Does anybody know why Peabody and NEC acceptance rates are so high relative to Juliard and Curtis?
While it varies by instrument, Peabody is not considered as desirable or rigorous of a conservatory overall so they have to accept a lot more students or pull a lot more from the waitlist. NEC is much larger than Curtis, and while very rigorous for strings, is not as rigorous for all instruments. There are many more spots available there, and the level is very wide in who they accept. Juilliard tends to get not only appropriate applicants but also every substandard kid in the US who is the best in their town but has no idea what the level is elsewhere in the âreal world.â They get a ton of inappropriate applicants. They have a lot more spots than Curtis, but overall a lot more applicants. Also, the application process at Curtis scares a lot of people off!
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I think take the acceptance rates with a grain of salt - different instruments have a different acceptance rate also at these schools but the biggest factor is a private teacher your child loves. Can they get them from Point A to Point B. More applicants to Juilliard and Curtis also - Curtis is free, also Colburn. It is the same as the Ivy League schools low acceptance rates. But are any of the top 30 schools inferior in education to the Ivy League - probably not?!?
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All I can say being a horn player and getting my horn students ready to take auditions versus my daughter on violin - a totally different level of playing. Take the acceptances rates as a grain of salt - your kids happiness is so much more important than the lowest acceptance rate. I went to a conservatory and it was complete misery. I preach, teacher #1, atmosphere of school and cost. Owe little to nothing in this field. It is a wonderful career music but not the easiest path either! My other child pursuing physics/engineering easier path in alot of ways!!!
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This is a big part of the low Curtis acceptance rate. Also, in the past (even a few years ago when my son auditioned) some of the studios did not require prescreen submission. So any student willing to pay the $150 application fee and travel cost to audition, could do so. Kind of like buying a lottery ticket.
Finally it is hard to appreciate how small Curtis is. The year my son applied there were 25 students admitted. Total students, undergrad and graduate level, instrumental and opera and composition.
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It is excellent - always has been. Also I have friends from MSM and Juilliard who no longer play and friends who went to state schools who are doing much better than I in their careers. I think it is like any other field - where you go is just a tiny part of it.
What do you mean âat the timeâ excellent and humane?
I deleted due to apparent misunderstanding of my post.
I understood exactly what you meant! Some conservatories have been traditionally not as nice as others - very competitive. I appreciated your post!
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I would love if anybody could PM me with that info. We are clueless about it all and would love to know what the vibe is at different places as my DS gets ready next year.
Would be happy to!
Does anyone have info on the sight reading requirement for the piano performance auditions at Curtis? (March 18-20) feel free to PM me or reply! Any info would be helpful!
You are spot on! My son is so happy in his program bc he went with the teacher he âclickedâ best with. Atmosphere is so important too! The director of his schools top ensemble told him âgo into music, NOT debtâ lolâŠwise words
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I am also a proponent of NOT looking too hard at âadmission ratesâ. If it is a reputable music school with a great faculty, why do the admission rates matter? Your kid is going to be with excellent teachers and will be surrounded by serious musicians. So growth will happen if they work hard.
Remember any reputable school has a high bar to even audition. So anyone that has the ability to do the pre-screen or audition is already a serious music studentâŠso it would reason that the admission rate wouldnât be tiny as the pool is probably already culledâŠIMO.
Some kids are more advanced than others and may get an offer by Curtis or Juillard or another. Thatâs OK if at 18 thatâs NOT you. There can be a LOT of growth in college. My D entered college pretty advanced having a voice that matured early, a good amount of talent, and some good training. Iâd love to say that just continuedâŠbut funny thing happenedâŠshe plateaued and others (maybe with fewer opportunities or just a slower gorwth early on) grew!!! So that was a challenge for my D.
Where you are when you enter school at 18âŠis not FIXED. In fact, it can change greatly over those 4 years. The bottom can become the top and vice versa. Or you can be lucky and be a top banana alwaysâŠuntil some day in the futureâŠwhere you will be challenged too.
So, my unsolicitied advice would be to make sure that it is a reputable music schoolâŠand then look for GROWTH opportunities. And where can your kid grow? An excellent teacher will help. But donât underestimate the peers and overall environment. Itâs their one shot at UGâŠmake sure they can have some fun! Be happy! It may be hard to excel if you are unhappy and dislike your school.
Remember: there is NO school that offers a golden ticket (regardless of their admission rate). Everyone has to leave academia at some point and struggle to survive. Of course, there are a few at the tippy top that will appear to glide throughâŠthatâs fine. But most musicians have to work very hard and hustleâŠno matter their UG school. At least thatâs my opinion.
I hope that this helps.
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Why admissions rates matter? Really? Because if you apply to schools with just 15% or less admissions rate, you might just end up on the street. Thatâs why it matters.
And my son says 10% Bienen admissions is after prescreens. So the odds of 1/2 great musicians or 1/10 great musicians are very different.
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Iâm simply speaking from experience. Itâs my opinion. My words may resonate with some and not with others. Thatâs fine.
I still hope my posts helps some in their decision making.
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I tried to look into this a little. It seems that the 10% is before prescreens. They also have the secondary issue of needing to be academically qualified which may make for a lower total acceptance rate. (It is on their website that they have 2000 applicants for 200 spaces)
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Thank you
I am not sure if this helps, but we looked at admission rates for music programs a bit differently. As an example, a conservatory may have a 50 percent admission rate, but happens to have the top trombone professor in the worldâŠthe admission rate for a trombonist would probably be very low since many trombone students want to go there. Just an example of how a general admission rate is not super accurate. Like everything else with music admissions there are so many more variables.
When my son applied, he and his teacher came up with a handful of schools where my son wanted to pursue/attend based on his criteria of teacher, opportunities in school and in the area and opportunity for merit money. He chose 2 âsafetiesâ 2 âmatchesâ and 2 âreachesâ. The method for categorizing what was a safety/match was not specifically based on the acceptance rate of the program. It was based on other factors including:
- His teacher having a good idea of where my sonâs level will rank at a particular program. This was based on his teacher placing a number of students each year.
- Any relationship with a professor at a prospective school. This was based on sample lessons/master classes.
- Knowing students who applied and were accepted in the year or two prior.
I think this is easier to figure out for instrumentalists than for voice. And it is by no means an exact science. But you can make yourself crazy thinking about acceptance rates and number of spots in a studio. As my son said at the time, âIt doesnât matter how many spots they have, if I am the right student for the studio then I am in.â
My son applied only for Music Performance and not at schools with a really high academia bar. So that adds another layer to the process as @helpingthekid73 states above.
As long as you have a good range of schools based on where your musician would fall in the applicant pool, they will pass prescreens, have auditions and have acceptances. And they seem to all end up where they are supposed to beâŠsomewhere where the learn and grow.
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