D23 accepted to the Blair School of Music and awarded Cornelius Vanderbilt scholarship. We are speechless.
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Have you or someone else started an acceptance thread? Is there a link or title I can use to find it?
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Congratulations to your D!!! 
Wait - translation: full scholarship?!? Whatever it is, CONGRATS!
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That’s incredible!! Congratulations!!!
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Congratulations! Woohoo!
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Just DM’d you, hopefully in the correct order! 
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Wow!!! Congrats!!!
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That’s absolutely awesome!!!
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That’s fabulous! I hope she loves it there as I suspect this is a very tempting offer!
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I’m handling a weird little bump in the road, with three friends separately doing this: being kind of aggressive about telling me the quality of schools that they or their kids went to for music and that are not on my son’s list. Maybe it’s just me. Maybe, people are just excited about their schools. It just feels weird. For example, I know it is 100% true our in-state U has a program with exciting ensembles, one of which travels internationally, and a very cool curriculum. It’s a beautiful school, too! My kid just doesn’t want to live in-state. He wants to go somewhere and have a new experience, and wants to be in a city where he can play off-campus sometimes. The state U is in a small town. ETA: OTOH, when they hear about some of the schools he is applying to, they look at me weird in a different way. Like, why would you go to Florida or Texas? They don’t know about the music programs, and they don’t know anyone else who has looked at schools in those places.
Smile and nod. People have opinions about college choice like they do about pregnancy, baby names, parenting. It get overwhelming when you’re in the middle of it and in the end you and your kid have to decide what’s best.
One of my son’s best and most favorite teachers was pushing for a particular school for my son. It was his strong second choice, and a wonderful school, but in the end we picked a different one, that we felt was a better fit for what he needed. Four years later I think we were right, and she’s still one of the best music teachers he’s ever had and I have a ton of respect for her opinion. But we were the ones deciding.
And I’ll add that many people don’t understand sending your kid out of state no matter what you say. If local state U is good enough for my kid, why are you looking elsewhere? And they don’t understand that the cost may not be greater at a more distant college. Honestly, you don’t have to explain.
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You’re right, and I hadn’t thought of that. There are definitely those who expect their kid will go in-state, and they definitely don’t understand the cost differences that we personally are seeing. They may not know that a private school, or one in a city, can sometimes cost less than a public in-state.
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Small minds. A lot of people are very comfortable living where they have always lived, and don’t know too many people who leave and follow the lead of those who came before them.
You have to try hard to not take it personally and let their views impact you and your son’s choices. Be strong, mama!
That being said, given politically what we see going on in Texas and Florida, as Black parents, we told our kid he could not apply to a school inTexas or Florida because we feared for his safety, and not to say that we don’t fear for his safety in any school in any state in the US or any place, for that matter because no one is guaranteed to be safe anywhere. It’s just a matter of Greenbooking life for some.
But still…your son’s journey in life is his own and please don’t let limitations or issues others have consume you too much.
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Same same same! People look at me weird when I say he is going to UNT when he got into Berklee…like “why on earth would he not go there?” They have no idea what TX has to offer…sometimes I feel like I need to explain but then I say "why bother?’ lol Don’t sweat it!
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The main question I’ve gotten is whether he’s applying to Belmont. I don’t mean here on CC, where musician parents are giving carefully considered recommendations about a school their child loves. I mean from random people like a woman my mom met at a bus stop. Belmont is well known and regarded by those who’ve talked with me about music, especially with their contemporary music program.
OTOH, I ran into an past acquaintance who turned her nose up at Berklee, saying “my children play classical music”. 
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The hardest school to get into that the child gets into is not necessarily the best school to attend. Plus for music kids, there is the whole studio factor of teacher-student needing to gel
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As adults, there are jobs that we refuse to apply for because we don’t want to live in such-and-such a place. Why do we suppose that almost-adults have no geographic preferences? My kid…
a. did not apply to any schools in FL, TX or CA in spite of there being some decent schools in all those locations
b. Did not apply to the School of Music at our state flagship, which is in the city we live on the outskirts of. We know the people there, some of them are great. But the school as a whole does not have the qualities that are important to my son. And it’s just too darn close for someone trying to learn how to function as an independent human being. -
Schools are not generic commodities. My son’s cello teacher has said both that wherever he wants to go is fine with her, and that she does not think he should attend any school without having had a lesson and conversation with the teacher
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Though in-state prices may be lower than out-of-state prices, education is an investment in human capital, and as such should be evaluated not merely on the lowest sticker price. What school can get you where you want to go?
Sorry for the diatribe. Don’t worry about the cretins.
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