and summer programs or other opportunities 
Though once in school he will no doubt find his own.
The processes have started. S is now officially admitted to the University of North Texas. Not yet the College of Music or the Jazz Studies program, but, yes, to the university itself. This is the first accept/reject letter.
Excellent!!
Awesome, @GoForth!
Congrats! I remember that first acceptance into a college. It is truly a sweet moment even if itās not a music program yet. Enjoy all the little victories.
S just reported that he got a 30 on the ACT. Good enough to accomplish all that he needs. So that chapter is closed. The 26 was good, but a couple minor yet handy thresholds at 27 and 29 were nice to have reached - UNT honors college and max auto-calculated academic merit.
Congrats Go-Forth. UNT is a wonderful school
As the area kids are calling upon their friends to play in audition videos for either JBOA, Grammy or college pre-screens, it is neat to discover circles of friends and acquaintances that exist among the players, where for example one person separately invited S and a drummer, and S plays with the drummer all the time. They were surprised to see each other show up for the audition.
Nice, and this aspect of the music world continues after high school!
The list of colleges now has five members: UNT, U Miami Frost, U Michigan, SUNY Purchase, William Patterson. There are some fine schools that are not on the list. Those remaining have some aspect of potential affordability (I knowā¦) and musical groups or music vibes that appeal to S.
All Common App material has been submitted, with any Music school specific secondary application needing to be started. Except at UNT where the school of music app is completed and the audition date is set. Jazz bass videos at UNT are not pre-screens so much as a part of the audition, kind of a special situation there.
Pre-screen videos are still under development. Several have been made, but they can improve, and that seems like a good thing to spend time on at this point. For William Patterson, the video IS the audition, by policy. For U Michigan, there is no pre-screen required before the audition. This is what we see specifically for jazz bass.
The overall feel in the household is kind of a humble confidence, a guarded hopefulness, or whatever it should be called. Audition dates, should all prescreens pass, will have at least 1 week between any adjacent ones.
I wonder ā¦ what are we forgetting?
@goforth:
A good bottle of aged bourbon does wonders lolā¦seriously, sounds like you guys have a good plan, all the schools you mention are up there in reputation (William Patterson has a good reputation among working Jazz musicians, one of the teachers at my sonās old private school was a Jazz saxophonist, and he mentioned that WP had a strong program). Frost has a great jazz program, the brother of a guy I work with went there on guitar and really, really loved it.
The only thing I would say with auditions is to keep an eye on the weather and other things, if they are otherwise scheduled where they donāt conflict with other things, weather might be a concern (especially if U mich audition is in february or something!), not to mention potential conflicts that might pop upā¦but other than that you seem fine.
I am more remote from the process, other than my S calling us when he feels overloaded, his process for grad school is pretty much all him at this point, deciding where to apply, getting the applications in, the pre screens, etc.
Nuts as it may be, I plan to drive the bass to each one, leaving early as weather dictates.
@GoForth is that 5 schools total, then, or just the ones where apps are in? We are down to 6 now (perhaps 7) and Iād been worrying it might not be enough to give him good options, but I think it is a manageable number of auditions with a range of types of schools.
Good luck with those videos! We are doing some today - DS is out early because itās PSAT day for the underclassmen. You have to take advantage of those big blocks of time whenever possible.
@classicalsaxmom - It is now 5 schools total. It is slightly light, but more easy to focus on. A couple would require rather enormous merit packages, but the others would not. We suspect (can one do that?) that he would be accepted at UNT and have a very very affordable option, but we believe we must spend lots of travel time and money across other great options ā¦ just in case.
It sounds like you have a good balance of options, and hey, my son knows a musician with great stats who got a full ride (not just full tuition, a full ride) at Miami a few years ago. You never know.
Miami full rides are for the Stamps scholarship and those are for a specific ensemble which rotates annually.
At USC it is very difficult to earn a large scholarship (1/2 or full tuition).
Not knowing the EFC it would do a disservice to opine on possible net costs at the schoolsā¦
This is the jazz year rotation of the Frost Stampsā¦
That will make that single spot highly competitive
Thatās a great list and it sounds like you have everything well in hand!
FWIW, it seems most bassists/bass parents drive to auditions. Of the maybe dozen I spoke with, only one flew with their bass, and one flew and borrowed a bass once there. They were from CA. I talked with several from the Midwest. Compared to your S having to play a different instrument for his audition or dealing with trying to fly with a bass hoping it was treated gently, I think it makes the most sense.
look forward to the rest of this journey which you have so kindly shared : )