In some fields, including some areas of music, being female is currently a bit of an advantage because there are efforts underway to get more of a gender balance. This is true in composition and in academia. I wonder if it is true in jazz singing or drumming 
Well it must be a sign. We are sitting here delayed at Miami airport due to crappy weather in Detroit. I could stayā¦lol
@SpartanDrew It is great to read about Frost and what a fantastic experience you all had. I told my classical voice daughter about getting new songs 24 hours before performing and she laughed and said āoh heck no.ā Leaving an audition experience feeling good and positive makes for a great trip!.
In retrospect, I second the idea of visiting a few schools before auditions. We didnāt for several reasons. We had some college visit fatigue from my eldest daughter who is now enjoying those NE snow storms and I was thinking about the cost of all the audition trips. However, my D has had surprising and strong visceral reactions (good and bad) to several places. And I would not have been able to predict her responses.
@SpartanDrew I was wearing a grey suit but actually had a white shirt and light blue tie on. Instead of pulling out ireal pro, I decided to take a risk and play completely by ear on a tune I didnāt know. Piano professor said he appreciated it so maybe thatās good. I loved Frostāall of the current students were nice and extremely talented. The new buildings were gorgeous and the university itself seemed great. And I think I got along well with the professor I would study with. But I donāt know if I can get past the weather though as I donāt do too well in the heat.
Unfortunately I didnāt apply for New School, SUNY Purchase, or New England Conservatory so donāt think Iāll see you guys there. But good luck on the remaining auditions and Iām sure your daughter will have a lot of great options for next year. Also, Iām happy to hear that your dog is doing better.
@SpartanDrew forgot to ask, did you guys see the jazz forum? Those guys were amazing
@piranhavator we missed the jazz forum which was a bummer. D and we were starving so we went to get food right after her jazz audition. Plus she forgot something and had to wait for the next kid auditioning to finish so she could go back in the room lol. But we saw a lot of other great jazz during the week so I have no doubt they were great.
So our flight home has been canceled and we are rebooked our on a 6am flight with a connection tomorrow. Not thrilled. Adding more cost to this already expensive trip adding hotel on now and meals. Plus I miss my dogs. I guess we will be able to get to Little Havana now which is a bonus.
I used to telephone my dog. The sitter would put the phone up to the dogās ear and I would talk. I guess if I ever heard him talk back I would need to get some help
We FaceTime with ours. Poor things get so confused hearing my voice but not seeing me. We are headed to coconut grove. Looks like our time in Miami will last another day.
FSU was interesting yesterday. We stayed at a regular Best Western about 10 miles from the school, which was fine. S18ās audition was at 1pm. We arrived, registered and attended a 10am presentation by the music deans and admission. Very informative. They are quite proud of their program but did a good job reassuring parents that being a large music school (600+ music students!) does not mean there is a lack of individual attention. We did not ask how many students enroll each year for BM VP, having learned that lesson at USC last week. But 300 students have a vocal emphasis though they may be therapy, composition etc rather than performance. Facilities were a bit dated though I found the age and wear typical of a state school. LOTS of practice rooms, over 100 at least.
S18 warmed up while we hung out in the lounge and chatted with other parents and students. S18 was feeling good, and felt his audition went very well as far as the singing goes. A panel heard him sing one song of his choice then they selected hid second from his two other repetoire. He sang for about ten minutes. No comments and minimal chit chat. Then he performed some sight readings that did not go so hot. Someone tell me again how sight reading matters only for placement!
Afterwards we toured the music dorm where 80% of music students live in a Living Learning Community. Very enthusiastic faculty advisor and staff. You take 2 of your freshmen music classes in classrooms in the dorm itself. You can practice in your rooms! But there are also several practice rooms. There is a great room with a Steinway, where students collect for casual jam sessions and scheduled shows. Thereās another rec room with ping pong, pool, etcā¦Very fun! S18 was smitten with the dorm.
Overall a great experience. Very competitive admissions but with merit money would only cost about $15,000-$17,000 a year for us. Easy trip too. I drove 6 hrs there on Friday and we were back by 9pm Sat night. On to Miamu Frost next week!
We are finally on our fight back to Detroit after our flight was canceled yesterday. Add another $500 for hotel, cabs and food to the already growing credit card bills for audition travel and over the top vet expenses. I canāt take much more. We will be so happy to get home and love up poor sweet limpy doggie who hasnāt seen us since we kissed him goodbye while he was zonked out on doggie Percocet in the vet hospital. Poor guy. I canāt even imagine what he thinks happened to us. 
Ready to be home for the next week and rest up for the last leg of this journey. Given the fact that our original plan was to do the Miami audition this coming Friday then travel to Boston right after and NY after that I can tell you we couldnāt have handled it. That would have been way too much. Iām very glad we broke up the trip the way we did and can have some time to rest before the final push.
Hang in there everyone. ITāll all be behind us soon and believe me I canāt wait for that celebration when auditions are done! Looking forward to celebrating with @MelodyMinor and her D at the end!
@SpartanDrew you need a credit card that pays you $$ when your flight is cancelled like Chase saphire reserve
If your common carrier travel is delayed more than 6 hours or requires an overnight stay, you and your family are covered for unreimbursed expenses, such as meals and lodging, up to $500 per ticket.
@JerseyParents that CC would sure have come in handy! Iāll have to look into it.
We are finally home!!! And exhausted. Dear doggie was so happy to see us, heās barely left my side. One week at home then one week on the road again for what Iām calling āAudition Insanity Tour - Part Deuxā. I canāt wait for this to be over. I think it was @bridgenail who had mentioned having PTSD when reading some of these posts. I can so relate to that! Break a leg to the next group at Frost this Friday! Canāt wait to hear all about it!
SpartanDrew - glad you are back home with your dear appreciative doggie - and that Frost went well. I canāt wait to hear the next installment in Boston and NYC. Iām taking mental notes on how to minimize the stress. But itās seems to be like anything difficult in life - you just get through it to the best of your ability, one way or another.
Oboe-whatever - Iām sure that everyone on here is quite happy to read your experience at Boulder. When it clicks - itās a wonderful thing - like putting that last puzzle piece in place. Congrats! Sounds like you are nearly there.
DrummerDad - looks like we need to start saving $$ and energy for this trek next year (our bassist daughter is also a Junior). Not for the faint of heart from the sounds of it. We should at least be able to spot each other since our daughters will be one of a few female instrumentalists in the jazz crowd. Our daughter also plays rock like yours but more for fun - unless she changes her mind - which might happen since she changed from classical to jazz this year. Oh boy. Our daughter is very picky about the drummers that she plays with - since apparently the drummer and bassist have a symbiotic relationship from what I hear. Is your daughter going to any summer programs this year?
I wanted to check in with all you touring senior parents and musiciansā¦is it ānormalā for a junior musician to have pre-conceived ideas of places on the basis of scant data? I was sharing some of the info. that I have gleaned from this board thus far - and was specifically talking about Frost as an option beyond NYC and Boston - and our daughter said the following:
-
Itās a place where wanna be musicians that end of being burned out high school teachers go,
-
They have sports teams on campus - which is really not my thing.
-
I hate Florida.
OK - I know that she likes big metro areas - and that Indiana and UNT are therefore going to be hard sells - but what the heck is wrong with Miami? Sheās known one high school teacher who went there and now all of a sudden itās #1??? I know some teenagers have rocks in their head - how have you all dealt with your musicianās biases and get them to at least open up their minds to possibilities? Or is that a losing battle not worth fighting?
Oh, the irony- two of the greatest bass players of all time went to Frost -Will Lee and Jaco Pastorius. I suggest you get her a copy of Heavy Weather (Weather Report -Pastorius) and the Brecker Brothers Album (Will Lee), or you could point out that Will was the most visible bassist in America for a couple decades in the Letterman band. Or she could ask her teacher who Jaco was and who Will is.
But yeah, 16-17 is probably peak know everything for adolescents, and as they say, as you mature your parents get smarter again.
@tripletmama , my son did not have many peers in HS interested in studying classical voice, so he did not soak up a lot of preconceived notions re music schools. But I did insist on including certain schools he had not even heard of on our visits, some of which he applied to and one of which is now a favorite. If you can get her to visit, she can get firsthand knowledge and make up her own mind.
Teachers are helpful in assembling the list!
@tripletmama oh man I can tell you we are dealing with know it all 17 year old girl syndrome in a big way here. Itās painful. I actually told her that if she thinks she knows everything and Iām such an idiot she is more than welcome to head to Boston and NY next week without me. Then I heard cricketsā¦UGH. Trying to get through this with my sanity intact. Itās hard.
Darling D now thinks she wants to find āexactly the vibe of the musicians I hung out with in the LA jazz jamā. That LA jazz jam was arranged by her grammy camp guitarist and featured amazing musicians fromā¦wait for itā¦Berklee, Frost, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Thornton, pretty much every great music school on the list. It was a āpartyāā¦not school. This girl is killing me.
@tripletmama My D had pre-conceived notion in junior year as well. I think that itās fairly common. Also these were notions that never considered costā¦of course. I made my D do a tour of our local big 10 school in early Junior year just to give her an idea of a big University as we were going to look at smaller LACs in the spring. It was only a 20 minute drive away. You would think I was taking her to jail. She was madā¦but after the general tour and the arts center tour, she warmed up and actually said some insightful things. Soā¦I do think you have to get them on some campuses and see some different types of schools. Also check to see if there are any performances they can attend during their visit or view on-line now (many schools have them available on-line). I think kids seeing the other performers has a big impact on themā¦where will they fit, what is the level etc. And as @vistajay said above, I did insist on a few schools for consideration ā¦ I figured they could be dropped later. The school she ended up at was put on the list by me. But I will say that she wanted to be in a more urban environment and she did complain about that for 4 years. She did pick the school in the end (I didnāt - I just put it on the list). For grad school she was in an urban environment (and found something else to complain about - my kid always has a rock in her shoe). So itās a delicate balance of listening to their gut instincts but also insisting they collect good information (as opposed to just biases).
Oh man @bridgenail the ākid always has a rock in her shoeā comment!!! LOVE!!! I can totally relate! :-))
As a father of D23, D19 and D16, I learned many moons ago that if you want to give sound advice to your teen daughter make sure you ask another adult (teacher, aunts, uncles, friends parents) to give the advice to her. They would rather listen to them 