JHU / Peabody——— From more reading other threads, Johns Hopkins was even more competitive this year (much less than 10% acceptance rate) because of $1.8 billion donation from alumnus Michael Bloomberg, specifically for “financial need” undergrad students (not buildings or campus). If I remember correctly, Peabody itself has an allowance of $50M for “financial need” undergrad students.
We all here, as parents, we DID invest a lot on our musicians to get the level to major music at college level. Honestly, I still can’t visualize what results / offers are (still waiting until April 1st) and how to make COA payment. But I am sure that my son should be a part of COA for his own future but no more than federal loans.
I just looked through my conversations with a mom whose daughter applied JHU/Peabody dual degree last year. Her daughter called Peabody and they told her that they only took 10 dual degree students!
@jazzboydad my D applied to JHU 2 years ago. She didn’t apply for the dual degree even though she was a musician. She had 2360 SAT, 35 ACT, 4.0/4.65 GPA, NMSF, full IB student, concertmaster, soloist, two times National Synchronized Swimming Team. Volunteered at hospitals and taught violin to underrepresented minority kids, etc. she was only waitlisted and the waitlist extended all the way through summer. I tutored and started questioning myself. I just couldn’t know what my daughter did wrong.
I am so mad that I just found this group! Reading through all these posts, mirroring what my daughter and I have been doing for the last year! I could have been suffering with company instead of alone!!
Here is my question- has anyone who auditioned for Oberlin heard anything yet? She auditioned 2/16 and we are still waiting. They are the last one left…
Welcome, @sssulliv! You’ve definitely come to the right place for information, support, and a little much needed humor. This group is a lifesaver! Best wishes on Oberlin. Fingers crossed you get good news very soon!
Welcome @sssulliv ! Oberlin Conservatory traditionally notifies pretty late in the game, and generally the Friday before Spring Break (which happens to be next week (;). They do send financial aid and talent packages with acceptance, too! Watch your D’s email and portals beginning Friday afternoon Eastern Time! (Spring Break falls a little early this year, so Friday would actually be a little early by Oberlin standards in terms of notifications!)
Thank you for the info on Oberlin!! We will be on the lookout Friday afternoon!
We have survived audition season, so life feels easy now! lol. D is a Soprano, looking to do VP.
Her original first choice was CCM - we live in Cincinnati and it was her wish to attend an amazing conservatory and sleep in her own bed at night. It was her first audition and her first answer - and it was a no.
We found out Friday she is in at IU - no financials yet
There are 3 others that are “easier” in that there was no pre screen:
Miami University (Oxford, OH) - accepted, academic and music scholarships full tuition
Northern Kentucky University - accepted, full tuition academic scholarship - haven’t heard music offer yet.
Capital University (Columbus OH) - accepted, academic and music scholarships - $9,000 tuition left.
All 3 of those have sent emails salivating all over her, so that is nice for her after the big rejection from CCM.
If money were no object, Oberlin would be the top choice. Money is a BIG object though and that’s a BIG tuition!!! She has a 34 on the ACT, 4.0 unweighted/ 4.4 weighted, 2nd in her class, etc. I don’t know if that matters when it comes to merit scholarships from the conservatory, so we’ll see!
Wow, accepted at IU for VP but rejected at CCM- that just goes to show how random this whole process is. @sssulliv - if she gets in to Oberlin, you can definitely show them the financial awards at the other schools and ask them what they can do for her. Good luck! And why DON’T more people use this forum??? There are only one or two members per instrument this year—— hardly a representative sample. Oh well, more attention for us, i guess
@sssulliv same here! This group of people is amazing. Wish I found it sooner too! Sorry I can’t answer your Q about Oberlin, but best of luck!
Congratulations to all of those kids who have a spot/finances that work! Way to go parents for your support of your amazing kids!
We are waiting for finances at Indiana and Michigan, and decision from Frost along with many others on this thread! This is some serious rough waiting…
I suspect that there are many, many more lurkers than there are people who post in this group. So lots of people are getting value even if we don’t “see” them. Some will participate in next year’s thread — shout out to the Class of 2024! Others may never “uncloak” but, hopefully, are getting helpful information from our experience.
@Music2023 - this is what we were told about CCM. My D has been twice to a summer institute run by her voice teacher, that had 2 of the 8 voice professors from CCM on faculty, so she has had multiple lessons with these 2 faculty members. They are both close friends with her voice teacher. This did not help obviously.
At the audition we were told they had 455 applications. They took 100 ish for grad auditions and 68 for undergrad. For undergrad, there were 10 spots.
Then, one of the voice professors told her private teacher that they only needed 3 sopranos. At this point in the process, there was 1 day of auditions left and they had heard 38 Sopranos already. So a total of around 50 Sopranos out of 68 total undergrad auditions - for 3 spots.
Sooooo…yeah the numbers were not in her favor. I’ve heard that CCM is very specific in terms of the exact type of voice they are looking for. It was a crushing blow at first, but I think it will ultimately be for the best.
I think if I don’t hear something soon I will burst… we still have only heard from one school and 0… YES ZERO from anywhere else. I am so happy hearing all of these offers coming in, but honestly I am a little jealous that we have not heard dittily squat about anything. I am sure that in 2 weeks we will know something, but ugh…
@sssuliv : Welcome and better late than never. My S is class of 2022, and I found this group a whole year after he auditioned ! Reading through the thread, most people have had the same experience as I did, and you put it well about sharing your suffering. This is a wonderful group, and you’ll find the community here is exceedingly supportive.
Good Luck to your D. Congrats on Jacobs and the others.
@sssulliv based on our experience with Oberlin a few years ago, I believe Oberlin takes academic record etc into account when offering merit-based scholarships. Good luck to your D!
@sssulliv : A tip for you (assuming you didn’t already know about this) - In the search box on the page, put in “music major”. There are a whole bunch of useful threads that will pop up, including this one. You should poke through some of those as well for lots of useful information.
