Academia for Students of Performing Arts or Music

Performing arts and music have always been competitive fields and today that is truer than ever before. No longer can students rely on talent alone to get ahead. These days academic credentials are just as important as inherent or learned talent. So while a student’s creative ability isn’t necessarily academic, success will still mean acing exams, writing outstanding essays and mid-terms and maintaining a decent grade point average. In addition, student’s who have obtained arts scholarships will often have to satisfy other special requirements or meet achievement standards.

The good news is that most of the best performing arts schools will weigh admission heavily upon competitive pre-entry performances. At the Julliard school in New York for example, all applicants (unless pre-screened) are invited to audition. They must perform in person for members of the faculty according to the requirements in their respective departments. During the interview members of the faculty and/or administrative staff might schedule applicants for a personal interview. In addition they of course want a CV and portfolio. The really great thing about liberal arts colleges in general is that they are focused on the talent. It’s just too bad they have to implement a curriculum as well.

Still using Julliard as the example that means students doing a Bachelor degree in fine arts or music must also undertake 24 credits in Liberal Arts following a core curriculum. Not everyone makes it into a performance focused school like The Julliard School. These students may find themselves majoring in fine arts or music but still carrying a fairly heavily weighted academic schedule. For these students, remaining true to their craft while achieving academic success will require extraordinary dedication, ambition and focus.