FYI Ann Arbor is just an hour from us. Glad you had a nice visit
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Each place we visit brings positive surprise.
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I know, isnât it fun? We had so much fun on his audition trips and left each place with him saying heâd be happy there. Made the decision process excruciating! Iâm glad you liked Michigan. I think the jazz faculty is one of the most nurturing, as a group, that we encountered.
Michigan was really late in awarding both financial aid and merit scholarships. I think I remember their FA due dates being later than most schools. I donât know if thatâs changed this year because of the FAFSA/CSS changes. I know that my son was well into the decision process by the time he got their numbers, which didnât help their cause.
Enjoy Miamiâs campus! That was us 4 years ago - son is in his final semester @ Frost!
Thanks! Also, I have to retract a statement. There are squirrels.
Enjoy your time in Miami! We did, even though Miami didnât end up making the cut in the end.
Thanks. On my drive in, the urban nature freaked me out, but it seems fine now. I notice a little bit of the high heels and short shorts I had read about, but it seems like it is pretty balanced. The teachers definitely seem happy to be available, eventhough they weave in their own gigs through the week. S did his bass audition today, but will also be allowed to do a vocal jazz audition on Friday, to kind of meet Professor Reid and see what kind of approach could make sense in building the jazz voice tool for him. I think this school is probably awesome.
We have returned home from the Michigan-Miami tour. Lots of car-time - Whew! Only the fourth (SUNY Purchase) audition remains on the original list (since the fifth place, William Paterson, uses only a submitted audio recording to make their decisions). It was a really great experience. I could probably write a few paragraphs of what each one was like (for us, at this time, etc.). Generally, we are just going to have to wait for any written offers and sort through that. It will not really be a long wait - sometime in March.
So final list is UNT, Michigan, Miami, Purchase and William Paterson? Look forward to hearing what happens after following you and your son during the whole cycle : ) Hope you are keeping track of squirrels!!
Yes. No official offers yet, but good sentiments from the first 3 which have been visited.
@GoForth, I was a bulletin board reader too! My son would go off to practice for his audition and I enjoyed speaking with students and basically checking out the vibe. I found out that doubling up on jazz rhythm instruments is not that unusual at some schools, unfortunately. One of my friends who went through the UNT jazz program told me that the program is so big that, even with all the jazz bands, some rhythm instrumentalists had a hard time graduating in 4 years because it was so incredibly competitive to actually get into the groups required for course credit!
@GoForth Are you visiting Wm. Paterson during your Purchase audition trip?
@indeestudios - Well, a change of plan may emerge. We burned a lot of miles and time off work so far in the audition season, that now in these later days of the audition season, we feel depleted and S is going to discuss with them if an alternate form of audition would be reasonable.
Has your son been to Purchase? It is a wonderful school. But he does have other great choices.
He has not, nor to WP. It kind of snuck up on us how much time and money we were losing to travel, and it is a tough call. I believe he is arranging for a remote/video/etc audition.
OK. So, now I see this is the long waiting part. Not much to do. Have no idea what part of the country S will be accepted into. Wishing there was a thread for non-sensical posting just to post and read something. Yep. Is this âpreparation withdrawlâ?
I remember how hard this month was, GoForth, when my daughter applied to undergrad. After so much effort put into this huge extracurricular project, one suddenly feels a loss of purpose â as well as the requisite anxiety of not knowing what the future could hold. When she applied to grad school she did everything herself and I only had to sit back and watch it all unfold from the distance. Good luck! Youâve been a wonderfully supportive parent for your son and many readers are rooting for both of you.
In a week, youâll start hearing things. Then it really gets interesting!
Yep. We are kind of hoping for one or more EFC-beating music merit scholarships, realistic or not, it is part of the mind-set of now. We all really loved the places that S has reached out to.
Wonderful that he loves the places he has looked and auditioned at. Preparation withdrawal, great term! Next you can remain on CC and respond to othersâ preparations and avoid CC withdrawal like some of us!!
I would love to advise, but I canât see many opportunities yet. Some advice that is hot on my mind I am afraid to offer because it is easy to compute who S and I actually are, and I donât want to be harmful to anyone with âwhat not to doâ observations, at least not right noe.