<p>Hey everyone, I was wondering whether you could give me some input about my situation.... I'm currently about to start my sophomore year at my state's big flagship U. I'm a performance major there and studying with a teacher whose style and teaching style don't seem to be clicking well with mine (though I respect her as a musician and person).
I ended up at my school after several failed auditions at top schools senior year of high school. Now that I'm much more serious about music and practicing, I'm frustrated where I am. I know music is really competitive and I don't want to do anything that might hurt my chances of making it..I want to put together an audition and transfer to a better school. From what I've been told by teachers, etc I have the potential to attend a top school, but I know it's the solid technique I'm lacking, and I'm not sure I can put it together in just four months while juggling college coursework. I read through all the gap year threads here but I didn't see anything about taking a gap year--or two--after a year of college. Is this because it's a stupid idea??</p>
<p>I think I made it unclear… I meant, is it possible to leave after freshman year and take a year to practice before reapplying fall 2012?</p>
<p>Taking time off between years of college is common, it just doesn’t have a catchy term like “gap year” to describe it.</p>
<p>In fact, on the Harvard website (as I remember this was on the admissions page), taking time off during college is encouraged, as well as taking time off before college.</p>
<p>I agree that it could be a good idea; plenty of students either take a year or two off during their degrees or extend their degrees over 5 or 6 years. I think that it could be a bigger mistake to just stay at university this next year if you feel that you won’t be growing and developing there.</p>
<p>ps You sound very mature, actually, which makes the time off more promising. </p>
<p>Just want to add that, in my opinion (hard-earned through experience), your plan may work best if you have some structure set up. Lessons of course, maybe a class, maybe a small job. I understand that the fall and early part of the next year would be spent developing your playing and working on audition pieces. Practicing some hours each day will take up a lot of your time, but make sure you also get out of the house (would you live with your parents?) and have some other things to do, including socially.</p>
<p>Just my two cents. Good luck!</p>
<p>Hi, thanks for your replies!
Violindad- Is extending my degree over 5-6 years still considered normal if I end up switching colleges? I think that’s one of the things I 'm most doubtful about.
Compmom- I would be living at home with my parents, which I’m also not sure is the best environment, but I think I would definitely be looking at having a part time job.</p>
<p>Would it make any sense to wait until Fall/Winter 2012 to audition, since that would create a gap of 2 years when I wasn’t at school? I don’t think I’d be ready by this fall but it seems like a large time to wait!</p>
<p>Be aware that the schools you apply to will ask you what you have been doing during the time you were “out”,so lay out a good plan for yourself and stick to it.
I think you are very wise not to try to rush things and cram needed study into just a few months. You’ll have to get used to a new teacher, learn new rep (which at this point would be better than having to “break” bad habits and muscle memory) and cut your CDs- in addition to your new teacher getting to know you well enough to write a great letter of recommendation to accompany your applications!
There is no reason why you can’t work a full time job, or two part time positions, while you are “in between”, so find the best teacher you can afford and make sure that he/she knows your goals and is clear on your time line.
You sound like a very level-headed student who will do well with the proper teacher. Good luck and let us know how it’s going.</p>
<p>yesthere: Transferring between colleges is common, although not as much so in music–partly due to the credit loss which almost always occurs (music credits have more difficulty going from one school to another), partly due to the attachment that music students tend to form to their private teachers and their relatively small peer group, and partly due to goal focus that most music students have had for years (I’m not saying that your potential transfer is due to a lack of goal focus–in fact, it sounds like you are transferring to accomplish your goals).</p>
<p>In any case, I would not be too concerned with what is normal or common; just do what you need to do to get the best education you can. Too many people get stuck in a rut and are not willing to change schools or make other changes that are necessary in order to grow.</p>
<p>If you are going to transfer, and you’re sure about it, start the process as soon as possible because the auditions, re-application process, credit transfer and availability of slots is different than where you were in high school. And while you may be practicing a lot more and are likely better than when you were in HS, you should get an opinion from someone that matches the level of the school you hope to apply to since you want to move to a more challenging school. If you didn’t get in in HS, you may not have been good enough then, but as you have been at your school freshman year, those students that did get into the schools you wanted have another year behind them as well, so you will need to be as good as or better than students that have the same number of total credits. The bar has continued to raise at those schools, so if you do take a semester or a year off, make sure you are getting intense lessons from the best instructor possible so you are pushed during this time off from regular college.</p>
<p>Would the conservatories count me as a transfer student and count my years’ worth of college credits, or would I be counted as a freshman? Would I be competing against juniors at those colleges either way, or against incoming freshmen? Or is it different for every school?</p>
<p>Music is a little different than some other degrees when you transfer. Many music schools don’t directly give you transfer credit for music theory, however, you take placement tests that tell them what theory level to place you, but you are not likely to get credit for a theory class taken at another university. Same goes for ear training and harmony. It is different at every school, but the reason you should start the transfer process earlier versus later is so that you don’t pay for more music classes at school one, and then have to re-take them at school 2, or get general free elective credit for them but still have to take a certain sequence at school 2 before you can take a 5th semester class.</p>
<p>As you do the research, be sure to look at what financial aid (merit or needbased) is offered to transfer students. It is often less available than to incoming freshman. </p>
<p>This is important to take into consideration because you may gain acceptance to the more competitive school, but you also need to be able to afford to attend the school.</p>
<p>My son transferred from one music school to another and received generous scholarship and fin. aid at both. He is putting in an extra year at music school No. 2 because they didn’t accept many of his music credits from music school No. 1. He is very happy to have another year of undergrad and in his case, we felt this would be fine, too.</p>
<p>wait so can you guys clarify what it means “taking time off during college”?</p>
<p>Are you saying that, lets say you can finish your degree in 4 years, you can, for example, take 2 years, then take 0 classes for the next year but still be “at” the college, and then resume and do the last 2 years, as long as you don’t exceed your school’s time limit?</p>
<p>Unless things have changed radically since I was in school if someone wanted to take a year off, they would need to request a formal leave of absence for the period. As far as I know, that is still standard procedure. To remain a student you needed to be making ‘forward progress’ towards your degree, which if you are not taking classes you obviously are not doing. </p>
<p>The OP in this case was doing something different, they were talking about leaving their current school permanently, taking a year off, then apply to a new school when they started again.</p>