<p>Some points I see right off the bat:</p>
<p>-Have you evaluated what you are playing right now with what typical audition requirements for the various schools are? Most schools have the audition requirements on their website, and it is important to look at that. If, for example, they required contrasting movements of one of the Bach solo suites (hypothetically, I don’t know the Cello), and you have never really worked on them, or one at a level typical on an audition, it could be a red flag. </p>
<p>At this point you should be thinking of what your audition repertoire is going to be, or at least in the fall, conventional wisdom is that you should have your rep pretty well in hand by spring of junior year. That doesn’t mean it is set in stone, you might have a piece you want to change, but it should be well advanced by spring (though kids do switch, my S switched from the concerto he had been working on to another in the late summer, after figuring out the other piece wasn’t him musically). </p>
<p>Among other things, this gives you an idea if you are in the ballpark for the kind of programs you at this point seem to have an idea you would like to apply to.</p>
<p>-Talk with your teacher and see what they think. It is good you went to a summer program/festival, you have seen kids from all over hopefully, and have worked with teachers and coaches and such, and have experienced a taste of what it is to work in music…but also be careful of the ‘summer festival high’, they can be really enervating, and motivating, but they also can set false expectations, too, and that festival may or may not represent the level of reality out there in terms of music, there are tons of summer music festivals ranging from a fun camp to the music equivalent of Navy SEALS training. </p>
<p>-It is important to be absolutely brutally honest about where you are musically, because that in turn will decide what to do in the future. If you are not sure if your teacher may know what is expected out there, try and get an outside evaluation from a teacher who either teachers at a college level program of some reputation or someone who as a teacher has gotten kids into good music schools. Not all teachers are equal, there are a lot of well meaning teachers out there who haven’t kept up, and might not realize what the reality is out there. You may find out that you are not playing at as high a level as you thought, you might find out you are doing well but have some rough edges, you might find out you are on track (which means from now until auditions are done, you only have to half kill yourself, instead of 90%, getting ready <em>smile</em>). </p>
<p>-Start doing research on teachers, maybe through your own teacher if he knows, maybe through fellow cellists you met at the summer program, maybe by reading around what others say on online forums (though all of those, of course, are personal, objective rating of teachers is hard, because so much of it is subjective, one person’s dream teacher is another person’s “no way”…).You will hear many people say that teacher is extremely important, and it is, it has to be one of the heaviest weights there. A teacher you don’t work well with at great school X may be worth a lot less then a teacher at another school you do work with well. </p>
<p>People will tell you things like ‘go to school X (Juilliard, NEC, Curtis, CIM, etc, etc)’, that is the best music school…and nod and smile and say thank you, and ignore it. If someone tells you “hey, you are on cello, I hear that they have X, Y and Z on the faculty, and are great cello teachers” it is different, that is a specific to you, but the whole ‘great music school’ based on “rankings” is quite frankly meaningless. For example, let’s say you are good enough to get into Curtis, you may find you don’t like the cello teacher you get into or the atmosphere there. </p>
<p>I highly recommend looking for teachers first (many teach at multiple schools) and work from there. The one grain of truth is usually the top level programs have more teachers on faculty, and chances are they will have several teachers whom have done well with their students, and more importantly, you could work with. Not everyone on faculty at Juilliard for example is a great teacher, or more importantly, would be a great teacher for you, same for every one of the other ‘top’ music programs, it is the reality. By doing this, you will help shape out a picture of schools to apply to. </p>
<p>I think once you have an idea of potential teachers, then you can start looking at LAC versus conservatory, city versus rural, whatever.
That school with the cool campus, that school in a cool area of a city, may not have a teacher that would be good for you or a particularly good music program in general, music performance is not like academics, it is an apprenticeship, whereas with academics learning differential calc or data structures in CS doesn’t vary much from school to school. Decide the teachers that might be of interest, then work from there</p>
<p>-If you do go look at schools, I highly recommend trying to get sample lessons from teachers, it is huge. While kids often don’t do this and do just fine, I think it is really, really important, because this is the person you will be studying with, potentially for all 4 years (not ironclad, in many programs you can transfer, but it could be that teacher X is the only one who might be good for you in terms of teaching level). The teaching is a one on one thing, and very, very individualized both ways. There have been threads on sample lessons on here worth searching for, but if you do these, you will see the teacher’s style, you wil see how inciteful they are about your playing, and see what you feel about them. </p>
<p>The second part is more controversial, but it also can help you with admissions. The admissions process isn’t as cut and dried as some say, there are a variety of factors involved, and one of which is if a teacher at the school has seen you, and liked you, it can help get you admitted, it could IMO help you if you were off in the audition because of nerves or whatever, he/she might be able to say “I know this kid, that was a bad day”…and yes, I know of this happening, been told this by teachers and by kids who got into programs whose teachers told them that. The other thing, of course, is you might play like Cassals, but if no teacher has room or wants you in their studio, you won’t get in, and doing sample lessons, like seeing them at summer programs, will help make this happen easier. Some teachers will even fight for a student they liked, it goes on. I also encourage you if there is a particular teacher you seem to like, see if they are teaching at a summer program and try to study with them, it can help, too.</p>
<p>-Other than sample lessons as noted above, and seeing if you like the school as whole, its campus, facilities, etc, visiting or not visiting is unlikely to affect the admissions process, it isn’t like they keep a checklist and say “oh, yeah, Jane Doe visited and showed interest in the program, let her in”, music admissions don’t work like that, because of the nature of it being about the audition and a teacher’s interest in you. </p>
<p>I would make the teacher the priority, and then if all things seem to be equal with teachers, then let factors like campus, school life and so forth influence you. Don’t audition at a rural school with otherwise great teachers if living there would make you miserable, but likewise don’t choose a school because they have a shiny new auditorium and state of the art practice rooms if you aren’t thrilled with the teachers, but if school A interests you more than school B and you liked the teachers in both places, then A if you get it might be better:). </p>
<p>One other note, if you do an evaluation and still want to do music, but don’t feel like you would be ready by spring of senior year, you always have the option of doing a gap year, and working the whole year on technique, and apply the next year, many students do that.</p>
<p>I highly encourage you to look at the threads on here, some of the pinned ones are great, plus there are threads if you search for ‘sample lessons’, ‘audition process’ ‘how to choose a school’, ‘rankings’ and so forth, might answer your questions, too. As always, filter what people say through your own experience and bs filters, all of this is opinion, with varying levels of knowledge and experience, and that includes myself:)</p>