<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I went to college tour to Northwestern in last month.
It was so beautiful place and we watched a cello masterclass.
However, I am wondering why there is very few applicant who applied to Northwestern at the applied school list. Of course, Northwestern ask high academic stuff. Is that only reason?</p>
<p>Do not judge a school by how many times it is mentioned on a forum. CC music forum, however helpful, is a very very small cross section of applicants.</p>
<p>College Confidential tends to have a disproportionately large number east coast people; the midwest tends to be underrepresented, hence you will say much more talk about NEC, Bard, Juilliard, CIM, Peabody etc. on here than about schools that are a long ways from the east coast like NW. Many students prefer to stay closer to home (or perhaps their parents encourage them to stay closer to home!).</p>
<p>Northwestern is a top academic school and it has a solid school of music. If you search threads on here you will find mention made of the program more then a bit. There have been people on this board over the years who have attended/had kids attend, so if you don’t see many people applying this year it may not mean much. As others have pointed out CC doesn’t represent all parents of music students and so when you see where people apply here it may not mean much about a particular program. One of the things everyone emphasizes on here is to do the research about a program, check out the teachers, find people who have gone there and get an idea from that about what it was like and not to use entirely what is said here or by omission, where people apply or don’t apply. Conversely, if you looked at the numbers of applicants to places like Juilliard, NEC, CIM, etc, etc, you would think those most be the only place to apply, they must necessarily be the ‘best’ programs, and that isn’t true either, for a lot of reasons.</p>
<p>Thank you for comments.
I wondered why there are so few who applied to Northwestern but many applied to Rice.
Now I understand well and become more confident.</p>
<p>My son is in his sophomore year at Northwestern (horn). I can’t say enough about how terrific the music program is. I’ve had the pleasure of attending a variety of ensemble concerts and recitals and am blown away by the talent and high level of musical achievement. The length and breadth of class offerings, top notch instruction, and numerous performing opportunities have impressed me. </p>
<p>Last year as a freshman, my son performed in two major ensembles each quarter, his quintet wound up with a paying gig, along with performing regularly around Evanston. He took part in a student-led concert, and was asked to accompany several student recitals (both undergrad and masters-level). His professor is concerned about the whole student, and the program seems dedicated not just to teaching music, but how to audition and “win” a job.</p>
<p>There was guidance when choosing a variety of summer programs, which led him to be accepted and participate in 4 programs on full scholarship – Texas Music Festival, Bar Harbor Brass, Summer Brass Institute, and Orford. He’ll be performing with the NYSOS (New York String Orchestra) at Carnegie Hall in a few weeks. Again, through the encouragement and guidance of his professor.</p>
<p>Over and above music classes, NU offers high level courses, and a larger array of student activities than can be found at a straight conservatory. Of course, mine is too busy for just about anything that doesn’t involve music <grin>, but there’s something for everyone at this school.</grin></p>
<p>A Cellist and violist were members of the Youtube symphony 2011 and performed in Sydney last summer, proving the NU Bienen school has as many accomplished strings as winds.</p>
<p>I fully endorse HornistMom’s post. I too, have a sophomore trombonist at NU in trombone performance. He is in an amazing place and I might add his access to Chicago and performances of the CSO, Lyric Opera and others is amazing…which he attends regularly. Many of the NU music faculty are associated with the CSO and other part time professors fly into Chicago to work with the students, such as Tim Higgins with the San Francisco Symphony. The brass programs are phenomenal - my son placed in international competition as a freshman last year and won a national competition, as did many others in his studio. I like the teaching styles and perspective of the faculty he studies with and he has loved performing with NUSO and SWE. The Bienen School at NU is an exceptional education and learning environment and with all the benefits of its proximity to Chicago and the charm of the town of Evanston (which is a North Shore community of Chicago). We are from the South and even with the traumatic change in weather (
are so happy with the decision to attend there!</p>
<p>In response to why you see more people applying to Rice then Northwestern, this is part of the “name game” that many people use, where perception and name means a lot to people. Juilliard gets a ton of applicants because it is literally known all over the world and many believe it is ‘the best’ conservatory (without necessarily knowing why), it is kind of like people buying brand X of something because it has the reputation of being ‘the best’ (reminds me in grad school in a course on quality, about one person who insisted that Honda cars represented quality, without being able to say why:). </p>
<p>The Shepherd school at Rice has a lot of buzz around it, while they are comparatively new, they have aggressively set out to build a world class program over the past several decades, gotten top notch faculty, great facilities, and that has given them a name, it is out there, if perhaps not as much as Juilliard in common perception. Northwestern has a great program, in some areas stronger then others, but still a great program and is known in musical circles, but it doesn’t necessarily have the ‘name buzz’ that other schools do (there is a rough analogy in terms of business schools, the Kellog School at Northwestern is one of the top 10 business programs, but if you sampled a lot of people, you would probably hear Yale or Havard or Wharton before they mentioned Kellog, though within Business circles Kellog is up there with them). </p>
<p>It doesn’t mean that Rice and Juilliard’s programs aren’t strong programs that attract top students (that is one area where name does have influence, Rice and Juilliard attract a lot of applicants, especially very strong ones because of their name in part or full) or that Northwestern is ‘better’ then them, it is just that name still attracts a lot of people, which isn’t necessarily a good thing (among other things, having the assumption that getting into a Juilliard or Rice means when they get out, their path is ‘gilder’, kind of like some ivy grads believe with their degrees). </p>
<p>The one point that people emphasize on here is that what is important is what works for the student, teaching violin is not like teaching calculus or chemistry, and students have their own needs. Some students could thrive at a smaller but less strong program because they are self motivated and also enjoyed more individual attention, someone else might need to be around strong musicians at their level or better to be driven forward, and so forth. Northwestern (hypothetically) might be hog heaven for a brass student (which I have actually heard is a dynamite program) but might not be strong enough for a cello student or a violin student (hypothetically, again, I don’t know how good Northwestern’s string program is), whereas Rice might be better for strings and be so so for brass (again, Hypothetically…)…</p>
<p>It is why students need to do their own research and see what works for them rather then what others tell them. What other people say is part of the research, of course, and needs to be factored in, but for example, someone could say “My nephew went to Rice and hated the brass program, he said it was full of nasty, cutthroat kids and faculty who encouraged that” and that could say more about the nephew then the program…it is important to weight what people say against what you learn, and decide based on all factors…(and likewise, someone could say "oh, the violin faculty at school X is so great, my son had a great time there) and you find out the kid had a great time, but when he came out couldn’t get into a good grad program and was otherwise a weak player…you get the idea I hope. </p>
<p>The key idea is no program is perfect, no program is perfect for all students, and in the end it is what the school does for its students, and not its name, that matters when getting out there in the world:)</p>
<p>I understand what you mean, Musicprnt,
Each situation is different according to student’s situation.
However, I just want to add a comment about string program, Northwestern has a cello teacher Mr. Hans Jensen and also I heard they made a contract with Lynn Harrell as a continuous guest artist to give a master class.</p>
<p>If you go to last year’s acceptances thread (go to the last page and scroll down to the list of acceptances by name of school rather than user name), you’ll see a decently long list of people who were accepted to Northwestern, and since their admission rate for music is pretty low, I’m sure there were more who applied and didn’t get in. Northwestern is well-known in music circles as top-notch and academics in the university all also superb.</p>
<p>My son applied and submitted his prescreen. We’re in RI.</p>
<p>Where’s this “applied school list”?</p>
<p>At the top of the Music Major page, there are a number of “sticky” threads that begin with the word IMPORTANT. Last year’s acceptances are the 6th one down, called Master List of Music School Acceptances, Fall 2011.</p>
<p>OK, that I knew about. It sounded like there was a new list for this year’s applications.</p>
<p>I heard there are early decision acceptance at Northwestern. Is there anybody who accepted?</p>
<p>My son has applied to Northwestern for percussion performance. Does anyone have an idea as to how much scholarship money is provided for music students? I know most of the scholarship money Northwestern provides is need-based so I am particularly interested if anyone has a range for non-need based scholarship money offered through the music school.</p>
<p>Music scholarship merit money for Northwestern has traditionally been quite minimal. As in under $5,000. And it is even rare at that range.</p>
<p>I agree with info about music merit $$ from NU or undergrad music performance majors – I checked this out thoroughly with music folks at NU when my S entered the Music Performance program. It seems music merit money is given out to the grad program. I will say the need based aid (at least for us) is very fair and accurate based on our income. They do use FAFSA, CSS Profile and IDOC verification in awarding need based aid. The music admin folks at NU are very helpful and straightforward with information when you talk to them. I have had great experiences in getting accurate information from NU. I highly recommend calling them and speaking directly with any specific questions or needs you may have for your planning.</p>