Need a "safety" choice -- accomplished with the oboe

rcmama
Mon, 11 Sep 2006 09:25:11 +0000

“What is a safety school for an ‘accomplished’ oboist?” is a difficult question to answer. One person’s safety is another person’s stretch, so it is really impossible to say on a forum like this. If an applicant’s goal is to play in a major orchestra, then that applicant should be aiming for the top conservatories. The competition that these applicants are facing now to get into a top school is only a taste of what’s to come when the competition is for a decent-paying job. We know several students who therefore decided that their “safety” would not be a music program, so they applied to their in-state universities as an undecided major.

While admission at schools like Michigan and Indiana is very competitive, the general pool of applicants is not the same as at schools like Eastman, Juilliard, and Curtis, even though there may be some overlap. For the right applicant (and there may only be a handful out there in a given year), Michigan and Indiana can be safety schools, but I agree that for the bulk of students they would not. As for Juilliard, I heard that 5 freshmen were accepted this year, two from Juilliard prep.