Category Archives: Home & Family

Besides being very impressed with the music conservatories at
both Carnegie Mellon and Oberlin, probably the biggest understanding
to come out of this college visit in Pennsylvania and Ohio
is that my daughter Jessi wants to study music more than anything
else. On the 5 hour drive from Kenyon College (Gambier,
Ohio) back here to the airport hotel (in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania),
she and I discussed priorities and options. That is, which of the
colleges Jessi has researched offer a world-class vocal conservatory
education as well as providing an excellent computer science and
humanities education.

Some of the best conservatories offer substandard training in
everything but music. Jessi is now reconsidering the list of colleges
to which she will apply before the end of December. The original
list contained several schools with good but not great music programs:
those are being dropped. The feeling of certainty, of belonging, that
Jessi described when touring the two music conservatories is what
really made the decision. She finds many academic subjects
interesting and her grades are uniformly high but only music gives
her that rush of joy.

I have no idea whether Jessi will be offered a place in one of the
several vocal conservatories to which she will apply, or even what
she will do with a background in opera and a singing knowledge of
English, Spanish, German, Italian, Latin, and French. It will be
fascinating to watch developments.

My daughter Jessi and I are visiting Kenyon College here in Gambier,
Ohio, today. We arrived last night in time to see a free showing of
the movie “A Scanner Darkly” hosted by the campus film club at the
huge bright new “KAC” (Kenyon Athletic Facility). This film
combines live action and anime styles and features an impressive
cast including Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Robert Downey Jr.,
and Woody Harrelson. The small KAC film theater was packed and
the movie, while disturbing in content, was fascinating.

It was
very cold walking back to our hotel and frost was forming on the
ground. There was no cell phone service for Cingular on campus
but the wireless net works fine. We are getting ready for Jessi’s
interview with the admissions department now…

Yesterday, my daughter Jessi and I toured Oberlin College here
in Ohio. She had a formal interview with a Senior Intern at the Oberlin
Admissions office (but never got to talk with any regular staff
member), attended an introduction by a Oberlin Conservatory admissions
officer and a Sophomore, and had a Conservatory tour by that student.

Despite much web site searching, Jessi had not been able to contact
anyone by email to get permission to sit in on a Conservatory class
or to arrange for permission to visit a voice lesson.
It turns out that Friday is a poor day to visit Oberlin Conservatory
because very little is happening in the vocal department. It was
frustrating to find this out after we travelled here and despite all of
Jessi’s advance work.

At the recommendation of our tour guide, we hung around the hallway
outside the offices of two members of the voice faculty on the chance
that one of them would have time to
talk. After checking back several times, we finally ran into Alan
Montgomery (who teaches opera theater). He was kind enough to talk with
us and we got many of our questions answered. Mr. Montgomery also
generously phoned Duane Mahy (a voice faculty member) to introduce her
to Jessi and ask for some time.

We walked to Ms. Mahy’s office and were delighted to have her spend
half an hour answering questions and then giving Jessi a short voice
lesson. Jessi sang two of the “Italian 24” song collection and got some
very helpful tips on how to hold herself and manage her breath better.
Mr. Montgomery and Ms. Mahy were both very generous with their time and
were impressive teachers (as well as a pleasure to talk with).

The CMU and Oberlin music conservatories seemed satisfied with Jessi’s
vocal training and interested that she will graduate High School
with four years of Latin and three years of Spanish. Both schools
require undergraduate language classes only in Italian, German, and
French but expressed interest in Jessi’s training in Russian and Spanish
opera and art songs as well as her extensive American and English folk
song repertoire.

CMU and Oberlin conservatories take only about 15 vocal students a year so
they fall into the “very difficult” category of potential schools. 80% of
the admissions decision for both conservatories is based on a vocal audition.
Both are offering regional auditions in San Francisco in January 2007, so
we will not have to travel to the MidWest again just to try out. One of
the Oberlin Conservatory vocal students we talked with informally
said that half of her class had gotten in through a regional audition. She
also said that for other conservatories, potential students really needed
to go there to try out even if they do offer regional auditions.

CMU and Oberlin conservatories each offer the chance to take non-music
classes seriously. At CMU, music students can minor in another subject and
most Oberlin Conservatory students are double majors. So, Jessi’s strong
interests in Computer Science and English could be served too. Oberlin
even offers a formal technology and music program called TIMRA (Technology
in Music and Related Arts).

In general, Oberlin very much reminded us of
Peninsula School, the hippie
developmental school which Jessi attended from age three through 8th
grade. There is even a weaving shop in town called the

Loom Shed. Jessi became a good weaver while at Peninsula
School and has missed weaving while at
Harker High School. She and the shop owner, Charles Lermond, had a
great talk about weaving, looms, and designing patterns on a computer.
He uses Fiberworks PCW
(which I suspect we will be buying soon).

My daughter Jessi and I wandered around the Carnegie Mellon campus
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania yesterday between official tours and
interviews. We were invited to join the Music department’s weekly noon
Convocation in the Kresge Recital Hall and were lucky enough to be
there the day famed jazz horn player Warren Vache played.

The hall was very full in the back 2/3. The front few rows were empty during
the opening set until Mr. Vache pointed out that he and the other
two players had bathed and had their shots and would someone please come
sit nearer. He told a few funny stories and answered some questions
but mostly expressed himself delightfully through his music.

CMU is a very impressive place. The integration of art, music, and
computer science is particularly attractive to we from the Silicon Valley.
The recital halls are fully linked into professional recording studios and
there is also a professional sound mixing studio which is part of the art
department on the top floor. The architecture school is in the same
building as music and art. The Fine Arts Building floor at entry level
is inlaid with marble diagrams of famous buildings – Athens’ Parthenon,
St. Peter’s of Rome, and Notre Dame in Paris among them.

Jessi had fun staying over in the CMU dorms with her friends and visited with
her cousin Joel who is attending U Pitt next door. She found CMU to be
very much a 24×7 campus and was impressed by the size of the killer
chocolate cookies with ice cream on top.

We were lucky enough to be able to sit in on a delightful music lesson by
Douglas Ahlstedt (an associate professor of voice at CMU with a specialty
in vocal health). CMU’s music
department only takes 35 to 40 students a year, only 15 of them in voice.
So, Jessi’s application may not be accepted (but what an amazing place to
be trained if she did get in). Even I with no music training could tell
that the facilities and teachers are world class. The staff were very helpful
and answered questions both in email in advance and while we were there.
Jessi points out that artists who email you back are a rare breed.

My daughter has narrowed down the list of colleges to which she is
applying to ten. All of the applications are due at the end of this
year. She and I flew to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania today to visit three
of the colleges on her list: Carnegie Mellon, Oberlin, and Kenyon. We
will tour CMU tomorrow, then drive to Ohio to visit the other two. Jessi
already visited over a dozen colleges on an earlier tour with her school.
All of those were located between New Jersey and Boston (Princeton, Yale,
Harvard, MIT, etc.).

Last week, her list still included about 15 schools. We finally used a Pugh
Matrix to prioritize the final choices and reduce the list to 10. Jessi’s
primary categories of interest were Music (Vocal Performance, not Theory),
Computer Science, International Relations, and English. We added a General category to cover everything else (including whether they had a wrestling
team which welcomes women wrestlers). Every potential school was rated
in each category with High (5 points), Medium (3 points), or Low (1 point).
The scores ranged from a perfect 25 (Princeton) to five which rated a 15.
Once the list was reduced, it easily sorted into the 3 categories required
by Jessi’s college counsellor: likely, possible, and very difficult.

We walked up Forbes Avenue through U Pitt (the University of Pittsburgh)
to CMU tonight. We visited a book shop and had an Indian dinner. I am
staying at a hotel near campus while Jessi spends the night in the
dorm room of a friend who started at CMU this year. Tomorrow, we go on
several campus tours, visit some classes, plus Jessi has an interview with
the CMU Admissions Department.

My husband and I are having a special dinner Thursday night. Jessi called
from school at lunch break today to say that she had not talked with us
about anything but college, grades, and SATs for weeks and could we please
have a meal at which those topics are banned?

She has a point. For the next 12 weeks, every kid in the USA who is applying
to go to college in September 2007 will be preparing and sending in their
applications to their preferred schools. Even those who have already sent in
their Early Admittance or
Early Decision requests are probably working on the applications for their
backup choices. (It is a little disturbing that I now know the difference
between Early Admittance and Early Decision.) After years of discussion
and preparation, it is strange to be this deep in the process of deciding
where to send our beloved daughter and eldest child off to college.

Jessi’s college advisor at Harker
recommended that she and we read The Gatekeepers by Jacques
Steinberg. This is the story of the Class of 2004 admissions process for
Wesleyan, a university in Connecticut.
I found the book of particular interest because the SEED Engineering mentoring
program I manage for Sun has many similar application and admission processes.
The volume of college applicants far exceeds anything SEED gets,
thank goodness; however, we do hold the same discussions of how to value one
set of accomplishments over another. In Wesleyan’s case, the choices often seemed
to be high SAT test scores or grades
vs. demonstrated leadership vs. writing or dance or music talent vs. cultural origin.
In SEED discussions, it is often work history vs. demonstrated creative
ability vs. patents or publications vs. high recommendations vs. demonstrated
leadership or technical excellence. Few candidates excel in all areas and, just
like the admissions officers in the book, I always wish I could accept more than I
have spaces for.

It is hard to read The Gatekeepers just now because I keep thinking
over my own daughter’s academic, athletic, musical, and personal profile
and wondering what a college admissions officer will make of her. I think
Jessi is wise to call an occassional time out from college discussions
to reconnect as a family who loves each other.

I admit I can’t cook. While I have a green thumb for gardening, it is
definitely a black thumb when it comes to cooking, particularly baking.
I am blessed in having a husband who cooks like an angel who has taught
our kids to cook. Our daughter bakes to relax. When Jessi has a week of
exams, she brings muffins and cookies and cakes to each test (a habit
much encouraged by her classmates, you can be sure).
However, I have a strange fascination for
Nordicware.

“Nordic Ware is a family-owned, American manufacturer of kitchenware products
founded in 1946. … Nordic Ware is best known for its Bundt® Pan. Today,
there are nearly 60 million Bundt® pans in kitchens across America.”

I have proven myself unable even to cook a bundt cake (famously the easiest
cake to make) but I have developed a collection of the fancy cake pans for
use by my family. I was originally seduced by the Cathedral pan (modeled
after Notre Dame Cathedral, my favorite), and went on to buy the heart, rose,
sand castle, and bouquet muffin pan. I find it amusing to arrive at a
meeting or pot luck party with a cathedral shaped cake as my contribution.

The Nordicware Christmas catalogue just arrived. They are now offering
a stadium-shaped cake pan but the carousel pan looks more fun. What confuses
me is the catalogue section on “Natural Commercial Bakeware”. What is
natural about bakeware? Wikipedia lists many meanings of “natural”, but
bakeware?