Getting admitted to a music conservatory

system
Mon, 29 Nov 2010 05:58:50 +0000

If she’s /really/ worried, she should wait. It’s that simple. She has a degree, and more time to practice and (gasp!) grow up a little might depressurize the process a little.
But actually her list-- and it is hers, not yours collectively, no matter how involved you are in the process, because she and only she will enroll somewhere-- does include a couple of schools with less than brutal entrance competition. If you mean it when you say she’s had famous master teachers, and they really have thought well of her, and she was successful at Meadowmount, then at least one of the schools on that list is likely to work out; the acceptance rates for violin at Mannes, Indiana, and Oberlin are not horribly unfavorable. The minimum standard is quite high-- none of those schools is less than an excellent and internationally recognized choice, and none is easy to get in to-- but the chances of getting in if you’re qualified are not bad. If you’re concerned about taking comfort from random internet discussion, I’m a graduate student at a major music school and a teacher at the attached preparatory program.

But look. You’ve practically answered your own question. Forgive my presumptuousness in saying all this, but you seem genuinely concerned for your child’s well-being, so I’m going to tell you what I believe will help. The pressure can be meaningfully reduced only by you and your wife. Your daughter is clearly an extremely accomplished young woman, whose dearest dream is riding on one round of competitive auditions to such an extent that her whole future will have to be rewritten if something goes wrong. That is a recipe for disaster, and waste. I understand the impulse to protect her future by not sending this talented person in a direction that won’t be fruitful, i.e. music school if she’s not really good enough or the school won’t get her far enough. But the fact is that lots of great teaching goes on at second-tier schools and lots of terrible teaching goes on at terrific schools; prestige guarantees nothing but, well, prestige. You’ve already established that trustworthy authorities think your daughter can make a go of a music career. That should be enough to go on.

If you want your daughter to stop feeling stressed out, your wife’s rule has to go. It runs a real risk of being a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I’m not telling you to let your daughter take an unwise course. I admire your care for her future and present happiness.