<p>Hi all,</p>
<p>this is the first time for me to actually post something on this website. I play violin and I recently got emails from some of the schools that I passed the pre screening round. I don't really know if I should be proud of myself or I made it through just because the passing rate is pretty high. And if anybody's familiar with how they select people to audition live, can you please tell me? :) I'm just curious if my talent was/is enough or my chances are still pretty low..... thank you in advance who replies to this thread!</p>
<p>It’s incredibly tough to find specific numbers regarding what percentage of applicants passes prescreening, and what percentage gets in after successfully live auditioning. At some schools, it’s just an initial glance at your playing to weed out those that really have no shot at being admitted. At others (namely top level conservatories), a sizable amount of talented students do not pass prescreening because there are so few audition slots for such a large applicant pool. The best thing you can do is not take it too seriously either way: If you pass prescreening, great! Be proud that you’ve made it through this initial step in the process, but know that your level of preparation for auditions will still need to be incredibly high to be accepted (and hopefully receive scholarship). If you don’t pass everywhere, don’t sweat it. Prescreening results have been known to be surprising. I know of a kid currently studying at Juilliard with significant merit scholarship who did not pass prescreening at Eastman. Regardless, prepare for every audition as if there is only one spot. Play your best, and you’ll be in good shape.</p>
<p>rachelee: You ask how they select people to audition live: Your prescreen is listened to (although often not in its entirety and sometimes only a couple minutes of it is necessary) and if you stand a reasonable chance of admission, then you are invited to audition. </p>
<p>Schools don’t want to waste your time or the time of their panel that listens to the auditions, so if you are not “in the ballpark” in terms of skill level, you will not be invited to audition. So if you have applied to very selective schools and passed the prescreen, then clearly you play well.</p>
<p>Thank you for your messages!! that just gave me some confidence… because lately i’ve been somewhat discouraged and lazy when practicing… thank you again!</p>
<p>At Northwestern, does anyone know they scan your application, grades, recommendations and scores before seeing if you are eligible to audition? Or is it only based on the DVD? What about at USC?</p>
<p>@showbizgirl – at these places, in our experience, it depends on the instrument. (I know an instrument with a more elaborate process at USC than some of the other instruments, for example)
Take all elements of the app/process seriously at both these schools, though. I believe each piece of the puzzle is important, though year to year I am sure there are varying numbers of openings and competition per instrument, of course.</p>
<p>^ i agree.</p>
<p>but what i find kinda ridiculous, though, is that some schools like USC take grades equally as your audition so if you don’t have grades as other non-music major applicants, your chances of getting in gets lower… idk if that’s entirely true…but it’s one of my concerns too cus my grades in high school weren’t perfect like straight A’s but i have fairly good grades.</p>
<p>While both types of institutions are excellent, there is an academic difference between a SOM at a major uni like USC or Northwestern vs. a music conservatory. It is interesting if students are more inclined towards one type of institution vs. the other. That has meaning, in my experience.</p>
<p>Your apps for a SOM are going to be complex and or require applying to the SOM as well as the univ.</p>
<p>I recommend being as well prepared as possible academically, if you are applying to SOM’s at major unis for three reasons (not related to teacher – top music profs work at SOM’s as well as conservatories):
One, you may help your chances getting in. Two, it will help if you take non-Music academic courses, you will be better prepared. Both USC and Northwestern are fast-paced top unis. Third, if you should change your major…you will be in position to succeed in another major at a uni like USC or Northwestern.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for the info! @lateparty: What is the dept. a Thornton with the more in-depth screening process?</p>
<p>showbiz and rachel, my son is freshman at Thornton. If you search Raddad’s posts he gives a pretty accurate assessment of how USC judges STATs vs. audition/talent, probably better than I could. But in a nutshell, a fantastic audition can make up for lesser grades–to a point. Admissions needs to feel you can succeed there academically as well as musically. </p>
<p>If the competition for your instrument includes many applicants with fantastic auditions AND fantastic grades, those people will be at the top of the “who do admit” list. </p>
<p>My son, who had solid stats, but was certainly not stellar for USC, was called by a rep from Thornton Admisisons a couple of weeks after his audition. The person basically told my son he was at the top of the audition food chain, but that next Thornton would sit down with USC admissions and both departments would do their wheeling and dealing. No idea what the real purpose of the call was! Now that he’s there, he would say he’s met several musicians who might not have gotten in purely based on academics/stats/EC’s. Extremely talented B+ students, if you will.</p>
<p>I don’t think “takes audition and grades equally” is really correct for SC. More correct: they consider both. </p>
<p>Oh, and your scores are based completely on your audition at USC. After passing the prescreen, the prescreen itself is moot.</p>
<p>thank you everyone who answered my questions! it was lotta help. </p>
<p>ok i have another question tho.
does anybody know how many students does each professor at a conservatory/music school choose to accept? i’m violin major…i’m sure it’s different for every instrument</p>
<p>The number of students that a music instructor accepts each year will vary from 0 to about 10. Some teachers have 35 students in their studios and others have only one or two. If the teacher of two is losing both students, then they will normally accept two new students (assuming that the school and instructor both want the same quota of students to continue–if the teacher want more students and the school will fund more, then they accept more). If both of the teacher’s students are continuing, then they may not accept anyone. For some teachers that can afford to be picky, the quantity of students in their studio is not as important as the quality, so they may accept no one if no one makes the grade or they may accept more than they normally would if several superstars apply.</p>
<p>If the teacher of 36 students is at an institution that is exclusively undergrad, then they will probably lose about 9 students per year and will accept that many. If that teacher is at a place with grad students and teaches lots of them that are in one or two year programs, then their turnover may be higher.</p>
<p>A large percentage of studio teachers at music schools are part-time to their studio teaching for a number of reasons: a) they teach at multiple schools (very common in the East at high level schools); b) they teach music courses in areas of music such as string techniques, violin pedagogy, music theory, string literature, improvisation for violin etc.; c) there aren’t enough students for them to be hired full-time; d) colleges prefer part-time sessionals because they can pay them at a much lower rate; e) some studio teachers maintain private studios outside the school; f) many studio teachers maintain performing careers on the side (or their teaching may be on the side of a performing career).</p>
<p>If a full-time teacher was terrible and had a huge attrition rate, then they might have more openings, but probably wouldn’t last long at the school. A teacher that is new to a school may have many openings for their first two or three years.</p>
<p>Lots of factors, so if it is important to know, call the school and ask.</p>
<p>I should add that normally one talks about schools accepting students rather than studio teachers–studio teachers may agree or promise to have a student in their studio assuming that their institution accepts them. Most music schools have yields of under 35% (Juilliard, Curtis, and Colburn being exceptions, I believe), and so they accept three to five times as many students as they hope to enroll. Some studio teachers probably do something similar–i.e. they may agree to teach twice as many students as they could accommodate because they know only a quarter or a third of those will choose to attend their school. So, potentially the number of students that a studio teacher agrees to take on could be much higher than 10 if they are certain that many of those students won’t show up in the fall.</p>