| FluteMomLiz -- For us, a decent safety would have been a place where D could have gotten a full-ride (actual offer) and where there is a teacher who consistently produces students who have gotten professional jobs right out of the studio, or who have gone onto placement in major graduate schools. This is not at all the same experience as going to a major conservatory or a major music school, but it is a way to get where one is going if the other doesn't work out. Also, if the difficulty is auditioning into a major studio because one has not had more advanced training, a year or two of "free" training in college (I'm assuming full-ride, which can be the case in these situations), while working through graduation requirements for "free," (especially if a university degree is also desired) can get someone ready to audition into a dream studio.
This seems to be especially important when need-based financial aid is a large factor. Not all schools practice need-blind admission. That can mean that a studio has a certain amount of money to "spend" toward new students in a year, and if your student is "too expensive" in terms of what they can get for a studio, they will choose someone else. Also, some schools will admit a student with high financial need, but will give mostly loans for aid, or not even come close to helping meet EFC by any means, making the admission theoretical for some families. (This can happen especially at out-of-state state schools which do not claim to meet full need for out-of-state students. The top applicant or two alone might be awarded significant merit aid, and no one else, and need-based aid is often given in terms of loans which might not come close to EFC even at that.) It can be helpful to research the admissions and financial aid policies of the places D applies if this is your situation. I wish we had taken the opportunity to do that before auditions.
Because financial circumstance is so much a part of our family's reality (S is severely disabled and takes most family resources), D tried very hard to keep an open mind about her situation and then weigh the realities of admission and financial reality to find the best balance. I'm very proud of her for not making her mind up before we got in all of the data, as that helped her be more able to let go of the ones that didn't work out, and to sift through the realities of her situation along with the dreams she had for what was theoretically "ideal." And it all worked out with a very fitting studio and financial aid that makes the circumstance practical. But, I still think that given our actual situation in real life, I didn't understand what a "safety" was in our case, or how much it would have helped to have had her apply to one, just to keep THAT particular option open as well. Your own mileage may vary, of course. This may only apply to our own rather idiosyncratic situation. |