I have searched unsuccessfully but does anybody know how many students per instrument different schools accept? For example how many cellists on a given year would Blair accept? Or Bienen? Is there a way to get this info for different schools?
Follow the studio on their instagram page. I was able to see that Blair had 4 incoming flute students that way. They will post their first year classes.
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This is a great question that is difficult to answer. I would start by encouraging applicants to avoid analyzing numbers and projecting odds. When my son applied several years ago, he and is teacher focused on programs where he was at a level for that particular program/studio. I remember asking my son the “how many openings” question. He answered that “it doesn’t matter if there is only one spot, if I am the best candidate for that spot.” He was indeed accepted to 5 of the 6 programs where he applied.
However, of course we all get focused on chances and openings.
In our experience, there are many schools with a “soft” number for the studio. In other words, the studio size can vary and if a great candidate auditions there will be room. Others have a hard limit. Some balance grad and undergrad numbers. So it is hard to get a clear picture.
Sometimes if your kid’s private teacher has connection with the school, they may be able to provide some insight. Another way to get some idea is to see if the school posts junior or senior student recitals. This not only gives a good sense of the level of the students/program but can give some sense of students who might be graduating.
Again the numbers are daunting. Best to go in with confidence that you have a strong audition and a range of schools.
Hope this helps. 
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I liked bunch of those schools on Instagram and festivals.
He practiced three times yesterday. I don’t know if this will wear off, but he feels inseparable from his instrument since he came back.
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Following the target studios is highly informative. Of course it’s also very time-consuming.
Since you mentioned cellists and Bienen, I did a quick search on Bienen website, and found professor Jensen’s name. I put in keywords “bienen, cello, jensen” for a search. Among the results was a video on facebook honoring his birthday, performed by his studio students. This gave me an idea of his studio size. If I spend more time on the internet, I’m sure I can find some names of his students. From there I can find some videos of his students playing, which I can use as references to assess if I’m “close enough” to be part of his studio. Of course I’m not. I don’t play cello 
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How many students usually a teacher has? I was wondering if I should count a faculty for an instrument and then extrapolate from that. Assume that they have equal number of freshman-seniors. I know it’s imprecise, but a school with just two teachers versus one with four teachers could tell us something (?).
My son asked profs when he had sample lessons how many clarinetists they would be taking or how many they usually accepted or even just how big the studio was. Any of those answers will give you a decent idea. Blair in particular is tiny. My son’s year they only took 2 clarinets, but then they took more than that the next year. Strings are different, though, I’m sure. As is every school. At Blair there are a lot of double majors, so it’s not unusual for people to start at Blair and then drop their music major (and transferring in to Blair seems to be pretty common as well).
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Unfortunately the teacher to student ratio won’t really help to determine openings as there is a lot of variability. Some teachers might take 10 students. But in our experience some are listed as adjunct faculty and are occasionally in town for a studio class but do not have any students. And everything in between.
Of course if you determine that there are approximately 20 cellists total in a program, you can guesstimate that 4-5 would be graduating. But it will never be a clear number.
Looking at odds (for my kid) was stressful and not productive. Everyone is different. As he starts his professional auditions now, he still does not look around and count, tries to ignore who is in the warmup room and how they sound.
The music journey is filled with so much uncertainty. But the one thing your musician can control is where they apply and how they perform.
In many ways it is harder on us parents, because we want things to be planned and predictable. But in the music major journey, it always seems to work out…despite the uncertainty. Kids get great acceptances at schools that are a good fit.
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Hi i was also wondering this but have also decided it would take too much energy! Your DC probably has a lot of contacts now from summer music and may pick up some info that way but as others have said it seems very variable year by year - one school took no clarinets last year and another only one of various instruments but I assume that means more places in the next few years 
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This is a hard question to answer because it definitely does change each year. It depends on the number of spots each teacher has open, as well as the teacher’s preference for taking undergrads or grads, which may also vary by year.
A few suggestions:
- Ask the teacher directly. They will usually tell you.
- Ask the admissions office. We found they had a good general idea about how many students are generally accepted on each instrument, and some even had studio-specific information.
- Google the studio/teacher. Many have studio websites or social media. You can get a sense of how many total students (though remember they may be split in different ways between undergrads and grads).
- Check the website. Most of the schools that are small like Curtis and Colburn maintain lists of what studios are accepting students each year. A few schools will even list open spots.
- While most helpful for string students, check how many orchestras they have. Then you can extrapolate the total number of students per instrument. Some schools like NEC have a required orchestra for freshmen and sophomores, so you can get even more accurate numbers that way.