<p>As a point of reference, last year I had a student applying to colleges for Music Composition (auditions were required at many of her schools). She got into quite a few, including with scholarships. Her academic profile is much better than yours. She is at Rice University's Shepard School of Music and also got into Oberlin (these schools require acceptance into the music school and into the college itself academically). These are quite selective. She was rejected at Northwestern.</p>
1 Like
<p>It is also unusual that you would know that you were rejected from Northwestern University already as I do not think their admissions decisions for Regular Decision have been released yet (I have students who are applicants there this year and have in the past as well).</p>
<p>Did you apply Early Decision? if so, those results came out two months ago and that is my confusion that you are writing as if this just happened but perhaps you were rejected in December during the ED cycle.</p>
<p>Good point, Sooziet....they do not reveal music admissions until the RD results come out. </p>
<p>Besides the ACT score, the other question mark is your reference letters from your academic teachers. Before you get anything sent anywhere else, you might want to have an academic adviser screen what is going out. </p>
<p>NU does require music students to respond to their essay prompts....and they are quirky sometimes. Perhaps the ACT was the major issue. </p>
<p>You are surely quite talented. You will find a place for yourself, and you can make it work. Good luck to you.</p>
<p>I found out about NU about 2 months ago because I did ED, but when I contacted Mr.kujala he said I did great on my audition. That is how I know about the music part. Also the reason I thought I had a chance was because several people in the music department said if you get into music you get into the university. I now know that is not the case</p>
<p>A quick check reveals 56 colleges within 20 miles of Evanston. Admittedly, many of those are obviously not what you want for one reason or another. However, there are several possibilities you may still want to consider, for example: </p>
<p>Wright College of the City Colleges of Chicago is within striking distance and, with the money you save over tuition at Northwestern, you could pay for your lessons and either buy a car or take a cab to your lesson each week.</p>
<p>Oakton Community College in Des Plains is a little farther away, but may be preferable if you want something less urban.</p>
<p>Roosevelt University is a bit farther away and more expensive than the community colleges, but your GPA and ACT score may qualify you for a very nice automatic merit scholarship there. The school itself has rolling admissions. Note that the idea here is that you are not applying to their Chicago College of Performing Arts - it is too late for that. You may, however, be able to work your way into one of their ensembles and use their facilities if Wally Kujala has a word with Don Peck.</p>
<p>The key is whether Kujala will take you on as a private student. If you mean what you say that all you care about is being able to study with him, and he is willing, you can find another college at least temporarily and make this work.</p>
<p>You may also want to seek out the CC'er with user name Cosmos. She attends the University of Chicago for academics but is studying double bass across town at another school (it may even be Chicago College of Performing Arts, I am not certain.) If you PM her, she may be willing to share her experience with attending one school in Chicago and taking music lessons at another.</p>
<p>Thanks BassDad for all your help! I will definitely keep your advice in mind!</p>
<p>Keeping in mind is good, but action will be required fairly soon if you are interested in Roosevelt or another four-year rolling admissions school in the Chicago area and you want any scholarship money.</p>
<p>I presume you have applied and auditioned for other schools, right? I'm hoping so. </p>
<p>I think you have some misconceptions. Some schools have a bifurcated admissions process where there is a separate admissions to the music school and a separate one to the university.....example: Oberlin or Carnegie Mellon's music conservatories. At some schools, it is all or nothing....just ONE admissions process. I believe that is the case at Northwestern. You say you got accepted for music at Northwestern but not to the university but I do not believe that they have separate admissions. Based on what you wrote, I believe that the flute professor told you that you had a great audition. That is not the same as "acceptance." Acceptance to Northwestern is one process in entirety, I believe.</p>
<p>soozie,</p>
<p>Somewhat off topic, but my impression from having a daughter at the Conservatory at Oberlin is that what you say about their admissions procedure is only part of the story. You are indeed correct that those seeking admission to the Dual Degree program apply to both the college and conservatory separately and must be admitted to both to start in that program as a freshman. However, those who apply only to the Conservatory need not be vetted by the College admissions department. The Conservatory admissions department, which is a separate entity, makes its own judgment based on both academic and musical merit and renders a single decision for admission to the Conservatory. Students who apply for the Dual Degree program and are accepted by the Conservatory but not the college still have the option of attending the Conservatory and they can even petition to be admitted into the Dual Degree program in their sophomore year if they do well in their College electives in freshman year.</p>
<p>BassDad, thank you for that important correction about Oberlin. I have only had one student apply and she applied for the Dual Degree program and that is why that was my recollection of Oberlin being a dual admissions procedure. I was trying to think of a music school like that. I deal more with students who have applied to theater programs and in THAT instance, with BFA degree programs....SOME schools have a bifurcated process with two separate admissions processes and SOME are just ONE entire admissions process. In any case, I really think Northwestern is ONE process and that there is no separate admissions decision/letter rendered for JUST the music program. The OP stated she was accepted for music but I believe her feedback was that she had a great audition and that the academic side of her SINGLE ADMISSIONS PROCESS was what kept her out but not that she was "accepted" to the school for music. </p>
<p>I appreciate that you clarified the process at Oberlin as I don't want to mislead anyone and I have only had one student apply there for music and she did indeed want the Dual Degree Program and got in.</p>
<p>There is an office of Music Admissions at Northwestern which is separate from general undergraduate admissions. The OP was correct to contact Music Admisisons with her questions. </p>
<p>If the music faculty indicates they are not interested in the candidate, Music Admissions will not offer admission - even if their stats and application package would have been acceptable - even desirable - to the University at large. </p>
<p>Office of Music Admission and Financial Aid
Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music
Room 1, Music Administration Building
711 Elgin Road Evanston, IL 60208-1200
847-491-3141
Fax: 847-467-7440</p>
<p>Office of Undergraduate Admission
Northwestern University
1801 Hinman Avenue
Evanston, Illinois 60208-1260</p>
<p>fiddlestick....you are right that even if a student would be acceptable at the university at large, if they are not acceptable artistically in the music dept., they won't get accepted. The inverse is also true....they may be artstically acceptable but not acceptable for admisions at large to the university.</p>
<p>UCLA is similar: for performance, students apply to the College of Arts and Architecture, and must audition. If not accepted by the performance department, no admission to UCLA even if you would otherwise have been accepted into the College of Letters and Sciences, and you can't apply to both. On a tour, I watched a father and son walk away during the question/answer session when they learned that his failure to pass the pre-screening meant that he was rejected from UCLA. Admission in performance also requires strong academics at UCLA, because it is a B.A. program, and with UC Berkeley, one of the two flagship, most competitive, UC's.</p>
<p>To nuance the point I intended above (and failed to make well) is that there is a separate Music Admissions office reviewing academic stats for prospective music majors - housed in a building with music studios, classrooms and other music administrative offices - not connected with more general university admissions. Profs do have interaction with Music Admissions and can and do influence and change certain Music Admission decisions.</p>
<p>I don't doubt that professors have pull with admissions. Still, a student needs to be academically admissable and in the ballpark for the university's standards.</p>
<p>Mamenyu- I don't know if I'm understanding you correctly, but the UCLA rep told us, that in an audition or portfolio based application, as long as you meet the UC requirements (3.0 GPA in state) you are eligible for admission if the department wants you. And we know students - with low GPA's - who got in that way.</p>
<p>yeah all true.</p>
<p>that standard (I mean for peabody?!) seems extreme. Some of the best teachers are at great universities (John Hopkins, Northwestern, Rice, Carnegie Mellon, U Rochester) It seems so hard to get in!</p>
<p>Re UCLA, it is true that the GPA requirement for the College of Arts and Architecture is not as high as for Letters and Sciences, which is probably much closer to 4.0, but a 3.0 is way higher than most stand-alone conservatories require. The stickler at UCLA is that even if you have a 4.0 and 2400 on the SAT, if you don't do well on your audition and are not admitted in performance, you can't major in, say music history, which is in the Colleges of Letters and Sciences. This may sound like no big deal if you aren't from California, where UCLA is one of the two top UC options, and fairly reasonable in cost, even with the recent fee hikes (around $8.000 per year in fees, i.e., tuition). It is a bit of a gamble for a straight A student who is thinking of trying to do a double major in music performance and an academic subject, or, as a fallback, just doing the academic subject and playing music as an extracurricular.<br>
For scholarship purposes, the Regent's Scholarship at in the College of Arts and Architecture, which is prestigious and generous in terms of stipend and other benefits (dorms, parking, counseling) is selected separately from the other schools, and largely based on academic stats.<br>
With the infusion of money from Herb Alpert, there are a lot of changes in the music department, which formerly had a lot of rifts among its various elements, which, although in the same building, were in different Colleges.</p>