Re: G.P.A. for college


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Posted by DOTS Serious answer on January 21, 2004 at 19:16:26:

In Reply to: G.P.A. for college posted by Chris on January 21, 2004 at 00:44:35:

That's the old Army answer to every question: it depends on the situation.

We're currently in early stages of the admission process for our younger daughter (a junior trumpet player) and just finished with our older daughter (now a freshman flutist at St. Olaf). We're coming out of a very competitive suburban New York metropolitan area high school and the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division, and have been gathering information in this area now for three years, going on four. I attended a meeting with the MSM Director of Admissions about the conservatory admissions process last weekend.

In the cases you ask about, it depends on the Institution and the Situation.

The first thing to understand is that university admissions and conservatory admissions are fundamentally different.

For conservatory admissions, your audition is absolutely critical. It will determine not only if you are admitted, but what kind of financial aid package you will be offered.

Conservatories will look at how many of each instrument they want (they pre-screen on some instruments, usually not tuba, though) and determine how many they'll have to admit in order to yield the desired number in the incoming class. After you audition, you'll be ranked against the other players on your instrument. The cut off (assuming there are more applicants on tuba than they need) is easy to understand. If the school wants three freshman tuba players, has 20 applicants and normally enrolls 40% of those admitted, they will need to accept 8 of the 20 applicants. The packages of scholarships and aid are parcelled out (usually need based) according to how desireable the applicant is. If you're the top choice, they'll probably meet your financial need, if you're the lowest score on the audition they accepted, you probably won't have your need met.

For conservatories, things like recommendations, grades and test scores (assuming they're at least "ok" and not below say, 1100) are less important. They assume you will only get recommendations from someone who will say you walk on water and hold people up on either side. The recommendation MSM takes most seriously is the guidance counsellor's recommendation, since it is most likely to be somewhat objective.

Once you're in, choice of teacher and the like may also initially depend on your audition performance.

A rough guide to the difficulty of admission to the conservatories you listed would be:
Julliard and Eastman - toughest
MSM and San Francisco Conservatory -- a bit easier.
I have no idea on the RNCM.


Now, universities and colleges are a completely different animal. Your audition will only get you so far, and your grades and standardized test scores matter a whole lot!

There, you will probably have to be accepted to both the university and the school/department of music. So, you will have to meet, or, if you're exceptionally talented on your instrument, come pretty close to, their general admissions standards (which, for public universities such as Indiana (I'm assuming you mean Indiana University at Bloomington, the Tuba Mecca), UCLA and Arizona State will be different for state residents and out-of-state applicants -- obviously, much harder for non-residents).

So, as someone else suggested, you need to go to the college admissions guides and the college websites and see what kind of scores and grades you need, as well as what special requirements the schools of music have. You could well be admitted to the university, and not accepted at the school of music, or conversly, be the favorite candidate of the music school, but a wash-out in university admissions.

Places like UCLA are very, very hard for non-residents to be admitted to. Unless you are a minority, you want to be in the top 5-10% of your high school class and have SAT scores over 1400. Indiana and Arizona State are traditionally less competitive.

Private universities such as Northwestern (which we're looking at) have both higher standards for general admissions (again top 5-10%, SATs 1400+), but more flexibility if the school of music really really wants you. (At an Arts and Music College Fair last fall, both the Northwestern and Rice reprsentatives said their average MUSIC admittee SATs were between 1375 and 1400.

I would rate the relative difficulty of admission to the universities you list as follows:

UCLA (non-resident) and Northwestern
UCLA (California resident)
Indiana U (non-resident)
USC
Arizona State (non resident)
Indiana U (resident)
Arizona State (resident)
DePaul

You really need to talk with your instructor, your band director/orchestra conductor, and your guidance counsellor, soon.


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