<p>I recently had an audition for Oberlin and Boston University and I was wondering whether or not it is a good thing if they faculty present at the regional audition talk to you. At my Oberlin audition I was asked many questions however none of the other students I talked to were asked any questions at all.</p>
<p>Being asked many questions could be the result of many many different things:
a) You are more interesting to the faculty than the students that were not asked anything (e.g. perhaps your background is different or your playing is very different or the faculty know your teachers).<br>
b) You were a marginal candidate and more information was needed in order to make a decision.
c) You were an exceptionally good candidate and more information was needed in order to make a decision about potential scholarships, or about teacher placement or about how to best ensure that you attend their school.
d) You were an exceptionally poor candidate and the panel wanted to know what background could have lead to this (this scenario is unlikely).
e) The faculty had time to kill.
While it often is a good sign that you were asked questions, at many schools, some of the very best candidates are asked no questions; in other words, don’t read to much into the quantity or absence of questions.</p>
<p>happystar2111: Just curious: how many faculty members were present at the regional auditions? Some schools just send an admissions rep to the regional auditions to record and handle any questions.</p>
<p>At the regional audition for Oberlin there was the head of admissions, Mr Manderen (sp?), who I understand is the professor of lute at Oberlin and an Obie himself. Then there was also someone in charge of administration who led us to the audition and got to know us.
For Boston there were two judges, one who I believe was in charge of admissions for BU and one who was endorsing Tanglewood.</p>
<p>It would be great if you can detail your audition experience in this thread:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/1069861-audition-experiences-fall-2011-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/1069861-audition-experiences-fall-2011-a.html</a>
I’m sure it will be of benefit to others. Regards!</p>
<p>for my oberlin audition i talked a bit with michael as well, may have been because i was first that day and he was in a fellow guitarist? but before, in between songs and after we talked so that was cool. my audition at cornish was probably like 30 minutes because i was talking to the faculty a lot, and it proved worthwhile seeing as i got in with just a live prescreening. so i definitely think questions are good but also you have to realize they don’t have all the time in the world so if they aren’t as “friendly” don’t ruminate over it. the problem about auditions is that when its over you think about every aspect, at least i do, and then you go over in your head and try to remember everything they said, the way they watched you, talked to you etc…but in the end you just have to wait and see</p>
<p>i cannot agree more with 18karat about the overthinking thing…</p>
<p>Okay, I was mislead by the mention of the faculty present at the regional auditions (which I thought was strange, hence my second post with its question about the number of faculty member present). Faculty is a collective noun (in the context in which it was used) and refers to a group of instructors in a department or in a faculty. It doesn’t sound like faculty (i.e. a group of instructors) was present at all. </p>
<p>It sounds like regional auditions continue to be what I thought they were and therefore I think you can read almost nothing into the questions at most regional auditions: the schools’ representatives are almost never the people that will be deciding your fate. Usually they record you so that others back at the school who are specialists in your instrument may evaluate your playing ability. I noticed one poster called them “judges” which is misleading since they are usually administrators and will not be judging anything. The faculty that do that will rarely travel to regional auditions (it is far too expensive and time-consuming and would take them away from their students).</p>
<p>well the representatives, no matter who they may be, still have that first-hand experience that the recording won’t give and that person will have more of an insight of you as a person to share with the deciding committee, in the case with oberlin it was the head of conservatory admissions so that’s obviously someone you would want to impress in person. but he was a very kind guy! really easy going</p>
<p>and also i have seen different scenarios with regional auditions, for berklee there was two faculty members who oversaw your audition and a representative to conduct an interview. oberlin i already mentioned, and for cincinnati it will be like oberlin again, a representative filming you. so it kind of differs between schools i suppose</p>
<p>If the Oberlin head of admissions asks some people many questions and others no questions at all (as the OP states), then I don’t see how they can have the role as a judge (or evaluator) of “you as a person”. If they do have that role and are entirely neglecting to ask question of most of the students, then the “judicial system” is clearly flawed which I do not believe to be the case–I’m sure that Oberlin tries to create a level playing field. If they ask many people no questions, I don’t think that they will usually be sharing their views of you with the deciding committee. (Now I’m guessing there may be some informal sharing where an auditioner is extraordinary in some way: e.g. three heads or unable to fit through the door due to a conspicuously oversized ego. Of course, if the director of admission is the guitar teacher and is hearing a guitar audition, then they will be forming impressions which count. And, of course, the whole process differs between schools–which is one of the things that keeps this board going and makes the whole audition process so interesting/difficult!) </p>
<p>Obviously if everyone is interviewed or asked a few questions, then it would seem that the administrator’s role could well involve gathering information that is used in making the decision. While I would recommend being on one’s best behavior at all auditions with all audition personnel, I think that it would be misleading to believe that it is necessarily helpful to impress the head of conservatory admissions–you do not want to annoy him/her, but students that did not have any conversation with him/her should not feel that they have been shortchanged or have a less probability of admission.</p>
<p>The playing aspect of auditions can be stressful enough without students worrying about how impressive their conversation is or about their not getting any talking time with the admissions rep.</p>
<p>Within my experience of regional auditions, the description of the person I’ve played for has fallen somewhere between “proctor” and “camcorder operator.” It’s cool that it’s sometimes someone from admissions staff. At least that way there’s some chance that someone with firsthand experience with you will discuss your admission with the relevant faculty. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if some places just handed the DVD to the corresponding faculty member (particularly in cases where it’s one person, like for many brass and woodwind studios) and called it good.</p>