<p>Hi ! I was just wondering if going to college with either majoring / minoring in music will require high GPA & SAT/ACT scores? I'm thinking of going to UC's with music and I don't know how competitive and hard it is to get in if you're going there for music :0</p>
<p>It all depends on the school, there have been a lot of discussions about this. From what I know of the UC’s (or music schools within a university, like USC, Northwestern) it will matter, they are competitive admits to say the least. If you were talking a stand alone conservatory, the answer is all that pretty much wouldn’t matter at all.</p>
<p>One thing to think about is what you mean by ‘studying’ music? Are you talking performance (a BM degree), i.e majoring in piano performance, violin, brass, etc? Or are you talking a Bachelor of Arts, which can be in an instrument (depending on the school) or in something like music history, music theory?</p>
<p>What you are talking about also will give you an idea of how grades and such play in. For music schools in an university, with a performance degree (BM) you usually have to get admitted to both the academic university and the music school. Admission for the BM is generally based solely on playing ability, based in an audition (if it has one, which all competitive programs do), the other side on grades, SAT’s, etc. Conventional wisdom is that if you are applying to the school of music for a BM, they probably won’t be as tight with grades and GPA for admission to the academic side as they would for a non music major. That said, others have pointed out that your grades and such could get you an academic scholarship to help pay for school, so it is probably wise if you are heading to a program within a university, to be diligent about grades and such. That said, also keep in mind that with a competitive music program, the audition requirements are going to be tough (I can’t speak for the UC programs in terms of levels there), and if you spend all your time working with gpa, test scores, honors classes, AP’s and so forth, it could severely hurt your chance of passing the audition, because practice time interferes with homework, ec’s, etc…</p>
<p>If you are talking a BA degree on an instrument, you may or may not need to audition, and there the grades and stuff will be important, and if you are talking an Academic BA in musicology or history of music or whatever, it will count as much as any other kid seeking academic admission.</p>
<p>It would be helpful to know more about you, what you plan on going in for (performance, and if so, on which instrument?, or academic music), what your background is (i.e if going for performance "I have been playing piano for X years with a private teacher, have done “X programs” or whatever), which will let people tell you what they think. It could be (and this is a hypothetical), if you are on let’s say violin, they might say “you know, I seriously would think about going to a UC school, none of them have a great string department” (again, this is a hypothetical). Also would be great to know where you are right now (i.e are you a freshman,Sophomore, etc…)…</p>
<p>The grades and test scores can come into play, even at a conservatory, if there is a factor needed to sway the committee between two candidates who are otherwise pretty even. Sometimes they determine who gets scholarships. It really does depend upon the school and then, the discipline and department.</p>