My son will be a rising 9th grade. Singing is his hobby and he did a lot of work within school chorus and have 3 years private vocal training. He was encouraged by the music teacher and some professionals to apply Juilliard precollege voice program. He got callback and did the virtual callback audition last week but no news since that. Can anybody suggest what will be the next step? I search another post long time ago, that if the teacher is interested in one particular student, they will have a lesson with the student before the final decision. Did anybody get in without the private lessons? We are already very happy that he got the callback, but at this stage we really hope he gets a chance to go further.
Another question is if the precollege experience will add something bigger on his resume for college admission. He is also good on academics and showing potentials on science and engineering, which is a much safer route for his future growth. Juilliard precollege is not cheap, wondering what the precollege experience will benefit his future if he does not go to the music route. We are new to high schoolers and know very little about music, so any advice is greatly appreciated.
YES, it is most definitely worth it. Sending you a private message. Look at the blue circle in the upper right hand corner. It will have a green circle once the message arrives. Click on it.
Juilliard precollege can help with admission to top universities, including Ivies et al, regardless of intended major. However, if the student does not want to make the large commitment that entails, and does not love it, then it is not worth doing. In fact, nothing is worth doing just for college admissions. If your kid would like a broader experience in high school, with time and energy to explore many different areas, that is fine too.
My S is a current 9th grader and at MSM. It is definitely a huge time commitment and a wonderful experience. He is an orchestral instrumentalist so different than vocalist but it is only worthwhile if your son loves the activity. I have asked the same question as you in the past and believe the experience does help enormously with college admission but the work of the experience is only worth it if your child enjoys it (and depending on where you are if can tolerate the commuting!)
Thanks for sharing. He loves what he is doing so we decide to support him although it will be a big commitment from the parents, too. We are outside NY area and the commuting is a big problem. He also applied MSM, is MSM and Julliard very different for the precollege culture?
I believe that it is dependent on the program and the studio. I don’t know much about the vocal program but for strings for example, the culture is very different (my S is a woodwind player)
Just to clarify my S loves the culture at MSM, there is very little competition between the kids and everyone works together. The kids enjoy their orchestras and placement is based on the kid themself not the other levels of the other kids. I do not know what the truth is about the culture at Juilliard just rumors.
To echo those above: he should only do it if he loves it. Improving his chances of getting into college is not a sufficient reason to devote all that time.
That being said, Juliard pre-college and MSM can make a bit of difference in admissions if he is applying to single digit admissions schools and has all the other boxes (SAT, GPA, etc.,) checked off in the range for those schools. At some of the elite schools (Yale is one) the acapella scene is very big with the Whiffenpoofs being a very big deal.
At other schools with less selective admissions the impact is probably less.