Music Dept. definite answer in 30 days?

College Majors Music Majors
1

<p>This is long. I’m sorry and thanks in advance for your help. My daughter applied to 3 colleges for music therapy. She has since auditioned for 2 that she is really interested in and decided that one is not for her. One of the colleges is rolling admission and she just found out that she was accepted to both the college and the music program. The other college does not have rolling admission and she should find out in late January. However, the music department told her that it was a big thumbs up on their part so she expects to be admitted. She currently has not made a decision on what school to attend. Both are great choices. </p>

<p>This is all really good news. However, today in the mail, my daughter got a letter from the music department at the rolling admissions college saying that she needs to email the music department her decision in 30 days since it is a competitive program. My daughter won’t even know if she is accepted to the other college before then. So she’s freaking out because she thinks she has to make an absolute decision before she even has all the information. </p>

<p>I’m not exactly sure what to do. Both schools are top contenders so she isn’t leaving anyone hanging in my opinion but according to the letter she could lose her music therapy spot. My son is a music major as well and none of the schools that accepted him did this so we’re really thrown. The way I see it - these are her options: </p>

<p>1) Email the director that she is going to be accepting the admission offer but not fill out the admissions department paper work just yet. If she chooses the other school, she can then contact him again to decline. </p>

<p>2) Email the director that she is going to be accepting the admission offer and file the admissions department paperwork (deposit is refundable until May 1st). If she chooses the other school, she can email the director and we’ll have to jump through hoops to get the refund. </p>

<p>3) Wait until she has made her final decision as planned. </p>

<p>4) Email the director and say that she is seriously interested but needs to wait until she hears from her other top choice school.</p>

<p>Your input is greatly appreciated!</p>

2

<p>That seems really unreasonable for them to ask her for a decision now. I think that there may even be a rule against pressuring kids to make a decision before March, unless it is an early decision program.</p>

<p>How can you make a decision like that before you have seen the financial aid packages, which don’t come out for months? I would do option 4.</p>

3

<p>NASM rules:</p>

<p>[FAQ</a> 15](<a href=“http://nasm.arts-accredit.org/index.jsp?page=FAQ+15]FAQ”>http://nasm.arts-accredit.org/index.jsp?page=FAQ+15)</p>

<p>Section 3 says they can’t do this unless they’ve advised you that if you accept offer, it is not binding until 5/1. Did they say something like that in the letter?</p>

<p>You could accept the offer and draw their attention to the rules.</p>

4

<p>It’s possible the school might not accredited by NASM and therefore doesn’t need to follow those rules, although it seems awfully early to be demanding an answer.</p>

5

<p>In general, most schools seem to abide by the NASM rules, which is that acceptances are not binding until 5/1, even if they are not NASM. I would ask admissions if they accept the admissions, if they then change their mind would they lose their deposit, it is really the only way to know.</p>

<p>One note, if it is a competitive program and they have rolling admissions, then they may want her to accept so they keep a place open for her, but if it is truly competitive then if she later says no, they will have a wait list of people that can fill the slot.</p>