<p>Yes. Despite my degree being considered a full undergraduate degree here in New Zealand (3 years of full time study for a bachelor of commerce in economics and finance), USA does not recognize it as a full undergrad degree because it is not 4 years long.</p>
<p>Therefore I am in an unknown grey area between undergrad and graduate. Hence why I applied only to private schools because practically all the states schools disallow two undergrad degrees.</p>
<p>Is it 100% truth that the early february Audition/Interview is just for admission and not for a scholarship aswell? Are the scholarship interviews/auditions definitely seperate?</p>
<p>I’m starting to worry about things now.</p>
<p>It seems to me, from last year’s experience, and what I read on the USC thread on CC, that all the Trustee and Presidential invites go out by the end of January. <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/646914-accepted-early-without-scholarship.html?highlight=trustee+scholarship+letter[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/646914-accepted-early-without-scholarship.html?highlight=trustee+scholarship+letter</a>
You have to RSVP for their Explore weekend shortly after receiving the invitation. My son was accepted in January without an audition - so it’s different for composition than performance.</p>
<p>Are these people who were accepted before they were auditioned all types of music majors?</p>
<p>There are separate scholarships - academic, and music. The Presidential and Trustee and Deans are academic scholarships - however, the interviews are done by the school one has applied to. I would imagine one could get as much offered through the music scholarship as through the others, if they really want you. Our experience was, even with the Presidential scholarship, and a music scholarship AND financial aid - that USC was the worst offer he got. They didn’t meet full need, and there were loans. I was very surprised, because my older son was offered much better financial aid 5 years earlier with only a Deans scholarship. I think last year USC was concerned about money. No idea how they’re feeling this year!</p>
<p>My son has a friend who auditioned for Thornton the last week in January last year. The following week (the first week in February) he received his USC acceptance with an invitation to interview for one of the academic scholarships. It was my understanding that he only received an academic scholarship, but there may have also been a music scholarship as well. </p>
<p>SpiritManager, I’m happy to hear that Thornton gives scholarships based solely on music.</p>
<p>Sorry if I am being dense or reposting the same question, but is it possible that you are accepted even before an interview/scholarship in a performance major?</p>
<p>I do not think I have any information about USC that you do not already have. Seeing that you are in a grey area with respect to the first undergrad degree, at least for US purposes, perhaps that will not matter when it is time to give out scholarships. Many schools (possibly USC, but possibly not) have a policy of not offering much in the way of scholarship money for more undergraduate study to students who already hold an undergraduate degree.</p>
<p>It is possible and not even terribly unusual for a school to accept an applicant as a performance major but not to announce the financial aid/scholarship amounts until a later date. I do not know of any music programs that require a separate interview or audition for their talent-based scholarships, but that does not necessarily mean that none exist. However, some schools that are not solely conservatories definitely have a round of interviews that occur post-acceptance for their academic scholarships, particularly for the large ones that pay half or more of the costs.</p>
<p>What pointegirl and I are trying to say is that, before planning your trip, you should ask USC whether you are in the running for any scholarships that would require your presence at a particular time in the next couple of months. There is a very good chance that the answer will be “no” and you can then plan your audition trip knowing that you will not be missing out on a later opportunity. If the answer is “yes,” and you cannot afford to make two trips to the US, then you will have to consider whether you want to use that one trip for the auditions or save it for the possible USC interview.</p>
<p>At Berklee, you are automatically considered for scholarships when you audition. That was our experience at all conservatories, as well.</p>
<p>[BERKLEE</a> | WST | Application](<a href=“http://www.berklee.edu/wst/]BERKLEE”>http://www.berklee.edu/wst/)</p>
<p>Berklee has auditions all over the world, including Australia.</p>
<p>[BERKLEE</a> | WST | Dates, Deadlines, and Audition Sites](<a href=“http://www.berklee.edu/wst/dates.html]BERKLEE”>http://www.berklee.edu/wst/dates.html)</p>
<p>I could see traveling to Boston and California, to help you choose between the two schools, but it seems as if it would be possible to audition nearer to where you live. Traveling to Seattle does not seem to accomplish much, and USC has told you it is okay to send a DVD.</p>
<p>Just my two cents…</p>
<p>OP - I agree with SpiritManager about USC being pretty stingy on financial aid in general, and to answer your question, I would say that you are going to the USC campus for an acceptance audition, which you could also get with a re-review of your well put together prescreening materials. </p>
<p>I would not count on scholarship money based solely on music merit alone for the Popular Music program at USC. Any scholarship money will be for academics, which have to be pretty strong. </p>
<p>Both jazzguitarmom and I had several conversations with the head of the dept. last year after acceptances were in and were told, in a nutshell, that they feel offering music scholarship money for a new program to some musicians and not others introduces a level of competitiveness and disharmony that they wanted to avoid. Which we thought was pretty weird and sort of anti-real world but that was the gist of it. </p>
<p>It might be worth it to call and ask them ahead of time, maybe that policy has changed. And getting a clear answer to your question about whether this if for acceptance only or acceptance/scholarship would help you make your decision. But I suspect it will be the former.</p>
<p>I do remember one piece of correspondence thanking my son for his “clear interest” in USC after our cross country visit there, so it may be that they appreciated that he WAS obviously interested by the fact that we traveled there, but he also had a great on campus audition which he felt couldn’t be conveyed in the prescreening materials alone. He also had pretty strong academics, but not strong enough for Trustee scholarship (apparently)!</p>
<p>If your academics are iffy and the music might put you over the top, your talent (showcased in person) could be the hook to gain you admittance. But if you aren’t going to be able to afford to attend USC without merit money anyway, then you might not want to spend the money to make that trip.</p>
<p>Ditto the comment above about automatic consideration for scholarships when you audition at Berklee.</p>
<p>BTW, my son was really, really torn choosing between Berklee and USC and the Berklee merit money did help make the decision easier, but as far as a purely music education and vibrant city living with tons going on musically, he couldn’t imagine being anywhere but Berklee; it’s been simply phenomenal.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Agreed. The audition itself tends to place an applicant in contention for a talent based scholarship. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>In an audition based admission, talent monies are awarded in relation to the applicants placement within the pool that is offered admission. The “bestest tend to get the mostest”. But exactly how the available money is split between candidates is school specific and it would seem that the final allocated offers would be made after ALL the audition results are heard. If you apply the bell curve to any audition pool, there will always be a few at either end of the spectrum, and conceivably the powers that be know a great thing when they hear or see an outstanding candidate, and based on past history and experience might be able to peg a candidate early, and earmark one of the top $ awards. The bulk of the candidates however are quite probably arranged in an order, and that order will change until all the audition results are evaluated, and the official offers rendered. </p>
<p>Academic scholarships typically are grades, test and often holistically based on specific criteria, and if a candidate meets those criteria, they are short listed. There are a number of scholarships, with stated dollar amounts and specific parameters for each. Most do not include an interview, but at some schools the prime scholarships involve an interview process in assessing the final list of candidates as BassDad indicated. </p>
<p>Whether an institution allows a combination of merit/talent scholarships is based on there own internal procedures and policies. Unless someone has direct experience with USC/Thorton, and can give a cogent account of the process, the best source of info is within the undergrad handbook, the operative, in depth procedural and policy document. Often the website info is incomplete or truncated, or confusing. </p>
<p>The issue is compounded by your status as an international, and the fact that you already have a degree, which may or may not affect your eligibility for scholarships, talent based or otherwise. </p>
<p>Aside: guitarist’s mom posted while I was composing this reply, and she really hits the nail on the head and brings up some very good points, and reinforces radad’s earlier comment
as to the availability of scholarships for the Popular Music program. Once again, official clarification directly from the source is your best bet.</p>
<p>And just to expand on BassDad’s point
</p>
<p>Hartt’s Performance 20/20 program did include a separate audition. Potential candidates were shortlisted based on their admissions audition, and requested to re-audition that same day (or a later date if more convenient as I recall) for final consideration. I also recall an interview process for that as well. At the point my son was in the program, the offer was for full tuition, but the wording on the Hartt website now reflects “significant scholarship”. If anyone wants a link, let me know.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>My daughter, singer- songwriter, is auditioning next weekend for the pop music program.
She has written several new songs since the pre-screen-should she bring a CD with those sings on it? Will they ask her to sing material from her pre-screen or can she choose. Is there a music exam or sight reading does anyone know? doesn’t sound like it from the web site.
Still waiting to hear from Berklee -she auditioned in Boston in December. She did the 5 week summer program and loved it. USC is awesome-we have visited several times and met the prof. They said they are taking 35 this year.
Love to hear more from those who have advice.</p>
<p>Smithanan, </p>
<p>Son is freshman singer/songwriter in popular music program and very happy. He also had written and “home recorded” several songs between pre-screen and audition. He brought along cd copies with the new songs and offered them if they were interested and most took them. Last year they said be prepared for 15 minutes of audition I think. When he got in they were running behind and said give us your best two songs. Both the songs he auditioned with were not on the prescreen I think. They gave him the lattitude to show what he wanted to show. Your daughter sounds a little similar to my son, so if she records her own music, she should feel free to bring in a cd with and play and sing along with the cd if it is her own music. Son did that and they were set up to accomodate it and it worked well for him, since one of his better songs wasn’t as good with just him playing acoustic guitar. In talking with the head of the popular music program after son’s acceptance to better understand some things, it was obvious that they had listened to more songs than just what he auditioned with and they had notes about what were the things that helped him gain admission. So, if she has new songs I would view it as more of a positive than even a neutral. Lets them see more her depth and variety hopefully. Also I think it shows that she could be a little prolific if the songs are all good (More quantity of marginal quality would not be good), and I think that is a positive to show this vs. someone who can write one good song every 3 months. There were about 6 “judges” in his audition I think, if you want an idea of the number of copies of cd’s and lyric pages to bring. The curriculum has music theory, ear training, etc., but the audition is really about what your daughter can show them as an artist and performer I think. I don’t think there was a music exam or a sight reading test. Son is top % in playing by ear and improvising, middle of the road in terms of sight reading and the popular music program was fine with that coming in. The head of the program has said to me a couple of times “We are interested in what type of artist he is/can become”. BTW if you have met Chris, he really is as nice as he comes across. There are several profs as well as several talented “individual instructors” and son has made positive comments about several and hasn’t whined about any of them. Also, I have posted this before, but if Dean Cutietta has a Q&A next weekend I highly recommend attending. It provided a great deal of insight on not only the popular music program, but other things relevant to your daughter’s decision. Let me know if I can provide any additional help. Best wishes to your daughter this weekend!</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply Raddad. We met Christopher Sampsosn at the open house program in Nov. He seems really terrific. Did your son perform then? If so we saw him play.<br>
Thanks for the great advice about bringing more CD’s and lyric sheets. She accompanies herself on guitar, also plays piano and beginning mandolin.We will be sure to go hear the dean-the open house was very impressive-really caring faculty. The program is so perfect for my daughter-she sounds very similar to your son in ability. They call it fright reading at berklee.
She has lots of performance experience, good grades and great SATs -would love to have her be part of the program. But who knows what the competition is like-I am sure more so this year. Just hope she doesn’t get sick this week!
She auditions at UCLA ethnomusicology program the following weekend so 2 trips to LA.
Thanks for the good wishes!</p>
<p>Smithanan, a little more audition insight that might be helpful. It seemed like all of the people auditioning before and after us were male singer/songwriters. We got to talk a little with the other audition candidates since there were limited practice rooms, auditions were running late and everyone got there early to be prepared so there were on average about 4 familys outside the practice room. The previous parents had developed a method of who got the practice room next based on order of audition. We probably went to the practice room 30 minutes before the scheduled audition and son waited at least 30 minutes to get into the practice room which he then had for about 10 minutes. It was a basic room with a piano which is what most kids need and son had his own guitar with. Things could be different this year, but I would prepare daughter that she will have use of a practice room for 10 minutes or so probably right before her audition, so if she likes significant warm-up etc. she should do some of it before coming to campus that morning. Of the 5-6 people we talked to, one of the guys who went after my son was also accepted and they are now very good friends. </p>
<p>Don’t know if son performed at the open house, he didn’t mention it, but he probably wouldn’t mention it as he is a reasonably normal 19 year old boy. He could have been the keyboardist if they had one. If you meet an Eric from the midwest, that is him. Have fun this weekend!</p>
<p>Thanks Raddad for all the great advice! The young man we saw at the program was from Penn I believe, the other fellow was from the bay area. It was a nice program. I have a son too so know how the communication goes…
It sounds like they separate the males and females at audition-makes sense. Did your son apply to Berklee? There aren’t many choices for pop music. How soon after the audition did he hear back?
At least they are taking more students this year-but probably more have applied too!</p>
<p>Smithanan, first they separate by “instrument or classification” I think so they have the right faculty at the audition and then when it comes to voice, they probably separate by gender so they are comparing more similar performers. Lamont Dozier was actually in the audition for my son last year so they make sure they have songwriter perspective also, along with Chris and maybe others for the singer/songwriters. Son did not apply to Berklee. Wanted to have a broader curriculum available and the film school affiliation at USC was a plus too. He is pretty broadly creative. He wouldn’t have the resume to get in the film school, but could collaborate since he’s at USC. Also potential to take some more traditional courses. Only other music school he applied to was Northwestern for jazz piano and canceled the audition when he was accepted at USC popular music program since it was more directly in line with his style of music. </p>
<p>The acceptances come in two distinct timeframes I think. If you are selected to interview for the Trustee or Presidential scholarships you hear within a couple weeks after the audition of your admittance to Thornton so you can make arrangements for the interview weekend. If you are not invited for those scholarships, then I think you hear around the end of March. I am sure that there is a lot more awareness about the USC popular music program this year so applications quantity and quality are probably up a fair bit. I keep thinking of tidbits to share and one unusual opportunity for son and some of his classmates this year is that Jason Robert Brown is on campus doing something in the theatre department and is teaching a class on writing for musical theatre. Chris encouraged some of the popular music songwriters take the course which while a little off the path son would define himself by is an outstanding opportunity and he is looking forward to it. One of several examples half a year into the program of how USC does provide hands on interaction with successful people in the entertainment industry. </p>
<p>More best wishes for you and your family, it is an exciting time!</p>
<p>Thanks again Raddad My daughter did lots of musical theatre before she began writing her own songs -she might enjoy something like that. I think it is great the way the faculty foster the students.
I’ll give an update after we return!</p>
<p>Hi Raddad One more question. Did your son bring an updated resume? My daughter did a bit more performing and wrote more songs since app went in-but not sure if the audition committee really want to see this? Are the Cd/lyric sheets are enough? Thanks!</p>
<p>Smithanan, my son did not bring an updated resume to the audition but I will give you my impression. To receive the audition they just about only listen to your cd and read your lyrics if you are a songwriter. They told us they don’t know your daughters grades, SAT, etc, when she is invited to audition she was invited based on her musical submission. This was for all of Thornton, not just the Popular Music Program. The audition committees determine by talent (violinist, singer, songwriter, drummer, etc) their priority ranking, they sit down with admissions and determine who they will accept and who they will bring in for academic scholarship offers. If your daughter is 1st pick of her “skill” then Thornton will work to get admissions to admit her with grades that are somewhat below average for USC. If she is the last of the people they would consider offering admission and her grades/SAT are great, then she is in. If your daughter is invited for the trustee of presidential scholarship visits and there is something that is material in terms of her commitment, community activity, etc, I would include it there. For the audition I think it is bring your talent, artisitc and performance ability. More best wishes!</p>