I live in California and my daughter who is a sophomore and wants to major in VP would like to stay locally. We are considering a few out of state schools such as Oberlin, Westminster Choir College,(really like what I have read about them) University of Miami. The reach schools here would be USC and UCLA. We toured Biola and Chapman and she really liked both. Also on the list are Azuza Pacific University, University of Redlands, California State Fullerton, California State Long Beach, Vanguard University. My initial thoughts are the more applications, the better the odds of being accepted but how many are too many? Should one consider the acceptance rate? For example if the acceptance rate is only 6% at one university, does that mean more applications should be filed to compensate for the low odds of being accepted? Also, if anyone has any experience with VP programs on the west coast, I was wondering if you could share your experiences? Thanks
In many ways it’s just like any other non music applications. With the exception that almost everything depends on an audition and unlike GPAs and SATs the audition is non quantifiable. It looks like you have a pretty good fix on what is a “reach” and you also have some good financial and acceptance “safeties”. UCLA is more of a reach than USC since lately it’s become something of a hot department AND the voice dept. is smaller than USC’s . UCLA has only 32+ combined undergrad and grad students. And it gets lots and lots of California applicants (relatively-- it’s a real bargain for in state students.) The other schools I know about are Chapman and Long Beach, both of which are producing good singers.
I got off on a tangent and I forgot my main point. :-@
There is no magic number. We know of students who have applied to two reach schools and got into both. And we know of students who have applied to twelve schools and were admitted to none. That’s why it’s important to get “out there” and try to get a fix on where your D stands in the vast talent pool. Not an easy task, but doable.
musicamusica answered the question on “odds”. Get out and start talking with teachers/schools with experience with kids going to college to see where she should apply.
I’m a numbers person to a degree. This is one person’s experience. Others could differ. My D went larger than some. You could definitely go smaller.
Initial “serious” list - 10 to 12 schools (based partly on recommendations by teachers, partly on desire and similarities to recommended schools)
Applied - about 8 (applications and pre-screening take time - best to have recommendations on where to focus)
Auditioned - 5 (4 travel, 1 in the area - more than this is tough due to weekends and time available etc.)
I would suggest that the “best” odds of being accepted are not tied to more applications BUT to good fits for her talent level.
I hope this helps.
We did almost the same as above. 6-8 schools seems pretty average for VP. 2-3 reach, 2-3 strong chance, 2-3 safeties. Be sure to have a financial safety. You just might need it to negotiate a package with a reach school.
My daughter initially applied to 11 schools, thinking that she wouldn’t make it through all of the presecreens (she did). She decided not to eliminate any for the audition phase because she was concerned that she wouldn’t have enough left on her list to choose from after the acceptances came in. She ended up with 9. But the funny thing is as she went through this one school became her top choice and when she got into it she didn’t even waiver. We live in NJ and she limited her search to Northeast/Central schools so most were within driving distance for us. If we had to fly everywhere we would definitely have made her narrow the list down, as the travel by air would have been too expensive. I hope this helps.
@intune, I am hoping you might do me a kindness and PM your DD’s original list of 11 VP programs. We are NYC based and have very little travel budget. Thanks so much!
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. This is a great board and I really appreciate everyone’s experience and help. My daughter really wants to stay in state. Another on our list was University of the Pacific but I am not so sure about having her live in Stockton.
We are in the same boat! Originally Ds list included: Northwestern, Miami-Frost, Oberlin, Bellmont, Berklee and Peabody. Now that the time is here, she (and I) realized that we both want her closer to home for undergrad. Her list for VP in California is: USC, Chapman, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Cal-State Fullerton and Cal-State Long Beach.
I didn’t think that Berkeley offered a VP degree. Is that something new?
Sorry, my bad. That would be nice! A student from her school is in the BA program there, and says she can still get into a great VP Grad program. I should have clarified. Each school was selected for different reasons, but the list is significantly smaller…and in California. 