Hey I’m currently a junior at high school and preparing for piano performance major for college.
I only got about 300 more days til my application is due so I am worried which school I should apply.
The schools I’m thinking about are
Juilliard
Curtis
Bienen
Eastman
Jacobs
san Francisco conservatory
NEC
Manhattan
I know Juilliard and Curtis are super hard to get in but I just want to try
I have to pick like 3 or 4 out of those list but I don’t know which
I don’t want to only apply for super hard schools cuz I’m not THAT confident that I can get in to those schools and plus I know how competitive it is
so any advices which schools I should apply to?
@mom2collegekids Unfortunately that advice does not work for students applying for music degrees as there is ABSOLUTELY no way to forecast the merit & financial aid awards in advance, and, even after notification they[re subject to change and additions. No music student should ever ever rule out a school in advance based on a presumption of cost - only after all the offers are in and schools have been allowed to match other programs’ offers.
@mikemac is right - the OP needs to head over to the Music Major forum where there are many knowledgeable parents, current applicants, and current students.
@lilyseo because piano is a very competitive major you need to add more schools, not narrow them down. You will have to submit pre-screening tapes and will be lucky to get auditions at all the schools to which you apply. Is your current piano teacher wise in the way of conservatory admissions? If not, you may wish to have an outside lesson with a conservatory level professor who can assess your skills in advance and give you some guidance on appropriate programs.
That may be true for performance merit but not for financial aid. That will be based solely on your income and asset info. Running the Net Price Calculators can only help inform the family of potential outcomes.
@Erin’sDad In the case of music performance financial aid - it will vary depending on merit - even if they describe it as need based. And the aid described as merit will also vary often depending on financial need. So truly, there’s no way to know in advance.
These schools are really different from one another. You can’t ask us “which should I apply to?” because we know nothing about you or what your goal is for undergrad. What we CAN do is encourage you to look into these schools and their faculty on the internet. Which ones really interest you after doing some research? Which faculty does your teacher recommend? Visit the campus if you can to see if you can picture yourself there, and to take a sample lesson.
And as SpiritManager says, apply to many schools to ensure that your prescreens are accepted at some. You can drop some schools off the list once you are safely accepted at your favorite.
All we know is that you are a potential piano performance major. We don’t know anything about your level as a pianist but we might be able to help in other ways. Can you give us a few other details, such as whether you prefer a conservatory inside a larger university, a stand-alone conservatory, or would consider a BA program as a fallback? How are your grades/scores (which would affect admission to places like Rice, USC, or Northwestern)? Do you prefer a city or a rural situation? What part of the country?
I currently live in Texas right now and there is this thing called TAPPS and I got a level 1 last year
I mean its not hard thing to get a level one but its the only thing to show my level
The pieces i’m practing for the audition are Paganini variations book2, Mozart sonata n.12, prelude and fugue XIV, kabalevsky preludes(4 of them), and I still haven’t decided the etudes.
My grades in school are about 3.5 out of 4.0
I would prefer city but it doesn’t really matter
The reason I can’t apply for a bunch of schools is because my parents want me to apply for other majors too such as engineering or business.
And if I apply for a lot of schools for music, lets say like 8 for piano and maybe 5 for other major, that’s more than $1500 just for applying for college
Applying for college is an investment. And part of the reason the price is so high is because you are applying to two separate sets of schools. You could apply to just 4-5 conservatories and then choose to mostly apply schools where you can audition for the music program but also potentially major in something else - like SUNY Purchase (has a major in arts management and a joint MBA program with LIU).
What about Oberlin? A top conservatory of music plus a top liberal arts college. They have a double-degree program where you can major in music performance and something else in the college, which might satisfy your parents.
Same thing with Bard - conservatory of music + great liberal arts college. Apparently all students at Bard are required to pursue a 5-year double major, and Annandale-on-Hudson is close enough for day trips into Manhattan for performances.
Also, Indiana University - I normally don’t recommend OOS public schools, but apparently Indiana gives out a lot of merit aid to their music performance students.
nonono I’m just applying for those business and engineering major because of my parents. If I get into one of the music schools I listed above, then I am gonna go to that college. Well I’m gonna have to talk to my parents about that because the reason they don’t want me to major in piano is because they think I won’t get a stable job If I major in piano performance.