<p>i'm a cellist and i've been getting a lot of lessons from a teacher at the juilliard, but he never told me when i can fill out the apps.</p>
<p>i've been checking peabody, oberlin, msm, mannes, and the like, and they all said i should check their sites again in september 2008.</p>
<p>but i was just wondering if msm's essay topic (the closet one) was as same as 07-08's..</p>
<p>DO NOT (I repeat!) DO NOT plan on the essay being the same! My son wrote a whole essay based on the one for 07-08, thinking he'd get it done in the summer when he had more time, and they changed the essay (to the closet) for 08-09! What a waste!!</p>
<p>I don't know if they change it every year, but they surely did last year, and it was quite a surprising essay topic too (unlike the ones for the other conservatories!).</p>
<p>I believe MSM does change the essay every year. S was accepted (didn't attend) for Fall '06. The essay wanted a discussion of how you would "change the world". This was different from the previous year's that had been displayed in the summer.</p>
<p>MSM did have the "oddest" essays of all that S encountered in this 5 applications. What he found (3 years ago) was that several schools wanted something about "why our school" and "why music - how do you see your future". Although all questions were worded diferently and required different slants to the answer, he found that considering these questions gave him a lot of material that he could customize for the individual schools.</p>
<p>Best of luck! I think I remember that CIM was up very early several years ago...</p>
<p>Yes, MSM is a bit unique with essay requirements.
When son applied out of HS in 2004, the topic was "what one person would you like to invite to dinner and why".
That seemed an ordinary request for a liberal arts school but for a conservatory? Son enjoyed preparing for it anyway.</p>
<p>Most applications come online starting sometime in mid-August or September 1st. I do know that when I did my MSM essay (the closet one) it ended up being the best essay of all my applications. I think sometimes it's hard to tell exactly what it is about music that draws you to it and makes you want to make it a career, and having an interesting question like MSM's as a conservatory applicant makes all those senior year English classes seem worthwhile. And I agree--they usually change the essay questions every year. You could try doing this year's just for practice; it couldn't hurt, and it helps you to figure out what kind of writing style works best for you. And I think you can go ahead and write an essay about why you want to pursue music and why you want to attend each school; you're pretty much guaranteed to get a few essays like that throughout your applications.</p>
<p>Do most other conservatories require an essay? Or is MSM unusual in that regard.</p>
<p>All conservatories require an essay. I think only Curtis had just a short essay question. You'll find, however, that most of them are all the same question about your ultimate goals and etc, so it's usually not that much work--except for the MSM essay, which actually took a lot of thought but was also the most rewarding.</p>
<p>It seems like my son had to write seven distinct essays for his music school applications! They manage to make them a little distinct from one another!</p>