<p>What are your experiences with auditioning and applying early decision as a performance major? (My instrument is horn). Do most music schools even offer early decision/ early action? I don't want to go to a conservatory for a myriad of reasons, and am therefore looking at academic schools with excellent music programs; my top choices are Rice, Northwestern and Oberlin. Unfortunately, I do not have the stellar academic record needed to get into these schools (3.7 unweighted GPA,1900 SAT). I understand that the audition is the main component of my admission, but I still wonder if early decision would help me get the extra academic push to get in to one of these schools. Of course, auditioning early would probably hinder my level of preparation. Thank you!!</p>
<p>I don’t know about the other schools, but this is what my D learend on her recent tour/lesson at Rice. They don’t accept music majors early decision. Everyone auditions beginning in January. The admissions people we met with, both at the Rice admissions and the Shepherd School of Music, said that unless your gpa is really bad (less than a 3.0)if the musci teacher wants you, you’re in. We must’ve asked 3 times for them to clarify, and they said that is the policy. Should anyone know differently, please post, because I still can’t believe it.</p>
<p>We were told the same by more than one school for sure.</p>
<p>My daughter was accepted by Oberlin Conservatory via the early review with academic stats reasonably similar to yours. If your audition is good enough, those stats will not be a problem for admission to the Conservatory. If you are interested in the double degree program and are afraid that you will not be accepted by Oberlin College, don’t sweat it. As long as you are accepted by the Conservatory, you can transfer into the double degree program fairly easily at the start of your second year and still be able to complete both degrees in five years.</p>
<p>There is no difference in the admission criteria for the early review at the Conservatory and it is non-binding. If you know you will not be as ready in December as you would a couple of months later, then you will actually have less of a chance of getting into the Conservatory by auditioning early. The benefits of auditioning early there are that it allows you to move one of your auditions out of the super busy January - March time frame and that, if accepted, you can possibly withdraw applications to safeties so that you can concentrate your efforts on your other top choices. It is also very nice to go into later auditions with an acceptance to Oberlin in your back pocket - it reduces the stress level quite a bit to know you already have one great choice.</p>
<p>The College has an Early Decision plan and it may be a little easier to get in that way, but those who are interested in the double degree program should probably avoid it. If you are accepted ED by the College and not accepted by the Conservatory, you would be obligated to attend the College (and they meet 100% of need with pretty generous aid packages, so it would be difficult to show that you were backing out because they did not offer you enough aid to attend) rather than to accept an offer from another music school. It would be better to keep your options open and plan on doing the internal transfer in the event you get into the Conservatory but not the College.</p>
<p>A clarification to my second paragraph above:</p>
<p>There is no difference in the academic admissions criteria at the Conservatory early review. The level of playing they are looking for at the early auditions may in fact be higher, because they know they will get plenty of applicants and do not want to be in the position of having to turn away strong candidates from later auditions because they accepted borderline applicants in the early round. Therefore, they are likely to make the fairly obvious choices in the early round and defer everyone else until they have a better idea of the overall level of all applicants.</p>
<p>You should check into Northwestern’s early decision program. I recall that they may not offer Early Decision for all programs. My son was deferred (later accepted) ED for the jazz program a couple of years ago, but was told deferral was a very new thing for NU. Not sure if, in other programs, it’s either acceptance or rejection ED. NU does take seriously the academic statistics–even for their conservatory, you must be accepted by NU AND the music program. Definitely look into their statistics in your particular program.</p>
<p>No early decision. Depending on instrument, there is preferred admission.</p>
<p>Can you elaborate on the "preferred admission’ or tell me where to get info on it? My D is very interested in Rice.</p>
<p>I do not know if anything has changed since 2007, but preferred admission definitely does not apply to flute. At that time, piano dept. did accept preferred admission.</p>
<p>What exactly is preferred admission?
Thanks for the input on Oberlin; definitely something to keep in mind. Flute 1298, it is hard (but not impossible) to believe that Rice would let someone with a 3.0 in. On the other hand, it’s also a bit hard to believe that the majority of performance majors could have the astronomical academic stats needed for Rice. Also, do you know if there is a way to see the academic admission numbers for the music school within a school? (e.g. the Bienan School of Music in Northwestern). Thanks!</p>