Wow it sounds a great visit
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@dasanistrumpet - Your son currently attends Curtis? Because Iâd love to have a parentâs perspective on this (also @anotheroboemom?). Our guide was referring to classes like their liberal arts, electives, etc. as academic classes. According to her, students often just donât do their work or come to class prepared! She said the teachers âover-assignâ in hopes that the students come in with something completed, and a lot of it is âbusy work.â 
Also, their curriculum seems to be non-traditional in that a student doesnât really receive âcredit hours.â As such, they can have up to 10 classes a semester (however that may look). As a parent, this information was all a little disconcerting about Curtis, but I guess the positives balance it out. DS said he would just see all that âbusy workâ as the price he would pay for a free, elite conservatory education. 
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Sending you a PM.
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My son thinks his Blair application opened up the day after he submitted his Vanderbilt application. There arenât any essays on the Blair application; they want a repertoire list and at least one music recommender, plus the prescreen. So thereâs probably time if he does it today and has everything ready to go when he gets access.
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Sent you a PM too
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I wouldnât expect homeschool problems there. Emory I would.
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Emory has toned down their language about homeschooled students a lot in the past few years. My oldest applied there and they claimed to require 3 subject tests for homeschoolers (I asked an admissions person if AP scores could count instead and was told no). Said kid only had 2 subject tests but applied anywayâwaitlisted at both campuses and eventually offered a spot off the waitlist at the Oxford campus. So it seems they werenât as rigid as they pretended to be. But, at any rate, subject tests donât exist anymore, so they canât even say they want them anymore!
My son is currently a first year student at Curtis. Everything there is customized to each individual student â which you can do when you only have 150 students and as many faculty/staff members â so it does feel a bit different. They donât have years like freshman/sophomore or specific credits/hours like most programs. For example, my son entered very advanced in theory and already plays piano, so they put him in mostly second-year courses, and created a special counterpoint-only theory class for him and another student. He just takes piano lessons for now and will join keyboard skills later on with more advanced students. He does say the academics are not really emphasized; however, they are what you make of them. His particular teacher encourages them to take classes at University of Pennsylvania, which they can do if they want, though this is easier from a practical standpoint after the first few years.
My son has only been there a few months but loves it so far. The real difference there is that students are given the support to become an artist and the school customizes everything to make that happen. As such, there are a lot more performance opportunities (my sonâs already played on two public recitals), which I assume translate for composers as well. Also, the environment is surprisingly nurturing and non-competitive, which is not the case at all the top conservatories.
Feel free to PM if you have questions, though @anotheroboemom likely knows more since her son has been there several years.
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Thank you so much for sharing your sonâs experiences! It is so helpful. We did hear about the agreement with UPenn as well as the fact that it is difficult to take advantage of it until later years.
Iâll say that even with my (older) kid whoâs at Vanderbilt/Blair, Iâve been surprised by how few non-music classes heâs taken/needed to take. He took one art history class first semester and heâs taking another one next semester (so one per year)âŠand those are because heâs planning to do an art history minor; he hasnât been required to take ANY non-music classes. Blair is much more generous with AP/DE enrollment credit than arts and sciences and has fewer distribution requirements, so I think he came in with credit for all of his required non-music classes. Of course, there are tons of options for academic classes and many/most kids are doing a double major with something outside of BlairâŠbut my BM only kid is perfectly free to ignore the non-music offerings for the most part and just do music, music, and more music.
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Very similar to Oberlin Conservatory. The only requirements outside of the music major courses are a writing class and languages before each diction course: Italian, German and French, one semester each.
But there is room for electives after the first year and that grows a bit as the years progress, and definitely enough space to add a non music minor if desired.
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Just for those new to this forum: the Double Degree Dilemma essay in the Read Me thread on this music forum explains the different ways to study music
BM degrees tend to be 1/4-1/3 non-music classes which tend to be humanities and may include music history and other music-related humanities, from what I have seen.
Oberlin has a newish Musical Studies BA which allows non-BM students to access teachers and resources in the Conservatory, along with more non-music classes.
BAâs in music usually are 1/4-1/3 classes in music. Then there are double major, major/minor within a BA, and double degrees, either BA/BM or BA/MM, all providing different amounts of non-music classes. (Bard requires a double degree of conservatory students.)
This was an issue I had with my eldest when I asked precisely that question. That made it a do not apply school for our family. I thought it was somewhat indicative of what they thought of homeschoolers. At the time no one was required to submit subject tests except for homeschoolers, and we partially homeschooled to get away from all that standardized testing!
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so on the williams ED slideshow final submission page, they ask what would you like your involvement to be in college including coursework and extracurriculars. Does anyone know if this means they want a full essay or just a few sentences (he is applying as a music major)
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Does it not have a character limit? Unless it has a character limit, I would write up at least two paragraphs similar to âwhy meâ essays in a matter of fact way. I would upload a list for sure. I would only do a list of it has a small character limit.
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amazing, thank you! This is what we were thinking, another surprise essay! He will write up a quick artistic statement geared towards them, glad that he submitted the regular application early so we could see this doh!!
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I meant I wouldnât upload a list. I would write.
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So politics of reaching out to teachers question. S24 has passed the music major application at a medium sized university that has early action admissions and is a safety for him for admission (no idea how competitive the music major is). He has not had his final decision from admissions from that school, just the music department. He is now moving on to his regular decision applications and the instrumental teacher at a highly competitive LAC that he is considering is the same as that larger school.(could be an ED2 choice but more likely RD with a sub 10% admissions rate). Is it weird if he reaches out to her now? Should he do it through the school he was accepted to or the one that he has yet to apply to? I am not sure how he can approach it as being about fit when he didnt care before the audition for the first school unless he makes it about the ED2 decision (does this make sense)?
Looking for some advice. I passed prescreens for Frost (contemp voice/songwriting) and it is my top choice. Their only EA date is during All State. (I went to All State and All Eastern last year; this would be my second time at AS) Trying to get an exception made but not looking good. Does EA vs RD really impact decisions for Frost / music school in general or should I just go to All State and audition RD?
Honestly, Iâd say it depends on how high up Frost is on your list. My kid will miss a dress rehearsal for his wind symphony if he passes his ED prescreen (and so maybe not be allowed to play in the concertâweâre not sure yet), but itâs ED so thereâs really no choice. I have no idea how EA vs RD affects things at Frost specifically, but I was surprised a few times this year by what a big difference it makes at some non-music specific schools heâs applying to (like St. Olaf is something like 67% EA vs under 40% RD)âŠbut of course music is whole new variable.
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