Class of 29 Undergrad/Class of 27 Grad: All Things Related to Music School Applications (prescreens/tours/interviews/auditions/supplements/etc)

@thisismynameOH, just came here to say the same thing, check dates for specific programs or scholarships, as the application process for those will more often require separate steps with earlier deadlines.

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Long time lurker. My DD is a rising senior and is interested in a double major in performance(double bass) and biological sciences. She has 14 AP, 4.29 wGPA, 3.45 uwGPA. She has been selected to the all state Orchestra in her junior year and hopefully again this year. She has strong ECs, state president of a national club and officer in other clubs. She is also doing independent research with a college professor and planning to get a paper published soon. She has been working with her teacher for the pre screening but has not completed it yet.

She wants to apply to Vanderbilt ED

Other schools she plans to apply are
Northwestern
Michigan
Rice
UNC
UChicago
Tulane
Emory
CMU
LSU

I am worried her gpa is not strong enough for Vanderbilt but she is determined to apply there. Hopefully the prescreening and audition can offset that. Haven’t seen too many Blair parents on here so any insight would be helpful.

When we did the college tour, one thing the admissions officer mentioned is that they don’t get many female double bass players, so maybe that’s a plus, i don’t know!

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It seems like at most universities the avg gpa for music students is lower than for general students. An example is UMich, where the school of music average is 3.67 and general is 3.76. i can’t find that info for Blair but maybe you can find out, and for the other schools as well.

The nice thing about Michigan is that they won’t have you come in to audition if you don’t meet the academic requirements, even if you pass the pre-screen. At least you know. Northwestern will have you come in if you pass the pre-screen (though last year there was no pre-screen for bass) then possibly not accept you for academics. :person_shrugging:

We have a double bass too who is currently a freshman. She didn’t want to double major though and is currently at a conservatory.

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There was a parent a couple years ago who was very active on here. Her son goes to Vandy. I think her handle is @kokotg I hope I’m paging the right person!

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Different topic than you are asking about but I just spent time at drop off with a double bass parent and his son who is my S22’s very good friend. Think about how to travel with the double bass to auditions (and eventually, college and summer programs)! It sounds harrowing and if you can drive to any or do any virtually, that helps a lot.

As a parent of a voice major, this of course never occurred to me, but it sounds like it’s quite an ordeal!

Best of luck as you navigate the process. I agree that the GPA requirements can be a bit lower for music students, but with a double major or double degree, she will need academic admission to the college as well, so that may factor in to the decision.

If your DD is looking for a double degree (not double major) she should absolutely consider Bard Conservatory & College which has a special Bass scholarship.
Brass, Double Bass, & Double Reed Scholarships
These scholarships cover up to full tuition and up to full room and board costs at Bard. Two scholarships in each category are awarded each year to incoming students

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Vanderbilt is definitely driveable. But the rest may be a stretch

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If she wants double major, Rice may not be a good fit. Shepherd is very demanding, and does not make much (if any) accommodation to students taking classes out of their music degree requirements.

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That is good to know. Are there other schools where it might be tough to do double major or double degree

Oberlin is very easy to do a double degree, but it generally takes 5 years (as does Bard- but that scholarship opportunity is incredible!).

The other one we know it’s hard to do double is JHU/Peabody, but it’s not on your list. Peabody used to exclude dual degree students from music merit scholarship. They may have changed. Also the physical distance is a big obstacle.

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My son is a junior (clarinet performance) at Blair this year. My guess would be the GPA wouldn’t be a big issue if Blair wants her, but of course there’s no way to know for sure, particularly with the double major plans. I will say that my younger son applied to Blair ED and didn’t pass the prescreen (on French horn). Of course, he’s a different kid on a different instrument in a different year…but it did leave me wondering whether ED had been an advantage or a disadvantage. There are so few music schools that offer ED that it’s tough to draw any conclusions. So…I don’t have much helpful insight about your particular situation, I’m afraid. But I can say that my kid is having a wonderful experience at Blair!

We visited Peabody and the distance was what made her decide not to apply

Could a shuttle ride be described as a fun experience at all? I haven’t seen the area but I am wondering if being on two campuses could be exciting than just one. Mt. Vernon area seems great on pictures, but I don’t know.

Following this because my DS is also double bass and is interested in schools that allow him to straddle academics and music. He loves pit orchestra (plays electric bass too and is in the school jazz band as well as the local Youth Symphony), so he tried to aim for schools with musical theater programs. He didn’t put any straight conservatories on his list, and most of the schools he’s applying to are open to students exploring coursework outside of music too. Here’s his list in case it helps:

Western Washington (in-state)
University of Washington (in-state)
University of Denver (less music-y backup option)
CU Boulder
Case Western (Joint program with Cleveland Institute of Music)
Indiana University (BSOF looks interesting)
University of Michigan
University of North Texas (they say double major is pretty hard here)
University of Cincinnati (they say double major is pretty hard here)
Boston University (no double major but has a BA option)
Oberlin

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So our N of one, there have been kids from our HS who applied to both Vanderbilt and Northwestern for music who had GPAs and SATs much lower than the typical kid accepted at those schools for other majors. If she has strong standardized testing or very high AP scores that may be helpful.

That list of schools looks good although Rice is less amenable to dual degrees and extremely competitive for double bass - the majority of kids in that studio are 100% music majors and there are many grad students as well. About the female bass player thing, that was true in the past, but at least lately, there are quite a few girls applying and being accepted to bass, so it might not make as much of a difference as it would have in the past.

As far as good double degree schools, I know of kids who have done Northwestern and also Depaul in Chicago. USC is good too, but expensive and no merit aid :frowning:

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Does anyone have experience with Boston University’s school of music? We’re only looking for a performance degree in bass (BM), no dual majors. Is the Music School far from everything else? How are the performance spaces? If you wanted to just do music, would you have to walk really far on the daily to get to different things or could you just stay near the music area?

I wouldn’t call UDenver less music oriented. They have a typical performance track, rich performance opportunities and beautiful music facilities. My daughter would have been thrilled to attend but their offer came out on the higher end for us.

So my daughter auditioned here. BU is a very urban campus. So the SOM building is near other campus buildings. But the campus is long and runs along a busy street that has light rail out front. Vocal undergrads have limited performance opportunities and there was limited merit money for undergrads as well so it fell off the list. That may be different for instrumentalists but something to ask about. They did say at their info session they capped UG merit to some small number (something like 5k/year a couple seasons ago). I’m sure they would tell if asked directly. So you can run the net price calculator and get a sense of cost.

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I’m the mom of a sophomore jazz guitarist if you have any questions! He studies jazz but gigs a mix of both jazz and contemporary!

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