<p>I'm working on my Mannes application, and the Unified App says that the "teacher preference" section is optional. Would it be of any advantage to fill it out now even if I'm not entirely sure what my teacher preference would be?</p>
<p>Can be tricky, and I don't know Mannes policy. Have you had a trial lesson(s), other prior contact with any faculty? Do you envision studying with a particular faculty member either through reputation, or prior experience?</p>
<p>Sometimes professional rivalries/jealousies come into play... if you specify faculty "A" and they can't take you, Faculty "B" may pass, as they weren't picked first, or don't want "A's" leftovers. Petty, doesn't happen often or everywhere but MAY be a factor.</p>
<p>If you honestly don't know, or think you'd might be happy with any of the choices, I'd really suggest taking a trial lesson with one or more and leave the list blank for now.</p>
<p>At some institutions, senior faculty may have first choice, some institutions strive for studio balance, some may teach only grad students or upperclassmen, as opposed to undergrads, or freshmen.</p>
<p>Without anecdotal evidence from prior Mannes applicants, students, its difficult to offer you a concrete answer.</p>
<p>Hi tchaik,</p>
<p>Violadad is right - which hardly helps you and others in this position! Also, as he says, each is school IS different, so you may have this question more than once! I have the following additional suggestions:</p>
<p>1) Call Admissions and ask about teacher selection for your instrument. (You can make up a name or be anonymous if you want!) Tell them that you'd be honored to study with several of the faculty and are concerned about ranking them. How does faculty make their selection at Mannes, how do they view being "lower" in the list, etc. If you find the right admissions person, you should get a feel for the truth (or you may get a party-line nonanswer), but it's worth a try. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>In addition to admissions, if you know any student there or even a student through a mutual friend contact them - the enrolled students often have a good sense of the way things "really" work.</p></li>
<li><p>If you aren't truly competitive for the TOP studio at the school, don't list this teacher. Yes, everyone may truly want Fill-in-the-Blank-Top-Teacher, but if you can't get that teacher, you may loose your opportunity for others. I have seen this happen to students more than once - they misjudged their competitiveness for the most popular teachers and due to the way admissions worked, they were out of the school entirely. Other teachers thought they weren't interested in them and didn't accept them. (This can be corrected by transferring later to the school in the "less popular" teachers studio -I've seen kids do this - but what a pain!) </p></li>
<li><p>Think hard about listing a teacher you don't know anything about or aren't really excited about. One of my own kids did that - first choice was a teacher she'd had a trial lesson with. They got along great and it seemed a definite in. She listed another teacher 2nd, just to list one. Turns out that the 2nd teacher was a much less popular choice, so the school assigned her to that teacher to fill out the teacher studios. 1st choice had also taken her, but the school stepped in as 1st choice was full. Ouch - she couldn't get it straightened out without enrolling and changing later, so went elsewhere! </p></li>
<li><p>If all else fails, talk to as many current and former students and professional teachers and musicians as you can about faculty. Generally some kind of consensus about their teaching style, personality, etc. emerges and you can refine you choice list from these notions.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Good luck to you!</p>
<p>I wouldn't worry too much about it now, although you should start to get trial lessons. When you are accepted you get a list of teachers from the audition who are interested in working with you. That is when you have to actually pick.</p>
<p>^^^^<br>
OP says the Mannes specific application is optional (and ABlestMom may have Mannes inside info!), so the above may be the case at Mannes, but circumstances vary by instrument and school. I would contact each school to determine how important or unimportant providing a list of preferred teachers is.</p>
<p>From my observations of many violin kids experiences at many schools, we've seen things like:</p>
<p>1) When there are multiple teachers for one instrument, some schools arrange the audition day so that the teachers the student is interested in are certain to hear the audition. Every teacher may not hear every audition. </p>
<p>2) A faculty panel hears auditions and they make the determination of studio assignments - not always in line with student desires.</p>
<p>3) Students are not accepted by their "preferred" choice, but offered other options.</p>
<p>4) Students are offered their 1st choice, not told about any other options.</p>
<p>5) Students are rejected totally from school when 1st choice isn't available. They have contaced other teachers later for feedback who said they would have taken them, but are now full.</p>
<p>6) Students told they are accepted, but not told assignment - that's getting rarer fortuneately.</p>
<p>7) Students are waitlisted for a "top" studio, but accepted by others.</p>
<p>8) Many other variations on above!!!</p>
<p>Always ask if the question is important - don't second guess such an important "strategy"!!</p>
<p>I should have added this is voice specific experience...I don't know if instruments work the same way.</p>