<p>As we all wait for those last few schools to release and then begin the task of guiding our student towards their home for the next four years, I began to think of the entire audition process. A question has come to mind that I think if we could answer in some form of "statistical" manner, it could help parents who are getting on the ramp to the road we are all about to exit.</p>
<p>For those students who had to submit a video audition in lieu of their live audition (not prescreens), who actually received an acceptance and to which program? </p>
<p>I ask, because, if this is truly almost a guaranteed "denial" route, parents need to know this now.</p>
<p>I know of at least 3 acceptances from video auditions. 2 to Frost, 1 to UNT. So it is not an auto reject!</p>
<p>The two Miami/Frost videos were a regional audition where a representative from the University was behind the camera. UNT was a self made video.</p>
<p>This could get interesting. D’s auditions went this way;</p>
<p>On-site audition: accepted 4 out of 5 auditions</p>
<p>Video only audition: rejected 2 out of 2. One video was from a regional audition. The other video was part of the pre-screen that D decided to use for the final audition as well.</p>
<p>One of son’s 8 auditions was a video–it was to Boston U where he was accepted. There was no offer of a scholarship at BU. But then some of the schools where he auditioned in person did not offer a scholarship either though he was accepted at all of them. The staff person at BU told me there was a concern that video auditions had the advantage of retakes to get it just right. We sent a recording from an actual recital–not sure if that was a good thing or not but it’s what we had on hand for the short notice we had when the live audition was not a possibility.</p>
<p>I would suggest that people separate “regional” auditions (which are usually taped on site) and “home” made tapes when telling of their experience, since they are really not the same thing.</p>
<p>Also, I do think the instrument (as well as the school) matters a great deal. My D’s experience last year was that neither she nor any of her flute friends had a single acceptance from their (home)taped auditions to ANY school; and none of them were accepted into any of the top conservatories unless they auditioned live. This included a student who is now at Juilliard, one at CMU, one at Peabody and my D who is at Rice. I think these were talented players, but when the “live” pool numbers in the hundreds, the schools can choose to only really consider those live auditions.</p>
<p>She had 2 other friends (oboe & clarinet) who were accepted using home tapes, but to University Music Schools, not to the conservatories that they sent tapes to. The oboe student was accepted from a live audition to NEC & Eastman…so I feel confident that he was qualified for other conservatories, he just couldn’t afford all the travel.</p>
<p>flute1298, that makes sense. Since there are “zillions” of flute players it is unlikely that a student auditioning with CD or DVD will get in. Based on your observations, my daughter could perhaps send in a CD to some places on oboe. But on saxophone, which is something like flute, she had better come in person.</p>
<p>I had a live audition at University of Illinois, Indiana, and Northwestern. I was accepted to all three. I sent in a video to Lawrence and I was waitlisted. That same video got me through prescreens at Eastman (haven’t heard back yet). It seems like sending in a video recording is a huge disadvantage when you have hundreds performing live auditions.</p>
<p>SUNY Fredonia: Regional audition (last season) which was videotaped. Accepted with no scholarship but when son visited during Spring break last year, he was offered a talent scholarship by the studio teacher during a sample lesson.
SUNY Potsdam: Auditioned on site but was videotaped since Bass teacher wasn’t there. Accepted with scholarship however when son visited during the sample lesson the bass teacher increased the scholarship offer. In person for scholarships, seems to work best.
Hartt: In person audition with teacher and son received a decent scholarship offer. Hartt seems to weigh the level of interest when offering scholarships so try for in person if truly interested.</p>
<p>Just received an encouraging email from Peabody based on a CD audition, but S had previously spent a day down there with the jazz trumpet prof.</p>
<p>4 for 4 so far with on-campus auditions, all with scholarships, and waiting on a 5th. One of those four would’ve been a regional, but illness forced us to cancel and reschedule for an on-campus.</p>
<p>One pre-screen rejection based on video, but those are all video.</p>
<p>I realize this is the wrong thread, but since it was asked, this is from the Johns Hopkins Insider (Admissions) blog. See the last paragraph for Peabody info.</p>
<p>On the afternoon of Thursday, March 29, all decision letters (admits, wait lists, and denies) will be taken to the main Baltimore postal center or the Johns Hopkins postal center in Mt. Washington. All decisions will enter the postal system by the close of business on Thursday. Admit packets are sent priority mail, whereas deny and wait list letters are sent first-class mail. We hope that admit packets sent within the U.S. will arrive within three days, and other decision letters can take 4-7 days to arrive. International mail is sent a variety of ways depending on the country and will take longer to arrive.</p>
<p>In the evening of March 29, we will also be releasing decision notifications via e-mail. E-mails will start going out AFTER 6:00 p.m. ET. Please see that I have emphasized the word AFTER. It can take up to two hours for all decision e-mails to be sent. E-mails are sent in batches and will take time to arrive. They are also sent in random order so there is no way to deduce the order that decisions will be released. I can guarantee that decision e-mail will not arrive exactly at 6:00 p.m. Please have patience. In fact, I suggest you find something to distract yourself for an hour, and then check your e-mail account.</p>
<p>Homewood / Peabody Double Degree applicants will receive their admissions decision notification about their Hopkins (Homewood) application in the same fashion as been discussed above. Decisions about admission to Peabody and the Double Degree program will be released as a second e-mail on Thursday evening, following the release of all other decision notification e-mails.</p>
<p>Son was accepted from his one home-made video audition and from all of his live auditions (violin). He received substantial merit-based aid (over $30 000 per year) with the video audition. It was to a university music school. The only other knowledge that I have of video auditions is of successes (but again at university music schools–although I’m not sure that matters since some conservatories are much less selective than some university music schools).</p>
<p>Let me add this question to this thread as well…</p>
<p>On top of the video in lieu of live (not including prescreens or regionals) question …how many accepted musicians had prior contact from a professor letting them know the acceptance was just a formality?</p>
<p>Son was accepted from his one home-made video audition,which he submitted to Rutgers Mason Gross for jazz performance (trombone). Rutgers allows video auditions for certain instruments (not voice), and in the case of some instruments only if the student lives more than 250-300 miles away. The mileage requirement is 250 for jazz but 300 in other cases, which is a little strange. Anyway, S arranged for and took care of the video recording himself, and when he brought it home, I was surprised to see that not only was he wearing a T shirt for the video, it was a T shirt for another school! I was a bit surprised since he always made a point of wearing something nice, including a tie, for his live auditions, but we never discussed attire for the video, and he was in a hurry and didn’t think. I guess it didn’t matter in this case, though there’s been no word on scholarships.</p>
<p>Just adding my D’s experience as another data point. Her only rejection (as opposed to waitlist or acceptance) was from Peabody, which was also the only school where she did a regional audition. Peabody’s website (and the faculty we spoke to) was upfront in saying that your best chance of acceptance is with a live audition. My D also reported that the NYC regional audition experience was kind of chaotic and poorly managed. She did go to Baltimore for a tour and a sample lesson before the auditions.</p>
<p>Peabody was high on her list, but the live audition was the day before the McGill auditions, which was #1. The travel planning to get from Baltimore to Montreal was basically impossible, so my D choose to do the live McGill audition over Peabody. Happy ending, she got in to McGill and is excited to be part of the 2016 class.</p>