<p>Does anybody remember about what part of November you received word about auditioning in December? I seem to remember there was a thread about dates last year but I can't find it. I bet one of the "dads" knows.</p>
<p>May be within one of these:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/560006-oberlin-early-review.html?highlight=oberlin[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/560006-oberlin-early-review.html?highlight=oberlin</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/415641-oberlin-pre-screening-early-review.html?highlight=oberlin[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/415641-oberlin-pre-screening-early-review.html?highlight=oberlin</a></p>
<p>Thanks! It appears that you don’t hear till the middle of the month. I obviously must do my searches wrong. I try to look for “posts” as opposed to “threads” when I search since the info could be within another larger topic. You’d think I’d be better at this after three years. I can remember reading something and then I can’t find it. I am SO OLD.</p>
<p>I’ve found “threads” the best as a first try search. But there is so much buried info in seemingly unrelated threads, it can be difficult to find. </p>
<p>Fortunately,my memory is pretty good.</p>
<p>YAY. Just got email confirming we got the audition in December.</p>
<p>Congrats, POTO Mom! Having that first audition done feels like a great relief somehow…have a great visit!</p>
<p>Congrats POTO Mom–good luck to your musician!</p>
<p>Thanks everybody! The good news/bad news is that this is one of her top two choices and also her first audition so no opportunity to have a “practice” audition. She’s going to audition for a summer opera program this Sunday and it just happens to be her Oberlin songs so hopefully she can use this as a jumpstart.</p>
<p>POTOmom: I hear you. My D’s first audition is also at her first choice school. She couldn’t attend the local NATS comp because of All State (getting home at 2AM doesn’t really allow you to be ready for an 830 show time the next morning), so no real auditions beforehand.<br>
Oh well - in my family we all learned to swim by getting tossed into the deep end (under the watchful eye of caring parents). Apparently, I’m keeping up the tradition!</p>
<p>Best wishes for a great audition to her. Oberlin was my daughter’s first college audition too and things worked out. Sometimes you are at your best when the material is fresh and you have not yet had to grind your way through five auditions in as many weeks all in different cities.</p>
<p>We sent in two pieces on DVD for pre-screening. Both Italian - one fast/light aria, one slow/sad art song. For audition, do you think she should showcase other languages or stick with what got you in the show? My D soprano has 7 songs ready to go. Oberlin says you can change your repertoire. My thought was they have already seen the Italian in prescreening so maybe she should perform a different repertoire.</p>
<p>The pre-screen is a preliminary before invitation to a live audition.</p>
<p>The live audition will be the decision maker. She should sing her best repertoire there and begin with the strongest selection - whether it was on the pre-screen or not. </p>
<p>Some faculty hearing her audition may not even have heard the pre-screen. Different schools will have different systems, but it’s quite unlikely that every faculty member reviews every (or for that matter any) pre-screen. Graduate students have been known to be given this task… (although I guess that can’t really happen at Oberlin!)</p>
<p>If you do Oberlin early action for say double major with the music, do they tell you about merit financial aid when they accept you? I am asking because I don’t think my daughter would go if she did not get merit aid.</p>
<p>Futureholds, there may be info here <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/560006-oberlin-early-review.html?highlight=oberlin[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/560006-oberlin-early-review.html?highlight=oberlin</a></p>
<p>My daughter’s merit award was included in the materials she received 2-3 weeks after auditioning on Early Review weekend. I do not remember whether they gave us the need-based aid numbers then or later.</p>
<p>Realize also that the Conservatory admissions offer is non-binding and that you will have until May 1 to submit your response, so that there is no real rush on having to have the final aid numbers in December. Oberlin also provides some very good need-based aid packages, even to families with relatively high incomes. I would suggest that you wait until all of the numbers and results from other schools are in before making any decisions based solely on the merit award.</p>
<p>Addendum: I see that you may be talking about a double degree. If you are applying early for a non-music major, that part of the application is binding. You should realize there, however, that it is pretty easy to get into the College if you are already in the Conservatory. You could still convert the College application to a regular admissions application if you wanted to avoid being required to go there if accepted. Even if not accepted from the RA pool in the college, you can start the double degree program in second year provided you do well in your first-year College electives within the Conservatory program.</p>
<p>Thank you for your input. I had problems finding the info on the website. I not sure if she could get in as a violin major (non-prodigy but hard worker 10th years of lessons) but she wants to try for it. Eventually wants to go into ethnomusicology (I found out you need a phD and even then can’t find a job) Now in 11th grade so may go to the Oberlin Baroque program this summer. Mentor/artist in residence at Oberlin from last summer’s program in LA told her to apply. I am apprehensive about the cost since I am already stuck with full pay USC-a whole other story.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to hijack the thread, but if you are in California and she is interested in ethnomusicology, UCLA is the place to be. The department is well funded and very well regarded. (just don’t tell your USC student :))</p>
<p>futurehold: if your daughter is applying for a double major within the conservatory and applies early action, the decision would likely include any merit award; it would be nonbinding, as bassdad notes. There is a fine baroque violin faculty.
For ethno, note that there is a very small faculty (one!); there is, on the other hand, a huge theory department and a historical music faculty (and early music faculty as well), so she wouldn’t lack for plenty of courses in various aspects related to violin and ethno. There was a Winter Term course last year in gamelan with an important gamelanist (is that a word?) from Bali (?) last winter, and there is currently an Exco gamelan ensemble. You need to check though that ethno is actually offered as a major at Oberlin.<br>
Most undergrad music departments that include ethno (not all do, Stanford, for example, doesn’t) have small faculties in that area, with UCLA being a notable exception.</p>
<p>You cannot simultaneously work on a BA degree in music through the College and a BM degree in performance through the Conservatory. The double degree program requires that the BA be in an area other than music. It would be possible to do a BA through the College, take all of the available Ethno classes and audition into a violin teacher’s studio. She could also start in the Conservatory and pursue an Ethno minor in addition to the performance major.</p>
<p>The one situation that I think intended performance majors want to avoid is applying for both Early Review at Oberlin Conservatory and for Early Decision at the College. If a student did that and they happened to be accepted by the College but not the Conservatory, they could be in a position where they were obligated to attend the College and would be expected to withdraw all of their other applications, including the ones to other music schools.</p>
<p>The way financial aid works, you may be eligible for nothing at all with one in college in a particular year, but suddenly become eligible for a lot of aid from both schools when you have two in at the same time. That is precisely what happened to us and it is a scenario that is well worth discussing with both financial aid departments before coming to any conclusions based on the list prices.</p>
<p>I agree with musicamusica that if Ethnomusicology is the ultimate goal, there are places that will give her more immersion than Oberlin in that field earlier in her academic career.</p>
<p>A violin major can double major within the Oberlin conservatory in violin performance and musicology and/or minor in ethno. [Overview</a> - Oberlin College](<a href=“http://new.oberlin.edu/conservatory/departments/musicology/]Overview”>http://new.oberlin.edu/conservatory/departments/musicology/)
If your daughter does audition for EA, she should make a point of meeting the ethno professor, attending a class, talking to students studying ethno. It would be important to feel that this is someone she wants to study with, because the department is so small.</p>
<p>Most undergraduate musicology degrees are “general” and include ethno as a segment (along with theory/harmony and historical musicology) but not many have a degree in ethnomusicology per se, with UCLA a notable exception. At UCLA, ethnomusicology is in the College of Arts and Architecture, in a program that also has a jazz performance major (historical musicology, by contrast, is in the College of Letters and Sciences). Violin performance is also in the College of Arts and Architecture.</p>