<p>My son plays trombone ( extremely well), and is interested in playing in college, and either majoring or minoring in music at a liberal arts school. Besides doing an audition tape, is it worthwhile to try to arrange for him to meet the trombone or band instructor at the actual college? What I'm specifically wondering is that if the teacher likes him, could the teacher have pull for admissions, similarly to a coach having pull at a D3 school? Or do you think that the audition tape would be sufficient? It can get very expensive visiting these schools, and complicated since the visits have to happen during the school year to meet the instructors. Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated.</p>
<p>Our daughter is an oboe and English horn player. She wanted to continue in college as well, but not as a music major. She contacted the orchestra directors, the music department chairperson, and the private instrument instructor EVERYWHERE she applied (all 4 schools) and had lessons with the teachers. It was important to her that the oboe teacher be a good match. (as an aside, her oboe teacher on college used to post on THIS forum!).</p>
<p>It didn’t make a speck of difference in admissions, and the music folks were clear about that. But they were thrilled to have an accomplished musician, and she did play all four years, and take private lessons as well.</p>
<p>Your son absolutely should do an arts supplement. This, rather than simply contacting the music department, could make all the difference. My daughter didn’t do this but when she got to Wellesley and did the required audition for piano lessons, the instructors told her they were surprised she had not done a music supplement. The music faculty evaluates these and does have input in the admissions process, even if the student isn’t a music major.</p>
<p>An arts supplement is the recording you can send as an attachment to the application?</p>
<p>Check to see if the school wants arts supplements. Some do not.</p>
<p>In my daughter’s case, the relationship with the teacher was very important…more important than any admissions edge. If she had not liked the music instructor on her instrument, the school would have dropped OFF of her list.</p>
<p>If you visit the Music Majors forum here on CC, you’ll find lots of good advice and a siupportive community.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/</a></p>
<p>If you can do it, I would do it, any exposure a student has to prospective teachers is a plus. Primarily, to get into a music program a teacher has to say they want to teach the student, and having prior exposure makes that easier IME (this does vary, Indiana admits kids then they find a teacher). People could go in cold, audition and get in, but if a teacher has seen the kid and liked him, it will be easier to have that support.</p>
<p>As far as helping admissions, that one is one of those hotly debated points. If you are talking about getting admitted to a music school, it could help, especially if there is only 1 or 2 teachers on the primary instrument, they can and do ‘fight’ for kids they want (if you think about it, they already could do that, if they simply rejected kids except for student A…). I also have seen situations where I am certain that teachers do a kind of bargaining with other teachers, kind of “you let me get A in, I’ll give you B” kind of deal. </p>
<p>It also can help I am pretty certain in terms of admissions where a school has a university music program they want to beef up with good musicians, where they otherwise don’t have a music school per se (Ivies come to mind)…I am not saying Princeton will admit a kid who is great on the violin or Clarinet if they have a B average, but it can be an edge when you are talking a lot of students with similar stats, so playing for the orchestra conductor/band director/music teacher could help, if admissions asks and they say “the kid is a strong musician and we would love to have him/her”, it will help, that I am certain of.</p>
<p>With any of this, it is not an absolute “if you see a teacher it means you will get in”, nor is it “don’t see a teacher, you won’t get in”, it is more like a bunch of influences, where having exposure to a teacher can be a positive edge towards getting in, the lack of it may not be fatal, but having it could be an edge, like for example being on an instrument the don’t have a lot of. </p>
<p>Because of the Common Application and the sheer difficulty of gaining admittance to some schools that have become more difficult admits over the years, kids are applying to more schools. In my day, students tended to visit most of the schools to which they applied. But then again, most were applying to around six schools tops. Now, it’s sometimes as many as 20. But within the larger group, there is a much smaller group of schools of much greater interest than the others. For the reasons given by musicprnt and the others, you should have your son do sample lessons at as many of the small group schools as possible. An arts supplement to the Common App is one thing, meeting the faculty member is another. It is a chance to bond on both sides of the instrument. That bond can make a difference. Even if it doesn’t, it can provide valuable information for your son. An e-mail inquiry to the head of the music department at a school is a good way to inquire how to set up a sample lesson. Or your son can simply e-mail the faculty member directly. I see no harm if you were to do the e-mails but there is a great deal of debate on this board as to a parent’s role in all of this.</p>