<p>I am wondering how much weight being in band throughout high school has versus talent such as compositions.</p>
<p>Glassharmonica, fwiw, I wouldn’t rule out NU given the quality of that specific program and the School of communications overall plus the working-world cache of the Purple People 
Even if it seems like a long shot, those stats are certainly in the ballpark and I know kids who’ve made it with same. This year for many schools represented a real bump in applicants and very tough admits. It’s also hard to determine the “intrinsic” value of a grade from a particular school or state in a comparative context. Eg. if your HS is known for grade inflation to the adcom and the historical performance of kids from same, then longshot. But for all you know, your HS could have a good rep for rigor with the adcoms, and there may be a good historical performance trend. Those kinds of variables get factored in against all the other more transient variables (like the specific applicant pool in a given year and even the class rank in a given year) to result in really different outcomes for kids with equivalent stats.</p>
<p>Just my .02. Don’t have a dog in the theatre BFA race but do have a degree of familiarity with the industry.</p>
<p>kmcmom13, NU comes highly recommended-- one of my daughter’s private drama coaches went there, but we have not visited the school. D goes to a cyber charter school that I’m sure has no track record at all at NU-- it is not a fancy high school and the do not sent kids to Ivies, etc. I would bet that no one from her school has even applied there. We live in a big East coast city so geography is not on our side, and she’s not a minority. Maybe she should throw her hat in the ring after all and see what happens.</p>
<p>^Do not take the private coach’s connection lightly, NU’s a loyal bunch. I suspect his/her recommendation will carry weight. In your shoes, I’d take the shot!</p>
<p>austinmom1: For acceptance to a music performance or composition program, being in high school band will have very little (if any) weight. The audition is crucial for acceptance to a performance program; the school won’t particularly care how many years you have or have not been in band as long as you can play. For admission to a composition program, one’s composition portfolio is crucial.</p>
<p>Thanks kmcmom13!</p>
<p>Depends on the school. Are you talking about a conservatory, private college, or state school, and what are their admission requirements? </p>
<p>For example, I’m at Penn State, and I don’t think you can even audition until you’re approved academically. </p>
<p>I also looked into applying to Ithaca, and there, music auditions are more rigorous than at Penn State. They have an interesting process: their academic application and music audition are independent of each other. You can be accepted academically, and not pass the audition. Or you can pass the audition, but not be accepted academically. </p>
<p>Ultimately, having a good audition is key anywhere you go. But for some schools, academics are more important than others. I got my Penn State acceptance within a week of my music audition and my parents suspected it was because of my good GPA and SAT scores.</p>
<p>My son got into a college that he would have absolutely not gotton into just based on grades or test scores. His test scores were probably in the bottom 1% (with many of the athletes) and his grades were probably in the bottom 5% or so. I know for a fact that they turned down many students who had much test scores and grades. the average unweighted gpa at that schools is something like 3.9, and something like 90% of the students graduated in the top 5% of their class, my son had a 3.3 and ranked 120th out of 500.</p>
<p>At another school he applied at, we knew that his grades and test scores were going to be very marginal, and several of his peers who had similar grades and test scores were waitlisted and eventually only accepted for the second semester. He recieved a “heads up” email from the music department at that school who said that they “got your admission issue taken care of”. Of course we weren’t aware that there was an admission issue, but sure enough, a week later he got an acceptance letter. I can only assume that they probably had wait listed him and the music department got that changed to an immediate acceptance. I saw several posts by other applicants to the same school who said that they were not accepted, yet they had much better test scores and GPA/class rank than my son. By the way, this is a major state university that I had previously been told that the only thing that mattered for acceptance was academics.</p>
<p>In either situation, it is possible that some of the politiking I did may have helped out. My son was able to get glowing recomendation letters from his high school band director and both of his private instructors (piano and trumpet). He also attended the music camp at one of the schools and made himself very known to the staff there, and was principle trumpet. His HS band director had contacts at both colleges as he graduated from one and gets student teachers from the other, so he may have also put in a good word - he better have since my wife is the booster club prez. We also got a professor from a branch campus of one of the colleges (that I just happen to know) to right a recommendation letter.</p>
<p>In music, making yourself known, or having a reputation is exceptionally important, but it’s probably the same way in most fields. My son actually had an offer to play keyboard with an independant drumline - last years world champion indoor drumline, just based on a referal from one of the members. The director of that group emailed my son an asked him if he happened to be “the trumpet player” at XXX high school, my son was able to honestly answer “yes”. He was offered the position without an audition. What’s odd is that the position was for a keyboard player and not a trumpet player (although my son plays piano also). Several people remarked on facebook “just how big of a horn line do indoor percussion ensembles have now”.</p>
<p>There is a kid from a town about an hour and a half away, he’s also a trumpet player, but he has a reputation for being the best high school musician in the universe. I am sure that he would have been accepted to most any college he applied at, maybe without even an in person audition.</p>
<p>So ya, if you are a great musician, don’t feel out of place auditioning at a school with higher academic standards than you have academic qualifications. Worst that can happen is they will tell you “no”, but if you are good enough, you may still get in.</p>
<p>Thanks imagep. I never saw your post in April, but I was re-reading this thread and really appreciate your perspective. I know we are worried her academics aren’t top notch, but I know she has great audition material to come at them this year! I hope it works!!</p>
<p>My kids in the same boat. Wish you and yours all the best as I feel your angst. If I hear or find anything promising along the way I be sure to share it .</p>
<p>Sent from my ADR6300 using CC App</p>
<p>While talent may well push a student over the edge for an acceptance, grades will often bring the $$$. My son was initially accepted as a Music major @ Boyer, but his academic grades pushed him into the Honors program and won him close to a free ride. He’s maintained his grades there, and gained acceptance to the Comp program in his 2nd semester. But without those grades… he wouldn’t have gotten the money that he did.</p>
<p>mtiger1 - That is exactly what I was thinking. That talent may win my D some money, but good grades/test scores will add to that. We have been working hard to pull a high ACT test next month. Hopefully, that will help her get more scholarship money!</p>
<p>Grades are often looked at when deciding between two relatively equal candidates. If the program includes academics they schools want to ensure that they accept students who are going to be able to handle their studies as well as the applied music courses.
Grades and test scores helped my D pull in substantial monetary awards, so I don’t think you can overlook their importance. Anything which can help bring down the cost of tuition is worth it!</p>
<p>It all depends on the school, I have yet to hear or see anything that makes me think stellar grades or less then stellar grades do anything at stand alone conservatories, whether it is admissions or financial aid, and have been told outright by some admissions people.</p>
<p>And yes, at music schools within universities like Rice and UMich and Northwestern, etc, etc, academics are important, both in admissions and also potentially in merit aid. I know of a few cases where a student got into those programs with academics not as strong, but they were exceptional level students who also got into top conservatories and I don’t think they represent the norm of students going into music programs (they also reputedly got really good merit awards, not surprisingly). Based on that, it is probably wise for a music student to maintain high grades and test scores if they think they will be going to programs within a university, it certainly isn’t going to hurt them.</p>
<p>Just a quick update. My daughter took the ACT test in September, and received an excellent score, so I breathed a great sigh of releif. She has since been offered a merit scholarship from her first-choice school of over half the tuition and is up for their highest talent scholarship, which can be a full ride! Her grades are still not that great, but all other factors, ie ACT, audition, extra-curricular activities and awards she has received, all combined to give us an excellent result! Thanks for your interest in our situation!</p>