Can really good grades help being accepted at Yale School of Music?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
1

Hello, I am currently doing a bachelor’s degree in composition at University of Montreal. (Its faculty of music is arguably one of the very best music schools in the french speaking world).

I would like to do a Master’s degree in America, especially at Yale School of Music and here is my situation :

Since the beginning of my studies I have worked very hard to get the highest grades possible, which worked pretty good. I have A+ in almost all my classes (the averages are often of B, B-, even C+). I have no B’s, and very very few A, A-'s. (I got these in composition classes, where teachers virtually never give A+ since it’s “impossible” to do a “perfect” composition.)

My GPA is of almost 4,2 out of 4,3. I have won “excellence schoolarships” and stuff like that.

Will all that seriously help me getting in if I manage to present some pretty good compositions too? Or a student applying for composition should have won a lot of competitions, done a lot of festivals, already be semi-profesionnal, etc. ? Because, I don’t have anything like that on my resume, I don’t have a career, I am not played, etc.

Thanks.

2

This is the UNDERGRADUATE forum for Yale Admissions. You should repost in the GRADUATE School section of college confidential: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/.

If you haven’t already, you should also read:
http://music.yale.edu/admissions/prescreening/
http://music.yale.edu/admissions/audition-dates/

3

Actually, you might want to post in the Music Major forum. The short answer, though, is that your compositions will matter more than anything else at every graduate composition program.

4

I can’t speak for Composition, but my son just auditioned at Yale SOM this week. They require a 3.0 gpa undergrad, so you can’t be a total moron…but it comes down to how he played in the live audition, you either have the chops or you don’t.