<p>Soprano Mom,</p>
<p>The music school's SAT is "only" around 1350 which translates to around 30 on ACT. Your D's ACT is 32; I don't see how that's a reach esp. when you said audition is her strength. Also, as I mentioned before, the average class rank of the music students is 87 percentile, which means most music students were actually outside, not inside, the top-10% of their HS class. The average HS GPA is high but not very high.</p>
<p>Soprano Mom,</p>
<p>I would specifically ask the guidance counselor if he is familiar with MUSIC admissions at Northwestern and any other schools your D is interested in before becoming overly worried about his experience with students outside the music field. The audition is very important at Northwestern - if it isn't acceptable to the faculty, the student won't be admitted no matter what the stats are. </p>
<p>As others have noted, high school college counselors frequently haven't had experience with music admissions. Music is unnusual in that the audition is the primary selection criteria. Following that, different schools put different emphasis on test scores, grades, rank, etc. For example, for many conservatories, SAT/ACT's aren't required at all and grade/rank placements and course expectations aren't exceedingly high. Universities have differing expectations - e.g. IU's grade/score requirements are quite reasonable, U of Michigan, Rice and Northwestern's expectations are higher. </p>
<p>Have you and D disscussed her college choices with her voice teacher? I think I'd put more weight on what your D's teacher says she should expect from the audition process and the schools the teacher recommends. Your D sounds in great shape academically, I think you can worry less about the high school coursework... (Just one stranger's thoughts for what they are worth! Best to you both - it is an tough time with lots of uncertainty!)</p>
<p>One other anecdotal thought for what it is worth,</p>
<p>I know 2 kids in the past 5 years who, though talented musicians, were rejected from Northwestern. Both explored the rejection and learned that they were high on the faculty lists of accepted students, but hadn't been accepted academically. Both were advised by to go elsewhere, do well academically and transfer to NU. One selected this route and has since graduated from NU. The other went on to conservatory, was happy there and didn't choose to transfer.</p>
<p>Northwestern is notoriously tough on admissions, but my oldest son got in (not a musician) with 1410 and3.5. His leadership resume was outstanding,though, with national-level achievements. He graduated from NU in 2006.</p>
<p>Soprano Mom, Your high school counselor sounds a bit like ours three years ago...not fully aware of the music conservatory route, and convinced that DD's chances at several top schools were slim based solely on her academics (which were very good, but far from top of her class). My advice is not to let that discourage you (or, more importantly, your daughter!). Although DD ultimately chose UMich, she was admitted to Northwestern as well as a number of other top schools with stats that sound similar to your daughter's. Sometimes college/conservatory admissions officers also take into consideration the amount of time a child is spending on a major extracurricular activity (ie, top level music performance) and can see the overall picture more clearly than the high school counselors.</p>
<p>Our GC told our son "don't bother applying to Boston University, you'll never get accepted." He graduated from there in May 2007. When he got his acceptance and very generous performance award, I copied it and told him to give it to his GC. Oddly, this same kid did NOT get academically accepted to University of Maryland (CR 730, Math 590). But he also didn't get the ONE acceptance on his instrument to the music department either.</p>
<p>Coming to this a little late. For what it's worth: Son got in vocal performance with 2250 SAT, 4.01 W GPA--NOT in top 10% of class and .2 lower than the NU accepted GPA average from his very large, highly competitive New England high school (where, interestingly, more and more kids apply every year to NU). A friend with much lower stats got in the year before, but he also got into two top conservatories with lots of talent money and chose to go to one of them (sometimes wishes he'd gone to a university rather than a stand-alone conservatory). It's easier for males, I'm guessing (not to belittle my S--I think he's talented! and the boy who got in last year has an awesome opera-bound voice). A fabulous soprano friend of my son's with higher GPA did not get into NU.</p>
<p>We didn't use his GC for advice, just paperwork. In any case, you can't know until you try.</p>
<p>FYI
New opera director hired for fall 2008: Jay Lessenger
New jazz studies program coordinator for fall 2008: Victor Goines</p>
<p>New $90 million music building to be completed by spring 2012.
New endowment announced - Bienen School of Music.
Full tuition for most music grad students.</p>
<p>HUGE things happening at Northwestern University (Bienen) School of Music. it will be exciting to watch its climb to the very top tier over the next decade.</p>
<p>bkb1958:
Do you know if a new percussion professor has been hired? And, if so, who would that be? Thanks.</p>
<p>i DO know that a new percussion professor has been hired. word is that she is also phenomenal.<br>
i can't remember the name, however; contact Music Admissions and ask for Ryan O'Mealey.</p>
<p>Thanks bkb1958. I called. It's She-e Wu from Rutgers. Does anyone out there know anything about her? Her web bio is impressive.</p>
<p>Rice, Umich, CMellon, JHU and Vanderbilt are considered much more prestigious musically than northwestern, especially in vocal performance. Northwestern focuses on academia much more than music..as of now, this could change with the new music building.</p>
<p>I know kids who have chosen Northwestern for vocal performance over Peabody. Peabody is a mixed bag for vocal performance and it's not a slam dunk for everyone. I can definitely see choosing Northwestern over CMU for vocal performance at this point. I'm sure CMU will rebuild the voice department but they have lost a lot of teachers. They seemed to have problems regrouping from the loss of Mimi Lerner.</p>
<p>I don't know anything about vocal performance, but for trumpet performance Northwestern is among the best. It may depend on the teachers at each university.</p>
<p>Anyone have a status update about the program and jazz faculty?</p>
<p>oh yes. it's full swing this year with Victor Goines and a top-notch new faculty. watch this program rise to the very top.</p>
<p>"Rice, Umich, CMellon, JHU and Vanderbilt are considered much more prestigious musically than northwestern, especially in vocal performance."</p>
<p>I know the pc thing to do is to say that music school categorizations and rankings are subjective, but that description of Northwestern is just not true. Vanderbilt's program is /much/ less well known and regarded than Northwestern's; Rice, CMU, Michigan, and Peabody are perhaps more comparable (it varies by department, of course). Only Rice could perhaps be described as generally more prestigious, but Northwestern is quite solidly in the same category.</p>
<p>I agree with fiddlefrog about Vandy. I would say that Rice is better than the others mentioned... Peabody has the name of course. </p>
<p>I would say that Northwestern isn't a top school, and unless someone is just dying to go to school in Evanston I don't see why you would go up there to study voice. I think you could do just as well at a lot of programs. Lot's of things are a reach, but some things are unnecessary because there is little benefit to getting it.</p>
<p>I also agree about what people are saying about Northwestern's admissions... It's very difficult to get in up there. You have an amazing transcript and a good scores. I know a few singers who wouldn't have gotten into most respected programs who got in up there. </p>
<p>I sort of have an issue with this, in a music school where academic ability is more valued than artistic achievement and potential, you're always going to get academics rather than artists.</p>
<p>CCMguy...this is very misleading. NW has some of the best faculty in music in the country. THE best trumpet faculty, probably. To say that it is not a top school is just wrong. It depends on the faculty, of course, but overall it's an extremely well respected music school. NW is the school that just populated the trumpet section of the New York Philharmonic (as well as the principal slot of the Chicago Phil), so to say that it isn't a top school and you get academics rather artists is really just plain wrong.</p>
<p>YOU, CCM GUY ARE VERY, VERY WRONG. NORTHWESTERN HAS A GREAT VOCAL MUSIC PROGRAM and what is wrong with the SMART AND TALENTED kids who get accepted to it? First of all, it is very competitive as far as grades AND TALENT. My Daughter was accepted and will be attending Northwestern which was her first choice. She was also accepted to six other very fine music schools but chose Northwestern for all it has to offer. She is very proud to be a part of their program.</p>
<p>Maybe you should do some investigating before you go and rip apart a great school/program. CCM is not the only school with a good vocal music program. Hmm...maybe you didn't have the grades to get into a school like NU.</p>