<p>I am sure there have been plenty of threads about this one, but I have an overarching question. For those of you familiar with college music program auditions, how do they handle assiging a teacher? Is it once the auditions panel decides the student is good enough, a teacher has to say they want to teach the student and if there already isn't a teacher/student match (like an applicant already studying with a teacher at the school privately, or had some prior contact) they assign someone? I know all colleges are different in how they handle the process, I am just curious at a high level how it generally works. I apologize, I know this has been duplicated on other threads, but my other half was asking about this and while I know some specific examples,they may or may not cover the general way these things happen.</p>
<p>As these threads indicate, the process tends to be pretty school (and sometime instrument) specific. It’s one of those “need to know” questions, not always detailed on the website or admissions pages. Here is where (current) past experience with a program is often extremely helpful.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/487415-arranging-teacher-after-acceptance.html?highlight=teacher[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/487415-arranging-teacher-after-acceptance.html?highlight=teacher</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/168379-what-if-studio-teacher-isnt-designated-acceptance-letter.html?highlight=teacher[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/168379-what-if-studio-teacher-isnt-designated-acceptance-letter.html?highlight=teacher</a></p>
<p>There may be additional tangential posts within the links I posted here <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1062673013-post4.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1062673013-post4.html</a></p>
<p>It does vary from school to school, but what you can expect is that if the musician is accepted academically by the school and by the audition panel (faculty), if the teacher has room in the studio and ranks the musician high enough to nab one of the slots, if the student requests that teacher first, and if the school does not prioritize majors/degree programs in teacher requests in such a way that the student is disadvantaged, the musician will be assigned the desired teacher. Any variation on any of those factors, and all bets are off.</p>
<p>And some schools wait to assign teachers until after you have accepted. This happened to my son. He wouldn’t accept until he knew his teacher assignment. In this case, he contacted the preferred teacher and got a committment from him before we sent in the deposit.</p>
<p>Things are done differently at different schools.
Or during different years.
Or within different departments at the same school.
Or …</p>
<p>So it is something you need to ask about at the schools you are interested in.</p>
<p>At Juilliard, my S had to list his choices in order of preference. For undergrad, he listed two people, with an “anybody” third choice (He was willing to take anyone at the school), and got his first choice. For grad school, he listed two, and got his second choice. He knows people who were assigned a teacher that they hadn’t listed, and opted to attend anyway. (So don’t be put off by the idea that your kid might not get in if they choose the wrong teacher.) I know one situation where the student was able to switch after the first year, to get his first choice.</p>
<p>Our understanding of the way it works there is that the applicant lists teachers in order of preference. The teachers, at the audition, indicate if they would be willing to accept this student into their studio. (Some years, a teacher’s studio may already be filled, so they say no to everyone. That happened for my S’s grad audition.) When the audition committee makes their recommendation to admissions, then the admissions committee matches up teachers and students, based upon the responses.</p>
<p>Oh, the students were also ranked during the audition process, so that if two students wanted the same teacher, but the teacher only had room for one, the higher ranked student got his first choice.</p>
<p>That’s one school, one department, two different years. Not a big sampling, but hope it helps.</p>
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<p>Agreed with others…it depends on the school. Policies vary.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Schools allow students to indicate a preference and they consider that preference along with the faculty input.</p></li>
<li><p>Student auditions for a specific studio ONLY.</p></li>
<li><p>Student is indicates preference for a studio and that is honored if there is an opening in that studio.</p></li>
<li><p>Student is assigned to a studio based on what the school feels is the best assignment.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Keep in mind, especially at some of the larger schools with many faculty members on an instrument or voice…ALL of the applied faculty will not even BE at the audition. </p>
<p>DS was accepted to one program and assigned to a studio where the teacher had never heard him…and he had never met the teacher. The school was not his first choice…but he wasn’t happy with that process.</p>
<p>Also, in some programs and on some instruments, there is only one applied faculty member…so there isn’t a choice at all.</p>
<p>Awesome responses all, thanks, it is kind of what I expected. It also feeds into what I already know, that for any program it pays to do the research up front and try to figure out what teachers might be good and try and get to one of them if possible. I am fortunate that that decision is still several years away,but it is good to know now:)</p>
<p>My daughter’s school honors requests - as far as I know - if there is room in the studio obviously. If a student has no preference, there is a little audition at the very beginning of the year that all the voice teachers attend. The teachers listen and then decide among themselves how to pair everyone up. My daughter has talked to a ton of vocalists at many different schools and she has decided that the kids whose teachers are assigned are just as likely to be happy with their teachers as those who choose - hardly a scientific study though.</p>
<p>Yes, after months of angst about teacher assignments, my son got his pick at the school he wanted to go to. He got there in the fall and the kids who hadn’t been assigned got to study with a new, young ultradynamic teacher that everyone is very excited about. If it’s a good school with a good reputation in your instrument (or voice), they will hire great teachers and it becomes hard to go wrong.</p>