<p>Greetings. My son presently attends University of Michigan performing arts technology program (BFA in music/sound) at the school of music, but seriously considered the Recording Arts program at Jacobs as well, which is excellent and recognized internationally. Indiana was more flexible than Michigan in terms of what it would accept in the portfolio – eg. includes multimedia programming, etc. that shows technical/artistic skill, whereas Michigan also required things such as an electronic instrumentation of a Bach fugue, specific requirements such as programmed audio samples, etc. From what students at Indiana told him during a visit, about half had had ensemble/western classical music performance experience prior, and about half came from more of a rock/indie background without necessarily having ensemble or sight reading experience. Both schools recognize that due to socioeconomic factors many HS students do not have access to pro studio equipment or upper end software. However, the price of interface to computer equipment has dropped so much, I also suspect many in the competitive pool would have access now to things such as an Inspire/FireStudio or other kind of tracking interface to mix down/sequence recordings using bundled software. Much of what my son submitted was originally managed/created/tracked in Garage Band and Audacity (for sampling), although he did also take a summer course of private recording arts instruction at his community college the summer prior to application, wherein he produced additional portfolio materials, including a multi-track original contemporary mix. For that piece, he included full score. So, in order to meet UMich’s requirements during his prep during the summer, this is what his overall portfolio materials entailed. Each school had slightly different requirements in terms of tech notes and essays, and Clive Davis required promo artwork if avail as well:</p>
<ol>
<li>Multitrack recording of original score using Protools; son performed all parts himself since couldn’t seem to get people organized into studio; included full score and production notes</li>
<li>Electronic arrangement of Contrapunctus (with jazz instrumentation…very interesting;)</li>
<li>An original electronic arrangement he’d written/looped & sung in garage band</li>
<li>A live recording of him playing a jazz piece from his repertoire on trumpet</li>
<li>A original “soundscape” of samples created using Audacity (free software.) For this piece, he did some very odd things that were quite well received and that I will try to describe. Eg. he collected ambient noise and then “used” it the way you would notes in a theme, really bending it around. He also took images and a pdf about how to get money for school, turned it into data, and imported it, using the frequency of the data to create sound forms. He joked that he was subconsciously programming people to give him a scholarship. Suffice to say it worked 
6+ Some additional songs, including a rough cut tracked in Logic of a contemporary pop song including multiple drum tracks which are hard to record; additional original compositions and a new-age-ish instrumentation of a traditional folk song, plus a very edited down compilation of creative viedo, editing and sound scoring work he’d engaged in as a hobby throughout high school. Plus a booklet discussing and showing some of his other multimedia design, poster, creative writing, lyrics and photography work.</li>
</ol>
<p>That’s just to give you an idea of what a competitive student pursuing this line of study might pull together. Generally, 5 music pieces, but do not expect a full listen – eg. some programs tell you they’ll only listen to a min. of each, but want at least 5 different pieces. Truthfully, my son’s portfolio took him hundreds of hours the summer prior, but in his case, it served him well. Many of his peers or folks we met during interview rounds seemed to apply to the following programs (which is by no means exhaustive):</p>
<p>Indiana Jacobs RA, UMich PAT, Miami Frost (for digital/eng)and NYU Tisch Clive Davis Recording Arts program and USC’s contemporary music program. From what we could tell, people’s preferences depended in part on their intent – eg. music and sound engineering with live sound reinforcement as focus (Indianna); vs. overall contemporary performer production (eg. Clive Davis@NYU) or electronic composition and multimedia emphasis (UMich, but there’s also a full engineering curriculum and a performance curriculum there in the PAT dept as well.) My son did not want to be too far afield, which is the only reason he did not consider Miami or USC. </p>
<p>Hope that gives you some ideas to work with. Like the previous poster mentioned, most of these programs have very small classes and are a competitive admit. At Umich, four students were taken into each of the four curricula for a total of 16 the year before last. At Clive Davis, they accepted 30 of 300 applicants. </p>
<p>At this point, I’d suggest contacting your local community college to see if your son can take a few private sessions with someone there and use the recording equipment (provided your cc has a recording arts program, which ours does.) Alternately, you do not need elaborate setups to create material – just an inexpensive way to get the sound into a computer and software to edit it. They’re looking at your son’s ear and creativity, not his access to high end gear
Then, IF he were not successful in his application this year, it would make sense to take a preparatory year of college in whatever area seemed weaker (eg. taking computer music classes, working on a portfolio, etc.)</p>
<p>Like Indiana, some students who are not successful in their initial admit due to lack of experience do apply to upper years of UMich’s PAT program as well. Not the easiest thing to do, but achievable, especially if you can first get permission to audit or take some of the classes (which are usually restricted to majors) and then create portfolio via the assignments. However, since BOTH programs are highly specialized, a late admit is likely to add a year or a part year to complete graduation requirements.</p>
<p>Good luck in your journey!
Cheers,
K</p>