I don’t know how to edit my previous post to clarify – just wanted to say, she hasn’t officially committed to Berklee (we’re working on trying to get additional scholarship money), but this is the only college she has ever wanted to go to – so it is pretty much a done deal.
@aMomWithHope I have a Berklee parent Facebook page. If interested, message me and I’ll give you the link. It’s against rules on CC for me to share it. I was told I’m not allowed to share page directly on here.
Did you check out Belmont in the Mike Curb school of music business
@travmom Funny you should mention that. We just returned home after a week in Nashville “kind of” at Belmont. No time to really check out the campus other than a drive by. My D was selected for Grammy Camp as a vocalist so she spent a pretty amazing week in Columbia studios working on some new songs and recording with a band. Belmont will be on the list to apply to. She heads to Berklee with some of her fellow Grammy Campers on July 8
Tried to edit and add onto my last comment but I was too late so here is the rest of what I said…
Funny enough, this experience for her was one of the most life changing she has had. I can’t recall ever seeing her happier than spending her days in intensive music workshops, writing lyrics, charting music, changing some of the original songwriters music more towards her style of jazz and soul, etc. It reaffirms her love for vocal jazz to be sure since everything she gravitated towards was of a jazz/blues/soulful style. It renewed her drive and motivation which is a good thing.
Now to work on the lists of colleges to apply to. So far it looks like this with a few question marks and we could use some more information on the question marked schools;
Berklee
Frost at UMiami
USC Thornton (although I honestly don’t think she has a prayer of getting in, worth an application to try though)
Belmont
Western Mich U
Michigan State (safety school in our backyard)
Loyola New Orleans???
The New School ???
SUNY Purchase???
That’s pretty much the list at the moment.
Loyola of NO is a great music school and well worth checking out. It would be higher on my son’s list for voice if it were not in his hometown. He wants to go away for school. But we are still going to apply there. His private voice teacher is on the faculty there.
Fantastic. Wish I knew about all these college camps before my son was a senior.
@travmom he can still apply for Grammy camp next year unless you mean he has finished his senior year. My D plans to audition again next year. She had pretty much one of the most amazing experiences of her life musically at GC collaborating with such talented kids from across the country.
If your son is a senior in high school, he will probably want to do summer programs during his undergrad years. I think they can be really helpful in clarifying goals and making connections. And during undergrad years there is often funding for them!
@vistajay do they have a vocal jazz program? I’m not seeing it which is why I had the ??? next to it.
Does not look like it but you should email the music admissions office to be sure. @SpartanDrew
Oh man…so my D spent half the day yesterday in the studio doing some recordings for auditions etc. I decided today to start looking at the college prescreen process and think I’m about to have an anxiety attack! Good grief every school seems to want something completely different from the next. I guess I was living in some little fantasy that D could prepare maybe 6 or so jazz standards and use them for all of the schools. That hope was too good to be true clearly…
This all seems really overwhelming! Of course everything has to be put together with college apps starting when she returns from Berklee on 8/12 coupled with her duties as choir council President for her HS, the fall musical, studying for an SAT retake, etc. ACCCKKK! It’s all making me rethink even bothering to apply to some schools that were not high on her list (and coincidentally nearly impossible to get into like USC/Thornton…)
Does anyone have any advice having gone through it on how to get everything done without losing your sanity? There is so much more to this than when my son applied to college for engineering. Yikes.
Add the fun of negotiating winter travel conditions for auditions and, yup, kiss any sanity good bye!
For what it’s worth, my son punted all non-essentials. He dropped Symphony Band and the school jazz big band. No AP classes. He retook the ACTs with zero studying/prep (and his score did go up.)
He applied to 6 schools. Recorded about 10 songs for pre-screens. Traveled to Boston, NYC (two auditions), Ohio and LA for auditions. (One audition at home.)
We survived, but barely. He was sick as a dog when we got to LA and we spent two days holed up in the hotel trying to get him as well as possible. Loaded him up with ibuprofin for the audition.
All that said, we were just talking about this last week and we both remember it all as being an incredible time. It was crazy when we were home but on the audition trips, I tried to build in at least one extra day before and after the audition so that we could settle in a little, explore the city, relax and have a nice meal. In NYC, we went to a few shows, had dinner with friends, etc. I knew that the process was inevitably going to have some disappointments, and didn’t want that to be what he remembered from those trips. He remembers them as fun – crazy and stressful, but still fun.
We are doing the same @ScreenName48105. D has decided with my FULL support not to join the women’s select ensemble this fall which meets twice weekly after school. She hasn’t broken the news to the choir director yet but oh well. When I see the list of what she has to prepare for pre-screens along with applications there’s just no way. She will honestly barely have time for the musical but it’s her senior year and she will get some sort of large part so I know she won’t want to opt out of that at all.
Your LA trip sounds like a nightmare. We are debating on whether or not to bother with Thornton. As prestigious as it is she didn’t really love it there and I’ve heard that even if you do get in it’s unlikely to come with much if any merit scholarship so I’m thinking of letting that one drop off the list and perhaps add one that sounds like a good fit on paper like SUNY-Purchase. Hopefully her Berklee audition this summer will get her in with money so that we don’t have to travel back to Boston for a do over but if we have to we will. That leaves pretty much the NYC area, Miami and possibly Nashville for traveling to auditions which isn’t too bad. I imagine she will also have to record at least 10 songs for the prescreens, possibly more. ACK.
I really hope we will also look back on this as a fun adventure and not a stressful slog which I’m worried about. Thanks for the advice on the extra time built into traveling for the auditions. Great advice! Where did your S decide to go?
Congratulations you are exactly where you should be! Panic is the normal feeling. The only thing that changes is the degree of panic. Two suggestions: spreadsheets and wine. I’m sure others will give more informative posts…it’s been awhile for me. I just want you to know what you are experiencing is normal. Many a school list is cut down due to the one precious thing that will be in short supply - time (not to mention money and sanity). Good luck!
@bridgenail believe me…wine is already in the equation!! Spreadsheets are actually a great idea. Beats my own cryptic notes. I am totally in a state of panic and normally I’m the level headed one. I can only imagine where my D’s head will be during this process as she gets overwhelmed easily. Hopefully anyway one school will already be in the “plus” column since she will have her first actual audition at Berklee. Even if she doesn’t come away from that audition with scholarship and admission she will at least have gone through the process once to get a feel for it. I suspect August is going to be a hairy month around here…I’ll start stocking the wine fridge now! HAha!
So happy that your D had a great experience at GC! We will be right there with you as college applications start ging out.
As for your list, we toured New school last fall. I thought it sounded amazing, I really liked all the opportunites to gig and work with other people. It is primarily a jazz program so not a good fit for my D. I have also been on campus at SUNY Purchase (for another major). I don’t know anything about the music major, but it was our least favorite school for older D. Very disorganized audition process. Many parents were concerned about building upkeep. We actually saw students crying about issues with their professors. We could not even get a cab to drive us to the airport. It was a weird experience for us. I also hear it is highly competitive, as it is one of the SUNY schools. I would try to search more specifically for info on SUNY Purchase.
I would gently suggest being careful about posting these negatives on an online forum. Maybe via PM. I have no personal investment in saying that Purchase is a wonderful school and affordable too. The music world is small and the Internet is large so take care as you move forward. Just from someone who is a few years ahead of where you are. ps See Go Forth Journal for a model of discretion 
Hi. @SpartanDrew , @compmom ,and all. Yes, this reminds me so much of a year ago for us. Luckily, I wrote it all down as it happened, so there is so little to add. BTW, S did try a few different passes at making audition videos, but ultimately made them by himself with iRealPro on his iPad, where he programmed in the tracks, and we recorded at home on a SONY HDR-MV1. It was easiest to hold sessions over different days and wear the same clothing each time (a suit of course (there’s a sub-topic)) so that the takes could be mixed and matched and look consistent.
On the note about discretion, just to ramble a bit since I am all fidgety from not posting much anymore, yes, I did use some. I could have shared a few more details that would be intriguing, but not ultimately useful, and potentially unsafe. I am not saying whether anyone has done that here, but I always imagine that a true google hero like myself would easily be able to derive our identity. On the other hand, we did not really come across anything so disturbing that keeping it a secret would allow harm to come to others by doing so.
I would love to post more. Just ask anything.
Also, spreadsheets are fine, but it is not as fun as establishing an Admission War Room with white boards.