Which schools allow the music departments to "recruit" or hold spots

I asked this on the general forum, but it is prob. more appropriate here.

I am curious which of the colleges/universities listed below allow professors in the music department to “recruit” of reserve have spots for students they want. Many schools allow coaches of athletic teams to have a certain number of spots, but do they also have them for their music departments. Do students apply to the music college directly or do they apply for general admissions and then work with music departments after admitted. The student will try to meet with the key professor before applying to any of these schools to see if they “like” each other. This is for a student who is on the cusp for admissions for most of these schools (based on GPA & scores, although recommendations will be exceptionally strong and grades are trending up (4.0 or close as a junior)): UMich, Vandy, CMU, Northwestern, Rice, Miami (FL), Miami (OH), USC.

All of these schools have strong music schools with competitive admissions. Each of these schools is going to do it differently. Is this student planning to major in music performance? It is best to go onto the web site, find the music school for each and read about the application, audition and admission requirements. For example, Rice requires you apply to the music school, audition and get accepted into a studio. If you are not accepted you do not have any admission to Rice. You have to choose academic or music. http://music.rice.edu/undergraduate/index.shtml If you choose the academic application and are accepted, you can only take courses for non-majors. The studio professors at Rice do not teach the non-majors. Other schools may be different.

If you are looking to do a BM degree, you will have to apply to the school of music and the university as a whole academically, and you need to get into both to get in. With the school of music, it is going to be your audition and having a teacher want you in their studio (the academics won’t matter with the music school portion of the admit, the academics count with the university admission).

As far as teachers “holding” spots, I think you need to understand how music schools and studios operate. To get admitted to the music school, you need to audition for a panel, and then if that works out, a teacher has to agree to teach you. Most of the music schools I am aware of, when you apply you specify the teachers you want to study with (usually like #1, #2, #3), then after you audition the teachers indicate yes or no, and a match is made that way (some schools, like IU Jacobs, you get admitted then work to find a teacher).

in terms of spots, usually teachers have a certain number of kids they teach each year, some of the ‘famous’ teachers like an Itzak Perlman or Jimmy Lin only teach a small handful of students, so each year they may take 1 new student, other teachers may have anywhere from 1 or 2 to half dozen, depends on how many kids graduate from their studio or leave. It is very different than sports, the open slots in the department on an instrument depend on how many open slots the teachers on that instrument have, there is no magic number, and it isn’t like they take slots away from the violin department to give them to the cello (least as far as I know). The only thing I am aware of that might match what you are asking is a teacher who technically doesn’t have an open slot that year, if they see a student they really want to teach, might fight to get an additional slot, and I have heard rumors that in some programs that teachers “horse trade” , that because the place admits relatively few students, teachers will bargain with the other teachers about getting someone in or they will horse trade to get a student in who may be on the margins of getting in they like, bargaining to allow another teacher to get a student they want in who may be marginal, but I am kind of dubious about that, given the level of playing at that school in the particular department.

For the most part, it is relatively straightforward, though, the teacher has x slots, and decides among the undergrad and grad applicant the people who fill those slots, and those slots are determined by the teacher’s capacity - current students returning. The idea of holding spots implies that somehow the kid they want wouldn’t pass the audition process (for if they can pass the audition, then the teacher simply would say yes to teaching the kid, the kid would select him, and voila), and a teacher to be honest would have little reason to admit a kid who can’t pass the audition, it would look pretty bad to have a student like that, so why would a teacher bother because they decide who they teach, not the school.

Not all instruments audition in front of panels. My son is a percussionist. All his audions were 1 on 1 with the professor. There is usually only 1 main percussion teacher per school. It depends what instrument your child plays. As for holding a spot, we are quite certain a spot was saved for my son at 2 of the schools where he auditioned.

So I guess it depends on what instrument @beaglemom is asking about.

Thank you. Yes the student plans to major (dual or double) in music. Thanks for thoughts on the matter.

@beaglemom, without knowing the instrument, it is not easy to advise. There are no blanket rules for all music schools.

If there is only one teacher teaching an instrument, then it is likely a panel of 1 lol. Yes, teachers will have students in mind, and they can make up their mind before auditions even happen that they want to admit some student, it is one of the reasons knowing a teacher before auditioning can be so helpful. It is very different on violin where even if a teacher wants to teach you, you would have to go through a panel (the assumption would be, of course, that if the teacher wanted to teach you, then the student would be up to snuff to passing the audition). Some schools I have heard will have multiple music teachers audition a kid even if they only have one teacher on the instrument, though I haven’t heard names of specific schools that do that, so can’t verify that.

Yes my son played for 1 person at Curtis and Eastman. 2 people at Ithaca. During his Eastman audition, where he is now a very happy junior, the professor had an unexpected visitor from Roch Phil. She apologized for interrupting his lesson after her 10 minute visit and the professor said “no problem, it’s his audition”. He is extremely happy at Eastman.

My son’s experience three years ago was mixed. My son is in a competitive field of violin performance with many teachers at each school. There were some teachers who seemed to know before auditions whom he/ she wanted, and then others who chose their students from auditions. In any case, the teachers would not guarantee admission to school. It turned out to be fair either case. I felt the best performing students or students with the most potential were accepted.