<p>At the audition/interviews I have attended with my twin daughters, the girls are always asked where else they are applying. I was even asked this question (about my daughter) while I was quietly waiting in the hallway for an audition to be completed. </p>
<p>I suppose it is just small talk and nothing is meant by such a question, but I must admit the question makes me a bit nervous. My fear is that applying to multiple schools will be held against them. Most people of my generation applied to only 2-3 schools each many years ago. My girls are applying to about 7-8 each. Actually, I think 8 is about right. Considering the many potential landmines along the way - prescreening, audition itself, grades/test scores, insufficient scholarship money, etc., I would think that 8 applications might result in only 1, 2 or 3 actual choices at the end of the process.</p>
<p>Anyway, how does one answer this question? I don't want to lie or mislead. On the other hand I don't want to prattle on about all these schools either. Also, does one include the school(s) where perhaps one daughter has already hit a landmine? I would think not. Does the school have a way of checking on which schools the girls applied to?</p>
<p>I’m curious about that, too. My D’s response has been to list the schools most similar to the one at which she is auditioning and/or schools that are fairly local to us. She gives no more than three other school names. When the entire pre-screen/audition process is so hit-or-miss, it would seem unfair of faculty to take the student’s other choices into account when evaluating them. One of our schools asked for this information on the original application supplement.</p>
<p>Some schools are barred from asking but most are not. My daughter gets asked at every audition. She said she has never found it weird. Most of the time the professor asking knows who the bass prof is at the other schools and that is all that gets said. One school commented that all her schools made sense except one and asked her why she was applying to it.</p>
<p>This is also to your advantage. My D is now at Berklee, and when she auditioned, they asked her this question also. She already believed that Berklee was her number 1 choice, and she also knew that she would know her Berklee acceptance and scholarship decision several weeks before The New School and a few others school’s application deadline. She gave them the list of 3 or 4 schools where she would also be able to study jazz and contemporary music. She thinks it helped her auditioners see that she was definitely focused in this direction, and perhaps that these schools were in competition with Berklee for her talents. Little did hey know that her plan was to get into Berklee and be done without having to do auditions for her backup schools.</p>
<p>So, be honest in your answer, but don’t tell them their school is a backup!</p>
<p>It depends on what kind of schools you are applying to, but if you are applying to elite conservatories, the process is so competitive that unless you are at the indisputable top of the heap, it might seem foolish not to apply to at least four schools. I actually don’t think this question means much outside of small talk, or demographic research. Occasionally a faculty member is on staff at more than one conservatory, so the question could also be meaningful, coming from such a faculty member in that context.</p>
<p>My D listed her schools and was rejected immediately by her safety. I think annie43’s suggestion of only listing schools similar to the one in which you are auditioning makes sense.</p>
<p>hmh, that is unfortunate, but hopefully your D has good fit schools that meet your financial needs. If the safety realized their school was her safety and she really would be too big of a fish there, they may have just decided to save themselves the rejection.</p>
<p>At the New School, after his audition and during the interview, they actually asked my son what his first choice was. He was smart enough to say he hadn’t decided yet and needed to know his options, but they pressed him again… “well, if you got in everywhere…” </p>
<p>We gave a heads up to one of his friends who was going in the next day, and they did the same thing to him. Puts these young people in a very awkward position. So I guess my point is… it could happen this year as well, so be prepared!</p>
<p>Good point … if they pushed that hard, and this school is in the running, I would say, “Well, as of right now your school is my preference, but I have to cover part of my college expenses so I have to see how the funding part plays out.”</p>
<p>This at least tells them that finances are important in the decision process, so they should put their best offer forward in terms of scholarship options.</p>
<p>New School posed the same line of questions to my son, who was prepared. He told them he loved the school but that his parents were going to be putting three kids through college in a compressed period of time and $ would play a large role in the final decision.</p>
<p>This has been talked about a lot, and especially when it is so called safety schools (i.e schools thought to be less competitive admits), with the idea being that if they see someone audition who also is auditioning for the biggies (for example, student auditions for local state program that isn’t considered ’ as competitive’ and is also applying to Juilliard, Curtis, CIM, etc, etc) that if they find out, they may reject them, possibly because they would think the student was applying there as a safety and get their nose bent out of shape or whatever…</p>
<p>I suspect that the question has little to do with that, I suspect that if students are rejected for being ‘too good’, that it comes from the audition and thinking the person is doing that school as a safety, rather then from where they are applying (since, for example, a kid can audition at Curtis and a more modest school, since Curtis doesn’t pre screen, could not be anywhere near Curtis level of playing and still audition there). I am not even entirely certain potential safeties do that, since you would figure they are looking to get high talent, and might figure if they admit the top student and offer them good money, they might go there, rejecting them because they are ‘too good’ doesn’t quite add up.</p>
<p>I think this question is asked by many schools regardless of major during interviews and it was even on a supplement application as a question. I keep wondering if they want to know what their competition is when offering merit aid. We have only offered 3 similar schools with differences in distance as an answer. It is an awkward question.</p>
<p>Well, there are two questions now being discussed here: where else are you applying and what is your first choice. My son who was asked the latter question at New School was ultimately accepted there (despite his vague answer), as were the other kids we know who were asked that more specific/intrusive question - some with merit aid and some without. So since they were obviously not “weeded out” due to an assumption they wouldn’t attend, I’m really not sure what the point of asking it was.</p>
<p>Good points all. Thanks. I can see how one should really avoid giving the impression that any school is a safety school. Also stressing that the main competitive factor is the net cost can turn the situation to your advantage such that a safety school may still think it has a chance. Of course, if State College X knows that the competition is Julliard, NEC, IU, Oberlin, CCM etc. it would take a true salesman to convince them that State College X is really not a safety school at all. Focusing on the net cost seems like the right approach.</p>
<p>The “where else” question was asked and answered at practice lessons and so far not at the auditions for my kid. The first couple of teachers were a bit confused by the mix of universities, conservatories and liberal arts colleges until it was explained that the search was more teacher-fit driven than institutional or by location. Price comes later. </p>
<p>We’ve learned that one way to handle this is to list the teacher first and then the institution, as in "With Bob Smith at Whatever U, with Sally Brown at … " and this even at the schools with only one teacher of that instrument. It seems to be quite an effective distraction and puts things on a personal level, as most of these teachers know and often teach at summer programs with the other teachers on the list. One teacher even went over to their wall and pointed to a picture of them with three of the teachers named! So no animosity there.</p>
<p>My daughter was asked the “where else?” question at many places. The audition panel at one school actually slammed several of the schools she mentioned, telling her she’d get no attention at one school, that the faculty isn’t interested in undergrads at another school. She was horrified (me, too) and won’t consider that school. Oh I could write a book about this audition experience!</p>
<p>The intensity of the auditions seemed to vary by school for my D. I don’t think that vocal vs instrumental are as different as auditions are between different universities. The question has been asked of her at each and every audition. Some schools were very cool " oh, I know Dr such and such there" and others were a little more competitive with their comments.</p>
<p>My son was asked about the other schools he was applying to by the two professors he has auditioned for already. Neither professor said a word about the other schools other than “oh, okay”. But, they did point out the positive points of the programs they were running and what they could offer my son. </p>
<p>I think it’s a common question and I would hope that the teachers would take the opportunity to point out their strong points, as has happened in my son’s case, to potential students. </p>
<p>One more audition to go Saturday at Curtis. </p>