<p>Hello CC World. I'm hoping someone can shed some light on the overall admissions rates/numbers for Curtis and Colburn. The other schools have those numbers posted. I understand Curtis and Colburn admit only based on openings in a specific instrument. I get all that.</p>
<p>I did find online that Curtis, a few years back, had a 5% admissions rate. But, I've not been able to find any real accurate info for these most recent cycles.</p>
<p>And, what about these schools' yields? I'm just totally curious. I'm starting the college search for my niece, and I've noticed there isn't a lot of chatter about Curtis or Colburn. I'm thinking it's because both of these places are so small, and so ridiculously difficult to land a spot in.</p>
<p>Thank you for your help.</p>
<p>I don’t know what instrument you play, but usually for woodwinds at Curtis around 40 audition, 8(?) make call backs, and one or two (usually one) is accepted.</p>
<p>Colburn has DVD pre-screening for most, if not all, instruments. I believe they have call backs as well. perhaps a bit more spots open than Curtis.</p>
<p>I suspect that both of the schools have higher yields in comparison to other conservatories because of the fact that it is 100% free. and with the new Curtis dorms opening fall of 2011, students won’t have to worry about living costs, making it equally as free as Colburn.</p>
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<p>Really? I wasn’t able to find this info at most schools at all… The only school where I was easily able to see it was Cleveland Institute of Music.</p>
<p>Did you find the info at individual school websites? Or in some general guide?</p>
<p>@lemonspice, thank you. Do you know if Curtis uses a waitlist?</p>
<p>@mtpaper. You’re absolutely right; those numbers aren’t published by the schools on their websites themselves. I thought I found those numbers on the school’s websites, but I was drawing numbers from my online searching.</p>
<p>@WaterGarden - I’m not sure if anyone here will know the answer to your question, but it most assuredly will vary, depending on the instrument.</p>
<p>ie, there is not much value in knowing the admission rate for the school. You need to know the admission rate for the instrument in question.</p>
<p>I don’t think admission rates would mean much for Curtis and Colburn: they get far fewer applications than places like Juilliard because people know how incredibly selective they are and therefore choose not to apply. As well, the repertoire requirements for some instruments at Curtis are about three times what schools like Juilliard, NEC and CIM are which further cuts down the applicant pool. For example, violinists need one or two concerto movements at places like Juilliard, NEC and CIM but need two entire concertos at Curtis (so minimum 6 movements); most schools need only one or two Bach movements, but Curtis requires an entire suite or partita (so 4 to about 7 movements).</p>
<p>As well, Curtis and Colburn tend to attract a larger proportion of international applicants (Korea, China, Canada, Japan etc.) which also raises the overall calibre of the applicant pool. Only extremely talented internationals make the flights over for auditions. Despite the fact that Curtis and Colburn are each about 1/5 of Juilliard’s size, I know more Canadians at Curtis and Colburn than I know at Juilliard–most Canadians (like many other internationals) can’t afford to go to a place like Juilliard, but can afford Colburn or Curtis. </p>
<p>While Curtis’s admissions rate is fairly similar to Juilliard’s, that doesn’t for a second mean that they are equally difficult admits: the calibre of people applying to Curtis is, on the whole, quite a bit higher than at Juilliard (which as we know is plenty high).</p>
<p>5% overall sounds about right for Curtis. The year my daughter auditioned there (she was not accepted) there were a bit over twenty bassists auditioning for one spot. The rate is probably a little higher on some instruments but substantially lower for violinists, pianists, flutists and sopranos. Their yield is quite high from what I gather. Since they accept something like 40 students in an average year for the entire school, I believe the number who do not accept an offer of admission there is in the single digits per year, perhaps the low single digits. With that few spaces to fill, the teachers involved can decide what they want to do on a case-by-case basis to tailor the very small second round of offers to get exactly what they still need after considering who has chosen to attend in the first round.</p>
<p>The acceptance numbers also depend upon the graduations in any particular year. I know that Curtis’ site used to say (maybe still does?) that is there were no openings in that year, application fee would be refunded…
A teacher may feel that his/her studio is full- and this can be for any school- so might accept fewer than in previous years or none at all. Some audition years are tougher than others, which could mean that a school takes more students, because the applicant pool was truly outstanding and/or top students may not be accepted where they normally would have expected to be.
For voice majors, it may also depend on the needs of the vocal/opera departments, as they may choose voices to suit their needs.
As you see, there is really no way to assign firm numbers to any of this, even for the school who does post something (because they accepted larger numbers for a couple of years, and then had to cut back because of space constraints!).</p>
<p>As others have pointed out, it is hard to figure out the acceptance rate at a school like Curtis since the school is small, the number of slots open is pretty small, and it is hard to really know how many audition on a given instrument/year. 5% as a cumulative average is probably as close as you are going to get (with Juilliard, the acceptance rate that has been bandied about is 7%, and they have a very high yield ratio, roughly 93% of those who are accepted end up going there, as a comparison). I would suspect that once accepted the rate of declining is relatively low and given that they now will have student housing, will probably go even lower:)</p>