Have to second compmom wrt NEC based on recent experience in D’s musical social group. The test score for one accepted student was below the national average, so if there is a baseline qualifier, I don’t think it is onerous.
NEC and Juilliard don’t even ask for test scores, they do get your academic transcripts (I didn’t know Peabody asked for test scores, they do), Curtis asks for the SAT I have never heard of anyone getting rejected because of test scores at Curtis, though. Programs like NYU and USC are music schools within a larger university and those kind of schools generally look closer at test scores and grades, and while they generally IME give music students a break compared to what academic admits would need to get in ie instead of 3.9 would accept a 3.5, not care about AP classes and so forth, it still is a standard.
NEC and Juilliard don’t ask for standardized tests and won’t look at them, and I believe the same is true of most of the other stand alone schools (Peabody is an exception). With grades, from what the admissions people told me they only look at them to make sure the person isn’t a total screw up who couldn’t handle theory and such, they definitely don’t care about AP tests,etc and they don’t have a “to get in here, you need a 3.x and above” that you have at the universities, it is more like “geez, this guy has failed all kinds of classes, no way they could handle theory”.
Peabody is part of Johns Hopkins. I don’t consider it freestanding like NEC, Curtis, Manhattan or Juilliard.
Peabody is part of Johns Hopkins, but for admissions they operate independently like those independent conservatories. My son is an example of that - JHU rejected him, Peabody accepted him.
So my question is, can he still go to Peabody if JHU rejectsd him? Thanks, good to know. After all these years of probably wrong idea on this 
Peabody operates like Eastman, with completely independent admissions decisions. If I recall, Eastman doesn’t even ask for SAT. Peabody has a minimal acceptable score, but is not at all what it would be for JHU. You can be accepted to the conservatory and not the university and still attend the conservatory.
@compmom Yes he was admitted to Peabody as a double major (I think, though the admission listed it as two Bacherlor of Music degrees) in Bass performance and Recording arts.
He can take any classes he wants at JHU, but he will have Peabody degrees, not JHU degrees, although the Peabody degrees apparently say JHU, so it’s all pretty muddy, lol!
Having dealt with schools where admission to both conservatory and university were necessary to attend, I never knew this about Peabody or Eastman. Good heavens! Thanks so much!
Is financial aid separate too?
Yes financial aid is separate - they made a point of telling us if they were admitted to both for dual degree, the package would come from JHU. Since S was only admitted to Peabody, his package came from them. There was a nice merit award, but no aid - my guess is JHU would have met need, but Peabody isn’t near it.
I kind of feel like our big mistake was the opposite. There were music opportunities for my second child that were challenging to work in because the first child was a year older and also busy in music, so we passed on them. I kind of feel like in the end that might have hurt his chances. He had 5 auditions. 4 were at better schools. He ended up with 3 rejections and one wait list. He also got a full ride at the decent state school where he applied as his 5th option. While in the big picture, the full ride is a wonderful opportunity, and he will have chances for all the Summer festivals, and help with grad school. I know he would rather be attending any of the other 4. Academically, he is competitive with all of the top students going for the prestigious schools, and is a NMF. We did not invest soon enough in his music.
Oh, @UniformMom it’s hard not to second guess yourself, isn’t it? That’s a tough situation. I know some students do a gap year to work on their music between HS and college. Is that something your S would consider if he isn’t happy with his choices?
If not, I’m sure he can still thrive at the state school and a full ride is most definitely a wonderful thing that will give him a lot of post-graduation flexibility!
My D wasn’t happy when I asked her to try the ACT again after she got a 34. I know that even without test prep (she didn’t do anything except take a practice test in a book), many students do better on a re-take just because of test familiarity. Fortunately her Saturday morning sacrifice worked in her favor. Her school offers a 4 year tuition scholarship for a 35, but only 1 year tuition for a 34. That one point increase was worth $$$$$$$ in her case.
@classicalsaxmom He is lucky that it is a state college with a decent conservatory. Not top tier, but still doable. And what made it a full ride was an additional merit scholarship on his instrument. It is good to be in a place where they want you. At least I am hoping he sees it this way soon. Right now he is recovering from the rejections.
No Compmom my d does not have official test accommodations. Believe it or not most instructors and teachers at the collegiate and high school level have “accommodated” her unofficially. For example, they’ll ask her to explain in person an essay question and allow her to take longer on math tests. That of course didn’t help with the act.
She graduated with a respectable 3.25 gpa and honors but scored dismally on the act. The schools that she was accepted to gave her great merit scholarships (one being a full tuition scholarship). So as I said, it all worked out. We will see what happens at grad school.
My only wish is that there was more disclosure and transparency from the schools. I’m fine with there being a minimum score for acceptance, just advertise it so that the applicant can make an informed choice and doesn’t have to waste the $100 prescreening fee. Say we are only taking one or two or no sopranos. Explain that if you do nkt have proficiency on piano, you will not be admitted. Oh yeah…and proficiency is defined as xyz. I understand that the audition piece maybe subjective. But why is it so hard to get that type of information for music majors?
@BassTheatreMom Just wondering at which score level you think you would have been better off - we just got DS’s SAT scores and we are pretty happy, and we are leaning toward not having him retake in June.
I would have preferred over 1400, but he was below. His math was stellar, but the verbal portion needed work. He could have scored at least another 60 points there I think. Now that we have all the admissions and financial offers, though, I’m not sure he would do it differently. He has several great schools that really want him, including NU which is academically one of the tougher nuts to crack (their 25th percentile SAT this year was 1400). He feels very positive about his options and after one last visit next week, will make a decision. So, in the end, it’s all working out.
If you search here on CC for "common dataset school name’ and you can find the 25th to 75th percentile of SAT scores for the most recent freshman class. I would be most comfortable being at the midrange of those numbers, and at the 75th percentile or higher if you want academic money in addition to music merit money. Good luck!
@BassTheatreMom - thanks! Is that old SAT or new SAT scoring? The common datasets (we have Naviance which shows this info) can be helpful, but it varies so much by school. For example, schools may require much higher SATs and GPAs for their premiere programs like engineering or business, whereas for music it does not matter as much. But it definitely matters for scholarship aid. We are looking at some schools we might not otherwise, mainly because they offer scholarships for strong academics.
My S took the new SAT. You are definitely right about scores varying within universities depending on the department. I think it is Carnegie Mellon that tells average scores in each of their colleges. I thought that was very helpful.
@Sguti40
“My only wish is that there was more disclosure and transparency from the schools. I’m fine with there being a minimum score for acceptance, just advertise it so that the applicant can make an informed choice and doesn’t have to waste the $100 prescreening fee. Say we are only taking one or two or no sopranos. Explain that if you do nkt have proficiency on piano, you will not be admitted. Oh yeah…and proficiency is defined as xyz. I understand that the audition piece maybe subjective. But why is it so hard to get that type of information for music majors?”
I agree that it’s tough to get real information from music schools. I can’t complain at the results of my D. She has done well with her acceptances, but the lack of information that can drive decision is discouraging at best.