Acceptance to University vs Music Program

Mom2aphysicsgeek
Mon, 26 Jan 2026 03:47:48 +0000

It is hard to separate. His rep will matter for stand alone conservatories and his coursework and gpa will matter for admissions to many universities. For your avg LAC or non-selective state U, his gpa will be fine. Some schools are moving back toward requiring test scores even though they have been test optional through 2026. (Google articles like this one https://brittany.consulting/2025/02/colleges-that-are-no-longer-test-optional-updated-february-2025/ Schools that are test optional are not going to look at just gpa but rigor of coursework associated with gpa. (I’d have to go back and reread, but it didn’t sound like he was taking a rigorous academic load.) To understand that part better, I encourage you to look at their common data sets.

LACs might be a better fit for him than competitive top Us in terms of admissions if he isn’t auditioning to a freestanding conservatory. Some Us are slightly different in terms of admissions, though. UMiami is no longer test optional except for Frost music majors. That information is on their website. But, that level of leeway is not going to gain admissions to a school like Vanderbilt. Even test optional, everything matters there. But, Peabody doesn’t require being admitted to JHU. That is more like a stand alone conservatory.