<p>She's going into senior year planning to major in vocal performance so the shopping is starting in earnest. Her likes/wants:</p>
<ul>
<li>Active opera program</li>
<li>Strong choral program</li>
<li>NOT in a large city</li>
<li>Not strictly a conservatory</li>
<li>In the East</li>
</ul>
<p>Her stats:</p>
<ul>
<li>Resident of Philly's PA suburbs</li>
<li>3.5 weighted GPA</li>
<li>560 verbal/530 math on her first SAT go around</li>
<li>Mezzo-Soprano</li>
<li>7 years of piano</li>
<li>6 years of private voice lessons</li>
<li>4 summer programs at Westminster</li>
<li>Regional finalist in Classical Singer Magazine H.S. Competition</li>
<li>Attended Washington Opera's Opera Institute for Young Singers</li>
</ul>
<p>Audition as early as possible at West Chester. They normally give you a decision on the day of the audition. If admitted, that takes a lot of pressure off the later auditions at the other schools. Also consider the early review at Oberlin - she will get a decision before the end of the year. If admitted there, she may very well be able to cancel auditions at a number of other schools and focus on other reaches and top matches. Auditioning at more than four or five places in the January to March time frame can be a real grind, even if the schools are not terribly far apart. It really helps to move some of them up into the October to December period where possible.</p>
<p>The list is pretty long, you may wish to at least one off the Reach list and at least two off the Match list.</p>
<p>Hartt has an early December audition, with a decision around the Yule as well.</p>
<p>May be too hectic doing the two BassDad suggested plus a third, but the idea of trying to spread them out makes alot of sense. And an offer "in hand"
does take a little pressure off.</p>
<p>I strongly suspect the list will get trimmed more and I'm really trying to encourage that. Getting to auditions ain't cheap anymore and we're looking at a pretty hefty bill for app fees. My sense from her is that both Duquesne (may not have a strong enough choral program) and West Chester (she sees it as a school that empties on weekends and it's too close to home) appear to be on the bubble at the moment.</p>
<p>To be honest, her decision to omit big-city schools has eliminated many great destinations, and may end up short handing her. Much of the schools on your list are second tier at best.</p>
<p>Also consider looking at College of Wooster. It's located in the Amish country of northern Ohio (I know, not the East!) and its campus is home to the Ohio Light Opera Company. Wooster is a high second-tier school according to US News/World, is one of the colleges written up very enthusiastically in Loren Pope's classic book "Colleges That Change Lives," and it is very generous with merit and/or need-based financial aid.</p>
<p>Eastman is pretty much a conservatory. Yes, you can take classes at UR and I think it is easier for voice majors to do so than instrumentalists, but it is essentially a conservatory environment. And Rochester is a good size city. If you are looking to eliminate a reach, she might want to take that one off.</p>
<p>My sibling, a pianist, chose James Madison over Berklee and Hartt. JMU is an excellent school to major in music. The faculty is OUTSTANDING in every way. JMU was recently declared an all Steinway school, quite an honor. The music school is a school within the university. You still get the total college campus experience. EVERYONE who goes to JMU loves it. It has a rep for being a fun and happy place. Please visit JMU. Have your daughter make contact with the profs, so that she can ask questions. </p>
<p>She did visit JMU in March and has had some correspondence with Don Rierson who runs the Opera and Musical Theater program there. It's one of her top choices right now.</p>
<p>Rutgers, particularly strong choral, some good voice teachers, excellent university academics, and the location is great for all things cultural.</p>
<p>I feel like you should have those reaches on there. You never know what will happen, and you don't want to look back and wonder what would have happened had you given it a shot. I say go for it. And since you know it's a reach, it's easier to accept rejection. And sure, 11 schools looks like a lot when paying for application fees, but in terms of work, it's not so bad...in retrospect. (Trust me, I applied to 11 schools also, and 8 of those required CDs on top of everything else). Then again, hindsight is 20/20. And some of the easier (safe) schools sometimes don't require so much work, which also makes it easier.</p>
<p>I think 11 schools for auditions is too many (and I am just the mother, not the auditioner! ;)!). It seems that a well thought out list, with visits and then input from private teacher and practice lessons, should make it relatively easy to whittle a list to about six schools.</p>
<p>Applying to music school is nothing like applying to regular colleges. Perhaps 11 or 12 schools isn't too many applications, but add auditions on top, plus pre-screening tapes? It really can make for a daunting year!</p>
<p>I remember we dropped certain safe schools as we moved along through the audition process and realized they were the ones that were not actually schools he would have chosen over the one early decision school he got into in December. I feel like it's a good idea to assemble all the applications and, like Rachel says, much of the work for preparing auditions can easily overlap from school to school. Then, if you are faced with a bunch of auditions in February that seem overwhelming, you might see that one or more can be cancelled by then.</p>
<p>For some reason, my son's prescreens and applications had very little overlap! He also had to write different essays for all of his schools. Again, this may not be other people's experience, and it depends entirely on the schools I am sure. </p>
<p>Also, we drove 1000 miles to three auditions within one week in February. I cannot imagine having had to turn around and do that again another week. My son has a friend who did 12 auditions---I thought his mother would be hospitalized for exhaustion by the end of the process.</p>
<p>But everyone has different stamina, so these are personal choices. I just think a good and careful list can make the process more manageable.</p>
<p>I'm not sure if you have visited Shenandoah but the sense from some former students and current singers is that they are putting their eggs in the musical theater basket, much to the detriment of the classical singers. I think the opportunities for classical singers have suffered as of late.</p>
<p>Yes, I was accepted to shenandoah for music ed/ flute and that was one of the reasons I crossed it off my final list of choices. Its current focus is on Musical Theater definitely. I heard some very strong classical singers that were already students at an audition day concert, but the amount of musical theater applicants was enormous!</p>