<p>I read on another thread at FlutemomLiz's DD has 12 schools on an initial list.</p>
<p>My DS has four, with a fifth to appease his parents.</p>
<p>There are probably plenty of places that he could go that he doesn't want to consider, for a variety of reasons, but mainly because the top musicians from his very musically strong high school and music school just don't end up at these places. Some of this is the musican's version of the "Harvard problem". Also, finding schools with both strong jazz and classical programs is more challenging than I thought.</p>
<p>I just don't know how many schools on a list is reasonable, particularly given the costs of visiting and auditioning. Or should he add a couple, just to do by tape or regional audition. I am so confused.</p>
<p>(on edit: this was one reason that I thought going to the performing arts fair made sense...but son is not particularly interested....)</p>
<p>OK, for us the initial list had 11, and we applied and auditioned at 5 after visiting 10 of the 11 schools. The one school we didn't visit prior to auditions was the "safety, safety" and we did the visit and private audition at the same time.</p>
<p>Initial visits eliminated 4 of the remaining 10 schools from consideration. We had lessons prior to auditions at 6 schools and dropped 2 of them from consideration after the lesson.</p>
<p>Of course, individual results may vary...</p>
<p>BTW: In our case, performing arts fair did nothing to add or subtract schools from the initial list. However, I feel it can be a good source of finding out "other" schools that may be out there so if it's not a financial or time burden to attend one, it sure can't hurt!</p>
<p>Our numbers were similar to Zep's. Daughter started with ten, visited seven, auditioned live at five and sent a tape to one. An early but non-binding acceptance in December allowed us to take a couple of safeties off the list before bothering with visits, sample lessons and auditions at those places, even though she had submitted applications. </p>
<p>The performing arts fair came along pretty late in the process for us, so it was mainly a way to meet people face-to-face whom we had already contacted by phone or email.</p>
<p>During D's junior year and the summer prior to senior year, we visited 14 schools. About half of those we considered potential "safety" schools. Of course, on the way to visit those schools, D would say, "You know, I really don't want to go here." I often felt I was forcing her to do these visits, but I needed to see all of the different schools and decide whether a university or a conservatory would be better for her. When she finally found a teacher she really liked at one of these "safety" schools who told her she would definitely get in, it certainly made my life much less stressful. She ended up applying to 6 schools, which I felt was a reasonable number, although I was willing to let her apply to as many as 8.</p>
<p>How many is right for your son? If your son has a definite safety in that 4 or 5, and your family can afford that school, and he has a good shot competitively at the other schools, then he should be fine and you can count yourself among the lucky few.</p>
<p>OTOH, I also think it's important to visit a wide variety of schools. I firmly believe that there is no "perfect" school out there. Each school has its strengths and weaknesses, including Juilliard and Curtis. Visiting a school, meeting teachers and students, and attending performances and classes, if possible, will give you so much more information than just looking at a school on paper.</p>
<p>Our plan is about the same as those that have answered already. I have already written how the flute and our financial situation complicates matters a bit for us.</p>
<p>But our initial goal is 12-15 schools on the list. Visit 7-10, apply to as few over 5 as we feel we can be safe doing. I am hoping we can get lucky with an early addmission offer that can act as her safety, that would be wonderful.</p>
<p>We are fortunate that she has attendented camps and honors bands at some of the schools on our list. And has taken a class with several of the professors. So hopefully that might save us the cost of a second visit at some and we can either eliminate or feel confident would be a good fit.</p>
<p>So far all of our safeties still require audition, so I do not feel they are truly safe.</p>
<p>Would you consider attending a masterclass enough of a "sample" of a teachers style or does it have to be a private lesson? That could further simplify things for us.</p>
<p>FML, do you have long distance travel for all 10-12, or are some local for you?</p>
<p>Just finding the time for travel, with my son's schedule, as well as costs involved in flying and lodging, is making his small number manageable. I just can't imagine more schools, but obviously have some anxiety about so few on the list....</p>
<p>We could do some closer driving safeties, I suppose....</p>
<p>5 live auditions (but 4 were local)
2 regional auditions held locally (Los Angeles area)
6 DVD's
1 school with no audition required</p>
<p>(son was accepted at all but one)</p>
<p>In retrospect, my son applied to too many safeties. I knew he was talented, but there was no way to know how talented he was on a national scale or how strong the applicant pool would be last year on his instrument at each school. Out of 5 serious contenders, 3 auditions were done on campus, one was a regional audition, and for one the teacher came to our house but then we sent an additinal DVD for scholarship purposes.</p>
<p>A Masterclass often winds up being a coaching session on how to approach a particular piece or movement. It can be very different from a lesson that is focused more on learning technique and improving the student's playing in general. I think it might be possible to rule out a teacher based on a masterclass experience. It would be harder to make the decision that the teacher is a good fit.</p>
<p>AllMusic I have been reading your contributions with interest because I think our kids have some things in common. My son is a senior and is applying for jazz studies; so far he has 5 schools on his list. He will audition early (non-binding) to 2 (U Michigan and Oberlin) which will give him some feedback that should inform the rest of his list. He is working hard on audition pieces with a demanding teacher (Jerry Bergonzi at NEC) but seems not too nervous about auditions....which makes me nervous! He did have lessons at the two early review schools and got an encouraging reception (according to my husband) but I am well aware of fierce competition and small # of spaces available. So we have a list of other schools if December results are not good. The overall #, however, is 8 at the most.</p>
<p>Allmusic, unfortunately all our trips are long. But at least they might be confined to two or three regions that we can hit several schools together if it works out well. We maybe able to schedule a sample lesson fairly close to home (2 hrs) and that might eliminate the need to travel to a couple cities. Hate to think how much worse it would be if we considered west coast schools.</p>
<p>Thanks BassDad that makes a great deal of sense.</p>
<p>Beethoven "I knew he was talented, but there was no way to know how talented he was on a national scale or how strong the applicant pool would be last year on his instrument at each school." wow those are great words of wisdom and describe our dilemma very well. If we only knew what we didnt know.</p>
<p>Also I am not that certain the campus will make that much difference to my daughter. Most likely she will decide based on the professor and the reputation of the school and its orchestras and ensembles. So we may skip some visits if she really likes the professor.</p>
<p>Anyone think that would be a huge mistake? Obviously she will visit the campus when she auditions.</p>
<p>Our experience was always that on audition day performance anxiety/focus took precedence over any kind of insightful awareness of everything else about the school, as well as ability to concentrate on theory placement exams. Sometimes there was a negative sense of the place and the people, but once interaction with the professors happened, all of that went out the window. In retrospect, that was a big mistake.</p>
<p>Many schools have special visitation days in April for accepted students where lodging in the dorms and meals in the cafeteria are provided free of charge. Some schools will even pay for the student's transportation expenses. If you do apply to a school without a pre-audition visit and later get accepted, you should really try to see the place without the stress of auditioning coloring your judgment before sending in a deposit. Even if you did see the school before auditioning, the programs for accepted students can be an excellent experience.</p>
<p>My son only applied to schools that had teachers he was interested in studying with. He visited 7 schools and applied to 4. He didn't really have a safety as he felt that if he didn't get into one of the programs he really wanted he would take a gap year. He ended up getting 2 acceptances and 2 waitlists. </p>
<p>He was not concerned much with campus environment or anything else other than the teacher. He did want a school that gave him an opportunity to take non-music classes either within the school itself or at an affiliated school. He couldn't have cared less about the dorms, the food, or any of the other stuff. When all was said and done, he said his ideal situation would be to have the teacher he studied with at Eastman, teaching at Rice, and move the whole thing to Boston! However, as has been stated, there is not really a perfect school for most music students and they end up making the best out of the situation they find themselves in.</p>
<p>ahhh...we're just approaching this precipice as well....At the moment, Fiddlekid has about 15 schools on her preliminary list. At this stage (junior) she's still wavering about whether she wants to pursue music, academics or both, so the list reflects everything: 6 have strong music AND academic programs, 6 are strong music contenders, another 3 or 4 are great academic possibilities with rich extracurricular music environments.</p>
<p>Of these, she's visited about 3, and will probably cover most of the rest by the end of junior year, including some sample lessons. She has said that she does not want any music safeties and wants to shoot for the stars and the "right" teacher if she goes in that direction. The academic choices will have more of a range.</p>
<p>I hope that by application time it will be whittled down to a list that has no more than 5 in-person auditions required. But we'll see what happens over the next year.</p>
<p>We went about the process a bit backwards, it seems, but it worked for us. My son applied to about 9 or 10 schools, I think (some requiring two applications, since the conservatory or music school was separate). He did no visits beforehand and only did regional auditions or sent tapes, due to financial considerations. Once acceptances (and rejections) came in, he made a whirlwind visit of his top 4 acceptances, getting lessons at most. (It was a bit cheaper making all the visits on one extended trip. And this way he didn't "waste" visits on schools to which he ended up not being accepted.) After that, he made his decision.</p>
<p>I know, I know. We broke all the rules about in-person auditions and such. He shouldn't even have been accepted at the school he now attends, due to the low quality of his tape. All I can say is that apparently God has compassion on fools like us. :)</p>
<p>Susantm--
You did what worked for you, and clearly 'twas meant to be! Isn't that the great thing about this process? We all support each other and offer our experiences and words of wisdom, but in the end, each family's adventure is unique!</p>