Share your story!

iluvpiano
Mon, 25 Apr 2011 23:44:14 +0000

“What were your original goals, and did you accomplish them?”
To go to a good music school- small college/university with a good music program. I’m only allowed to go to college in the midwest (parents’ rules), so that limited my list of schools.

“What was the biggest challenge you faced while applying to your schools?”
During application season- I had auditions since I’m a music major, so just scheduling stuff and actually finding time to sleep was difficult. To get homework and piano practicing done, I ended up getting into a schedule of staying up til midnight (or later) working every night and then waking up at 5:30 to go to school, so that wasn’t good (and that was ALL homework and practice time, except for breaks to eat). I have 5 AP classes (4 at school, 1 self-study).

“Did things turn out okay? Are you happy?”
Yes, they worked out fine. I’m going to Illinois Wesleyan University, which a year ago is not where I expected to go. I already study with a piano professor near where I live, so I originally thought it would just be easiest to go there, but I ended up liking IWU a lot better. Telling my piano professor that was difficult though.

“Which schools were you admitted to? To which school did you commit? Is it where you expected/hoped you’d be?”
I applied to Illinois Wesleyan University, Concordia College, University of St. Thomas- MN (where my piano professor is), and UW-Eau Claire(financial back-up school only cause I wanted to go to a small private university, and this was a public financial safety school). Admitted to all of them- remember, only allowed to apply and go to schools in the midwest, so I know there not all top nationally-recognized schools- if I had been allowed to look elsewhere, I may have applied to some others also that I could have gotten into. I got into all of these easily since I’m at least above on all of their SAT/ACT/GPA, etc. averages, and some I’m WAY above their averages, so easy admits. I’m going to IWU as I mentioned, and yeah, it’s where I hoped I’d be by about December 2010, originally not where I planned, but changed my mind by December-ish time before my audition in January.

OP- are you a junior looking at schools now?