San Francisco Music Conservatory vs UCLA or UCSB

How does the music program at San Francisco Music Conservatory compare to that at UCLA and UCSB? I understand that there will be many talented students at all of these schools, but can someone rank these in order of competitiveness for string auditions? Thank you.

It is a MUSIC conservatory- which means it is designed STRICTLY for students who want a career in Music.
It has a FAR better Music program than ANY none-conservatory based program.
And neither UCLA or UCSB have music conservatories.

As such , you will encounter the best of the best- the most extraordinarily talented music students applying for admission there.

Really? From what I heard, it’s harder to get into Herb than SFMC but I may be wrong.

UCLA and UCSB both have conservatory type programs. San Francisco Conservatory is private and it is a “freestanding conservatory” that offers BM degrees in performance.

Herb Alpert offers a BA in music but I have heard it is similar to a BM. It is a “School of Music” which is the same as a conservatory with prescreens, auditions, and a curriculum for performance.

UCSB has a “Music department” but offers both BM and BA,

As you know a BM is 2/3-23/4 music classes with lessons, theory, aural skills, music history and performance and fewer gen eds than a BA (and often the gen eds are in liberal arts).

Just because San Francisco has "Conservatory"in its name doesn’t mean it is more focused on music than other BM programs, and possibly (others will have to write about this) the Herb Alpert BA program either.

That said, I cannot write about the comparative quality or competitiveness of these three schools and hope others come along to help you.

UCLA’s Herb Alpert SOM is highly competitive(.for voice it’s one of the top programs in the country and in this area by far more competitive than SFCM.) . Like compmom said, do not get caught up in the word “conservatory”.

Herb Alpert Jazz studies performance in the ethnomusicology department is also highly competitive, and listed as one of the top jazz programs in the US. Last year they accepted 2 jazz guitarists…gulp.

My D is applying to all three this year (voice). The programs and teachers all look great but if you look at the degree requirements there are differences. I suspect that is the case for strings as well. As far as competitiveness, I can’t comment. But I will say UCSB has no pre-screens. SFCM has pre-screens and you can request your audition date (of which there are several). UCLA has pre-screens, has two audition dates, and they tell you on which date you are auditioning. I suspect that gives a little hint as to their respective competitiveness.

Thank you guys for the replies so far! And yes, I’m interested in strings, I play the violin.