We haven’t heard from IU academic side yet. I also thought we might (others did last year) but maybe they were in-state? We are OOS. Or maybe they applied earlier? My son also applied BSOF which could affect the academic admission. Website says we won’t hear about academic side until Jan 15.
My son got accepted (academic side) to Western Washington and UNT. He got an invitation to audition at UNT (I assume everyone without a prescreen requirement does, though).
Other than that we haven’t heard from any other schools yet.
hi! thanks! my dtr appplied to IU back in fall of '20 and i thought the academic came sooner then, but glad to hear it may be different this year! my son also applied to Western Washington! but it just went in the other day and still hasn’t sent in his music audition info yet, with all the prescreens and essays occupying time, it’s now catch up with all the others! Congrats on the academic being done for WWU! Are you local to the PNW? I’m happy to answer questions about it if you’re not you can feel free to pm me.
EDIT- nevermind, I see you’re in WA, too. your bassist and my kiddo might have crossed paths!
I am! And I have a question! We’ve heard from a couple of sources that my son (double bass) will be better at Western Washington than UW. That surprises me, and academically (we hope he will double major) UW will be a better fit for him, assuming he gets in(!) . Do you have any thoughts on this? I don’t know much about Western’s music program, but my son’s bass teacher says the bass prof there is very good.
I totally know what you mean about catching up on the others. We should have maybe waited on those less critical ones to let him focus on more on prescreens. Oh well!
I wish I had more info to help but I would imagine that would be hard. While his core classes are very manageable, I will say the music is def rigorous. He takes between 15-18 credits a semester which can be up to 8 classes bc some are 1 or 2 credits. He will be close to a minor in History because of jazz studies history requirements and may add a few classes to get that. Having said all that, he tells me once a week how happy he is and how much he loves it there. What is your son thinking of as a double major?
That’s still helpful info, thanks. He’s all over the place, and tbh, this is more of a parental goal than a kid goal :). I’m not sure music is really going to work for him - it’s a pretty recent decision for him. But he’s adamant he wants to try! We’re going to learn a lot when we see the reactions to his prescreens, which is why I’m so anxious. He says physics and art are his other favorite things. We’ve agreed that he will mostly apply places that have good dual degree programs and preferably ones that will let him explore a bit before declaring any second degrees. UNT is an outlier because his bass teacher says the program there is so good it will be worth it if he can get in!
My son thought he wanted a pure music school but our travels/visits/auditions led him so far away from that. He ended up wanting a college experience with students of different walks of life and sports, etc. He loves having the best of both worlds even if he spends 85% of his time in the music department lol.Good luck to yours.
How are auditions going for those who have had them? My son has had 3 so far, all vastly different. One was very encouraging, one he felt like he messed up and the last one the professor hardly said anything. He thought he did well on the last one but literally no feedback and no conversation. Has anyone else had this experience? He, of course, thinks it means he didn’t do well, but I’m wondering if it’s normal to not get any feedback?
I would say this is not at all unusual to get zero feedback. If I recall correctly, out of 6 auditions my son took for undergrad programs four years ago, 3 of them had no feedback and basically no interaction with the panel. This was for classical instrumental music. He was accepted everywhere. It is likely more a factor of how that particular program or studio holds their audition than a reflection of your son’s performance.
My son used to half jokingly say, “Twelve months of preparation, 2 days of travel and 7 minutes to perform.”
It can feel somewhat deflating. He is used to it now, professional auditions are even less interactive. Generally you don’t even see the panel.
I remember reading in past years’ threads that a non responsive or even negative feeling audition can still lead to an acceptance. It may be that the professor already knew what your son was capable of from the pre screens or was just tired from having to see so many kids in one day. If your son felt that he did well I think that is the most important thing!
My son is a recent UNT college of music grad (choral music education) @Clara30 message me if you have questions about the voice program.
@rhochemEmom particularly if your student has a lot of AP or dual enrollment credit, a dual degree may be reasonable at UNT. The question would be whether it’s reasonable to complete in four years. Doing music ed is a lot like getting a performance degree along with an education degree. It took my son two summers of classes and an extra semester beyond four years to complete (and is designed as a five year program). He had a friend with a ton of AP and other credit who completed it in 3.5 years. I think a very dedicated student could manage a dual degree. It might be tough in some disciplines that require labs or a lot of afternoon classes because of ensemble requirements for music.
UNT is a really fantastic music school. My son had a great experience there.
Ha ha. So true. So much prep time for such a short glimpse into what they can do. Thank you! I think since his first audition was so great he was shocked and yes, deflated. But I will tell him it’s normal.
To be honest, based on my son’s experience, there rarely is feedback, other than asking them to play certain things or maybe asking them to stop if they had heard enough (and you can’t take anything out of when they ask you to stop; in one audition playing a Bach partita they stopped him a couple of minutes in and was worried he did badly. He later ran into one of the teachers on the panel and asked, he remembered my son and said it was simply that time was limited and they could hear he played it really well. ). Obviously every panel is going to be different, this was classical music at high level music schools.
I have seen posts from people who supposedly auditioned, who said things like the panel extolled his playing, etc etc, and honestly from what I have seen and heard, that is online noise, not reality.
I wouldn’t take anything that happens in an audition, whether you play 7 minutes or 15, facial expressions, yawns, etc etc, or how polite they are, likely you can’t read much into that. The people on those panels have likely done this years, and they IME/IMO will do everything they can not to influence the kid playing, because they know how nerve wracking auditions are , they have been there, they try to make it as neutral as possible (there are always going to be exceptions). I have asked teachers who routinely do audition panels and believe it or not, most of them want the student to succeed, they aren’t looking to reject as many as possible, etc, and I would go into an audition assuming that they are a friendly audience, because many/most of them likely are IMO.
My son has now auditioned for Berklee (during its 5-week summer program), James Madison (JMU) and the Univ of Maryland College Park. Everything seems to have gone pretty smoothly so far. Not looking forward to the flurry of auditions that he probably has to do in February but enjoying not having to remind him to finish his apps and prescreeens.
He’s a Jazz/saxophone student (tenor)
Also applying to
George Mason U
DePaul
U Mich Ann Arbor
Eastman
Peabody
Frost (Miami)
SUNY Purchase
Yeah, Saturday at Frost was a little anticlimactic. And expensive. S wasn’t surprised at the format, though, since he was in touch with the professor ahead of the audition. 13 students with 15 minutes each must have been a long day for the professor, and yes I agree, how much can you learn from a kid playing a half dozen grooves…
The good news was that S was well prepared since the website was pretty specific and the professor was extremely responsive to questions. Also good news was that he stood outside the door and listened to three of the other auditions. One “overplayed”, one “underplayed” and one he said “crushed it”. More good news, I guess, is that the four prescreen videos S sent to get the audition really showed the breadth of his experience, and the audition was recorded. I suppose the faculty can refer back to those for help in making their picks.
Bad news was, of course, this was a lot of effort for grooves that S has recorded at home at least 6 times for camps, competitions, and other prescreens. Oh well, gotta trust the process I guess. The professor was super chill and very nice and had just used the bathroom before S’s audition, so there’s that too.
Also Stamps Jazz Quintet Scholarship, but that’s a whole other story. Now we wait for four other audition nods and we can enjoy the holidays.
you can feel free to pm me.