Asking about a rejection...

<p>If a student would like to know why he or she was denied, would the best chance of getting an answer be for the student or guidance counselor to call and should that call be to the admissions office or the faculty member? My kid is confused. Professor praised strongly during audition and kiddo was denied-- we don't know if the issue was grades, if other people subsequently played much better, etc.</p>

<p>First, you need to ask yourself what you intend to do with that information. If the answer is to help better prepare for future auditions, then the student (assuming that they are mature enough to maintain their composure in what could be an awkward conversation) should contact the faculty member. Be aware that this may or may not get much of a response. Sometimes teachers are prevented by school policy from discussing the outcome of auditions. Sometimes they simply do not have the time to give everyone detailed feedback.</p>

<p>If the intent is to try to put together a better application package to the same school after a gap year or to transfer there after a year spent at another school, then the student should do as suggested above and the guidance counselor might also call the admissions department of the school that issued the rejection. This is, of course, a busy time for them, so it may be easier to get a more detailed response a month or two down the road.</p>

<p>If the intent is something else, a different approach may be called for.</p>

<p>This happened to a friend of ours - told specifically by the prof that she was most likely in. Problem is, she wasn’t and was pretty upset as it was her first choice not to mention everyone was shocked as it is a perfect fit for her. We are thinking that there were no openings in her instrument OR they took very few - you never know who else is auditioning and sometimes it is not about just that or gpa/test scores. There are so many other issues at play no matter what the school/program. Rule of thumb in our house is: Until the confirmation of acceptance is in hand - don’t rely on anything.</p>

<p>Squiggles, we were not relying on it but there some things came up that propelled this school to the top of the list.</p>

<p>My son emailed the teacher he had a lesson with and asked dirctly. She told him what she thought was lacking in his audition. He was able to use that advice on his next auditions and consequently did very well.</p>

<p>2collegewego, I just tried to send a continuation of a prior PM but your box is full. I will resend if you can clear it out a bit.</p>

<p>Cleared-- and thank you. I greatly appreciate your thoughts!</p>

<p>It is always hard to tell what happened on an audition and about getting in. There are a number of factors that can cause you to be rejected from an audition,it is why others talk about the crap shoot nature of these auditions. In an audition, there is a panel, so for example the teacher that was encouraging might have given you a good rating on the audition feedback, but other teachers may have rated you lower, and hence not ‘making the grade’…the teacher in question may not have had slots in his studio open, and though you scored highly on the audition,no other teacher had room or showed a willingness to teach you… in an audition, two things come into play in other words, how highly the panel rates you and if a teacher or teachers check off they are willing to teach you (depends on the school, some schools admission comes first, then choosing a teacher). Either one will get you knocked out of contention for admission, it is the way it works. </p>

<p>Grades and such would only kill you in the case of schools like U Mich, Rice and some others, that require admissions to both the university and the music school and you need to pass both; unless you totally shanked senior year grades, at a straight music school (i.e where the audition is everything), grades and test scores generally won’t do anything for you, despite some myths I have heard out there. </p>

<p>It may be hard to get feedback. If in your position, I would talk to the teacher who was encouraging and see if he can find out more information. I would approach it like “based on your feedback and from my own impressions I thought the audition went well, but unfortunately I was rejected. The reason I am contacting you is to see if there is any way I can get feedback on my audition, the things that were felt to be weak or that i need to improve on as I move forward, to help me correct what is wrong as I move forward”. It makes it positive, rather then saying “why was I rejected? You seemed to feel I would get in” . If this teacher was positive on you, they might be willing to see what they can find out; from what I am led to believe, a student contacting the admissions office is unlikely to get any kind of feedback (YMMV), but a sympathetic teacher might be willing to help.</p>

<p>To be honest, I wish schools would tell teachers they shouldn’t be saying things like ‘I think you have a strong chance of getting in’ or worse “you are getting in”, it to me sets the kid up for a fall, because to be honest there is no way for an individual teacher to know that, unless they are the only one who decides who is admitted since they are all there is. The admissions process involves a lot of factors and I think it is cruel to get a student’s hope up like that, because it is not unlikely a scenario like happened here can occur.</p>

<p>Some college music schools also will bump up legacies and/or children of faculty so without knowing the audition pool for your instrument/voice and the number of openings in a particular studio the process can be seem very arbitrary as well as subjective. Hoping that your child has some other options that in hindsight will turn out to be the best option for him or her.</p>