<p>I was wondering what GPAs are needed for the following schools (if they are taken into account):</p>
<p>NYU Steinhardt
Boston University
Carnegie Mellon
Northwestern
Indiana</p>
<p>When we toured BU, they said 3.7; but I really find that hard to believe.</p>
<p>Well, I think if you’re looking at universities as opposed to conservatories, music students are going to take one non-music course per term at least, right?, so the student needs to be relatively commensurate with the university’s standards. They’re not expecting you to be in courses with pre-Med students, though. If a student were to apply for and add a major or switch into something non-music, one would need to be sure one could fit. (I’m sure not everyone who starts as a music major finishes as one…)</p>
<p>When we were looking we used a measure of hitting the 25 percentile mark as a judge. If your audition is great the grades matter less, but if you are at least at the school’s 25 percentile you can handle the classes you would be attending and you most likely would not be rejected academically. You would not be taking the advanced sciences or engineering anyhow.</p>
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<p>I believe that for ALL of the above schools, you will need to be accepted academically by the university AND be accepted by the music department via your audition. When DS was applying, he was told that if the student was “in the ball park for admissions” that the music department could appeal to admissions for an acceptance if the audition warranted it. BUT that the student needed to be at least somewhat close to the acceptance criteria. At all of the above, students in music are required to take a number of core university courses as well.</p>
<p>“What GPAs are needed to get in” is a very natural but also a very tricky question. When my daughter was applying to music schools (three of which were on your list), we were told that the minimal GPA was a 3.0 unweighted average with a combined SAT (math and reading) at 1100. But that really doesn’t answer the question because what gets you into music school is your audition and the competitive situation for a particular instrument, at a particular school during a particular year, as anyone responding to your question will tell you. In other words, a particular grade point average does not guarantee your getting into musical school as it might guarantee getting into the history department of the same school. The other question is this --superior grade point averages and SAT scores deliver better scholarship dollars. </p>
<p>Of the schools you have listed, Indiana is probably the easiest to get into academicly. Northwestern won’t tell you where (academically or musically) where you failed to get in, at least that was the case when our daughter applied in 2009. She didn’t actually apply to the other three schools. Good luck to you.</p>
<p>The way it was explained to me when my son was making the rounds was that first there was the academic “clearance” level (eg., lower, such as 3.0 just to audition). Then there was talent, which carried a lot of weight. Then there was the comparative analysis of the students. So if two students had equally standout auditions, but one had a 3.9 GPA with a 32 ACT and solid recommendations, they’d be more likely to get the spot than someone with a 3.4 GPA and a 28 ACT and comparative recommendations, all else being equal. But if someone with a 3.4 GPA performed better artistically and a case could be made to the admissions on the university side, then they’d be more likely to get the spot. </p>
<p>In other words, it’s an algorithm of sorts, with talent/promise having the heaviest weight provided some prior conditions are met, such as minimum GPA. </p>
<p>The best way to get a sense of the typical academic admit range is to look at the middle 50th percentile of the freshman profile using the common data set at each school. Note that that will not give you any idea whatsoever about how difficult the admit on audition is. Eg. Indiana has lower general academic admit standards, but can be enormously competitive on the audition side – far more so than other schools with higher academic admit ranges.</p>
<p>Clear as mud now? ; )</p>
<p>Note that the relative weight of audition vs. academic record varies from school to school, so it’s best to ask at the schools you’re considering. </p>
<p>At NYU, we were told that they were equally weighted in the decision process. </p>
<p>At USC we were told that the music department would offer its “list” of desired candidates in order of musical talent, but Admissions had the final say. In some cases, the music department will “fight” for an admit, in others not. </p>
<p>At UCLA, it was a really surprising scenario: If you are chosen by your artistic department (art, music, anything portfolio/audition-based), you need only the official UC minimum required stats to be automatically accepted. For in state students, that’s only a 3.0, when the typical GPA of a Ucla admit is 4.0+. So clearly, the audition pretty much trumps it all there.</p>