<p>I am a parent who is confused! Imagine that! Seems like I read at one university site (honestly, I can't even remember which one) that EA/ED is not an option for music majors b/c of the audition process. My understanding is that one must be accepted to a university first and <em>then</em> go through the audition process. Is this correct? However, it also seems like academic/merit-based scholarships are more favorable if one goes EA/ED? So how are these things reconciled? Does this mean it is harder for music majors to get these types of scholarships?</p>
<p>There are schools with EA and rolling admissions. And there are some that are RD only. We did not come across any ED schools for music though. It is not a bad idea to have a rolling admissions school early in your auditions so that you have some feedback. DD had her safety school in rolling admissions. One of her top choices was too but she auditioned there later in the season. For her safety, even though the music acceptance came early, the academic scholarships came through first and the music ones later.</p>
<p>Bard does have an early audition date, sort of an EA (the decision comes early; it’s not binding.) IU Jacobs (and probably some other large university/state schools) has rolling music admissions (in addition to the required rolling university admissions, but not until after its first set of auditions. Still, you can be admitted to Jacobs School of Music after its first audition weekend but before all of the auditions weekends have taken place. I hope this makes sense. As for music scholarships, as Singersmom07 says, they come later. So for example, you might be admitted to Bard during its fall auditions but won’t find out your scholarship until spring.</p>
<p>Oberlin has what they call Early Review for Conservatory applicants. The paperwork is due pretty early, auditions are held the first weekend of December and an admit/defer/reject decision is rendered in about two to three weeks. Those accepted have until May 1 to reply, with no obligation to attend. They usually get preliminary scholarship numbers with their acceptance letter. The need-based aid numbers may arrive later if they do not have the FAFSA, Profile and any other required forms by then. Those deferred go into the regular admissions pool and get their decision with everyone else in late March. The downside is that you have two months less time to prepare your audition than those in the RA pool.</p>
<p>Music schools are all over the lot in admissions procedures. At some, you have to be accepted by the music department before being considered for admission by the school, at others you have to be accepted academically before being allowed to audition. At others still, the processes go on in parallel and the applicant gets a single accept/reject decision.</p>
<p>It is usually not a good idea as an intended music major to apply ED where, if accepted, you are obliged to attend. If you are accepted academically but not as a music major, then you are in a difficult position.</p>
<p>All three schools my D auditioned at had an audition date in Nov or early Dec to accommodate the EA applicants. She applied to her safety school EA, but was not prepared to audition that early. So she applied to the school as “undeclared”, and was admitted EA. Later, after her audition and acceptance to the music department, her major was automatically changed to Music Ed. </p>
<p>If you call the music department they will help you navigate through the process at their particular school. My experience has been that each school handles the application, audition, acceptance, scholarship process different, and they are very used to getting calls from parents and students asking for guidance.</p>
<p>Northwestern has an ED option for music majors with a special audition date, I believe. Although they have fairly high academic standards even at the music school, admission is contingent upon both music and the academics as a whole, and the only admissions decision you would get would come from the school of music. In other words, you could never be “accepted academically but rejected musically” - it’s all or nothing.</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, Boston University has a similar policy, with a special ED audition date.</p>
<p>I appreciate your responses and learning that it is going to be on a case-by-case basis depending on the school.</p>
<p>My ds has an interest in music production/engineering, etc. Many names for that path depending on the school. It was the University of Miami’s website where I was looking. They state that they do not do rolling admissions or EA for music folks. However, on a thread at the University of Miami forum (sorry, I am a techno-idiot and do not know how to link it - it’s entitled “Qualifications for Different Scholarships”) the consensus seems to be that there is a greater chance of receiving larger scholarship moneys if one applies EA. If this is true, then that is a great disadvantage since Miami is so expensive. It’s music engineering program looks amazing, but $50,000 a year is pricey, and it is discouraging to think that one is disadvantaged in obtaining scholarship $ if not applying EA if one is not even allowed to do so.</p>
<p>Ithaca has rolling admissions and an early audition date, and Hartt also has an early audition date where they notify candidates by the end of December.</p>
<p>Some schols do have an ED/EA option, like Bard/Oberlin/Hartt, but keep in mind, for many instruments with smaller studios (winds especially) unless you are truly outstanding, the result is almost always “deferred” to the regular pool.</p>
<p>Auditioning early does have the benefit of getting the “first” one over with and it makes the scheduling for the rest easier.</p>
<p>Hoggirl, if you have the concern with University of Miami I would suggest contacting the music school there and talking to them. I have found most music school admissions offices very accomodating. This is so school dependent and I am sure if there is a process to manage the scholarship issues they would know. Don’t count on these forums to know those specific answers.</p>
<p>Since your DS is interested in music engineering, I’ll add that Berklee has EA as well. There are early audition dates in November and December. As part of the EA decision comes talent scholarships and from that respect there does not appear to be an advantage or disadvantage to applying EA.</p>
<p>Hogggirl – ^Likewise, if your son is interested in University of Michigan’s performing arts/sound engineering stream, here’s a breakdown on how that works: Academic “clearance” required for SOM, different from needing to be accepted to UMich overall – both admissions committees (from LSA or COE AND the school of music) review app in tandem – if only applying to SOM, then will only hear from SOM as lead contact. If applying to two different schools of UMich (eg. Engineering and Music) you will hear from two SEPARATE decision committees.</p>
<p>a) If auditioning, you can ask for the earliest admission date on SOM application…but like other schools, you can still be deferred/or not end up with a late March decision. Now and again, you can hear early and quickly ;)</p>
<p>b) If submitting portfolio, you will have to wait for the scheduled interviews that they grant (to some) subsequent to a (favorable) portfolio reivew that typically start in January. Admission at that point CAN be “rolling” and you can hear anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months later. There are 4 spots for the engineering stream (usually) so it depends on yield. Waitlists are often used to manage.</p>
<p>c) If there’s interest in a dual degree (eg. EECS eng plus recording ENG), for Mich it is increasingly vital to apply EA to other schools (eg. LSA, COE (Engineering)) since their applicant pool increased 25% by going common app. and the award money really does seem to go to the earlier applicants. You can receive a decision of admit, deferred or denied by Dec. 24. If deferred, you may have to wait for April 15 to hear.</p>
<p>Hope that helps! Cheers ;)</p>
<p>PS No such thing as a dumb question! That’s the whole point of cc – to share!</p>
<p>S applied to Univ of Hartford/Hartt for their Acoustical Engineering & Music program, under their “Early Notification” program (like EA).</p>
<p>Application submitted by November 15. They made a decision on his academic application before allowing him to schedule an audition. The audition was in Early December, and he heard back right around Christmastime.</p>
<p>Just to clarify, the Boston University Early Decision audition date is not all or nothing for music applicants. If you apply to their dual degree program and are accepted academically but not musically or vice versa, they automatically defer you to the regular decision pool and then admit you only to the school for which you were accepted.</p>
<p>Hoggirl, My S was accepted to the Music Engineering program at Frost for next year. He was offered a $24,000 academic scholarship and a very generous FA package, even though he applied RD. Just FYI, each year they aim for a class of around 15 students. The day my S auditioned (one of several), there were at least 40 kids at the Music Engineering info session. It seems like a great program. The students also have the opportunity to make extra money by getting certified and using the studio for recording sessions.</p>