<p>Hi! I am a high school student looking to major in violin performance.
I understand that many music schools ask for auditions. Since my GPA is not and most likely will not turn out so well, I was wondering if I still had a chance for places such as USC's Thornton, NYU's Steinhardt, Julliard, or MSM; will they disregard my application because of low grades, or do my auditions have to be phenomenal in order to have a chance there?</p>
<p>Juilliard and MSM will not care AT ALL about your academic record.</p>
<p>USC and NYU might be a different story though. They are lenient on musicians, from what I've heard.</p>
<p>Admission to these schools is about 90% based on your audition.</p>
<p>Your best answer is really through the school's admission page(s). Conservatories are auditioned focused, as are most conservatory-type programs within university settings. Some schools with strong music programs (and the ability to easily double major across disciplines) treat academic admission seperately from program acceptance... you have to apply and be accepted to both under academic admission and audition criteria.</p>
<p>Ah, wow. Thanks for the reply, guys! :)</p>
<p>Hmm..so does this mean I have to accepted into NYU or USC in order to be a candidate for the music program?</p>
<p>Each school is different. At some schools you have to be accepted to the university first before you can be accepted to the music school. At other places, Rice for instance, you have to be accepted at the music school first and THEN reviewed for academic admissions. However, for all of these types of schools, you have to get acceptance from both venues in order to be admitted. Other schools, like Eastman which is part of the University of Rochester and Peabody, which is part of Johns Hopkins, only require that you be admitted to the music school. They have academic standards but they are quite a bit different from the rest of the university. </p>
<p>Ultimately, you are going to have to contact the music school of each of the schools you are interested in and find out how much grades are a factor in admissions.</p>
<p>I was also wondering about this because the University of Miami has some very high test scores and gpa's, making it seem out of range for my son. Does anyone know how much the music school there depends on those admissions criteria?</p>
<p>For what it's worth, my D was accepted into NYU Steinhardt with not great grades (3.4 GPA) and not great SAT (1190/1600 & 1870/2400). But her audition was very strong. The audition committee asked her what her SAT scores were. My D said they paused but didn't freak out when she told them. They clearly wanted her and I think they fought for her a bit.</p>
<p>At Northwestern, her audition also went well, but she didn't get the impression that the audition committee would fight for her and it would be a much harder fight at Northwestern with those stats. She wasn't accepted.</p>
<p>NYU has 8 different schools for undergraduates and each has its own admissions committee. Some have pretty strict SAT requriements, others are more flexible. I know that the instrumental performance program at Steinhardt is getting better and better, so I am not surprised that a strong audition trumps SAT scores...</p>