<p>i understand. i do not like the last minute crunch. hopefully, we will be better focused and coordinated in the spring.</p>
<p>"What is a safety school for an 'accomplished' oboist?" is a difficult question to answer. One person's safety is another person's stretch, so it is really impossible to say on a forum like this. If an applicant's goal is to play in a major orchestra, then that applicant should be aiming for the top conservatories. The competition that these applicants are facing now to get into a top school is only a taste of what's to come when the competition is for a decent-paying job. We know several students who therefore decided that their "safety" would not be a music program, so they applied to their in-state universities as an undecided major. </p>
<p>While admission at schools like Michigan and Indiana is very competitive, the general pool of applicants is not the same as at schools like Eastman, Juilliard, and Curtis, even though there may be some overlap. For the right applicant (and there may only be a handful out there in a given year), Michigan and Indiana can be safety schools, but I agree that for the bulk of students they would not. As for Juilliard, I heard that 5 freshmen were accepted this year, two from Juilliard prep.</p>
<p>5 is probably as high as it ever goes, too-- surely they never graduate more than 3, at very most.</p>
<p>I thought Juilliard only accepted three this year. Two were definitely from the precollege.</p>
<p>Julliard accepted 2 oboists in the undergrad division and 1 in the graduate division (total is therefore 3) They have 4 spots in each division, (corresponding to the needs for an undergrad orchestra and a graduate school orchestra) . They will not know until November what openings might occur for next year, but it would seem unlikely that there would be any more than 2 openings for undergraduates (assuming that the 2 new students will not want to leave after one year...)
I believe both of the new undergrads were already Julliard students, in the pre-college, although the admissions dean would not say.
Hope this clears up any confusion.</p>
<p>
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an undergrad orchestra and a graduate school orchestra
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</p>
<p>Technically, this isn't exactly right. In previous years, they've had a "symphony" that is supposedly made up of first, second, and third year undergrads, and first year graduate students, and an "orchestra" which is supposed to be 4th year undergrad, and "continuing" graduate students.</p>
<p>The reality has been, though, that both orchestras are staffed as the result of blind auditions, and teacher input concerning strengths and needs of each student. Each concert was staffed differently, (and sometimes the individual pieces were staffed differently), and most students played in a cross-section of concerts. For instance, upper classmen and grads were often chosen for principal parts of the Symphony, where underclassmen might be given "easier" parts in the Orchestra. A piece might have a fantastically intricate violin part, requiring a high level of accomplishment, yet have a horn part with lots of rests and whole notes. </p>
<p>This year, they have removed the label "symphony" and have only "orchestras". Nothing else has really changed - each concert continues to be individually staffed. Apparently there was an idea held by some (students, concert-goers, etc) that the "symphony" was a lesser group, and therefore people weren't giving it the same degree of dedication. So they have removed the distinction, which was rather blurred anyway.</p>
<p>Their webpage still lists the separate orchestras, and makes it sound like students are in one or the other. It isn't like that. Therefore, I'm not sure that there is a strong effort to keep a certain number of grads vs. undergrads. They all audition together, and I know the past couple of years in the horn dept, they've accepted enough to keep the whole dept the same size, but I think grad vs. undergrad numbers have flexed a bit.</p>
<p>sorry to persist, I only meant that there are 2 orchestras, thus slots for 8 oboes...the devil is in the details, but I was trying to keep things simple! Some schools have more than 2 ensembles (orchestras, symphony bands, etc), and so more spots available...others (CIM, Curtis) have fewer...To return to my original post (and the original poster's question) the main thing is to ASK the admissions people how many spots are available, and then to be very realistic about what makes a "safety" choice.</p>