Am I a transfer student? Will Juilliard contact my teacher?

College Majors Music Major
1

Hi, CC. I have read threads for a long time, but just created an account to ask my own questions!
I am currently a music performance at a big state school. The school mainly focuses on music education - and does a great job producing music teachers, but there are very few performance opportunities. I chose to attend this university due to the fact that I studied with the professor for my instrument in high school. Although my professor and I have great “chemistry” and work very well together, I am not challenged at the university level and do not have the ensemble experience that I would like, as I am an aspiring professional orchestral musician.

 I am currently in my first semester at the school, but have realized that music credits do not transfer smoothly between institutions. I am actually taking several sophomore level classes in Theory and Aural Skills, so am almost at the end of the path for those courses (on the 3rd of 4 semesters required). I am considering taking next semester off and focusing on auditions and practicing many hours per day. I am currently taking 16 credits, and only have 1-2 hours per day to practice. If I take next semester off, I will have completed 16 credits with a 3.8 GPA. I am also considering simply taking AS and Theory next semester, which would be about 6 credits together.

I am looking to apply to several schools, including Juilliard. One of the questions on the application is for names and contact information of every teacher I have ever had (almost 12 years and 3 different teachers:). I have not told my current teacher that I am applying to transfer, and am very hesitant to do so, as not to hinder our current working relationship.

So my two questions - based on the given information, am I applying as a first-year student, or a transfer student (given that I only have 16 credits)?
Will the school actually contact my teachers, or is the information just required and they don’t do anything with it?

Thanks very much. Looking forward to your help.

2

I suspect with so few credits you would be considered a transfer, but that is just speculation. To be honest, your best bet is to call Juilliard and ask about what your status might be (I assume you would be transferring for next year, ie fall 2017), their admissions department is there. The other thing is as far as I recall with Juilliard admission when my son applied there, you need to have letters of recommendation but my S did list his teachers as well. I don’t think they will call all the teachers you put down, unless you are putting them as a reference, but even then with my son he had the teacher submit a letter of recommendation, the school didn’t contact them…but as I just said, your best bet is to call the admissions department and ask them about your status, about whether they would contact the teachers on the list and so forth, that is the best way to get information.

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Thank you very much! I will call Juilliard later today and post what I find out.

4

Maybe your teacher will be proud and happy if you end up at Juilliard-? I agree with musicprnt about calling Juilliard. And getting a letter of recommendation. Good luck!

You will most likely not be a transfer (check) but your courses so far in theory and aural skills may not count either. You may have to start the Juilliard sequence from the beginning. You can ask. The studies are not wasted of course.

5

I was going to say what compmom has posted above: your teacher might be supportive of your idea to transfer. Your teacher may also want to help you to prepare for a big audition: the teacher may feel that their reputation is on the line, as you will be playing for colleagues. The teacher may well have it in their best interest to give an excellent audition. As for the theory and ear-training sequences, call admissions and ask. Likely, if admitted, you will need to take a placement test and will probably need to re-take classes.