Early Audition - Good or Bad?

mercymom
Mon, 13 Nov 2006 11:23:26 +0000

My youngest, S, is going to Hendrix next week (he gets the whole week for Thanksgiving off at his hs) with a friend who is also interested (friend’s parents driving, God bless them). He and friend are both in 11th grade, but got the Hendrix bug from another fellow from hs who is now a Hendrix freshman.

S and friend have taken the initiative to set themselves up not only for an interview, but also a vocal audition as they are both in their school’s honor choir and their Hendrix buddy is also a singer. I discovered this when a letter came last week confirming the tour schedule with a handwritten note saying Prof. so-and-so was looking forward to the audition!

Is this too early for him to be auditioning? 11th grade? what if his voice would improve even more in a year? will they make a decision on him now, or just note the interest? if he looks too interested now, will they assume they’ve “got him” and not bother sweetening the pot with $ next year when he actually applies?

I’m a little taken aback by his efforts as he is usually very shy and not forward at all. He has now arranged with Hendrix friend to stay overnight in the dorm and check it out. All this activity is very unlike him.

I’m probably being a little paranoid, but when D went through all this, it almost seemed like the schools she showed the most interest in initially were the ones to offer little or no fin aid when acceptance came. It was like they were counting on her coming w/o that.

Also, his two older sibs did not do any of this talent stuff, so things like auditions were not in the equation. Any ideas?