cathymee

ksstringdad
S has a friend (trumpet performance) at Vandy/Blair..now a soph. He's quite happy there and has lots of gigging opportunities.

jazzzmomm

I haven't yet shared our story of rejection from MSM (after 2 years in the precollege) but the end of the tale was so happy that it no longer matters much! The initial sting of being rejected from a place where a kid thought he fit perfectly is huge. The thing is, the "perfect" school in theory is not always the truly best place; that is trite, and sounds like a rationalization, but students do seem to wind up in places that work for them. And, I am feeling that, for musicians, the fit is so much more specialized than it is for a regular academic kid.

Vanderbilt is the home of many of our friends. Without exception, they all love it there--a lot. There is so much music in Nashville. It is one of the best music towns around.

ksstringdad

My D absolutely loved Vandy and Blair. It was the best audition experience bar none - pure and genuine southern hospitality. When she first saw the campus it was love at first sight. After her audition she was invited back for half hour private lessons with each of the faculty. She really liked all three and felt like she had a chance to get know them. She thought they quickly focused on the areas for improving her playing and communicated those ideas most effectively. She's experienced quite a few teachers, knows what she needs and felt very, very good about the faculty. She felt a real "goodness of fit" there. The major issue for her was the sting of the rejections from the other schools. She's also been quite successful on her instrument (competitions, concertmaster in her school and city youth symphony) so the rejections definitely stung. It was a "if I knew then what I know now" sort of thing. My D wants to go on to grad school and now knows more concretely what she needs to do to get there. So she's starting to look forward again and getting excited about devoting herself to music. I think it turned out the way it was meant to be. She got a full ride there so she won't have to work or worry about loans when she's done. So I think they really wanted her. Given her offer there, I'm pretty sure she may have chosen the same route if there had been a string of acceptances. She's transferring the max number of AP credits so she's cut out at least a semester or more. She's been split so many ways (instrument, school, work) so she's really in an ideal spot to now fully focus on her dream. She really does know just how fortunate she is - just a little ego bruise that should heal (pretty quickly I imagine) and the lessons learned from this whole experience. It is now finally over!

musicmagus

I am a firm believer that things happen for a reason.
With Eastman's "no", D is reconsidering how realistic the double degree was, and how much she wanted to have 80-90% of her classes being music. The BA at UR is beginning to look like a better choice which will give her all the music she wants plus the freedom to do the writing and drawing she also loves so much.
By the way, Eastman would not give any feed back, and would not answer any questions reg. music possibilities when coming from UR. (with an attitude like that I think D is better off not being there.) Instead the Music Dep. at UR has been very nice and helpful.