oberlin, carnegie mellon, msm, eastman, peabody, and purchase. i have someone to stay with in maryland and NYC, but i’m not sure how to get from one place to another because i don’t drive!
This is a spread out list. Unfortunately the US doesn’t have a great train system. You may consider flying Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Rochester, then NYC. Greyhound Bus is an cheap alternative but you will have to search the routes and it can be a long ride on an uncomfortable bus.
thank you for this! do you think amtrak is a good alternative to flying?
I have no experience on Amtrak but certainly would be cheaper than flying. Once in each city you can use Uber or Lyft to get to hotel for campus. For Suny Purchase there is no hotel on campus. Look for hotels in Tarrytown or Elmsford and then Uber to campus for audition. Happy to give more information on Purchase if you DM me. My D got her undergrad in Vocal (Opera) there and lived on campus all 4 years
My kid also applied to some schools with good music departments but no auditions. We sent music supplements. Nobody has listened to them at all. We can tell through YouTube. It’s so frustrating. He applied as music major.
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You can def do MSM and Purchase in one stay but Oberlin, Eastman, and CM are really spread out and Peabody is even further out. You can Amtrak from NYC to the Rochester area (Eastman) and fly to Peabody…Im just not sure how to tackle the other 2 (Oberlin and CM) without a car in the mix. GL!
Oberlin and CMU are about a three hour drive apart but there is a train station about 20 mins from Oberlin in Elyria. The challenge will be getting from Oberlin to the train station but the school may be able to help you with shuttles or ride share information. The train is fairly cheap and Pittsburgh is easy to navigate the public transportation system but also Lyfts and Ubers are easy to get.
Oh, and there is also a bus route between the two areas. The bus station is also in Elyria. I believe the buses run more frequently than the train.
Amtrak, at least around here (DC area) is typically more expensive than a plane ticket and the schedules are not always conducive to the times you need.
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Was he applying as a music major? Or does the supplement just help get a scholarship or something as part of the regular app?
The first thing I would do is contact each school and see if they have students you can stay with. Travel in the us will be very expensive and many hotels will not let someone under 18 or 21 check in.
Regional airlines will be your friend for this. You can def fly between all of the schools except for Oberlin which is about an hour from Cleveland. We drove but I would find out if they have transportation.
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Music major.
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When we went to Oberlin in November, some friends of ours Ubered from the Cleveland Airport and said it wasn’t too terrible (maybe $40-50?)
The school probably provides shuttles sometimes, but it might just be around holidays when a lot of kids are traveling. It would definitely be worth calling the school, though, since they are pretty remote and probably deal with travel issues quite a bit.
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Between NYC area (MSM, Purchase) and Baltimore (Peabody) it is. For the rest of your list, if Amtrak service exists, it will probably be too infrequent and take too long to be a real alternative, but it might be worth looking into travel between NYC and Rochester or Pittsburgh on Amtrak, depending on how tight your schedule is.
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I second contacting each school’s music admissions dept and asking if there is a student “ambassador” that would be willing to be in contact with you concerning transportation and logistics for their campus. You can also ask music admissions if they can assist in anyway. They will not help you organize your flights or ubers. However they may be able to give you information on shuttle services from airports or train stations. Some of that information may be on the website too…but it’s fine to ask. A student “ambassador” could help you understand how students get to and from the campus. They may also be available for any support you need when you arrive on campus…and hotel recommendations. Of course, some may be more helpful than others…but my D used a student like this when she did grad school audition in San Francisco on her own…just to get the basics for when she auditioned…and some “intelligence” on the school and teachers.
Good luck.
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Do you have any student friends of friends of friends that you can stay with during these visits? Summer music festival connections? What country are you from? There are some student organizations/associations that can help you, probably.
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hi! yes! i have someone to stay with in queens as well as baltimore. i am from singapore! 
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thank you so much for this! i will keep this in mind
also, does anyone know when peabody will release their audition schedules? i got news that i passed the prescreens in mid december but i haven’t heard from them since.
I called them and they are getting ready to release schedules in the next couple weeks.
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I really hope it’s soon. They are not giving us a lot of time for travel planning!