s a little late. He’s been admitted ot Berklee so far, still waiting to audition everywhere else.
I also have a junior who wants to study musical theater. I’m a doctor and my husband is an engineer, so we don’t really know what to think about all this. LOL!
Hello all, does anyone on this group have a VP major waiting for prescreen results from NU or CMU? I noticed last year those results came very late in December and even early January. Just wondering if anyone had any information to share regarding when those students might be notified?