<p>I am a highschool senior and have applied to many conservatories as well as SUNY Purchase and Temple U. I would consider them my safe schools. I know lots about temple, three fellow flutists have audition there in previous years and all got in. I would consider myself just as good or better than some of them playing wise. However, I don’t know as much about Purchase, and was wondering how it ranks difficulty wise to get in in comparison to other schools for flute performance.</p>
<p>Welcome, flutegirl.</p>
<p>First of all, there is no such thing as a “safe school” when we are talking about auditioned programs at the level of Temple and Purchase, unless perhaps you are already taking private lessons from a faculty member there who has said that they would accept you. Even in cases like that, I have heard stories about people who thought they were in and were not. </p>
<p>Because of the numbers involved, flute is one of the most competitive instruments. Depending on things like how many new flute students are needed by the school, unanticipated situations that may suddenly cause a faculty member to leave or reduce their hours, variance in the general level of the competition from year to year, the small but non-zero possibility that either you or your competition absolutely flubs an audition on any given day and probably a few other factors, the level of playing required for acceptance to any given school can vary considerably from year to year. Just because you think you play better than someone who got in last year, it does not necessarily follow that you stand a good chance of getting in this year. That may or may not be the case.</p>
<p>Given that the flute teacher at Purchase (Tara O’Connor) is reasonably well known in the flute world, she will likely attract some fairly advanced auditioners. Beyond that, it is going to be very hard to say what your chances may be there. There are some excellent faculty, perhaps even better-known, at Temple but the fact that there are four flute teachers there means that they are almost certainly going to accept a lot more students than a school that has only one flute teacher. That fact alone can remove a good bit of the variability from year to year, but not entirely eliminate it.</p>
<p>The only way to achieve anything like a degree of safety in this crazy world of music school admissions is to audition early and often, apply to a pretty wide range of schools, and practice, practice, practice. In terms of applying to a range of schools, you have to ask yourself whether you want to add another school or two a notch down from Temple and Purchase (both of which have fine programs) or whether you would prefer to do something else next year should the unthinkable happen. There are schools out there that have pretty good flute teachers and that accept applications into mid or late January should you choose that route.</p>
<p>Don’t misktake Purchase for a safe school! It’s really one of the hardest ones to get into because of its small size and affordability.</p>