regional auditions

College Majors Music Major
21

<p>Rigaudon,</p>

<p>I think you might be surprised at the info some music depts. will give you. I know parents who have received very direct answers about acceptance rates from live-on-campus vs. live-regional vs. CD/DVD recording. I’m sorry if I offended you in my response - I certainly didn’t intend to. I haven’t had experience with all Admissions Directors and there are likely to be some bad apples in the bunch or someone having a bad day, but I always think it’s worth a parent/student’s time to ask the sort of reasonable questions that you are researching! </p>

<p>Another way to approach the acceptance rate question is to ask the studio instructor(s) of interest directly through e-mail. I know there are some violin teachers who aren’t likely to accept a student who auditioned by CD or regional. They tend to be very popular teachers who will have much more interest in their studio than they can accommodate. An e-mail question may be ignored - just like lesson requests can be ignored! - but you may get an answer.</p>

<p>I think the “general wisdom” is that any student that shows up live has indicated a very serious interest in the school and teacher. This may be the best strategy for 1st choices. I do know students offered quite decent merit aid along with admission following regionals, but the cases are over 3 years old and I’m afraid circumstances may have changed since there has been a statistical “boom” of college applicants in the last few years. I’m not going to post details about those older cases because I don’t want to pass on outdated info! </p>

<p>Some of the “statistics” on live vs. regional. vs. recorded auditions may be distorted because students knowing that a school is a reach sometimes submit a recording or do a regional - less expense and they still feel they tried. Similarly, I know students who are not Juilliard material that submit applications/pre-screens - they want to say they applied no matter the result! </p>

<p>Re-iterating, your concern about the acceptance rates and aid from different audition “venues” is very reasonable. If the info isn’t posted on a Music Depts. FAQ’s section or addressed in general comments, I wouldn’t have a problem with pursuing the question with a live person.</p>

<p>Good luck to you!</p>

22

<p>UC2008,</p>

<p>1) Schools often send out a representative from the Admissions Dept to record regional auditions. That person is not likely to evaluate your performance. The DVD/CD recording will be viewed by faculty - individually or a panel - later back at the school.</p>

<p>2) The person recording the audition will most likely record more than a student would play at a live audition in front of a faculty panel. The faculty may not view/listen to the entire recording that’s been produced - they are likely to “skip through”. The representative making the recording wants to make sure that the faculty has everything they may want to see/hear, so a lot more than would be heard live may be recorded.</p>

<p>3) If you audition as a double ed and performance major, for most schools, you must meet the playing level required to be admitted to the Performance degree. If under that level, some schools might deny you admittance to a performance degree track, but admit you as an Ed major. It’s all going to be school specific - I’d ask directly about the standards/specifics. There may also be different academic requirements as you are a transfer (I think!).</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

23

<p>Just to further confuse the issue – I know of at least one example where my daughter travelled to a school for her audition. During her audition, she performed before representatives of the voice faculty. Nevertheless, her audition was recorded and she was told that the recording would be used in making final decisions. So . . . that made us feel very good about travelling 1000 for what we thought would be a live audition. </p>

<p>By the way my daughter did get top dollar in scholarship money from that school. </p>

<p>Here’s my take on the situation, as I said in previous postings. I looked upon the whole process – pre audition practice lessons, music lessons for 10 years, SAT coaching, etc as investments toward freedom of choice and getting solid scholarships. My thinking was that if I wanted to get top dollar in scholarships for my daugher, we had to make it easy for the faculty to award top dollar. </p>

<p>I don’t know who said it first – but I think the quote – Sometimes half the battle is just showing up – is really applicable here.</p>

24

<p>I have some general thoughts/observations after reading this thread, hopefully it gives some food for thought.</p>

<p>1)Everyone is different, and I know performers who say they don’t perform as well when they are in a ‘recording’ situation, and I wonder if playing ‘for the tape’ as seems to be the case at regional auditions i.e where there is someone from the school taping the entire audition, might not count as that. (Then again, some people might do better recording like that, it is always a YMMV).</p>

<p>2)I have heard from people who have done auditioning that for them a recorded audition doesn’t give them the entire ‘feel’ of the person auditioning, so I kind of wonder if doing a recorded audition at a regional might be a bit of a handicap in some cases (and again, that would depend on the people auditioning, others might be just as happy with a recorded audition as a live one…).</p>

<p>3)One tip, that one of my son’s first violin teachers gave him, was that when you are preparing for an audition,start practicing for it as early as possible, not only to get more time to improve, but also to get your level above that of what the audition will require to ‘get you in the door’, because when people audition most only do 80-85% of their potential, because of nerves and so forth. She said she found that people generally perform where they were about a month before the audition, so that if you are at the level you think you need a month before, a)don’t stop working forward and b)that is how you will play then. Again, not an ironclad rule, some people seem to come alive during the audition,but I think it is wise to heed this anyway.</p>

25

<p>Take a school like Indiana University, and assume you are applying for Voice - Undergraduate. For the sake of arguement, let’s assume they accept DVD, Regional, and On Site auditions.</p>

<p>First of all, for a lot of schools, you have to submit a pre-screening DVD in order to get an On Site auditions. Why? Because too many kids want to apply than they have time to audition live. Some schools waive the pre-screening for regional auditions (tells you that not many choose Regional Auditions).</p>

<p>At the regional audition, you may have one or two faculty members present, and they may not be in your instrument. Not the worst thing, because they know good music when they hear it. They will record your audition, and the faculty for your instrument will review the DVD and decide on your admissions.</p>

<p>At the On Site auditions, the IU faculty was divided in order to hear all the applicants. I believe about 1/3 of the voice faculty heard an individual. The audition is recorded so the other faculty can see the audition. Just because they record your audition does not make it a waste of time. The 1/3 of the faculty that heard you live will carry a lot of weight in the final decision.</p>

<p>Note: For graduate voice students, you will audition for the entire faculty. That should tell you that a DVD is not a substitute.</p>

<p>If a DVD is all you need for an audition, why bother with on-site? One can argue that the recording quality varies between students (what equipement they have), and the regional audition levels the playing field. Well, what about the DVD from a regional audition vs. a live on-site audition? Well, you can’t level the playing field.</p>

<p>The audition options are given so that every potential student has a chance. Not an equal chance, just a chance. If you want the best possible chance (for admissions and financial aid), you audition live on-site. If you are marginal, then on-site will give you the best chance. If you are Exceptional, then any method will probably get you in.</p>