Yes I second asking @vistajay who was EXTREMELY helpful to me even though I ended up getting rejected from FSU. It’s a great music school!
Congrats to all the new USC and Frost acceptances! Way to go!
@vistajay Could you please share your son’s experience in FSU? My daughter is trying to decide between FSU, Frost and Stetson as a Piano Performance Major. FSU is basically free for us with the Freshmen scholarship and Music scholarship, but going to Stetson or Miami will cost about 20k more a year than FSU. She hasn’t really considered FSU even though I told her from what I’ve read they have a great music department.
I’d appreciate if you could share some ideas or experience of FSU with us, thank you!
@blueyogi -@vistajay’s S is a sophomore VP major at FSU. He had very good choices including Miami and I think USC. His son chose FSU…as I remember…bc of the great financial offer and in the end a teacher who seemed like a good fit. FSU is a well-known and respected music school. IMHO it’s on the same par as all top schools for music. So for your D it should be about fit, teacher and of course money.
@vistajay comes on occasionally. I hope he sees this soon (and can speak for himself as I’m going by memory…being a VP parent…I take special interest in those stories). Until then maybe this thread will help. @vistajay did comment on it.
@bridgenail Thank you! I’ve read some of Visajay’s comments in the other threads, FSU Music seems great! I really like FSU when we went to the audition. 
Went to an Accepted Students Day Music Showcase with my son yesterday on Zoom and had a meeting with a financial aid department at another university 5 hours away AND worked. Looking on the bright side of things… I would not have been able to do all that post COVID19. ? Something good to come out of it? And the Youth Wind Ensemble he plays with at the University here is putting together a multi-track video project. He’s also starting online school tomorrow and his first class is Wind Ensemble. His teacher sent out a message to make sure everybody had their instruments and their music (if not there was a time made available for the parents to pick up) for “class” tomorrow. I’m looking forward to see what they’re going to do exactly. The way of the future? I hope not but apparently there ARE ways.
So during the Music Showcase, other than a very few sound issues during performances (ZOOM really is made for speaking and not for playing music), it went VERY well. The kid and I divided and conquered so we could go to ALL the sessions… and were texting back and forth about what was going on, switched sessions half way through a couple of times, so he could get a bit of every one. He got to meet almost ALL the faculty at the music school, several students including three masters clarinetests, got a tour of the studios for Music Technology (that was a REALLY cool session but this Momma was clueless so told him to come take over… quick cause I couldn’t relay the info… HA ! ). Anyhoo… the only thing that was missing, really, was the FOOD ?..but we were promised a rain check.? Since this was an admitted students days specifically for the music school, there were about 71 people, at the most, at the intro session/welcome before we went into breakout rooms per major or whatever other sessions they had - about 25 students and faculty at a time. The Woodwinds session had all the woodwinds professors in there and students playing each instrument - nothing major… just give an intro and then played an except they were working on or an etude. The faculty talked about their teaching methods/style… etc. I sooo wanted to sneak into one of the VP/Choral sessions but no time. Not sure how or IF that would have worked for an Accepted Students day for a bigger group. Anyhoo… the kid bonded, got questions answered and left with warm fuzzies…and lots of excitement that wasn’t totally there before. So, got out of it pretty much what he would have gotten out had he physically been there. So… if you’re offered virtual accepted students day, it’s definitely worth going to. And if you’re not offered, they apparently are open to hosting one just for you… at least that’s the sense I got from the one he didn’t go to but I went to a financial session for.
Good luck to all especially those having to make a decision without actually being on campus before. Hard to get a feel, you might think, but with ZOOM and WEbinars, definitely possible.
It is nice to see that many people have good options at this stage of the game. Congrats to all!
Would anyone who visited Bienen, met the trombone teachers, or got a general feeling from the school, be willing to share your thoughts, experience?
I’m trying to remember how our decision not to stay one more night made sense at the time. My son’s trombone audition at Northwestern was on a Sunday. There were no campus tours, no classes to visit, no performances to check out. We’d have to stay through Monday night or Tuesday morning to do these things. We had been traveling so much and still had more audition travel ahead of us. He had missed many days of school. He needed to catch up work and rest.
We didn’t even walk around the campus that day.
“If you get in, we’ll come back. Your spring break is in April…perfect timing.” I sounded like a good plan.
@lisalyn Message me with specific questions. D is Bienen senior in voice but I can give general impressions and experiences of the University and town. Congratulations!!!
Congratulations on all the great admissions results! And wishing you well with April Angst as you make your decisions.
My son celebrated his birthday today by doing a livestream performance on his facebook page (live from our living room). It made him feel good to share his music and connect with people with whom he’s not able to connect in person.
Hope all of you are finding ways to continue share the music and connect with people until we get to the other side.
@blueyogi , I will PM you so I can try to answer your specific questions. My son loved both FSU and Miami when he was applying for VP. It did not come down to money, as he had great scholarships at both places. He chose FSU because he liked a specific FSU voice teacher, there were more voice teachers at FSU who were appropriate for his voice type if he ever needed to switch teachers, and he was named a Presidential Scholar at FSU which would pay for his summer training and made him part of a tight knit cohort. Miami is a beautiful place and a great music school, but $25,000 more a year is a lot unless Miami is the perfect place for your child, IMO.
Has anybody heard from Rice? I auditioned there on 2/13 for MM in Piano Performance… the FAQ said that decisions would be made by the end of March, but it’s already the very end and I haven’t heard anything…
They haven’t released anything for grad admissions.
Posted on acceptance thread but a quick summary here- Tufts offered $2k more per year than BU. She can do the dual degree with NEC/Tufts for a bit less than the program at BU. Appreciate any thoughts on these programs. Thank you!
My daughter (MM VP) is also still waiting to hear from Rice.
UCLA MM hasn’t released decisions either
@coloraturagirl did your daughter read the Double Degree Dilemma essay closer to the top of this forum? If so did she identify with any of the individual students?
At Tufts she would have a lot more academic classes and a chance to major in her other interests, whereas at BU it would be 2/3-3/4 classes in music with fewer classes in her other academic interests.
I am betraying my bias as well. I love Tufts and NEC as well In fact I go to concerts at both schools when I can.
@compmom I will look for that. Thank you!
Wow, huge congrats to all those who received great news from Juilliard, Peabody, and NEC recently!
I think I posted this on the wrong forum earlier today…does anyone have thoughts about what one might do to help advance one’s case if waitlisted, by example, by Juilliard?