<p>My son is a junior and is considering majoring in music, but we have no idea how the whole admission process works for this. Do students get accepted to the university first, then audition for placement into the music program? Is it all done at once? If you are not accepted as a music major, can you still attend the university and get a minor or just play in ensembles? Thanks in advance for any info and advice.</p>
<p>The best place to start is with this thread: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/258796-so-you-want-music-major-one-familys-experience.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/258796-so-you-want-music-major-one-familys-experience.html</a></p>
<p>I agree that the above link is a great place to start. Most music schools will require acceptance into the university a requirement for admittance to the music school. Schools vary which comes first. If you are admitted into the university and not the music school, you can still attend the same as anyone admitted. As far as playing in ensembles that would vary from school to school also. The best thing to do is to go to each school that your son is interested in websites, go over the admission requirements then the requirements for the music school/department. It takes a bit of research, but you can find all of the answers to these questions. That is the beginning! We are here for all of the other questions to come!</p>
<p>Also, Mdndad, the answers to your questions will depend on the school. Different schools have different policies. Some schools require you to gain admittance to the school first, with the music program kind of “second” (if you make it into the school, then the music program can have you if they want you). Other schools allow the music program to drive the admission decisions (if the music program really wants you, they tell the admissions folks, and you’re in). In all cases, an audition of some sort will be required(whether it’s in person or via CD/DVD). Some schools allow you to play in their ensembles even if you’re not a major (most, I think), but some schools will allow only majors to play in their ensembles. And so on.</p>
<p>It’s hard to get started in the music school search – there’s so much to know! I found, years ago, when my son started the search, that it took a lot of reading – mostly websites for both a school’s college admissions AND for that same school’s music program. Once you get started, it will get easier because you’ll learn what to look for and what to ask. You’re getting started at a good time if he’s a junior. It’s not too early to visit his favorite music schools, either!</p>
<p>^^ Oops. I guess I was typing my response while you were sending yours, srw. We basically said the same thing! :)</p>
<p>^ Ha! Great minds…</p>
<p>^I know. It’s funny!
:)</p>
<p>I’ll try to give the declaration of war, short form, answer to this (bonus points if anyone gets this obscure reference, hint it is to something in a movie).</p>
<p>-Admission to a school of music is based primarily on an audition, which in turn is based on a student mastering repertoire the school requires and each school can vary. For example, on violin requirements for a concerto could range from one movement of two different concertos in contrasting styles, some want the auditioner to have a while concerto memorized, one may want certain movements from a solo sonata or partita by Bach, others may want an entire sonata or partita, some may want a modern piece, others may not…</p>
<p>One of the hard parts is they do vary, though for example, if on violin you prepared for Curtis, they require a full sonata or partita, so if you prepare for that, the other schools fall in line. Trick to audition rep is to try and have to prepare as few pieces as possible to meet the requirements of the programs you are auditioning for…fortunately some things are almost universal, so it may not be as big as you may thing…</p>
<p>The audition itself is usually 10 minutes or less, the panel will ask for what parts they want to hear.</p>
<p>-With most music schools these days, they require a pre screen dvd or cd be sent in with the application, then they decide of all those submitting which ones will be granted a live audition (usually in Jan-Mar of Senior year). </p>
<p>-If the music school is part of a university, like Rice, USC, U Michigan, then you need to get admitted to both the music school and the academic one, the others have covered this pretty well. In terms of will, for example, getting into the music school influence the academic decision, depends on the school from what I hear.</p>
<p>-If the music school is a standalone conservatory then basically the admissions process is the audition, things like SAT’s, AP classes and to a large extent GPA don’t matter from everything I know (they do check students gpa’s and academic records, and some schools do get the SAT, but this is to make sure the kid isn’t a dunce or something and i hear it doesn’t hold much weight). On the other hand, if planning to apply to both types of music schools, then academics needs to be decent for the ones that are part of a larger university. </p>
<p>-Admission to a music school of any kind is a bit different then in an academic one, if you meet the criteria for admission academically you get admitted, period, to an academic school. With a school of music, you not only have to pass the audition but a teacher has to have an open slot and want to teach a student (when you audition, an applicant is supposed to list the teachers they may want to study with and they try to honor that). Thus when an applicant auditions, besides giving a score, the panel members also indicate whether they would be interested in teaching the student. An applicant could play incredibly well and otherwise would be admitted, but if no teacher has space/shows an interest, they don’t get in. This isn’t universally true, at Indiana U, for example, you get admitted and then the student has to go and find a teacher to work with…</p>
<p>That is the basics as I see it…</p>
<p>Everything that everyone said is correct, but I also want to add in that one of the colleges that my son applied at did its academic admissions on a rolling bases and actually requried that the student be admitted academically before they could even schedule an audition. The other three colleges required that he apply, then audition, and acceptance letters were only sent out after he had applied and auditioned. Some colleges will just send one acceptance letter for both the college and school of music, others will send seperate letters. At one of the colleges he recieved his acceptance to the school of music before his acceptance to the college and the school of music acceptance was conditional on his acceptance to the college. So basically it “just depends”.</p>
<p>As Buckaroo MusicPrnt and the others have said there is not simply one method of admission to music schools within universities. With conservatories even ones tied to colleges or universities it’s a little more uniform. Although there are conservatories such as Lawrence that require admission to the underlying university. Lots of website reading ahead to keep it all straight.</p>
<p>Does your son want to major in “music performance” or just “music”? There are many liberal arts colleges (LAC) that do not require an audition for a “music” major. This would be more of an academic major in music rather than performance, and includes schools such as Amherst, Williams, Vassar, Washington U in St. Louis to name a few.</p>
<p>Thank you all for all of your help. Sounds like a lot of research needs to be done. He’s not really sure what he wants at this point, but my best guess is a “general” major in music (not performance) because he definitely sees secondary school teaching as an option. He will probably double major in a more “practical” field - he is an excellent student (4.0) so is looking for a music major within a general university, not attending a “music-only” school or conservatory.
Again, thanks for all of the info.</p>
<p>You might want to look into a Music Education degree. It has it’s own set of requirements, I do believe that proficiency in an instrument is needed. Not every school allows for a double degree.</p>
<p>If he wants to teach at a secondary school, he’ll need a Music Education degree like srw says, and most if not all colleges that offer Music Education degrees require you to still perform (at a high level) an audition. The process is similar to admission as a performance major, except the level might be just slightly lower, since the better players will probably want to major in performance more than the lesser players (some double major), and sometimes the requirements or rules about the audition material is more flexible, for example you only need the first movement of a sonata instead of the whole thing, maybe you can pick any baroque piece instead of learning a complete prelude and fugue, and pick either a romantic or 20th century piece instead of both. Usually as a performance major applicant you’ll need to perform an etude “of virtuosity” as well.</p>
<p>So what I’m saying is, I guess, a music education degree can’t be gotten (unless there’s a rare exception?) through the liberal arts majors in music (which are usually called Bachelor of Arts in Music or such, don’t need an audition, might have a smaller range of music classes to pick from, and allow less music credits but require more humanities than a more hardcore Bachelor of Music curriculum).</p>
<p>But you can always dual degree in something else (the “practical” idea you are talking about) + Bachelor of Arts in Music, maybe with a minor in Education just to help out, and then get a teacher certificate yourself through organizations like MTNA or such instead of at college.</p>
<p>My S, a senior, has applied to 4 schools where he’ll be auditioning (this month, mostly), and several others where he may audition later but which are primarily LACs. In some cases he had to be admitted academically first (rolling), in some his audition will determine entry not only to the program but to the U as well.</p>
<p>None are “standalone” conservatories but rather conservatories within universities or colleges.</p>
<p>He’s a bass guitarist and wanting to study jazz, and/or music technology.</p>
<p>I say all this so you see there is a whooooooole world of music out there in post-secondary world, not all classical :)</p>
<p>I found the thread references above very helpful, and his music teacher and some at a college near us helped guide him in choosing where to apply as well.</p>
<p>In most cases, for a general music major (BA program) in a college or university, your son would simply apply to the college or university, like anyone else. In the fall, there might be auditions to get into orchestra, ensembles or other music organizations. But not for admission.</p>
<p>Your son would do the common application just as any applicant would. Sometimes, if your son has talent on an instrument, singing, or composing, it can help the application to send a supplement with a DVD or CD, letter(s) from music teacher(s), even performance programs. At some schools admissions will give these to someone in the music department, and the music department person would give feedback to admissions.</p>
<p>A BA program at a college or university would mean classes in theory, music history, composition, score analysis, ethnomusicology, and so on. Some schools also have a “music and technology” strand.</p>
<p>My daughter chose a college where half her classes (16) will be in music. At other schools, the major might be 1/3 or even 1/4 of the classes (10-12 classes). It helps to check out distribution requirements, course requirements in the major, minor or double majors, faculty, and course descriptions. A few schools have no distribution requirements, and some also have opportunities for interdisciplinary or self-designed programs.</p>
<p>We know several people who have gotten a BA in music and then gone on to graduate school for music education. In at least one case, it was possible to teach high school music with the BA alone.</p>
<p>I have often recommended a book entitled “Creative Colleges” that is available online, and lists colleges and universities with good music programs, as well as conservatories/music schools. But looking at websites of schools that your son is interested in, for many other reasons (location, size, vibe etc.), is also a good place to start.</p>
<p>One more thing: if auditions (for entry or scholarships) are part of the process for the schools you choose,your S will probably want to (or need to) submit apps early. My S’s were done by Dec 1 so we could get the audition dates we wanted. Apps done made the holidays much nicer :)</p>
<p>At about this point last year, when S was a junior, I created a google docs spreadsheet that listed the schools he was interested in, and columns for things like deadlines, prescreen requirements, whether the school was on the Common App or the Unified App (Oberlin and NEC, among others), teacher recommendations required (and what kind, music schools want their instrument or band teacher usually) whether there were essays that needed to be written, etc. A lot of the categories I got from reading the Music Major’s Story thread recommended above, some I swiped from the college planning software S’s school uses (Naviance), and the info for the fields I got from school’s websites. I shared the Google doc with S, and we both used it (me moreso than him, but still) to keep track of where we were in the process. It helped with keeping the mental ducks in a row.</p>
<p>Okay, compdad, you get the cookie…</p>
<p>Glad someone else likes throwing in movie references into the conversation.</p>