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Anyone else have a student applying to grad school?


8filltheheart
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7 hours ago, madteaparty said:

Totally unrelated, but I think I met some of your DS’s classmates this month while traveling (their spring break). It’s a tiny world! 

 

Cool!  Gosh - they all go to such exotic places nowadays!  Spring Break has come a long way from Destin, Ft. Lauderdale, and Padre Island, hasn't it? Ds went to Barcelona! 

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Congrats, 8.

Ds24 has committed to UConn.  He was over the moon after his visit there, keeping me up past my bedtime to tell me all about it.  He'll be studying systematics of cicadas, particularly periodical cicadas.  Next step is finding a place to live.  He did find out that there are many less expensive options that what was showing up in an internet search. 

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Not sure where to post this since the social groups are down. Not really a grad program, but since I'm hoping for a second grad degree, I am posting here. I got accepted to my backup nursing program while the board was down. Still waiting to hear from my first choice (likely won't know until May). :)

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My dd just learned that she passed the French language mastery test, the DALF C2.  She's so relieved!  This allows her to apply for the graduate programs she's interested in, in France.  I believe those applications are due at the end of this month.  So, still a long ways to go...  If her application is accepted for consideration, then she needs to fly to France for in-person interviews.  That would be in May.

 

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On 4/21/2018 at 5:07 AM, elegantlion said:

Just this week I found out that I received funding, a teaching assistantship with tuition remission and stipend. I'm still feeling a bit overwhelmed. 

Yay!  Best wishes as you go forward.

Regards,
Kareni

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi All,

I'm a bit late to the party with the wrap-up; DS made his decision about a month ago. This fall he is headed to the Rice University's Shepherd School of Music to pursue a Masters in Organ Performance. Full ride, and it looks like he will be slipping into a pretty decent part time position at one of the churches in Houston. He is over the moon, and we are pretty psyched for him. 

The lad played in chapel last week. The board of the AGO (American Guild of Organists) was on campus for a special event, so the faculty asked him to close the service that morning. It's a long piece - starts @ 19:40, if you just want to get right to the ripping part, try 26:20. 

https://www.stolaf.edu/multimedia/play/?c=2979

Graduation. Then off to Germany and France to play some organs. AGO convention in July. Then on to Houston. 

Last kid. Done parenting. Now we just enjoy their company. 

Dh is doing well. Happy at work @ the Metropolitan Opera - among other things, he just joined the Grammy Board - he is lucky to have such a cool job and I am lucky to enjoy some great opera once in a while. He starting riding a race bike recently for fun - 100+ miles in one ride is not uncommon. Plays in a band. Happy guy and the love of my life.

In January, I started a new job with BAE Systems. I work with all electrical and mechanical engineers (I earned by BS in electrical back in '89). I have found my tribe and am having fun every day.

So I guess I can say that this whole homeschooling thing worked out. Really well. I started this project in 1999 and nearly 20 years later, I consider this last child's graduation from college to be the final loose end. Done. WooHoo! Rock on, folks - it's ridiculously worth the effort! 

Peace,

Janice

Enjoy your little people

Enjoy your journey

P.S. Follow up a couple of weeks later: the lad played the piece with St. Olaf's orchestra this past Mother's Day. What a wonderful day! 

 

 

 

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Oh Janice, congratulations!! And thank you for sharing videos of your ds playing organ! I love it! Folk should check in at the 25 minute mark to see the close up of his feet at work!! That console looks like the one at our church. Being a page turner for someone playing at that console is quite the challenge.

Good church organists are hard to find these days. Our church has gone for over a year without a regular organist after my friend retired -- too many couldn't accompany a choir, didn't understand how to do hymns (didn't know about the unofficial Congregational pause between verses so folk can catch their breath and go on). So bravo to your ds. And St. Olaf has such a great music program! Our church music director got her BA from there - at one point we talked about recruiting your ds, but the cost of living in Southern California is outrageous, and grad school is a great step for him. (Another homeschooled young man I know is pursuing his Masters in organ at USC.)

I'll tell my retired friend to look for your ds at AGO as he is still very active with the guild. He and I still play together quite a bit. In fact, you can tell your ds that one of your long time WTM friends is going to play the Rheinberger organ/violin work this summer.

Congratulations again! And yes, the journey is well worth it.

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16 hours ago, JennW in SoCal said:

Oh Janice, congratulations!! And thank you for sharing videos of your ds playing organ! I love it! Folk should check in at the 25 minute mark to see the close up of his feet at work!! That console looks like the one at our church. Being a page turner for someone playing at that console is quite the challenge.

Good church organists are hard to find these days. Our church has gone for over a year without a regular organist after my friend retired -- too many couldn't accompany a choir, didn't understand how to do hymns (didn't know about the unofficial Congregational pause between verses so folk can catch their breath and go on). So bravo to your ds. And St. Olaf has such a great music program! Our church music director got her BA from there - at one point we talked about recruiting your ds, but the cost of living in Southern California is outrageous, and grad school is a great step for him. (Another homeschooled young man I know is pursuing his Masters in organ at USC.) Isn't is a small world after all? His first teacher made sure he knew how to accompany a congregation; in her mind, if you can't play a hymn correctly, then no one really cares if your postlude is fantastic. First things first.  

I'll tell my retired friend to look for your ds at AGO as he is still very active with the guild. He and I still play together quite a bit. In fact, you can tell your ds that one of your long time WTM friends is going to play the Rheinberger organ/violin work this summer. Will your friend be at the convention in July? DH John and I are going on Thursday for the "Rising Star" concert - Ben won the regional Quimby competition so he is playing. 

Congratulations again! And yes, the journey is well worth it. Thank you. We commiserated while we were in the thick of it, so it really is fun to see how everyone is doing. 

Hope you have a great day!

 

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On 5/4/2018 at 12:26 PM, JennW in SoCal said:

Being a page turner for someone playing at that console is quite the challenge.

I noticed that he had no need for a page turner.  Holy cow!  He had no music.  Does he have a photographic memory or what???

Thanks for the heads up about the feet.  I typically listen while I food prep so don't watch much.  I can't fathom how anyone can move all 4 limbs to produce music like that.

On 5/4/2018 at 11:25 AM, Janice in NJ said:

This fall he is headed to the Rice University's Shepherd School of Music to pursue a Masters in Organ Performance. Full ride, and it looks like he will be slipping into a pretty decent part time position at one of the churches in Houston.

...

In January, I started a new job with BAE Systems. I work with all electrical and mechanical engineers (I earned by BS in electrical back in '89). I have found my tribe and am having fun every day.

Congratulations to both of you!  Thanks so much for sharing the music.  I love to see how accomplished our WTM kids are.

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On 5/4/2018 at 10:25 AM, Janice in NJ said:

The lad played in chapel last week. The board of the AGO (American Guild of Organists) was on campus for a special event, so the faculty asked him to close the service that morning. It's a long piece - starts @ 19:40, if you just want to get right to the ripping part, try 26:20. 

https://www.stolaf.edu/multimedia/play/?c=2979

That was awesome, thanks for sharing!

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10 hours ago, Sue in St Pete said:

I noticed that he had no need for a page turner.  Holy cow!  He had no music.  Does he have a photographic memory or what???

 

Hi Sue,

It's odd. I'm convinced it's an auditory thing with him. My parents have a piano that is ridiculously out of tune, and he has trouble playing it. 

In general if you take the black dots/lines away from him, his playing shifts. Everything opens up just a tad. All those years playing violin in an orchestra and listening to orchestras like the one at the Met take over. I think that's part of the reason he loves the organ so much - you have four limbs and TONS of orchestral-like options. What do you want people to hear and when and how? And can you pull it off? You choose the bank of pipes you want - and then you try to deliver the line so that it nests well within the other voices you have chosen. You take a discrete set of pipes and try to create the illusion of a continuous musical line - lots of them - all at the same time. And of course, when you are there and he is pointing out this this light, gentle musical idea that he has sent bouncing off the walls or the room is shaking because of the 16 footer, you can't help but appreciate the craftsmanship of the organ builder, the composer, and the musician. Figuring out that being a part of that was this kid's thing took a while. And I am convinced that when he stops trying to see the music with his eyes, he hears it more clearly with his ears. Because in the end, those dots are just a contrived representation. Just as Plato was stuck trying to use words that he then turned into squiggles to convey what he was trying to think, Widor was stuck using a similar system to convey what he was thinking/hearing to a person in a different place/century.  And right now that is the thing that this kid most enjoys thinking about.

It really was one of the joys of homeschooling to be able to work with my three little people for years - trying to black-box each of them: Who are they? How do they take in/process/spit-out information and ideas? What kind of information resonates within their box? How does it change after being in there? What do they like? What do they hate? Can we ignore the hates and cultivate the likes or will that hamper them later on? Where is the balance that will help them see what they need to do to become happy, healthy, contributing people in the world where they find themselves. How do they need to fill/clean out/reshape the black-box that is their own headspace in order to be their best self? 

I remember reading an anecdote offered up by a Columbia University Professor in defense of their Great-Books-required-curriculum. The gist of the argument was that each of us spends our entire lives stuck inside our own heads. That place is one of the few things that is really our own - I am alone in here - and it's all mine! So we owe it to our ourselves to make it the most interesting place it can be. That really stuck with me. 

This is this kid's jam for now. Who knows what will happen as he paddles along in the pond he has found. He has started reading philosophy. "Mom, you have talked about this stuff my whole life. I didn't really get it till now." 

He is 21. What fun!

Rock on!

Peace!

Janice in NJ

Enjoy your little people

Enjoy your journey

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1 hour ago, Janice in NJ said:

I am convinced that when he stops trying to see the music with his eyes, he hears it more clearly with his ears.

Fascinating.  Yes, I can see him listening to the music as he plays, like he's thinking, yes, that's the sound I want to produce.

It really was one of the joys of homeschooling to be able to work with my three little people for years - trying to black-box each of them: Who are they? How do they take in/process/spit-out information and ideas? What kind of information resonates within their box? How does it change after being in there? What do they like? What do they hate? Can we ignore the hates and cultivate the likes or will that hamper them later on? Where is the balance that will help them see what they need to do to become happy, healthy, contributing people in the world where they find themselves. How do they need to fill/clean out/reshape the black-box that is their own headspace in order to be their best self?

Well done, mama!

 

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7 hours ago, Janice in NJ said:

I remember reading an anecdote offered up by a Columbia University Professor in defense of their Great-Books-required-curriculum. The gist of the argument was that each of us spends our entire lives stuck inside our own heads. That place is one of the few things that is really our own - I am alone in here - and it's all mine! So we owe it to our ourselves to make it the most interesting place it can be. That really stuck with me. 

I love this so much! 

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  • 1 month later...

Just an update!  My dd arranged for an in-person interview at the university in France she has applied at.  She was able to get an interview with the director of the grad program which was really lucky.  The first thing he told her at the interview was that they have never accepted international students (??!).  That wasn't what she had been told or what their online program site said!  But in any event, it was otherwise an encouraging interview (in French) and he told her that he was willing to consider going against their no-international student policy.  He has invited her back now for the "official" interview but admitted that it won't be much different than her informal interview.  She'll do the official interview over Skype because she's back in the US now.  She had arranged the first (unofficial) in-person interview on her own, and I think it was probably critical that she did.

She's waiting to hear when her official interview will be, but doesn't have a strong feeling one way or the other as to how likely the director is to go against their "no international students" policy.  But, at least he is giving her consideration.

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On 5/4/2018 at 10:25 AM, Janice in NJ said:

Hi All,

I'm a bit late to the party with the wrap-up; DS made his decision about a month ago. This fall he is headed to the Rice University's Shepherd School of Music to pursue a Masters in Organ Performance. Full ride, and it looks like he will be slipping into a pretty decent part time position at one of the churches in Houston. He is over the moon, and we are pretty psyched for him. 

The lad played in chapel last week. The board of the AGO (American Guild of Organists) was on campus for a special event, so the faculty asked him to close the service that morning. It's a long piece - starts @ 19:40, if you just want to get right to the ripping part, try 26:20. 

https://www.stolaf.edu/multimedia/play/?c=2979

Graduation. Then off to Germany and France to play some organs. AGO convention in July. Then on to Houston. 

Last kid. Done parenting. Now we just enjoy their company. 

Dh is doing well. Happy at work @ the Metropolitan Opera - among other things, he just joined the Grammy Board - he is lucky to have such a cool job and I am lucky to enjoy some great opera once in a while. He starting riding a race bike recently for fun - 100+ miles in one ride is not uncommon. Plays in a band. Happy guy and the love of my life.

In January, I started a new job with BAE Systems. I work with all electrical and mechanical engineers (I earned by BS in electrical back in '89). I have found my tribe and am having fun every day.

So I guess I can say that this whole homeschooling thing worked out. Really well. I started this project in 1999 and nearly 20 years later, I consider this last child's graduation from college to be the final loose end. Done. WooHoo! Rock on, folks - it's ridiculously worth the effort! 

Peace,

Janice

Enjoy your little people

Enjoy your journey

P.S. Follow up a couple of weeks later: the lad played the piece with St. Olaf's orchestra this past Mother's Day. What a wonderful day! 

 

 

 

Just wanted to say that along with his performance, I enjoyed the connectedness he seemed to have with the orchestra, and his warm smile.    Was that St. Olaf College?  I graduated from there.  ? 

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23 hours ago, J-rap said:

Just wanted to say that along with his performance, I enjoyed the connectedness he seemed to have with the orchestra, and his warm smile.    Was that St. Olaf College?  I graduated from there.  ? 

Yes. A wonderful place. He has had a fantastic four years there. 

Hope things work out for your daughter!

 

Peace,

Janie

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just a quick update: my dd was accepted into the program in France!  She is thrilled.  A lot to think about now, the first one being renewing her passport so she can then apply for a French student visa.  It's a little late to be looking for scholarships, but she's digging around a bit.  France does offer universal health care for students plus a rent discount, so that helps.  She's hoping to head there at the end of August.  I'm so happy for her!  She's worked hard toward this goal, and it's just so good to see things coming together for her.

 

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  • 5 weeks later...
On 6/29/2018 at 9:11 AM, J-rap said:

Just a quick update: my dd was accepted into the program in France!  She is thrilled.  A lot to think about now, the first one being renewing her passport so she can then apply for a French student visa.  It's a little late to be looking for scholarships, but she's digging around a bit.  France does offer universal health care for students plus a rent discount, so that helps.  She's hoping to head there at the end of August.  I'm so happy for her!  She's worked hard toward this goal, and it's just so good to see things coming together for her.

 

 

Very exciting! She has a lot to do in a month, good thing she's young! 

I'm anxiously awaiting my dd's return from France in early August (undergrad study abroad). She's loved everything except the lack of air conditioning, lol. 

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1 hour ago, katilac said:

 

Very exciting! She has a lot to do in a month, good thing she's young! 

I'm anxiously awaiting my dd's return from France in early August (undergrad study abroad). She's loved everything except the lack of air conditioning, lol. 

Yes, she's slowly getting everything done!  It's been a very tight schedule that's required a lot of traveling and collecting of old official documents that neither of us thought she'd ever need again.  (France doesn't make it easy, at all, to go to school there when you'd not doing it through a U.S. school or agency.)  She's actually back down to Chicago today for her visa interview.  

How exciting to see your dd soon and hear all of her tales!  I'm sure it was an absolutely fabulous experience!

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