One week in and things are all topsy turvy. After meeting with her voice professor, my D changed her schedule all around based on his recommendations. Rather than first year writing, she is taking Intro to Italian. She dropped another GE class after being told she needs to audition for chamber choir. Made it into the chamber choir. Musicianship is taught by the choir director and he gave her permission to take the musicianship class this quarter.
Whew! She started this morning with Voice, Writing, and Intro to World Religions. Sheās ending the day with Voice, Italian, Chamber Choir and Musicianship.
Sounds like a rolicking start, @BearHouse ! My son had a similar experience, dumping a first year writing course he found out he already had credit for, and picking up first year Italian (which he loves). Congrats to your D on making the chamber choir!
@vistajay Italian was a big hit today too. Fortunately, has has a background in French and Spanish as well as singing Italian. Hopefully, the late start wonāt hurt her.
Just wanted to check in and see how your freshmen are doing! I think about this thread a lot as we go through the application process ā I really developed an interest in your kids over the past year, and hope they are thriving! Would love to hear the good, the bad and the uglyā¦
Hi @akapiratequeen! D is doing well now that the bumps of the first couple of months are behind her. She loves her private voice teacher and despite being placed in lower level classes she seems to be doing well. She knows her lack of theory is what placed her there so itās motivated her to push herself to work on those skills so move up.
She also worked on submitting for three different YoungArts categories in hopes of a last chance to make Finalist. It is crazy competitive so the odds are not in her favor but it was a great opportunity for her to network with some of the musicians to form a combo to do her auditions. And it was the first time she didnāt have me to micromanage her to get it done so therefore it was down to the wire in getting everything recorded and submitted before the deadline and of course she got sick that last week. Iād love to think she learned a lesson on procrastination from this but I fear thatās unlikely. HAHA!
She has been sick a LOT with either respiratory junk or her frequent migraines. I pushed her to get accommodations for the migraines but she never followed through with that. I filled out the initial form and then it was on her to see it through and she didnāt. I think the biggest challenge of freshman year, for US anyway, is having a relatively lazy teenager all of a sudden having to do things for themselves that were previously done for them. She seems to do the things that are important to her but blows off a lot of the rest. I had been also pushing her to get a part-time job since I know she will run out of money soon and we have made it very clear that we will NOT bail her out. She still hasnāt done that so she will find that out the hard way as well.
Itās been a steep transition for her in NYC but she loves living there and loves her roommate who is from Hong Kong and her suitemates. Between moving to the city from the suburbs of the Midwest, the boyfriend breaking up with her the very first week (and he is a student there living in the same dorm :-(( ) and being ill a lot itās been an interesting couple of months. Iāll be glad to have her come home for Thanksgiving week. SO happy I had frequent flyer miles to use for that ticket - I could have flown her to Paris and back for what it cost to fly from NYC to Detroit! CRAZY!
I am watching everyoneās journey this year with anticipation and excitement! Iām anxious for @āMezzoāsMamaā to start the next Prescreen thread and will be watching! Good luck to all of this yearās families going through this crazy process. It will all work outā¦it really will!
@SpartanDrew , wow so much going on with your D! I bet when she gets home for Thanksgiving all she will want to do for the first few days is sleep! My older D needed a part time job mid-freshman year for spending money. She claimed she was too busy to find one, so I resorted to emailing her job notices from the school online newspaper. I think she eventually found one just to get me off her back, LOL.
We get to see S18 this weekend. We are flying him out to meet with us and his siblings in L.A. and attend a musical he has wanted to see and a concert with his favorite singer, as an overdue HS graduation present. Only thing is his a cappella group is performing Friday night out of town, then one of the boys is supposed to get him to the airport Sat morning for a long, nonstop flight to meet us. So many things can go wrong with this plan. I will breathe a big sigh of relief when he makes it on the plane!
@SpartanDrew thank you for this update! We live in the NYC area so if D needs anything, please reach out. So glad to hear she is adjusting ā it is culture shock for sure! My D went to NYU, and even moving from a suburb 30 minutes away blew her mind for the first few months. She ended up living in the dorms for 1.5 years and getting an apartment in Brooklyn with friends for the rest ā all in all a great experience, but there were definitely bumps along the way.
For a musician, though, NYC is the place to be! Sheāll learn more about herself and her work, and get more opportunities to grow and thrive, than in anyplace else I can imagine. I look forward to hearing about her triumphs once the initial adjustment is over. And of course, give her lots of hugs on Thanksgiving. Something to look forward to.
I, too, am hoping @āMezzoāsMamaā will be kind enough to start the prescreen thread and perhaps an acceptance thread (someone got one already, according to the new Journey thread) at some point. My S has two prescreens as well as his first audition all due/happening Dec. 1. From then itās a whirlwind ā holidays, then auditions more or less every weekend from mid-January to mid-February. Iād love to hear peopleās thoughts on flying (where possible) vs. driving. How do you take the instrument on the plane? Is it just a nightmare in winter either way?
Finally, if anyone from last year has specific advice for those of us at this (overwhelming, crazy) point in the process, would love to hear it. Iām feeling so much confusion right now ā requirements, travel, do we have the right number of schools, the list goes on and on. Just need to know if the smoke clears.
And last question: how elaborate were your kidsā prescreens? Can you do them yourself at home, or are studios/accompanists really necessary? S is doing jazz and his teacher feels he needs to be a soloist in a small combo (in fact, Eastman requests this if possible, though they also accept play alongs).
@vistajay I can totally relate to the nagging about the job. I tried sending links to jobs as well but have been ignored so now I am stepping back and letting her go broke LOL. She will figure it out the hard way I suspect but apparently thatās what she needs, a hard kick in the pants.
@akapiratequeen thank you so much for your kind offer! We have close friends who live in the west village and also good friends in Staten Island. She hasnāt leaned on either of them so Iām guessing she is flexing her independence and flying solo on things. I also know a lot of kids end up in apartments in Brooklyn but she really wants to find an apartment in Manhattan. I hope we can find something affordable. Yikes.
I am sure MezzoāsMama will start that thread soon. She has been so awesome over the years doing this for everyone. Last year she started ours towards the end of October. Who has already been accepted to a music school and where? That seems crazy early but D got her acceptance to Western Mich already by this time last year (not the music school though, just academic) and Loyola acceptance and scholarship offer last year in mid-December so I suspect some will start coming through soon. As far as advice on travel and prescreens, I would say Dās prescreens could have been considered elaborate given they were done in a studio with a sound engineer but they were also her YA submissions so we wanted good sound quality. This year she submitted her YA auditions from an iphone recording, not the best at all but all she had available to her. Honestly thatās all that is needed for a prescreen. as long as he is able to be heard clearly and the sound quality is decent that is enough.
The best advice I can give is not to underestimate how exhausting this process can be. We initially had Miami booked back to back with our trip to Boston and NYC and would have been out on the road for almost 2 weeks. The school missed is hard enough to catch up on (her HS was awful in accommodating her) but the sheer exhaustion of travel, nerves from auditions, etc will wear your kid down. Space it out as much as you possibly can. And put everything into a spreadsheet/gdoc where possible. Itās a lot to keep up with and that helped keep everything organized and clearly written out as far as application due dates, audition dates, audition songs required, COA and merit money needed to attend, all of it.
Awesome. We are a small, portable family, so we went to see S last Thanksgiving at his school. Without our kitchen, of course. And he is a vegan. How was that going to work. By luck, there was a student group on campus who was hosting a vegan thanksgiving meal at one of the dorm halls. It was fun. The most nicely spiced corn I have ever had - a subtle heat.
Thatās awesome @GoForth! I think I told you that D is vegan now as well. Never a dull moment, this girl has to keep everyone on their toes. I have some great vegan Thanksgiving recipes and other recipes. I sent her to college with a crock pot and a couple great, cheap and easy vegan recipes for that as well. FYI if you all havenāt tried Gardein brand Holiday Roast you must! Absolutely fantastic fake stuffed turkey that is vegan!
Some (much (all?)) of the vegan stuff that is trying to be meat or cheese kind of freaks out my taste buds. I have to stick to things that are what they are, like pasta, vegetables, and such.
OK but you are really missing out! HAHA! I found a vegan fake mac and cheese recipe that is on point. Itās not fake cheese but uses a combo of cashews and some boiled veggies like potato and carrots and such with turmeric and other spices. Really good!
@akapiratequeen My DD seems to be doing well so far. She seems to have found her tribe (although none of them are music majors) she likes her voice teacher and ensemble. Her biggest issue has been the conflicts created by being in the honors program. Some required freshman honors courses conflict with several of her music major courses. Itās been frustrating. Also navigating how to manage food allergies when the dining hall closes the āallergen freeā station over the weekends. Thatās been fun! So she isnāt eating well on the weekends.
My DD also submitted for YoungArts and learned some tough lessons trying to record her videos on her own.
Due to a last minute issue we were unable to attend parents weekend. So we havenāt seen her at all. I will be thrilled to have her home for Thanksgiving!
To answer a few of your questions. My DD recorded her videos at home with an iphone last year. We did get her an audio interface so that she could use a mic and record her instrument into garage band. I donāt think your videos have to be professional quality. In fact some even stated that they could not be mixed-no enhancements allowed.
As for travel, if you choose to fly with an instrument, the instrument is your carry on item and you have to check a bag. My DD flew to several auditions with her guitar in the overhead bin without issue and maybe twice had to gate check it. It came back with a damaged case after being gate checked when we flew American. UGH! Iām not sure what your DS instrument is. My DD has researched the law around flying with instruments and now carries a copy of the rules with her when she flies.
There are many factors in deciding to fly vs drive. I suppose it depends on where you are going and how long it takes round trip. We had no choice but to fly. I think having a car can be beneficial in rural settings as you can drive around and see more of the surrounding area. I had one child who managed to schedule multiple auditions in one weekend. We flew into one city and out of another. Of course there are always risks of travel delays and weather issues if you fly. However, I will say that I like to travel as a college student would so that they learn how to navigate the city they may be attending school in. Meaning if I expect my child to use public transportation as a student in that city then we do so during our visit as much as possible. If your child would be taking the train or flying home for breaks then maybe Iād lean towards using that mode of transportation to get to the audition. Iām sure everything will fall into place once the audition dates are scheduled.
Nice to read all of these. A walk down memory lane. Waiting for Thanksgiving break reminded me of being young again and Xing days off a slow moving calendar. My D was vegan for a few years ā¦ until she met her boyfriend whoās a chef. Then she went back to eating everything. What a girl will do for a guy! Lol.
I love that @bridgenail! LOL. However I donāt see D ever becoming a carnivore again. She is way too pro animal to eat them and knowing her hard headedness she would likely try to convince the chef to be a vegan only chef! Haha!
Hello all - just trying to help my daughter with her pre-screen audition tapes. What did you all use to record? I see on some points on CC that a Zoom recording device is recommended for high quality sound. Did any of you use that?
I used a Tascam DR-05 to record audio for DSās prescreens. I directly connected it to the camera so we didnāt have to match up audio and video later but it also recorded separate audio files had we needed them. It worked great and wasnāt expensive.
zoom makes a video recorder or audio recorders like the Tascam.