Preliminary Visits as a Junior

thumper1
Sun, 14 Jan 2007 09:11:04 +0000

I agree…do the tour, info session AND something in the school of music too. And try to set up a lesson with someone at each school. And watch an ensemble rehearsal and/or a concert. It will likely take you a full day to do all of the above at each school you visit. Re: overnights…most places do not have official overnight visits for juniors. DS never spent the night at ANY of his music choices…not even after acceptance. For him, the feeling of the music department and private teacher were far more important than the “Karma” on the campus or in the dorms. Also…everywhere you go…check out the practice rooms. Most large schools of music will offer tours of their music facilities (I thought UNT was top notch and if your kid is a jazz player I hope that school is on his list). The trip to your “home town” conservatory will probably be almost as long…but not quite as long. We had one of those and skipped the campus tour (since we had spent two days a week there for four years, that wasn’t necessary), and the lesson (DS’s private teacher was the teacher there)…but we did attend the info session and he DID have an interview with someone in the music department on our visit. The only thing that made it better was that we just did it at our convenience since we were close by.