<p>In a BM program at a stand-alone conservatory, academics would not count for very much. In that case, you would focus mostly on music and not very much on academics.</p>
<p>I am not all that familiar with USC in particular, but grades and test scores generally count for more when the program is a BA, and when the associated college or university is known for very good academics. Both of those apply in this case, so I imagine that there will be some minimum requirements in terms of test scores and GPA, or, if applying as a transfer, the GPA at the college you now attend. After all, you have to take half your classes with the general population at USC and they will only admit people that they think will be able to keep up in those academic classes. Even some of the music classes (theory and history) can be quite academic in nature. If you have really good grades, that is good news for you because it will eliminate that portion of your competition who do not have good grades.</p>
<p>I do not know if the USC program will be open to transfer students initially. You should really contact the music department there to find out before you get your hopes set too high. I very much doubt that USC will need to be lenient with this program because they will probably get lots of applicants who have very good grades and excellent voices. Any school that requires a pre-screening recording (as USC does for this new program) expects to have a lot more applicants than they can audition, let alone admit. It is worst of all for females, because there are probably three to four times as many young women as there are young men applying, and the school usually wants to admit roughly equal numbers of both so that the vocal ensembles are balanced. It is possible that other schools with lower academic standards will follow USC’s lead and start Popular Music Performance programs of their own, but it takes time to get started with a whole new degree curriculum.</p>