<p>Hi, I'm planning on being an Organ Performance major in college.</p>
<p>I have good grades, good extracirricular, and I have a lot of accomplishments with the Organ. I know Eastman and Oberlin are conservatories, and so they put much more emphasis on auditions. How about colleges?
They say you have to be within the range of the regular students, which I think I am... but my ACT score is low (22).</p>
<p>I've been studying all summer long, and my last chance to pull of a stellar ACT score is in October. Totally not feeling the pressure... lol...</p>
<p>I am thinking I need at least a 25 or 26.. I mean, I'm not dumb, I take AP classes and get A's and B's in them.. I just do horribly on Standardized Tests...!!!! </p>
<p>I'm planning on applying Early Decision to the college.</p>
<p>Other than the strict conservatory and some conservatory like programs, there is an academic/test score threshold for most college and university music departments and schools that must be met. Sometimes a great audition will allow these to be bent slightly.</p>
<p>Without knowing specific schools beyond what you've mentioned that you have under consideration, there is no hard answer. Each school has its own set of parameters.</p>
<p>If you're considering Saint Olaf, you should also look at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. It's a wonderful, small liberal arts college that has a well-regarded music conservatory--with Organ Performance.</p>
<p>Neat. I know a couple people from my school who will be going there this fall for Violin Performance. </p>
<p>I'm more concerned about who the organ professors are though. I can't seem to find a profile of any organ faculty members on their website. It's great that they have an organ performance major, but I kind of really need to know who the teachers are. Thanks!</p>
<p>Check Rice and Northwestern, they are both tough academic admits. </p>
<p>I think you are low for BU, St Olaf and UI as well.</p>
<p>Many departmental webpages list an academic profile for music students, or you can always call/email the department (not the general admissions contact) and they will more than likely give you the GPA and score ranges for music performance majors. Both Eastman and Oberlin admit students to the conservatory (and not necessarily the academic college).</p>
<p>At Rice, the 25th percentile for the ACT (meaning 75% of those admitted do at least that well) is a 29. At Northwestern it is a 30. Both of those schools are pretty stringent about holding music majors to something close to the same academic standards as all other majors, so you will probably need a lot better than a 25 or 26 to crack either of them.</p>
<p>The 25th percentile for BU is 25, so you may have a shot there if your audition is good and you can pull up your ACT or SAT scores as you say. The problem there is that both the University and the Music Department must OK your application or you do not get in, and the University will be looking primarily at your academic stats. The Music Department may be able to exert a little pressure on your behalf if they really want you.</p>
<p>UIUC's 25th percentile is 26, but I do not know anything about how the University and the Music Department interact on admissions.</p>
<p>St. Olaf also has a 25th percentile of 26, but I know a couple of good singers who have gotten accepted off their waiting list with decent but not great academic credentials. I do not know what their scores were and they probably took the SAT rather than the ACT.</p>
<p>The organ program at Oberlin is excellent and they have monthly midnight Organ Pumps which are quite well attended by the student body and even local townsfolk. They do admit to the conservatory and not the college as violadad says, but they require an average of one class in the college per semester for performance majors and will not go too much lower than typical college stats on admissions for the conservatory. They want the con students to be able to keep up in their college electives. The test scores in the con average a little less than those in the college, but not by a whole lot. The 25th percentile for the school as a whole is 27, which means it is probably 26 or maybe 25 for those in the con only.</p>
<p>Westminster is an interesting possibility. They are now part of Rider U, where the 25th percentile is a 20 and the 75th percentile is only a 24. You are already well in the middle of the pack on test scores there. The audition would be key for admission to Westminster, and your test scores would not hurt you as far as Rider is concerned. The organ teacher there, Ken Cowan, is quite good.</p>
<p>My DS is also interested in organ, although he plans to apply in voice performance. My sense is that many schools with undergrad organ programs are looking for well-qualified organists. When we visited Oberlin, the organ practice rooms and facilities seemed to be somewhat underutilized.</p>
<p>With respect to programs, you might also check out McGill Schulich School, although it too has fairly stringent academic requirements. They have a Organ and Church Music program area, with three organists on the faculty. Also a very good Early Music program, and the city has some excellent church organs.</p>
<p>I would agree that Westminster might be an excellent option for you. They have a Sacred Music degree which would help develop your quals for a job. I think that the academic admission requirements there are not likely to be quite so onerous.</p>
<p>A couple of other places you might take a look that were on my list are: Syracuse University, Mary Pappert at Duquesne University, and Seton Hall (Sacred Music degree with either Voice or Organ emphasis).</p>
<p>Considering that Oberlin has three main organs - a Flentrop in Warner, a Fisk in Finney and a Brombaugh in Fairchild Chapel - plus 16 more in practice rooms, not to mention the instruments in town churches, it would take an enormous number of organ students to make the facilities there seem anything other than underutilized. Just because they have a wealth of facilities does not mean they are lacking for applicants relative to the number of openings in the studios of the two organ teachers there.</p>
<p>Another resource that the OP may wish to consult is fairtest.org which lists several hundred colleges where SATs and ACTs are not required as part of the application.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Lawrence is a great suggestion, AND as of 3 years ago, they didn't require ACT or SAT scores.</p></li>
<li><p>Peabody has a good organ faculty and since it's a conservatory, your 22 will not be a problem.</p></li>
<li><p>Your 22 is a problem with all the schools you've listed and even if you bring it up to a 26, it would still be problematic with most, if not all the schools on your initial list.</p></li>
<li><p>And yes, do try the SAT, since there are examples where people do better on one vs. the other test. However, please remember that between the SAT and ACT, they handle "incorrect" answers differently...</p></li>
</ol>
<p>IIRC, and don't quote me here, DO THE RESEARCH YOURSELF. You don't want to leave any questions unanswered on the ACT since they DO NOT penalize incorrect answers so as time runs out, just guess and fill in all blanks. </p>
<p>On the SAT, however, they DO penalize incorrect answers so guessing blindly will hurt your score.</p>
<p>Just a note -- I checked this morning to be sure -- BU does not have an undergrad organ degree, just Master's and above.</p>
<p>Regarding demand for organ programs, I just have a sense from the places that we have visited that these programs are looking for candidates -- obviously some schools (Oberlin and Eastman) are more competitive than others and limited by available faculty. So, given that you have a strong background in organ, that will put you a step up.</p>
<p>Five years ago, Duquesne in Pittsburgh also had an organ major. Their organ teacher was actually someone from Eastman who came there weekly to teach. We met a student in the student center who was an organ major and loved it there. I don't know if that program still exists or not, but I think you could probably get accepted there....the audition would be important. You do have to be accepted to the university separately, but I think that might be doable for the OP.</p>
<p>Another possibility for the OP: Mark Miller, an incredibly gifted musician and composer with a Masters in organ from Juilliard, is on the faculty of the Drew Theological School in Madison NJ. He is an up and coming force in the New York City music scene, having already served as an assistant organist at Riverside Church and now serving as the director of the Gospel Choir at Marble Collegiate Church, both top notch programs. While they are a graduate school, Drew Theological is associated with Drew University, which has an undergrad music major. Drew is also listed among the schools that are ACT/SAT-optional.</p>
<p>It may be possible to arrange to study organ with Mark while attending Drew University as an undergrad music major. The college itself may or may not have much in the way of instruments, but there are several churches in the immediate area that have some very nice ones.</p>
<p>You might want to rethink the Early Decision thing. Not only do the colleges tend to go for the higher applicants and give little financial aid, but the timing can mess you up for other applications (they don't want you to apply elsewhere, but by the time you hear it can be too late for some colleges). Early Action is better--they tell you early, but you are not obligated.</p>
<p>I am working REALLY hard to raise my score, and I'm already seeing improvements. I'm going to get a good score next time, and go to a good school for music. </p>