Major: Vocal Performance and hoping for Dual Program with Journalism (or creative writing for schools that don’t have journalism)
Academics: 27 ACT and 1240 SAT (retaking both, huge drop off between my English (English way higher) and Math grades, with a tutor now and then retaking in fall. 4.1 weighted GPA on a 4.4 scale. I’ll have plenty of honors and 6 APs by the end of senior year.
Clubs:
- NHS, English Honor Society, SS Honor Society, Music Honor Society, Drama Club (President), Chamber Choir, Women’s Choir, School Musical (Leading role junior year)
Also: Author of two published novels and have been published in local renowned newspaper multiple times
My current list:
ASU
Baldwin Wallace
Binghamton
UCLA
Carnegie Mellon
Emerson
Florida State
Fredonia
University of Miami
UMich
NYU
Northwestern
Penn State
Potsdam
Purchase
URoch
U of Southern California
Syracuse
Congratulations on your accomplishments. I will only chance you for UCLA which is a Reach school with only a 19% admit rate for the School of Music or if you are applying for the College of L&S, then a 10% admit rate.
You need to calculate your 3 UC GPA’s and they are test blind which is in your favor. GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub
Freshman 2022:
| GPA |
Median |
Middle 25% - 75% |
| UC Fully Weighted GPA |
4.58 |
4.40-4.73 |
| UC Unweighted GPA |
4.00 |
3.95-4.00 |
They do require a Supplemental application in addition to the UC application along with an audition after the pre-screen for Music majors which should have more impact on your chances.
UCLA does not have a Creative Writing major but a concentration under the English Major and no Journalism major.
UCLA only considers first choice majors at the time of application (not alternate majors), and does not admit students into double major programs at the time of application; all double major students declare the secondary major after admission.
If you are not a CA resident, then UCLA costs will be close to $72K/year with little no FA or merit aid. Assume you will be full pay at UCLA.
Best of luck.
First(and possibly most important) question:
What is your budget?
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Without being able to understand the level of your vocal talent, it is likely impossible for anyone to understand your chances.
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While it would be hard to chance a vocal performance major, you should provide more info if you’d like people to help.
To start:
State of Residence
High School coursework/rigor
Budget/EFC
Unweighted GPA
Any hooks?
A few of these schools (USC, Northwestern, NYU, Carnegie Mellon, Michigan and maybe a few others) will require a major improvement on your test scores. Although you could do test optional.
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Are you hoping for a BM in vocal performance? If so, that will be audition based admission. Your audition will be weighed relative to others with the same voice part. There is no way to predict the strength of your audition relative to the rest of the audition group.
If you are taking voice lessons, your private teacher might be able to give you some direction in terms of schools that would be good choices.
It looks like you might be a NY state resident. I think you are doing the right thing by picking universities where a broad range of majors and courses are offered.
What do you hope to do with your vocal performance degree?
And agree….your price point would be helpful.
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I hope you will post in the music major forum. An suggest that you go there and read the Double Degree Dilemma essay in the Read Me thread on that forum. It uses hypothetical individuals to represent different ways to study music, including double degree. A BM will usually be by audition. For a BA you would often submit a supplement with video/recordig, music resume and letters of recommendation.
A BM is an immersive music degree with 2/3-3/4 classes in music and a BA often has 1/4-1/3 classes in music. Within the BA you might do a double major or major/minor or you might do a double degree BA/BM (some programs are BA/MM).
It looks like your list includes many BM programs so perhaps that is what you are focused on. If you want a BA you can look at schools with freer curricula (Brown, Amherst, Hamilton, Bennington, Sarah Lawrence etc.) Oberlin has both a BM and a newish BA in Musical Studies that gives access to the Conservatory.
Agree that it’s impossible to chance you for audition-based programs. Do you have a non-auditioned safety, or would you be happy going into a BA music program at any of these schools if you were not admitted to the BM?
I encourage you to read the Double Degree Dilemma thread to see if pursing a double major is the right choice for you. Double Degree Dilemma essay (written by David Lane) I was a BFA Musical Theatre and BFA Arts Administration double major in college, and pursuing a double major when one of those majors is a performance degree can be quite challenging. In order to graduate in 4 years, it will likely require some summer study or an extra semester or year. It’s important to know this when considering your budget.
I see that many of the schools on your list are also schools with highly-ranked BFA Musical Theatre programs. Were those schools chosen for that reason? Know that at some of these schools, there is limited (if any) crossover between the BM and BFA programs.
@CanadianMTgirl it seems @nysings is interested in a double degree, not a double major. Double degrees generally take 5 years.
Tagging @2plustrio who might have some insight on your school list.
Just wanted to suggest you look into Indiana University. It’s known for both its music school and its journalism program.
My son applied for VP for this fall start as a bass. Admittedly VP programs have fewer male/bass applicants and we know this helped him.
Your academics are fine. Its okay to help try to raise ACT with one more take.
The hard part is being accepted musically. My son was fortunate in that many of the colleges still allowed him to upload a video audition. He recorded this with the help of his voice teacher. He then did a few online auditions and met with college voice faculty when he did tours.
Out of your list, my son only applied to BW and Cuse. BW is a difficult musical admit as they have a highly rated conservatory (he was accepted). Cuse had over 500 applicants for 45 music spots. I know my son would not have been accepted to Cuse had he not applied as a music major as he had a lower gpa. We are counting our blessings on this.
As others have said, you need to start researching audition requirements and if these schools are potentially affordable. There is zero way to chance a VP major.
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My parents are offering me $40k a year, anything else would b student loans
I was accepted to All State and All Eastern for voice
State of Residence: NY
High School coursework/rigor: I’ll have 6 APs, almost all other classes are honors
Budget/EFC: Probably can do abt $50k a year. EFC has most of these schools around or under that
Unweighted GPA: Probably abt 3.7 on 4.0 scale
And yes, I plan to go test optional if my scores do not increase dramatically
My dream is to be on Broadway - hence why I’m applying to a decent amount of MT programs, but have VP programs as a fallback. If performing doesn’t work out I want to be a music journalist
NYU is over $80,000 a year. Will you get sufficient aid from NYU? If not, who will pay the additional more than $30,000 for you to attend.
Some of the schools on your list are costly and don’t guarantee to meet full need.
You have a decent list. It’s varied…but remember if a BFA or BM, you will need to audition. Not sure how many you can realistically plan to do.
@soozievt