<p>How difficult is it to transfer to music schools such as Manhattan, BU, USC, Eastman,Peabody, IU for violin performance?</p>
<p>I don’t know about the difficulty factor, but there were a lot of transfer students auditioning at Eastman on Friday and a good many of them were toting violins!</p>
<p>These are all highly competitive audition based admits. There may well be some institution specific criteria applying to transfers, so check each site’s criteria carefully. </p>
<p>Be aware you may well lose some music credits attained at the school you are attending now. Most vulnerable tend to be theory courses. You may need syllabi, and complete course descriptions in order for a new institution to review credits for transfer.</p>
<p>FYI, as your other post indicated you are a music ed major, note that Manhattan does not offer an undergrad music ed degree. There is a three year MM/MA program in performance and music ed. [Manhattan</a> School of Music: Dual Degree — Teaching](<a href=“http://www.msmnyc.edu/grad/dualteach/]Manhattan”>http://www.msmnyc.edu/grad/dualteach/)</p>
<p>Violadad: That grad. program at MSM looks interesting. I have filed it away in my “Maybe for grad school” files. Sounds perfect for my 2 performance majors who, at this point, think they want to continue along that path- if they also come to see the practicality of adding the Ed. degree at some point!</p>
<p>Did you audition for these schools as a potential freshman? Were you competitive then? Did you audition at and were you accepted at places other than UCLA? Reviewing your past experience is probably your best guide to predicting chances for successful auditions as a transfer. </p>
<p>Have you considered switching from a Music Ed major to Music Performance at UCLA? If you’re uncertain of your acceptance as a violin performance major there, you’re not likely to be competitive for all the schools you’ve indicated. </p>
<p>Minimally, your level of playing will have to be comparable to students of your year (Sophomore, Junior) already enrolled at the school. You will have to meet a higher playing level standard than a new Freshman auditioner. (Admittedly there is no one “standard”, playing levels are all over the map - independent of year in school.) </p>
<p>That said, I have known violin students who have transferred to Peabody and other conservatories after freshman year. They were all fine violinists who were competitive for entry as freshman - they just picked different schools that didn’t work for them. </p>
<p>For example, one student I know had been accepted at Peabody, went elsewhere, disliked the school and transferred after freshman year. Peabody (and some others) state that if you are accepted but enroll elsewhere, they will hold all application materials for a year in case you consider transferring - you do have to audition again. In other cases, the students transferred in without having auditioned in prior years. All the students were very fine violinists.</p>
<p>Practically speaking, I believe most music schools won’t consider transfers after Junior year. Depending on your relationship with your private teacher, it can be difficult to get support and help in preparing the repertoire for transfer auditions - your teacher may not be understanding!</p>
<p>echoing fiddlestix, one of the schools my son was accepted to he nearly chose. they encouraged him to consider transferring if it didn’t work out where he went and said that, if he made the expected freshman year progress, he would be sure to be welcome there for sophomore year. but…he had been accepted once. on the other hand, i have known musicians who decided to go to lac’s and then missed their music and were able to change course and transfer to music school. their playing level was quite high though. </p>
<p>having said all this, i’ve seen my son develop in a year’s time to such a degree that he would certainly be even more competitive today than he was a year ago if he decided to shoot higher. if you’re unhappy where you are, it is probably worth a shot.</p>
<p>Following up fiddlestix’s point about potential issues with current instructor, schools accredited by the National Association of Music Schools have a specific detailed policy dealing with music transfers. These policies include a signed release (at the Dean level) from the current school indicating that they acknowledge that the student is engaging in a transfer process. There have been a couple of discussions on the board on this topic, but I can’t seem to find any with the search function.</p>
<p>BassDad has commented and posted various links and excerpts from the NASM Handbook within those threads, and maybe he can suggest the specific posts.</p>
<p>Here’s a link to the NASM handbook should anyone want to check and verify the current policies. <a href=“http://nasm.arts-accredit.org/index.jsp?page=Catalog&itemId=1856e5456ea9fae3232d2c15ffbc12aa[/url]”>http://nasm.arts-accredit.org/index.jsp?page=Catalog&itemId=1856e5456ea9fae3232d2c15ffbc12aa</a></p>
<p>Here are a couple of the links you were looking for:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/404484-these-contrasting-enough-songs-audition.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/404484-these-contrasting-enough-songs-audition.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/452087-important-advice-selecting-teachers.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/452087-important-advice-selecting-teachers.html</a></p>
<p>Thank you BassDad. Those were the ones. I don’t why that didn’t come up when I searched before, as I tried a couple of configurations. Maybe it was a system glitch when I attempted it.</p>