We heard good things about Yale Grad school but not much info on Undergrad.
I am also following your information. I am applying this fall for music Ed with a choral focus. I am looking at ithaca, hartt, duel, st olaf. was curious about syracuse and its great to hear that they give $.
hi
I have a question
how did you handle the audition dates? i’m starting to gather the dates for winter 2020 and it seems many schools overlap.
i guess you have to say not to some?
@musicchoir : Typically, they ask you for your preferred dates. So you need to come up with your list, and request colleges for the date you want. Sometimes they come back with two or more colleges on the same date - and then you plead with one or more for a different date. If that doesn’t work, then prioritize, and make the ones you drop a video audition - which may mean that you record again and send back a new video. For Carnegie Mellon, I remember my child just re-sent the same recording that was sent for the pre-screen (and was accepted at CMU).
Also, try to do some regional auditions so you can cut down your travel (or limit it). We did that with Peabody, Boston U, and Oberlin. (Colleges do not seem to mind it - at least for us, since all of them sent acceptances).
Colleges typically understand that kids are auditioning in multiple places, and try to accommodate that. We worked with Bienen (NU) and NEC to move dates around - with no problems. For UCLA, the professor was only available on one of the audition weekend days, and so we left that in place (was clashing with NEC).
It all seems hard (it is, no doubt), but looking back, things all worked out.
Good Luck.
how do i find out about the regional auditions?
College websites will tell you if they offer them, and generally publish dates well in advance of the app deadline. So watch for them, and if they’re not published, ask the admissions office.
Regional auditions are fine for many schools but may not be a good idea for some conservatories if you are hoping and expecting a large “talent scholarships”. If you do Early Action with some schools, those live auditions might be done before end of 2019, then all Regular Action auditions are in mid January to early March. My son had a very short college list but “talent scholarships” mattered a lot for us, so we didn’t do regional auditions or video audition even he had those options. But he did one Early Action to spread live audition trips. It worked better for his case, both colleges and high school.
great idea. i will try to do early action. i was thinking that i should not do early action for my top two choices because i wanted to have some auditions done for experience.
or, do you think it looks good for me to do my first choice asap so they know i’m interested. i overthink every detail about auditioning!
@musicchoir great questions. My S did one early action but not to his top choices — it helped him get the nerves out but he didn’t feel these were his best auditions. He hit his sweet spot in late Jan/early Feb with his 3rd, 4th and 5th auditions fwiw. Was over it by late Feb/March and ended up canceling one.
Musicchoir———Like akapiratequeen’s son, my son’s Early Action school wasn’t his top choice. It was a safe school for him. Should you do Early Action for his top choice school if it is available? Well, it may depend on live audition repertoire. If you are confident on the particular repertoire, you may want to get it done. School might feel very positive on you. Once you get “acceptance” from one or both of your top choice schools, not only you feel good but you can start working on financial matters. If repertoire is more complicated, you might want to take a time to be well prepared.
Hello class of 24 applicant families! Hope your summer is going well. Looking forward to hearing about your journey and sending positive vibes to your talented kids!
@musicchoir , we made refundable travel arrangements to the anticipated audition dates, even if they overlapped, then cancelled the arrangements if he did not pass the prescreen, lost interest or chose to attend a conflicting audition. We did send some recordings when audition dates conflicted.
Just checking in to see how everyone is doing. Are lists being finalized? Essays being started? Travel plans being mapped out? It’s been awfully quiet around here lately, but things seem to be getting rolling around our house. I’m feeling a constant mix of excitement and trepidation! Lol. Hope things are taking shape for the Class of 2024! We’re all in this together!
My daughter is supposed to finish essays today. We’ll see how that goes. We have a list of seven schools. There are four main ones, which she has prioritized, one in-state public, and two nearby LACs, though one of those may be dropped in the end. First audition will be in November at local LAC. Will be good to get one done early before heading to her top schools. All are within driving distance (furthest is seven hours), so makes travel plans easy. Most audition music is ready, just has one piece that still needs some work. I feel good about where she is right now, and looking forward to hitting the audition trail. I’ll be cheering all of you on as we go!
My D is away at a summer music program, back in two weeks, and will already have missed the first several days of school, which for us starts August 7. Sooo… I’m enjoying the lull before the storm! We’ll be finalizing the list of schools and scrambling on essays in August and early September. The good news is the audition repertoire is in excellent shape due to all the work she’s done this summer. We’ll be recording pre-screens in late September and maybe early October, and may take one or two more trips to visit schools if she is on track with the applications. Or maybe we’ll just chill on any free fall weekends, knowing how busy it will be soon enough.
A thought for today : Has anyone wondered about the term “Liberal” arts ? It certainly does not have to do with modern politics, and whether or not you graduated from Berkeley.
It has its origins in medieval times. Most boys and young men were apprenticed to learn a trade, and be part of a guild, and worked for room and board as they learned a vocation. Then there were the wealthy, that were free to pursue what they wanted to intellectually, grammar, logic, and rhetoric. The operative word being “free”. They studied the liberal arts.
Another bit of trivia for you (you’ll see why I’m smiling a bit as I write this). The three liberal arts, grammar, logic, and rhetoric, were together known as…, wait for it… drum roll… TRIVIA. The term, from Latin, literally translates to “where three roads meet”.
As opposed to Quadrivia, which are also classified as liberal arts, and consist of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and, wait for it… MUSIC.
I found these interesting, and thought I’d share them here.
Khill87 - you are very organized!!! What does your daughter play again?
My son is just starting essays. He’s got a list of 9 schools and only 3 require a prescreen. He’s been working on those and is going to re-take the SAT in a few weeks. He was happy with his SAT/ACT scores but was going to try again in hopes of academic scholarship money as music. School starts back up on 8/15 and things will really get busy then but we are ready.
@tubamama we are in the same boat school opens on 8/15 , sat retake soon and working on the pieces. Still undecided on schools. 
I’ve taken an 11-day break from essays while on vacation; hoping to look at them with a fresh mind and then submit my Common App and 2 supplements for review with my counselor. Want to have a couple rolling acceptances early on and school starts for me in September. However, what’s on my mind is as a mezzo/coloratura soprano I still need an English piece for auditions! Any advice?