<p>My daughter is a viola player entering her senior year in the fall. She is interested in Rice for performance, but has friends (and friends of friends) who were TOP students and did not get in. These kids were not music majors.</p>
<p>My daughter is a strong student: 4.4 weighted GPA, 2000 SAT, top 5%. I'm not sure if this enough to get accepted. Some, but not tons, of AP.</p>
<p>Most of her other school choices are conservatories.</p>
<p>I think it's MomofWildChild who has a daughter at Rice - you might want to PM her. However, I'm pretty sure that for music majors at Rice, grades and stats are much less important, and your D's are well within any "cut off" they might have. The Shepherd School is very much like a conservatory, and at least for horn, the teacher has much (or even total) control over who gets in. So a good audition will not only help - it is mandatory.</p>
<p>I believe that Rice requires SAT IIs. They did when my S was looking at schools a few years ago - which is why he eliminated Rice. They were the only ones on his list that asked for SAT IIs, and he didn't want to go through another testing just for one school. It looked like a great school, and I was sorry to see it go off his list.</p>
<p>We have Rice on our short list too and were told you have to qualify academically and audition into the music school unlike some places where you only have to win the audition.</p>
<p>However, I would guess your daughters are good enough to get in academically, especially if she has good audition.</p>
<p>I was told by an admissions guy at Rice that music majors would have to meet the same academic standards as everyone else...might want to take that with a grain of salt, I'm not sure how closely he actually worked with the music school. Perhaps pcannon could shed some light?</p>
<p>I will be attending Rice this fall for double bass performance.</p>
<p>Grades barely matter at Shepherd. Your kid's transcript is much better than mine was, so that won't come into play unless she wants to double major. The only thing your daughter needs to get in at this point is contingent on giving one of the top 2 or 3 auditions among perhaps 30 or 40 applicants. Rice is considered a top-tier music school, comparable to Curtis and Juilliard.</p>
<p>A word to the wise, however: grades WILL matter at Rice if you have a really awful transcript. While admissions tries very hard to accommodate Shepherd, they will not accept students who do not meet basic requirements or whose transcripts show that they would not be successful in taking the many academic classes Rice requires all students to take.</p>
<p>Practice, practice, practice....and then play a flawless audition. That will help you get into the Shepherd School. A strong transcript without an outstanding audition will not help you at all at Rice if you want to major in music.</p>
<p>I think flawless is a bit too high of a goal for a college audition. Personally, I found that one of the most beneficial realizations on my part over the past year was that no one - myself included - was going to play a flawless audition, on any instrument, for any college.</p>
<p>I'm not saying that one shouldn't strive for perfection...but striving for it and expecting it in an audition setting are two vastly different things.</p>
<p>If you aim for flawless, you'll have a chance at playing a very very good audition. DS was told that he should have his audition piece memorized (even though he could use the music). This is one piece you want to know inside and out. You should not go into an audition thinking it's ok to make a few mistakes (because everyone else does)...not the right approach, in my opinion.</p>
<p>I absolutely agree that one should aim for flawlessness, especially when preparing for something as important as college auditions. I also completely agree that one should have prepared to the point that all the audition pieces are memorized - please don't mistake my "mistakes are OK" philosophy as being an excuse for lazy preparation, which it definitely isn't. In my own life, though, I have found it counterproductive to refuse to accept my own mistakes in a live performance setting - if I don't accept them, I dwell on them and end up making a dozen more. By accepting that it's OK to make mistakes, I allow myself to move on and play the majority of the piece as well as I think I should. Each to his own...</p>
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<p>I allow myself to move on and play the majority of the piece as well as I think I should.>></p>
</blockquote>
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<p>That is excellent audition advice as well. One should be able to go on and play the piece even IF there is a mistake. </p>
<p>I don't think we are disagreeing. My point is that to get accepted into the Shepherd School, a musician should be playing very very well...and with good preparation, etc. While the transcript is nice, it is not the deciding item for acceptance into conservatory type programs, which the Shepherd school is.</p>
<p>I didn't think music was acceptable for auditions. DS has played concerts without music for years, because it is expected that players will have their pieces memorized. </p>
<p>However, when I look at the audition repertoire, it is a daunting prospect to think of getting all that memorized, since there are numerous pieces, with several movements each. Are there really people who use music? I would suspect that was so frowned upon, as it seems to be, even for a high school student.</p>
<p>I would tend to disagree. Memorization is only important if it frees you to play the music better, it wont get you any points and it doesn't make all players peform better, it hurts many.</p>
<p>Second mistakes or attempts at perfection are negatives in my opinion. Making a mistake will not prevent you from winning an audition to Rice or anywhere else. Most professors we have spoken with are looking for talent, musicality, quality sound. Fixing mistakes is easy, teaching a player to sound great near impossible.</p>
<p>It gets down to personal psychology. If trying for perfection makes you better, go for it. If it makes you fall apart when you make that first mistake, forgot about trying for perfection. </p>
<p>Most music schools your academic record is on a sliding scale from no importance at all at places like Julliard to of some importance at schools like Rice.</p>
<p>thumper1 - I agree, I think it was a question of terminology</p>
<p>Allmusic - Memorization is only required when explicitly stated - for me, out of CIM, Juilliard, Oberlin, and Curtis, only Curtis required that a portion of the program be memorized.</p>
<p>Curtis was my only audition that required memorization, as well. However, memorization is an important skill that every musician needs to have, and showing that at an audition is very impressive. While not required, many professors will not see using music as a positive.</p>
<p>I also agree that memorizing your audition music will be a plus. Son memorized all of his accept for his sonata which is always played with music on his instrument. He feels he plays better when his music is memorized.</p>
<p>I would have to concur with another poster who said that in order to be accepted into the Shepherd School, you would also have to meet the academic standards as well (one of the professors specifically stated that). In consultations, I spoke with the dean of admissions, who echoed the academic standards point as well.</p>
<p>I was admitted as an Economics major (I know, completely out of realm with music), but had contacted a faculty member of the music department, who said that I would be an appropriate candidate academically and musically for a double degree program. Had I chosen Rice, I would have pursued that path. </p>
<p>For the original poster, as with all college admissions in general, there are many variable factors involved in the decision making progress. All the time, people with lower stats are selected over people with higher ones. That's totally out of your control. However, with that being said, there are certain criteria that will enhance admission to the point where the school turns into a "match," and not a "reach."</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Since you're talking music majors, definitely play a strong audition. I would recommend memorization, because you feel more connected with the piece and it is inherently within your system.</p></li>
<li><p>Academics - take the most challenging courses, get excellent recs, pretend as if you were applying to a college. </p></li>
</ol>
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[quote]
2. Academics - take the most challenging courses, get excellent recs, pretend as if you were applying to a college.
[/quote]
If this statement were true, I would have been rejected from Rice. Don't take my advice as an excuse to slack off in school, but taking loads of AP courses is only going to distract you from what you're supposed to be doing, which is music. You don't need to "pretend" to do anything. Just try to keep your GPA above 3.0 and give one hell of an audition.</p>
<p>Read your audition requirements carefully - memorization is required for some, not for others. This is because, at most schools, audition requirements are set by the faculty of the individual instrument, so there are no uniform requirements. For instance, from Rice's website:</p>
<p>Bassoon, Clarinet, Double Bass, Horn, Oboe, Percussion, Trombone, Trumpet, Voice - doesn't mention memorizing
Cello - The concerto and Bach suite should be played from memory, if possible.
Flute - Please prepare three compositions, one of which must be memorized.
Harp - Audition should be from memory
Organ - Performance from memory is desired but not required.
Piano - Thirty minutes of memorized repertoire
Viola - Bach should be played from memory.
Violin - All compositions must be played from memory except for the etude/caprice. </p>
<p>In general, memorizing a piece is an excellent habit to get into. When you don't have to pay attention to reading the notes, you can concentrate on being more musical. My S has had one teacher who would absolutely not let him perform without memorizing - He said the audience deserved better. (This is the teacher in Germany that S will be studying with in Leipzig next week.) He did his solo piece from memory for his Juilliard audition; used music for excerpts.</p>
<p>Some people, however, memorize much more quickly than others. My D's teachers call her "the memorizing monster" because she has that kind of memory - she usually has a piece memorized before she has even learned it. (She can also recite over 150 digits of Pi.) You can tell by the look on her face when she is performing that she is looking deep inside something the rest of us aren't aware of - and it comes out in her music. </p>
<p>I, on the other hand, cannot memorize at all. When I have been required to memorize, I usually have a brain freeze when performing. However, I still practice with memorization as my goal, because it means I know the piece thoroughly. But I have the music there - I need the crutch.</p>
<p>Binx, that's it exactly. I don't memorize much of anything all that well myself, but my son eventually memorizes all of his music, whether he is performing a piece in public or not. It just seems to be his style of learning. He has kept multiple pieces in his repertoire memory at once too, inluding the first movement of a Beethoven concerto, a Chopin Ballade, and two movements of a Ginastera sonata and played them all from memory, within two weeks of each other. That is dozens and dozens, even a hundred pages of music (but still less than audition repertoire)</p>
<p>My thinking is that since he memorizes easily, he probably WILL memorize all of his audition repertoire, but he will be glad to know that he <em>could</em> use music, even on certain pieces, if he needs it. He will appreciate this advice. Thanks.</p>
<p>And sorry for hijacking the Rice thread with this question.</p>