<p>I have to agree with Musicamerica, you are going to need to get organized with all this, applying to college academically is a pain in the tail, but with the common app and such it has gotten a bit easier in some ways…with music school, there is a lot to work on and you have a tight timeframe…one of the best resources is going to be your private teacher, but here are some thoughts:</p>
<p>-Get a realistic evaluation of your skills, where you are, your teacher is going to be a primary resource here…as you note, vocal music is very, very competitive, and for a Soprano it is as you note the case of a lot of gals out there in that range…in a top school, like a Juilliard and NEC and Cincy (or other fine programs), you will have girls from all over the world competing as well as the US…and it may not be worth the time and effort to apply there if you aren’t ready…vocal music from the little I know is different, because voices mature slower, so getting into the big leagues may not matter at this point, but rather find a school with a good teacher who can help you prepare for further education down the road…knowing where you are says realistically where you apply.</p>
<p>-Your academic GPA and numbers may or may not matter, for stand alone school it means little or nothing, for a program within a university (or where you plan on double majoring with music ed), it can be important (for example, University of Michigan has a great music school and is academically competitive as heck, and you would need to get admitted to the school of music and the college academically, so your scores and such would matter; whereas at Juilliard it would mean nothing, unless you were a D and F student). </p>
<p>-For performance, every school has their own requirements. Often they are similar enough that you won’t be custom doing rep for each school (for example, on violin most schools require a solo bach sonata or partita, one movement or contrasting movements, Curtis wants all movements, prepare for curtis, cover the other schools; School A wants a Sonata, School B wants a 20th century piece, sonata for school A could be a Bartok piece that also covers the 20th at another…). </p>
<p>-Once you have feedback from your teacher 9and they should be helping you), use that to eliminate schools. For example, Juilliard might be out of range or NEC if your talent level isn’t where they generally admit students from. </p>
<p>-Also, look at your realistic financial situation and how much, if anything, there will be available for school. A good state program in state may be a better option if your finances are modest, even with financial aid a lot of music schools with tuition, room and board rival the ivy league schools in cost, and even with financial aid could be a major ,major amount of cost. Others have stressed to not take on student loans in UG performance, and I think that is wise…so finances come into play, too…look at the tuition, room and board and your financial situation, and use that to weed out schools. I can tell you that at a top level school, like Juilliard or NEC, unless you are really out there, it is not likely you will get serious merit aid, so finances have to play a role in the decision. </p>
<p>-Once you narrow down your list of schools to something reasonable, that meet what you decide to do, put together a spreadsheet or whatever listing the things you need to do to apply. What are the dates for submission? Do you need a pre screen dvd (more on that in a second)? What are the repertoire requirements for pre screen and (hopefully) live auditions? What fees do you need for the submission? And of course, most important, when are the deadlines? Writing this stuff down is import, at a glance you can see what you need to do. Information on deadlines and the app process will be on their websites, any questions, e-mail them. </p>
<p>-With repertoire, hopefully what you have matches the requirements, at this point you will be only a couple of months removed from when you will be auditioning and should be fine tuning existing rep, not learning new stuff.</p>
<p>-You will be likely in any kind of competitive program have to submit a pre screen dvd or maybe cd (mostly dvd’s are common these days), they will list the pre screen requirements. I believe for a pre screen it is december 1st at many schools, but that can vary, so you don’t have a lot of time. Among other things, don’t dawdle with this, make a definitive plan to have it done by let’s say end of October for Dec1, and keep in mind you may have to do different ones for different schools if requirements for the pre screen rep are different.</p>
<p>I have to agree with Musica, time right now is pressing, you can’t dawdle, and especially in making a decision about what you want to do. With academic admissions you mostly put together a n application form with all your info, write your essays and such and you are done and then are waiting for December or April. With music schools the application is the easy part, that is just the start of the fun…lot of work, to put it all together so don’t drag it out. I would say given the timeframe, that by this time next week you should have a narrowed list of schools, hopefully will have gone over the audition rep required with your teacher to see if he/she thinks you can do it, eliminating any of them you aren’t likely to match, and also should have a timeline of “I’ll have the apps done by X date, pre screen DVD’s by Y, app done and ready to submit with everything by Z”…and of course, putting a plan together with your teacher to work on the rep to have your stuff ready when audition season rolls around in January and February of next year.</p>