I was wondering what the acceptance rate is for Yale’s graduate school, specifically the music school.
Is it easier or harder to get in to the university applying as a grad or an undergrad?
As a music applicant- are gpa/academic requirements the same, or is admission solely/mostly audition based?
Any and all information about admissions is greatly appreciated
Also any profiles of recently admitted students would be very helpful!
It might help if you indicated your instrument. Some regular posters have kids who were accepted at Yale.
At a minimum, those accepted to Yale are stellar performers. I’ve known stunning violinists who somehow didn’t pass the prescreen, but did get accepted to top studios at similar competitive schools. Go figure.
I am a vocalist!
Admission to Yale School of Music has nothing to do with admission to Yale College as an undergrad. It’s the same as applying to any of the very top music conservatories, and it is one of the most selective in the world. However, for a composition applicant, one needs to take the GRE. I don’t know what it is required for vocal performance applicants.
given you are a vocalist, I assume you are referring to the Yale School of Music and not an academic music degree. Yale SOM is like most other performance programs, admission is going to be based mostly on the audition and a teacher willing to teach you. They do ask for your academic transcripts, but like a typical music school from what i know this only is to make sure you aren’t a academically weak, it isn’t the same thing as applying to yale for grad school in the academic school. They don’t require standardized tests other than the TOEFL for (for international students) or the GRE (for composition majors only).
In terms of difficulty of getting in it will be as difficult as any top level grad program. The program attracts top level students because they have a strong faculty, they have the academic world of Yale (students can take classes from across the school from what I know), and with the program it is full tuition+stipend for all admitted students, and that is a biggie combined with the level of the program, it isn’t so easy to get that out of other high level programs (lot of the time takes negotiating and appeals to get close to that level of money).
Like any audition program, the level of the students can vary but overall those admitted are likely to be at the level required for any high level program (the kids who apply there generally apply to programs like Juilliard, Rice, NEC et al) so it is going to be extremely competitive, and yep it likely is as difficult as getting into Yale academically, given how many people audition/pre screen there/apply to the program and how many get in, it is a relatively low yield.
“Is it easier or harder to get in to the university applying as a grad or an undergrad?”
It appears that you are an international, pre-college student. If so, the following are my 2 cents.
Yale undergraduate is a liberal arts education, not a conservatory. The admission rate for international students is extremely low, probably not far away from 1%. Use the following link to find your country and you will see typically how many students from your country are admitted each year: http://oiss.yale.edu/about/statistics/2014-2015. There is an undergraduate music major, but it is offered by the department of music within Yale College, not the school of music (a graduate professional school).
A Yale undergraduate has opportunity to have voice lesson (usually one lesson each week) with credit (no additional fee for it) with a graduate faculty from the school of music so long as the student passes an audition: http://music.yale.edu/study/music-lessons/. It is also possible to take lesson (without credit) with a graduate student, and there is a small fee for doing so.
A Yale undergraduate also has the option of doing a BA/MM dual degree with the school of music: http://music.yale.edu/study/degrees-programs/ba-mm/
Yale school of music is the most endowed graduate music program. As a result, their graduate students are at the highest level.