<p>I'm just wondering what the people who got into all these really good conservatories did in High School, flute players would be good, or friends of flute players. What was your class rank and sat scores etc etc... what was in your repertoire?</p>
<p>There is a flute player in our area who is going to the Shepard School of Music at Rice. He is a NM finalist, in the top 2% of his class and either has a 4.0 or is very close. I don't know his exact test scores but I am sure they are quite high. As far as repertoire goes, I don't know what he auditioned with, but he won a major symphony concerto competition with a movement of the Ibert concerto.</p>
<p>For most of the major conservatories, grades and test scores are not that important. They are going to be much more focused on your audition. As you know, flute is highly competitive. The more difficult repertoire you can perform WELL, the better off you will be. The key thing here is that the you must be very comfortable with your audition rep and be able to play it extremely well regardless of the pieces you choose. </p>
<p>Schools such as Rice and Northwestern will require you to be admitted to the university as well as the music school. In these schools, grades and test scores become more important although the academic standards for music school applicants are not quite as rigid as they are for non-music students. You will still need good grade and scores for schools like that. </p>
<p>Most of the students of any instrument that get accepted to high level conservatories spend 2-3 hours a day practicing, participate in youth, university or community orchestras, and enter several competitions every year. (Even if you don't think you have a chance of winning competitions help you prepare for high stakes auditions.) Many choose to do home schooling, attend performing arts high schools or arrange to do some sort of modified scheduling at their regular high school so that they can focus on practicing.</p>
<p>I also recall that most of the conservatory applications had a question regarding summer music activities. Attendance at camps, music festivals, master classes, workshops, etc., appears to be expected.</p>
<p>Listen. Don't worry about your grades and SAT scores. Summer programs are nice if you want to meet teachers from music schools. But none of this is particularly important when applying to music conservatories.</p>
<p>Just practice. If you are very talented and give a great audition, you will get into a conservatory. If your GPA is over 3.0, you can get into any university's music school.</p>
<p>D had a slight inclination to apply to Northwestern for music, but she didn't have 4 years of math, although the rest of the pedigree was "quite good," top 10% of class, 4.1 GPA, very good ACTs. NW admissions said "No good, must have 4 years of math," so we didn't apply. Probably could have pressed the issue harder, but since it was just an "inclincation," we didn't take it any further. </p>
<p>Straight conservatory - if you can read, write and make yourself understood in English, the rest is essentially the audition. Since this was D's intended track, we backed off the hard courses during Junior and Senior years in HS to allow for time for practice.</p>
<p>pcannon that is true for the stand alone conservatories but not true for schools like Rice, Oberlin, FSU, NW and even Indiana which are all considered Conservatory level programs when it comes to flute. You may get the music school trying to help you in, but I have known awesome players that passed their audition only to be rejected by the University. At the stand alones like Julliard grades, test scores and summer programs are almost irrelevant its all audition.</p>
<p>However most of the kids I know that make those programs are top students with tons of extra experience in YO and top summer programs like Oberlin Flute institute, Wildacres Retreat, Tanglewood, Brevard, Sarasota Music Festival, etc.</p>
<p>Many as has been said attended one of the music prep schools and that seems to give them an edge.</p>
<p>As far as difficulty of your audition piece, it does not have to be the most difficult but certainly has to be fairly difficult. Most Professors we have spoken with are looking for talent more so than finished product. They would rather see that you have great tone and sense of musicality on a medium hard piece, than just get by playing the most difficult piece you could find. Two things they said was better to play an easier piece great than a more difficult one mediocre. Another thing they said, teaching technique is easy, teaching musicality is more difficult. </p>
<p>The pieces from the French Conservatory book are good example of the level a flute player needs to be able to impressive with. Difficult, but not outrageously so. </p>
<p>The summer programs, YO, and state honors bands do not mean that much on a resume. However they do give you a pretty good sense of what level a program you should be auditioning for.</p>
<p>IZ? There are HS that let you graduate without 4 years of math and English? Thought those were minimums everywhere.</p>
<p>Our high school only requires two years of math, I believe, or possibly three. It does require four years of English.</p>
<p>Susantm is it a 3 yr or 4 yr HS?</p>
<p>Can not imagine 2 years of math getting you a diploma, even in Alabama which is I believe the state with the lowest standards. I know part of the current leave no child behind and other excellence in education programs 4yrs math, English and SS/History and 3 years Science and Foreign language. Those are pretty much the numbers I see at most Colleges we have looked at. Obviously the Conservatories dont usually care about any of that. Did see some program the other day that you needed some German and some French to attend but not sure what that was.</p>
<p>Given the thread's name, I thought they were only asking about conservatories. Real conservatories have very low academic standards.</p>
<p>I got into Rice, Boston University, and Indiana University with a GPA of 3.3 and decent, but not amazing, SATs. If a professor wants a student, the school will usually allow it unless the transcript has major holes.</p>
<p>The admissions officer from Indiana suggested I keep my GPA above 3.0 to get admitted. Rice said that it is extremely rare that they will disqualify a music student if a professor wants to accept them.</p>
<p>It can depend on how badly they need a certain instrument. Also 3.3 isnt exactly bad if strong course load was carried.</p>
<p>However, when it comes to flute the competition is so much tougher you are not as likely to have a professor go to admissions and say they have to have so and so because they need to fill out the orchestra.</p>
<p>Maybe your audition was just exceptional. But plenty of kids have not gotten into the schools I mentioned dispite the Music department being willing to accept them. Where Julliard, Curtis NEC, etc you might get in without a HS diploma.</p>
<p>Back to high school requirements... it is a four year high school. I found the requirements booklet from last year, and it is 2 years of math that are required for a diploma, along with 4 years of English, 2 of science, 1 of foreign language, 3 of social studies, etc.</p>
<p>Obviously, college-bound kids would usually take more than the minimum requirements. But a large number of kids at this high school do not go on to higher education or go on to the local community college.</p>
<p>My daughter said that Rice definitely lowers the academic requirements for admission for music applicants. HOWEVER, she said the kids really struggle in some of the classes- like the required foreign language classes. You are in class with kids who have incredible academic stats. This is something to consider. My daughter chose Rice in part BECAUSE of the strong academics along with the incredible vocal performance program.</p>
<p>The acceptance criteria varies wildly at university programs for music. Some require passing the audition first before they will even look at your acceptance. Others require acceptance academically first, and then they schedule your audition. At some places the music folks can "lean" on admissions to accept a student who is borderline academically. At other places you must meet the academic standards to be admitted. DS, for example, is a senior at Boston University who did not take precalculus. Instead he took statistics, and economics, both much more useful to a music major. His guidance counselor had to write a letter that explained why he hadn't taken precalculus. Other than that, he met the standards for admittance (he had a 720 verbal SAT which we think was his "ace in the hole"). However, his resume musically included many of the above mentioned activities (two summers at Tanglewood, competitions, honors chamber music groups, precollege ensembles at the Hartt School, etc). Now....straight conservatories use the audition as THE criteria for acceptance...period. I seem to recall that when DS auditioned at NEC, their "cutoff" combined SAT was 900. They did, however, require a writing sample...a graded paper.</p>
<p>D took math through Trig and Stats, which is basically 4 years (Algebra I & II and Geometry, as well), but since Algebra I was Middle School, she only attended math classes 3 years in HS, at least per the Northwestern definition, which wants kids to attend math classes all 4 years and based on the caliber of students they take means at least precalculus if not calculus itself...</p>
<p>Also, things like YO, summer programs and even prep schools are also "relative," since the quality and repetoire can vary extensively The bottom line is to have enough experience with top-notch ensembles, conductors and teachers that you're ready and comfortable with audition. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, it all comes down to the 10 - 15 minutes of the audition. So take the time to best prepare for that, including at least one visit and lesson with the conservatory teacher(s) you hope to study with.</p>
<p>Foreign language is required for voice students at Rice. Not a surprising requirement, given that 90% of the major literature is going to be in another language.</p>
<p>Speaking of academic requirements in top universities with music majors, what is the cutoff for those schools (such as Rice, Northwestern)?</p>
<p>Here are some real-time data...</p>
<p>2006 Data for Northwestern from our HS:</p>
<p>Average ACT of accepted students - 33 or 1505 combined SAT on 1600 scale...</p>
<p>Average GPA of accpepted students - 4.34 on a 4.0 scale with honors courses bumped 0.5 (A = 4.5) and AP courses bumped 1.0 (A = 5.0)</p>
<p>No Music Majors this year, but last year some accepted, including a flute, and their academics were in line with stats above. Flute eventually went to Oberlin...</p>
<p>This is a very helpful thread as I help my son make choices about how to spend his summer. He just got back his SATs which were 650 and 620. We think he could do better (one is down 80 from the PSAT's) but think they are probably OK. He visited U Michigan and Oberlin Conservatory and was told he's very competitive musically. U Mich School of Music website cites minimums of 1100 SAT and 3.0 GPA (he is probably 3.4 uw). What do you think...should he do practice SATs and re-take in the fall or focus on preparing for auditions? He will also apply to some conservatories (Eastman and NEC) and possibly U Miami.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Ooppss. Just realized the data reported above was for 2005 and 2006. The GPAs are weighted, in case you hadn't recognized that.</p>
<p>Overall 47 from our HS applied in the last two years and 20 of them were accepted. Only 4 ended up enrolling. </p>
<p>Once again, these are TOTAL NW stats, not just the Music Majors, but you have to get accepted to the university to get into the Music program.</p>