Ok, I know I’ve done a lot of music college related posts and this is going to be the last one for a while, I promise.
I’m looking to get a degree in cello performance either as a BM or BA (and I know a couple of these schools only offer a BA).
So I’m just wondering, how many colleges/conservatories does a music student need to apply to? Is it better to apply to 10 colleges and possibly get into several of those? Or is the right thing to do to apply to five or less schools and only get into one or two of those schools, or not even get into any?
Here is a list of schools that I know I will be applying to the music programs for definite:
University of Michigan
Baldwin Wallace Conservatory
Miami University
Denison University
Mount Union University
Here is a list of schools that I’m not sure about applying to or will be applying to them just to see if I get in or as a backup school:
Kenyon College
Vassar College
University of Cincinnati Conservatory
Oberlin College Conservatory
So maybe to I need to make the list of schools I will be applying to shorter or longer? Or is this too many schools to be considering applying to and should I only apply to schools that I know for definite that I want to apply to (the first list on this post)? Any suggestions/help on this would be greatly appreciated.
Applying to 5 and getting offers from 4 or 5 would be fairly do-able. Is it that you are not sure which 5 would match you? That can be tough to figure out in the beginning.
I went to a workshop about applying to auditioned programs a few weeks back and that consultant recommended 4-8 schools for typical applicants and 7-11 schools for applicants applying to auditioned programs. Her published recommendations for this were
1-2 non-auditioned safeties (or a plan for a gap year) - this would be a music, academic and financial safety.
2-4 safer auditioned programs (state schools, small regional privates, maybe no prescreen necessary)
2-4 stretchier programs (national recognition for program strength, not necessarily most prestigious)
1-3 super reaches (if you want)
She also said students seem to average getting into about half their auditioned options but of course that can vary widely too. It’s better to have too many rather than too few when there are possible finances at play and prescreens involved. That said, a good private teacher experienced in launching musicians to college programs might have much better direction for their own students. There’s also the issue of academic vs. financial vs. music safety.
So I can’t say looking at your list. It depends on your stats since you have non-auditioned options in the mix. I’d just make sure you have some solid safety schools that make sense.
@MusakParent - while my own observations are limited to just a few cases, a thought occurred. Numbering the four categories from 1 to 4, and factoring the gap-year option out of your first category and setting that aside as an option on its own, I can’t see the reason why anyone would algorithmically (but maybe coincidentally) apply to category 1 schools AND category 4 schools, as the student should seek out some form of community to see what makes sense for them. If the student is known by the community at large to be very good, they could skip category 1, and if the student is known at large to be spotty, there would be little reason to apply to category 4.
I think in general a music student applying to performance based programs that require a prescreen or an audition should probably have a slightly longer list to account for the possibility that they may not pass a prescreen or be accepted after auditioning. It just adds a little more uncertainty into the mix and it is probably a little harder to discern safeties and likelies as a music student. Adding in the affordability piece complicates things as well. I won’t deny it’s a lot of work just doing applications but you could potentially pull out applications later in the process if you get an early acceptance or find the audition schedule unmanageable.
musakparent’s recommendations above seem pretty reasonable though 4 seems low, about 7- 10 seems about right.
My S applied to 6 schools, all auditioned, 3 with prescreens if I remember correctly. He did not pass 1 prescreen so auditioned at 5. He ultimately had a good outcome but it got a little hair raising in April because he got a very late acceptance to the school he ultimately attended. At that time I was wishing that he had applied to a few more schools and maybe had more of a choice, though like I said in the end he had a great outcome.
Also, don’t hesitate to post and ask questions. There is a lot of collective wisdom through the posters on this site. I wish I had asked more questions, we learned a lot by going through the process but at the time I was a little intimidated and didn’t even always know what questions to ask! People are very willing to help!
@celloplayer99 - Fair enough. By applying to 10 (that is like 2 batches of 5) schools, would you only be accepted by 0, 1, or 2? When you start pre-screening and/or auditioning, you will see how much labor it is to prepare for the auditions, and you will need enough energy and time for so many.
Well, my thought with applying to about 10 is then maybe we can get through 4-6 prescreens and audition for 4-6 programs total in the Jan - early March time frame (we are doing one EA audition in November). I don’t know how anyone could do 10 auditions even if you cleared all your prescreens. If we had the option to audition for 10 with great luck on prescreens, fabulous. Then we’d have the luxury of picking and choosing where to go and what to drop. If we get an EA offer with decent money, those auditions will likely be focused on reachier auditions and we might choose to do less depending on options. If not, we’ll keep other safer auditions on the calendar. We might try to go heavier on auditions.
Don’t take anything I say too seriously since we’re just going through this process now and I’m thinking aloud. The person who did our seminar the other week is a paid consultant and does help a number of students a year navigate auditioned programs and she had a very realist bent to her approach. But I may not be reporting her #'s exactly correctly. I think her general point was to have an ultimate safety even if that is being comfortable with a gap year. And to apply to a range of schools. She does recommends applying to 7-11, especially with prescreening involved.
This is all very helpful. @GoForth , I agree with your logic re: the four categories. My S didn’t apply to any non-audition programs. It’s interesting to define what makes a reach, however – nationally known, but what else? For instance, I would define one school as a reach because it’s tiny and takes very few people a year. A second is reachy because they don’t offer a lot of merit aid (which he needs, so admission alone is beside the point for this choice in particular). By that definition, out of seven total, I would say two are long shot/reaches–these happen to be the two with prescreens–four are are stretchy matches (again, I’m counting not only admissions but significant merit aid) and two are safer (he’s at or near the top of the applicant pool both academically and musically).
Most important, all seven are places he’d be okay with attending. We had a couple of true safeties that really didn’t excite him and ended up dropping those from the list.
Hi, @akapiratequeen - when S got down to his final 5 schools, they all seemed like “matches”. Somehow we knew that - including likely cost and likely enjoyability. Juilliard was not a choice - S was not in the international league, and based on conversations with a Juilliard grad, S didn’t have the total musical senses that would likely be needed. Even MSM seemed like a nice idea, but probably unlikely to award money enough to make it a match package. And there were schools that seemed not aggressive enough for S as well. We tried to have 5 things where we could look at each one and say, “That choice makes sense.”
I applied to 11 schools for classical saxophone, and after next week, I’ll have done a total of 4 live auditions. 1 each in November, December, January, and March. I definitely think 10 auditions shouldn’t be necessary. I found “lower-tier” schools I was happy with and dropped more of the middle ones.
Your situation is a little different because there are schools on your list that don’t have a BM program at all, but instead have a liberal arts music major (and no prescreen or audition, at least for admission). We don’t know much about your academic interests and talents, or whether you are chasing merit aid. So it is hard to say.
My family did 4 schools with BM programs ( 3 freestanding conservatories and one conservatory on a college campus), one selective university and one artsy, small liberal arts college. It is fine to apply to various options and decide in late April
