I just finished my junior year at one of the best public schools in the country. My SAT scores were very high (around 2200), but unfortunately, my GPA is not (around 3.4 unweighted out of 4). I have spent so much of my time on my music extracurriculars that my grades have not been high. (Mostly B’s, a couple lower grades, and some A’s here and there).
I am planning on auditioning for music education for college, and am considering Northwestern’s Bienen School of music early decision. I would consider myself a very top singer, but will I be overlooked because of my grade point average? (the same goes for Michigan, NYU, Boston University, Wisconsin…)?
Things change from year to year , so call each school and ask.
I can’t speak for the individual schools, but conventional wisdom is that for music performance they are a lot more flexible with GPA and such in admissions. Your SAT’s are decent, so that will help. I also don’t know if music education has the same kind of flexibilty, I agree with Musica, I would talk to the schools about it.
I have some more research ideas for you. Look into whether early decision for Northwestern (or any other school on your list) is the best option for actually being admitted. Will you have had an audition before the early decision results??? If you think your audition will be a good plus in your favor, it may be best to go the regular decision route. I know a bit about Northwestern. If the music department wants you based on audition or trial lessons, they will put in a good word with admissions and that might help your chances along. Also, admissions will most likely scrutinize the classes you took in high school and want to see a challenging academic load. If you’ve taken the toughest courses out there, that may help you. If you are at a top US high school, I would think that the college counselors have experience with students applying to Northwestern and past stats from your school might be available.
I’m adding this as a bill paying Mom. If your goal is music ed, there are definitely cheaper options than Northwestern, NYU or Michigan out-of-state. State universities often do an excellent job with educating music ed majors - and getting them employment later. Of course, if you want the Northwestern experience, I understand that also!