Last week the Senior made a recording and uploaded it for a pre-screen for music majors and scholarships at First Choice College. It was a big ordeal, as we know nothing at home about making good quality audio recordings or what level is expected for this kind of thing. He managed to squeeze in some time after school to use the school's equipment in the auditorium.
Last night he got an email from the admission counselor for music that some recordings were missing. I re-read all the guidelines, and he was missing some scales. I had just misread the instructions thinking that scales were done at the in-person audition. The email also mentioned some other excerpts, which we are hoping is just confusion. Different degrees require different things, and other than the scales, we are pretty sure we have every thing for the B.A. degree he would be interested in, rather than the B.M. degree. I feel really bad about this, as all last week my gut was telling me that one piece surely couldn't be enough. I am waiting for business hours so I can call and get this cleared up. We are probably going to end up recording the scales on my iPad at home and hope that will do. It is nice that they are allowing him to still upload these.
I hear different opinions on how involved parents should be in the student's college process. While I definitely do not like the extremes of the helicopter parents that you hear about, I've got to tell you, if everything was 100% student-managed, the only people in college would be a certain breed of high-achieving, hyper-organized girl. The typical teenage boy simply does not have the organizational mindset required to navigate a sea of varying deadlines, requirements, and activities required by the typical "selective admission" college. Quite a few girls do not either. This is probably one reason why most liberal arts colleges skew female in gender distribution. This problem is magnified if the student is first-generation college or comes from a family unfamiliar with the process or also lacks the organizational mindset. I pretty much am playing the role of administrative assistant and project manager here. He does all the important work - he writes the essays, does the interviews, and makes the recordings, but I keep it all organized and on-track. This is even more difficult than with the oldest because of music in the mix this time. This is my second job right now.
In other news, the oldest comes home from college today IF he makes his flight. He got an offer to move off -campus with some people that he has been hanging out with and surprised us with this yesterday. Today he has to take a final, move all of his stuff out of his dorm and check out, pack for a 1 month visit instead of a weekend (i.e. checked bags) and make a flight at 5 p.m. EST. In general, we view this a very positive development. He has not been thriving with on-campus life and we are glad he has found some people he feels he could live with. We think he is ready for a little more independence.
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