<p>I don’t know anything about those particular colleges, but I do know that most (many) state colleges will have stricter policies about academics than most private colleges. Many conservatory type colleges don’t care about your test scores or gpa at all.</p>
<p>The up side is that even public colleges will often bend their academic cuttoffs a little for a student with exceptional tallent - like in athletics, leadership, or even music. At the academically superior (his “reach” college) private colleges my son applied to, his SAT was nearly 300 pts below their average, but he was accepted. I am quite sure it was his good audition that got him in. </p>
<p>Even at the college that he ultimately decided to attend, I have reason to believe that his audition may have gotten him off their wait list. About a week before notifications were scheduled to be sent out, he recieved an unexpected email from the “school of music” at that university, they said that “they had taken care of his admissions issue…”. Now we weren’t aware that there was an “admissions issue”, but we highly suspect that he had been waitlisted as several of his friends with almost identical academics had been waitlisted (which at that college means “accepted” for the spring semester but not for the fall semester).</p>
<p>A “mid 1500” sat score (assuming 3 part score) would be borderline at most popular state universities, and a definate no-go at top universities. It’s not a terrible score at all, it is roughly average, so even if you don’t get into a top school, there are plenty of average schools or even somewhat above average that would love to accept you, particularly if you have a great audition. Just make sure that you apply at a few schools that are close to your sat level.</p>