<p>Okay, so I'm a trumpet player planning on majoring in music ed. The schools I'm looking at aren't particularly prestigious, (Western Michigan, Grand Valley State University, University of Alabama, etc.) but they do all have rather nice trumpet studios, with roughly 4-7 openings per year. Now, I know that I should know this, but I'm having rather a hard time finding out the answer: how many students will be auditioning for those spots? Dozens? Hundreds? Thanks!</p>
<p>I have no idea of the answer to your question, but just want to say I think you’re wrong when you say those schools aren’t prestigious. I, on the west coast, hear about Grand Valley State all the time - because of its vibrant new music scene & recordings & new music radio station, and on here I hear about Michigan State a lot, as well, particularly for jazz.</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone can give direct answers unless they know the program, the number of people auditioning for a particular instrument depends on the instrument and also the competitiveness of admissions to the school (with variations). So for example if you were talking 4 trumpet openings in a top school, you could see well over a hundred people sending in prescreen auditions (all hypothetical) and a fraction of that auditioning, at another less name school, might only be 30 who audition (all hypothetically, again). </p>
<p>Your best bet is to e-mail the admissions department and ask them how many people apply to audition on your instrument roughly each year, they will tell you that I am pretty certain.</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply, SpiritManager. I recognize that these are good schools, I just meant that I wasn’t referring to places like Indiana, Northwestern, or Juilliard :)</p>
<p>That’s a good point, musirprnt. I’ll try to do that.</p>
<p>I don’t have any specific knowlege of those schools, but based upon my son’s experiance applying at similar schools, there might not be as many trumpet players auditioning as you would think. </p>
<p>At some of his auditions, there were maybe 20 voice or piano students auditioning for every trumpet student. you may end up going to an audition, finding the parking lot to be full, see music students all over the place, and then discover that while 300 students came to audition, only a handfull are trumpet students.</p>
<p>I’m not saying that these “mid level” programs arn’t competitive, but their just might not be as much competition as you would expect. At my son’s “reach” school, I think they only had a dozen trumpet players to audition last year (for 4 spots). At the school he ultimately selected, they were expecting 20 trumpet players to audition on the day he did (last audition date), only 5 or 6 actually showed up. But again, that doesn’t mean that it’s easy. A lot of times people basically “cut” themselves, so those few who complete the audition process can be very good. Ultimately, at the school that my son selected, they only filled 4 spots although they were targeting for more. All four of those students were allstate level performers (if that even means anything).</p>
<p>Our son ran into the same smallish group of tuba applicants in his NYC area auditions.
Pretty sure there were many more flute and voice applicants.</p>
<p>Not a dumb question at all! Last year when my son was applying that was one of the first questions that occurred to me, and I’d get answers with varying degrees of success.
One of the schools (Western Mich, in fact) told us the previous year’s statistics, IU gave us numbers from two years ago and UNT wouldn’t say because the admissions person told me it “wasn’t relevant”. At some point in the fall I figured he’d just apply to the schools he wanted to go to, try his best at the audition, and let come what may.</p>
<p>It turns out that he went to UNT and it is one of the largest trombone studios…there are 25 freshman this year. I’m guesstimating that something like 75 to 100 auditioned, and probably more than 25 were offered admission.</p>
<p>Trumpetchap, I just want to reiterate Spirit Manager’s comment. Those MI schools you mentioned are very strong schools for trumpet. The trumpet clinic at GVSU is considered one of the best in the nation and regularly takes top honors. And if you’re in-state, these schools are financially a “steal” compared to a few others you mentioned 
My son attends UMich because his discipline is focused in music engineering/recording/electronic composition, but Grand Valley would have been a top choice for him for trumpet had he elected to go the performance route (he too plays trumpet). Academically, Grand Valley was also exceptionally generous for a high-stat student, to the point where he would have been virtually paid to attend.
Why not just put in a call to Richard Stoezel and ask him directly how many he regularly sees auditioning? My son canceled his audition when he received an early acceptance to his “dream” program so I wasn’t there to tell you what I saw </p>
<p>Remember, though, in the end, the numbers don’t mean a thing You just have to do it to find out how you stack up. The people who apply to these programs are what you call “self-selecting” meaning they already have a particular level of accomplishment. In general, admit rates to music schools range from 7% to about 25% at some larger OR less selective programs.
Good luck with the process!</p>
<p>It’s funny how regional college name recognition is. I’ve never heard of GVSU before. And I am sure that many of the colleges that are within my world, are unheard of in other parts of the country.</p>
<p>I think for that reason, it’s all the more important to attend a college in the part of the country that you prefer to get a job in. To a lot of people, name recognition IS reputation and quality. Not saying it should be like that, but thats reality.</p>
<p>imagep, I don’t know last year’s results, since mcson is not involved, but the year prior GVSU placed 3rd in the National Trumpet Competition, after Julliard and Indiana, for example, and I believe took first place the year prior. Many alumni from the program have been hired and some have achieved principal chair in major metropolitan symphonies over the years. Just so you know ;)</p>
<p>The knowledge of a particular program is often specific to the field. For instance, Grand Valley State is making a name for itself in the new music field. They’ve made some seminal recordings of late, including one of In C, for instance. [GVSU</a> New Music Ensemble](<a href=“http://newmusicensemble.org/]GVSU”>http://newmusicensemble.org/)</p>
<p>The point for all of us being that when a student is specializing in a particular instrument or field, the more broadly known name-brand programs might not actually be the ‘best’ program out there for the student. Which is why this forum can be so helpful.</p>
<p>Wow km, it does sound like a good trumpet school. </p>
<p>I’ve looked on the NTC site before, not recently though. I’ve never seen a “results” page. That’s something I would like to take a look at if someone knows if there is any public listings of placements, a list of competitors and where they are from, etc.</p>
<p>Just in case anyone thought that I was in any way “knocking” GVSU, I wasn’t. I was mearly pointing out that until this thread it was off my personal radar. </p>
<p>The reason I suggested that going to a school that would be well known in the area (general physical location) that one want’s to get a job in is because most of the time public band directors are hired by school principals, and school principals likely have no clue what trumpet studio at what college is highly ranked. A college that may be well known to be a great school in Washington State may mean nothing to someone in Florida.</p>
<p>Certainly, if the OP was a performance major, looking to be hired by a professional musician who would likely to be knowlegeable about the quality of different music schools, this might not be the same situation.</p>
<p>@imagep - You’re absolutely right - I was not thinking about music ed - that is the one area where the location, local connections & reputation might trump everything else.</p>
<p>I think based on the programs discussed the poster is in fact from Michigan, spirit manager. I’m from the area, so naturally I’m more familiar with the program, since it was such a super economic opportunity for mcson as well. If I recall correctly, gvsu had just produced in C when mcson was school shopping, or was in production, because I recall thinking he’d enjoy the digital ensemble there. (one of his first assignments in digital music ensemble at u. Mich also happened to be In C ).
One of his favorite student conductors hailed from the music Ed program there as well.</p>
<p>I think programs in Michigan often feel overshadowed by UMich som being in state from comments made during visits (eg the de facto assumption that if he got into umich, he’d attend there – which did turn out to be true, but for very program-specific reasons.) But IMHO, the three regional universities the poster mentioned have some pretty fab aspects
that are exceptional opportunities for in-state students, and that in some cases attract students from OOS (eg trumpet at gvsu, voice at mich state, jazz at wmu).
At the same time, I don’t know that hiring practices necessarily reflect a preference for in state schools if one is accredited to teach in the state, at least not locally. My son’s hs band conductor hailed from Arizona U, other locals from Jacobs, etc., and the schools symphony conductor was also a pro at the local symphony. YMMV.</p>
<p>Trumpetchap, PM me if you’d like some more info about the WMU School of Music.</p>