Hidden details in application instructions may matter

My son is applying to Oberlin Conservatory, or at least that's the current plan. I made a binder of college application materials and dutifully printed out the four-and-a-fraction pages of Conservatory Application Instructions, in a tiny though elegant type font. Of course I meant to read every single word, but hadn't quite gotten to it.

The part that registered with me seemed pretty clear: "Applicants in jazz are required to submit a screening CD, DVD, audiotape, or videotape..." (by the Dec. 1 deadline, it indicated in several places). So plans were underway to get him together with other applicants for a rush recording session.

Then a mom whose daughter is also applying pointed out the brief, buried sentence, which we had missed: "Regional auditions do not require a screening recording." Oberlin holds a regional audition in San Francisco in January.

A good lesson in reading the fine print (in this case the entire set of instructions is in fine print).

And just now, when I called up the website again to link to it, I discovered that it had been redesigned since I printed out those pages six weeks ago, and looks much more user-friendly. So now there are two lessons: Read every word, and recheck the websites every so often.