CMU waitlist this morning (undergrad vocal performance). No notification came, you have to go check the portal on the CMU site.
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S26 Masterās heard from Northwestern yesterday. Financial arrived about an hour later. Surprised that they donāt have a no-loan policy for grad school (only received about half the amount vs undergrad) so will be appealing.
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Oberlin results are out. - D24 admitted with a lot of merit from the College; havenāt seen the Conservatory merit yet
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Son is accepted to Oberlin dual degree jazz/arts sci with some merit aid! Big descisions to make!
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Our daughter got good news from Eastman and Oberlin over the last few days, and now we have to think about decision making as these are among her top choices and they both have nice merit. I know that the teacher is key. It looks like the student reaches out to have lessons with teachers they think will be a good fit. But she is a little overwhelmed thinking about how to identify potential fit. Her voice teacher does not have much experience sending folks to music schools and doesnāt really know anyone beyond our local public option. Some of the other schools our daughter has heard from earlier have had specific teachers reach out to her for lessons, but I donāt think it works that way for others. Any suggestions for how to go about identifying teachers to reach out to? Thank you for any ideas!!
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Congratulations on some great options.
I know that the mantra is often teacher, teacher, teacherā¦but vocalists are young so it always seems a bit harder for them to determine fit. So here are a few ideas and experiences that may help you. Hopefully others will chime in.
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She can contact the head of the voice dept at the school and ask for recommendations on teachers. She may want to attach her resume to the request. One aspect that I did not understand was teachers can prefer different types of voices and students (which is difficult for you to figure out). Eastman may have teachers who focus more on young voices (nothing wrong with that). Teachers may āhearā a Mozart type voiceā¦and that could align with a certain teacher. So asking for help from the faculty is a good way to get started. The faculty will be āresponsibleā for her growth so they should take an interest in helping her find the right teacher. You/she can start with music admissionsā¦and then have her send an email to the voice dept asking for help.
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It is worth looking at the whole faculty as well. Students do change teachers as they grow. And teachers can retire, get a position elsewhere, have a medical issue for a semester or two. Vocalists are young so having a robust faculty is important so they can move if needed. At both Eastman and Oberlin, you should be fine with that.
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Your D could ask to be put in touch with a student representative (hopefully a vocalist) to ask questions about the school. This is pretty common. These students are often very positive about their school, but most are young and usually very honest. They can give her the flavor of a teacher or recommendations based on their experiences.
You two donāt need to know it all. You can lean on the voice faculty to help get some teacher suggestions and then she can see who feels right to her. Good luck!
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We got mixed results from Oberlin today: accepted to the college with good merit, but offered waitlist at the conservatory (for TIMARA). Accepted a spot on the waitlist, but I really donāt see how this will work out logistically. He is not going to want to go there for the college only, but I donāt see much chance in hearing about con. waitlist until after May 1 deposit is due. Would this be a case where it would be ethically acceptable to deposit at two schools? I may be getting ahead of myself as I am not completely sure if this is his top choice or not. Lots of soul searching to do.
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My son is in the same situation for Stony Brook (MM) - accepted but no funding. They mention the āpossibilityā of an assistantship opening up but they want the decision April 15, so Iām not sure how that would work.
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Itās absolutely fine to deposit somewhere else and then back out if Oberlin comes through (although you will lose the deposit). Schools know that happens and expect it.
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Congratulations on all of the latest acceptances!
To tack on to what @bridgenail said, I would add that I think the overall school/experience is still very important for undergrads. Even though our kiddos have extra things to focus on with the music side, with 2 great schools like Oberlin and Eastman to choose from there should also be a focus on the experience. One thing that strikes me is how incredibly different those 2 are in terms of location. Assuming you visited both and are aware, but preference in that regard may play a big part in the decision.
Iām not much help as far as teachers, we always struggled here too. My daughter had a connection with a teacher at the school she ended up at for undergrad so there wasnāt a difficult decision there, BUT she ended up retiring after year 2 which ended up working out well but was a catastrophe at first. For grad school (Eastman) one of the professors was interested in working with her so sheās in his studio and it is working out well but she didnāt have sample lessons or anything, just went with it based on recommendations.
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Would you like me to include these on our acceptance thread?
Thank you so much for the wonderful advice!! Interestingly, on the undergrad experience, that would have tipped things to Oberlin for me, but she seems unphased that Eastman would not be a traditional college experience. And she had her audition on a gray snowy day too!
Having spent time at both places - 2 long weekend visits to Oberlin and now Iāve been to Eastman /Rochester 3 times for long weekend visits (4th visit coming in about a week) Iām not sure which I would choose in terms of experience- they are SOOO different they might as well be on different planets, lol. But I can see the appeal to both experiences personally. Good luck to her!
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My S24 undergrad is in a similar situation but choosing between Jacobs and Eastman. Obviously two very different experiences. The Eastman prof he is assigned to actually called last night to congratulate him and they had a great conversation which I think may have swayed his decision in that direction. He previously had a lesson with him last year. He has emailed with the Jacobs prof but not had a personal conversation. Both are great options and Iām sure your D canāt go wrong, but so hard to know what will be the āperfectā fit as an undergrad experience. Making that connection with the professor I think can definitely make a big impact in that decision though. Iām sure Eastman admissions would be helpful with that process for identifying a teacher.
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@HelloMommy is there a chance your son could go to Oberlin college and get into TIMARA after a year on campus?
Also 2 totally opposite choices! Lol. But congrats to your son on having such great options!
My daughter loves Eastman, she has been having a great experience there. Downtown Rochester is an adventure. They just came off a boil water advisory due to a dead body being found in the reservoir, it turned out the body had been there nearly a month. When my daughter called to tell me we talked about the fact that nothing surprises us about Rochester anymore. There are some really great things about Rochester too, donāt get me wrong, but it is definitely an adventure and a lesson about the world for a kid like mine who was raised in a quiet suburb and went to a rural college for undergrad.
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Congrats to you and your daughter on great acceptances!!
Please feel very free to PM me about Oberlin- happy to put your daughter in touch with my son, who is a 2nd year voice major. He may be able help with the studio teacher advice- itās not a large department and they all know all the teachers and the other students in each studio.
Her comfort level with male vs female may be a good place to start, and if she goes for a visit, she can have more than one lesson, pending teacher availability. I recommend attending the All Roads Lead to Oberlin admitted students event if you can, and scheduling some lessons during that time.
My S did not apply to Eastman, so Iām of no help there, but major kudos to her!
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Yes, very opposite and both great options, thanks! And yikes on the body! We live in a suburb of a major city so not much phases us, lol. But that is still concerning, lol. So glad to hear she still loves it there! We have really only heard positives but open to any feedback while we wait for last minute decisions and merit from the rest of the schools to close out this process.
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Eastman itself is top notch as far as weāve seen. Only good things to say. You have to take the inner city with it but as long as you know that going in its all good.
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