Mezzo'sMama

@headoflife- a word about the affiliation between Case Western and CIM, if I may? If he admits through Case, he will not have access to the teachers at the conservatory nor their classes. But, if he auditions and admits through CIM, he has access to Case's classes and could pursue a dual degree if he was so inclined (and had the time to do so!).

alexmariejp

This is a good thread! I have a few questions though, sorry if you covered them and I missed the answers elsewhere...

#1 - Is your son a senior? If so, I am sure he knows that many of the schools you mentioned don't give an audition date until you complete the application and it seems like most schools rely on about five weekends in January and February for the majority of their audition dates. My daughter has applied to 8 schools (seven requiring auditions) and has completed one audition and we spent more time scheduling the other auditions BY A LONG SHOT than she spent in the room with the panel

#2 - That said, her boyfriend did all of this last minute last year, made us all crazy, stressed out the entire population of people who knew him... and still got into a great school and the perfect program for him. Of course, he only applied to three schools since he delayed getting things done until the 12th hour at every opportunity. So it is doable - of course D & her BF are both bassists, so no prescreenings were needed. Only downside (other than my extra grey hairs from helping him) was he auditioned too late for talent money at most schools and is taking out more in loans than he had planned on for this first year. Luckily the school he is at reevaluates musicians for talent money each year so he can only go up from here!

#3 - Eastman/Rochester - We live near there and have visited a few times. My D decided not to apply there for a few reasons, despite being asked to by a professor there. If you go to Eastman, you live in one building, right near the school, with all Eastman students. No instruments are allowed in the dorms at all. You are about a 20 minute bus ride from U of R, so you really have no interaction with the UofR community. If you apply to both schools, you can get merit aid and talent aid, but you have to choose one aid package based on whether you live in the Eastman dorm or the UofR dorms. There is also no stacking of Merit aid with Talent money at Eastman/UofR. This is all stuff they tell you on a visit, but if you aren't going until an audition, I thought I'd list it here.

And if you can make a visit outside the parameters of the audition to any school, by all means, do it. It can be costly and certainly time consuming, but we just had a situation where based on our second visit to a well known school (first was a "dog and pony show" day, this visit was just organized by my daughter and the professors) convinced her to NOT audition into the bass studio and to withdraw her application for admission. She might not have picked up on how she felt she would fit into the environment so clearly during the fast paced audition day schedule (and since she liked the professors, she would have judged based on that alone) and that could have been a costly and unhappy situation for her if she hadn't visited again.

headoflife

Mezzo,

Thank you for the info on Case/CIM. It is pretty low on his last, as they are a great conservatory, but not specifically tops in his instrument. I will let him know how this program works, and see if I can convince him to apply!

alexmarie,

DS is a senior, and I can only hope we both survive through graduation! Thank you for your insight into the process, and for the info on Eastman/UofR specifically. It is near the top of his list! While I would love to schedule a pre-audition visit to all the scools on the list, it simply isn's going to happen. I think we will pay soe post-acceptance visits though, and not necessarily on a scheduled accepted student day!

Since DS is a trombone player, I thought we would get out of the prescreening, but a couple of the schools want them,so he is presently working on that. While it is a hassle, and one I had not planned for, I now wish that since he si doing one, all the programs used them! Then I wouln't have to plan for so much travel in the worst part of winter! I am torn between encouraging him to broaden his list, because in an audition based program acceptance is always up in the air, and wanting him to cut schools because the audition process is so expensive and time consuming! I believe he has 7 schools on his list for music now-3 or 4 are drive to distance and the others are a flight. We will see the fall out after the submission of the prescreening video to the 32 schools that want it.

Thanks everybody for the feedback! Keep it coming!

alexmariejp

Well, just remember, whenever you feel bad because you have to schedule a flight...

At least your kid didn't take up the bass! Those bad boys really, really don't fly so well in this post-9/11 world.

Me and my minivan are driving her and her basses to three different auditions in one month - and they are all 13-15 HOURS away from home.

If you really, really want to feel better...

her second auditioning instrument is.... tuba.

xD

Bartokrules

I knew we got off easy when my son took up the violin rather than the cello. Good luck to everyone on their auditions and prescreens!

OCMusicMom

I've only been on the Colburn campus once. It was a weekend afternoon, so probably not as busy as it might have been during the week. The campus is lovely. It's in a nicer area of downtown, has gated subterranean parking, and a feel of being its own little island. For that reason, it feels very small and intimate. The music hall we were in was very nice, and I understand it's actually one of the smaller halls. The students were VERY nice, very gracious. We hired a dozen of them to perform on a couple of my son's original compositions and they did a fabulous job. We even ate in the cafe, which was quiet when we were there. In all, a positive experience.

Now, that said, Colburn is a musical conservatory. Unless you are aware of a joint relationship with another university, I'm not sure your son can work on a dual degree there.

NJ Jazz dad

Northwestern is a well renowned music school for trombone playing so should be considered if academically strong enough. Rice is not well known for trombone studies at this point.

headoflife

Alexmarie,

I think the concept of basses, plural, might have done me in, and that is before adding in tuba! I guess I should be grateful the trombone is more portable and the only ohter music he performs is vocal.

OB cusci,

A conservatory is not out of the question, particularly one that offers a free ride to all accepted students! It would make a return to school for additional coursework financially feasible.

NJ Jazz Dad,

NU is top of his list. He has audited a masterclass with Michael Mulcahy, and would be delighted to attend!

Thanks everybody!

NJ Jazz dad

headoflife, Glad to hear NU is no 1 with DS as that sounds a great fit. Other suggestions of good trombone specific schools if you need any more on your list as you already have a good selection are, New England Conservatory, Carnegie Mellon, SUNY Purchase and Rutgers. A lot of the big state schools have very good trombone teachers but Rutgers being close to NY has a very strong faculty. My DS applied to 10 schools for his undergrad in bass trombone four years ago and may be similar number for his Masters the way things are looking. Lot of work doing ten auditions but worth it in the end.

uskoolfish

As a parent of a music major (VP) at NYU, I can also attest to the fact that being part of a small program in a large school makes all the difference. There were about 40 incoming VP freshman in D's class. 26 of them or so had a musical theatre concentration--so there were 2 sections of smaller classes and some seminar-style classes that involved all 40. The VP majors were also integrated with other music majors to take classes like theory and keyboarding. This allowed D to meet other music majors (which lead to many friendships and collaborations), but it was still within a small enough group that there were always a lot of familiar faces.

D enjoyed taking classes outside her major, but most of those classes began in Sophomore year. By then she had a very tight circle of friends in her major and she welcomed taking classes with students in different majors.

D developed some close friendships from her freshman dorm floor among non-music majors, but beginning with Sophomore year, D shared a suite on campus with VP majors. Their dorm became the center for many parties.

So I would not discount a large university or LAC if you are choosing a small major that is tight knit and social. It really made NYU feel like a small school!

Good luck!