<p>Does anybody have info about the piano program/department, especially in comparison to other NEC departments or piano departments at other schools. Can one expect it to be more or less competitive than the overall NEC admit rate of 28%? I am curious how high is the level at this school; I have a pretty good sense of how good students at Juilliard and Curtis are, and I wouldn't expect NEC students to be far behind... but the admit rate is significantly higher.</p>
<p>Others might be able to give you more specific information, but NEC is a pretty competitive program. Their 28% admit rate overall can be several things, it could be it is slightly easier to get in there, but it also could reflect that it may not get quite as many people applying there, given that it doesnāt have the universal name that Juilliard does (not saying NEC is inferior or whatnot, saying Juilliardās name is out there all over). </p>
<p>More importantly, it often boils down to what teacher you are trying to get in with. With schools like Juilliard and Curtis, my take is the range of student ability, because they get so many applying there, is going to be less than other schools because they can cherry pick the very best. I am not overly familiar with the piano faculty at NEC, but from what I know of other schools, and the little I know there, I suspect there are some teachers there students really want to study with and others not as much in demand, so it would be a lot more difficult to get into the top studios than the other onesā¦and likely the students in the top studios would likely be on average a lot better than the other teachersā¦which means that you might have a lot easier time getting into NEC applying to study with teacher X than with teacher Yā¦And I would guess that at the top studios the rate is probably closer to letās say the 7% you see at Juilliard, and that the other teachers on piano are probably a lot more difficult than the 28% rate, because Piano is so darn competitive, because it attracts a lot of applicants, I would guess (and that is all it is) that probably on Piano, depending on teacher, it probably ranges from low single digits to maybe 15%ā¦</p>
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<p>Wise and insightful comments @musicprnt! </p>
<p>You can almost always expect the acceptances rates in piano, flute, and voice to be lower than the overall rate for the school (cāmon, more people learn viola, double bass, and bassoon!). </p>
<p>I think looking at acceptance rates does not tell you much. It is easy for schools to manipulate the numbers (there is no standard definition of what constitutes an applicant, and some schools trying to game the U.S. News ranking system count anyone who has started an online application, even if they never submitted. If NEC did that, our āacceptance rateā would immediately drop by 8-10%. This is just one reason among many that my colleagues in music admissions stand united in our dislike of numeric rankings of music schools). </p>
<p>Ultimately your education is not determined by the acceptance rate ā if you find a great atmosphere, an amazing teacher, and plenty of performing and networking opportunities at a school with a 100% acceptance rate, that could be the perfect place for you. Every individualās path is different, so my advice is to look for what will fit you best rather than concerning yourself with where others are applying and being accepted.</p>
<p>And, to answer the original question, NEC has an amazing piano program with tremendous faculty: Russell Sherman, Wha Kyung Byun, Vivian Weilerstein, Bruce Brubaker, Gabriel Chodos, Stephen Drury, Randall Hodgkinson, Veronica Jochum, Alexander Korsantia, Meng-Chieh Liu, and Victor Rosenhaum ā thatās quite a list! More info at <a href=āPiano | New England Conservatoryā>The College | New England Conservatory;
<p>Best,
Alex Powell
Assistant Dean for Admissions, NEC</p>
<p>Thank you for your responses!!! </p>
<p>For what itās worth, I am interested in the long run to pursue conducting, and it seems to me that a piano major is the most practical undergraduate path towards that end. I have heard horror stories about the selectivity of Juilliard and Curtis. Furthermore, although I donāt know how accurate this may be, the stereotype that I gather about these schools is that if I studied piano there, I would be expected to spend 8 hours a day in a practice room. Obviously, I expect to maximize my level of piano playing over the next few years, but there are many, many aspects of music I am interested in besides my primary instrument. I have not visited the schools, so this is just what Iāve gathered based on hearsay, but it seems that NEC would accommodate this flexibility more readily. Not to mention I adore Boston!</p>
<p>If anybody has any relevant details in response to these specifics, I would appreciate it tremendously! Also, please correct me if my perceptions of school culture/attitudes are completely off. I have not yet had the opportunity to visit these institutions, so it is difficult for me to know very precisely what the deal is.</p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>
<p>I am the parent of a current NEC student. One thing that my son loves about NEC is that the program is flexible and open so that students can experiment and move between genres and try new things. My son is a junior studying Jazz Double Bass. (Alex now knows who he is ā¦hahahaha). He has played with students who are in other departments (such as Contemporary Improvisation and Classical). Another thing that seems nice about NEC is there is a culture of creativity and a culture of respect and encouragement among the students. This results in feelings of excitement about new work created by other students, rather than this feeling that everyone is competing against one another for some prize. </p>
<p>@ā gapoc- </p>
<p>I would be very, very careful about what you hear about admissions to schools, or āwhat it is like thereā, a lot of what you are hearing may be perceptions rather than reality, and you have to be careful to filter thing. For example, both Curtis and Juilliard (which are both great schools of music, donāt get me wrong on that, and competitive as hell) are so well known and have such a brand around them, that myth comes out of it. With Curtis, I wonāt/canāt argue it is over the top difficult to get in there, it is a small school, it is tuition free and has a faculty that can be like a whose whose of in demand teachers, and as a result it draws top students from all over the world, the tippy top of the tippy top, and they admit relatively few each year (I donāt know what it is for piano, but on violin, it is 10 or less roughly, and it is roughly the same level of competition as piano). Likewise, it is an intense conservatory experience, with a student body that is going to be less differentiated between the best and worst on any instrumentā¦</p>
<p>Juilliard has a global brand, and likewise it attracts a very high level of candidate, so they can pick and choose among those who apply. It doesnāt mean getting into Juilliard is impossible, nor does it mean that unless you practice 8 hours a day you wonāt get in there, it is a rough admit but believe me,there are kids at a wide range of levels getting in there, a lot depends on how they came to apply there, whether they know teachers, and so forth (and yes, the same thing applies to a certain extent to any other school of music at the top level, including Curtis) plus things like the way a kid plays can be taken in admission. There are a lot of kids who believe that to get into a top school you have to practice 8 hours a day, yet there are plenty of kids in music schools who donāt quite practice that much (and there are teachers who will tell you that much practicing is a waste of time, that more than X is wasted:). </p>
<p>As Alex wrote, the biggest factor is going to be finding a teacher you can work with and drive you forward, and keep in mind that the name of the school when it comes to being a musician means little if you donāt have a teacher that has molded you into what you need. I have heard kids, especially from overseas, say things like if you donāt go to Curtis or Juilliard forget it, that that is the only way to be a musician, and it isnāt true, the prestige of the school, its name, isnāt the key factor in making it, there are a lot of elements that make a school work or not for someone, and having your name on a Juilliard diploma or a Curtis diploma (or any school), when trying to work as a musician, along with 2.50 will get you on the subway by itself. </p>
<p>I am obviously not saying skip Juilliard or Curtis, it could be that one of them might be the best path for you, I am just saying that no school is the be all and end all, thatās all:). </p>