Just curious. Has anyone applied to Oberlin College or Conservatory successfully as a homeschooled student? I was wondering if they welcome homeschoolers. Thanks
My daughter is there now as a first year in the conservatory, homeschooled all the way through. She has met a few other homeschoolers. The conservatory was quite respectful and at ease with her transcript and application. Because the audition counts for so much of the application, I believe it puts homeschoolers on a more equal footing. Not sure about the college or double degree. She loves it and is surrounded by music. The drive out there was punctuated with giggling questions like “how do I go to class?” Answer: “you probably walk in the door and find a place to sit. I think.” She is a little taken aback by the number of students who don’t do all the reading or assignments, might be less of a problem for those self-motivated homeschoolers!
I read this forum a lot last year to try to understand how the audition process worked. You’ve probably seen it but if you search for the article by Bassdad entitled something like “so you want to be a professional musician” in the music major forum, it was really helpful.
Thanks for your reply. I read that the students have to take a minimum of 7 courses (21 hours) per semester. How is your daughter handling that? Does she find 21 hours very demanding? Do conservatory students have to take any core classes, like English, Math, Science?
Hi, one of the draws for her was that conservatory students have to take one college credit per term, but instead of having a required set of courses, they can take anything from the college, eg, astronomy, classical literature, gender studies, anything. Required this term have been private lessons and the studio course, which is about the overall understanding and maintenance of her instrument, music history, theory, aural skills, ensemble, and a secondary piano course. She chose an elective called effective study habits which has been great for her to organize herself into a college student. Very demanding, plus she’s expected to practice 3 - 4 hours a day. She was overwhelmed at first, but had an active plan to keep on track with assignments. She wished in the first few weeks that she had more of a social life, as there are so many interesting fun people there. She made a pretty conscious decision to stay focused on her work. My feeling is that homeschoolers can thrive in this environment based on their (typically) grounded sense of self, in that the novelty of “freedom” and having to figure out who you are in college are kind of moot.
We just received word that my son has passed screening. Yay! I was thinking about asking for a sample lesson with one of the faculty while we are there for the live audition. Would that be a good or bad idea? We can’t afford a separate trip just for a sample lesson. Any thoughts?
Hi, I think it’s a great idea. I believe that some teachers won’t do sample lessons around the time of auditions, but that should be somewhere on their or the college website, something to keep in mind. Congrats to your son on passing the pre-screen!! Oberlin gives excellent financial aid and is need blind for conservatory admissions, both of which were important to us as a family with very modest income.
When you said excellent financial aid, do you mean merit scholarship? Is Oberlin known for being generous with their scholarship offerings?
They did give her some merit aid but also generous need based aid. They will meet 100% of what they determine to be your family’s financial need with a combination of grants, work study, merit, and federal loans including Pell and Stafford loans. This part is not as complicated as it might seem. I don’t know whether Oberlin is considered generous with merit aid or not, perhaps others can speak to this.