The Student Room Group

Music Applicants 2012

Hi everyone, feel free to post here if you are thinking of applying for music at university for 2012 entry and we can all discuss where we are applying for and anything to do with application/interviews/auditions/offers etc. :biggrin::biggrin:

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Reply 1
Music degree applying to:
Durham (1st choice)
Bristol
Kings College London
York
Birmingham

:smile:
I am! At the moment, it's looking like I'm applying to...
Surrey (1st choice)
Bath Spa
Sheffield
Bristol
Nottingham

So fingers crossed! Nice to see some of the same places with you two :smile:
Reply 3
Anybody thought about Edinburgh? I thought that they would be all A's and Grade 8, but they want 3 B's and Grade 7 first instrument and Grade 5 keyboard skills :smile: Might change my mind a bit then...
A bit too far away from home for me, but I did consider it at one point - I think Edinburgh is a great place :smile: got my sights really set on Surrey, I love the campus and the place, and the staff and students were all lovely and really enthusiastic. Got an A in Music AS level so hopefully... I'm on my way! Just need to keep working hard...
Hi :hi: I will lurk just in case anyone wants advice about the Oxford course :ninja:
Hello! :hi: I wish hehe, didn't get good enough GCSE grades for Oxford sadly. What is Goldsmiths like though? I have considered there :biggrin:
Original post by blue_star221
Hello! :hi: I wish hehe, didn't get good enough GCSE grades for Oxford sadly. What is Goldsmiths like though? I have considered there :biggrin:


Goldsmiths is great. Fantastic buzzing atmosphere and full of really nice, supportive people and lots of interesting, innovative courses (at least at postgrad level. Though I gather the undergrad lectures are quite broad too). I'd thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested :yep:

What GCSEs did you get? If you're interested you should know you don't have to have straight A*s or even straight As at GCSE if you have good AS results or mitigating circumstances :smile:
Reply 8
Currently thinking...

SOAS
Newcastle (Folk & Trad Music)
Queen's, Belfast (Ethnomusicology)
Sheffield
Bangor
Yay I've found a forum!
I'm thinking about applying in 2013, maybe 2012 still undecided.

Heres my conclusion and I've spend ages doing my research.

What University offers the best course for you?

I play Bass guitar Grade 8 standard and I've spend ages looking at University, I'm more performance based so overall I wanted to chose a conservatoire over a university but fortunately Goldsmiths caters for both.
I play piano and double bass just started but been playing Bass Guitar since I was 12.

Anyway..
All the Royal Conservatoire are meant to be really snobby, private educated people. I'm not saying public secondary pupils don't go there but I have heard they've literally laughed at some people compositions.. great university aye?
That was for the Royal College in London.

Anyway the course which offer bass guitar as a first instrument and to study popular music performance are;
1st Choice;
Goldsmith. ( Looks great, they've high entry requirements but they also have common sense, my GCSE's were poor. I went to college and did a BTEC in music and I'm working really hard should be able to achieve D* D* D* which make it perfect for me to get into. They shouldn't be too bothered about the past)
They're fairly high up on the league table and seem to be producing better graduates every year.
Also there performance course is very wide range, it's not set in stone like other university.
So I can cover Jazz and popular music rather than just one or the other.
They're situated in London as well which is a big factor for me. ( Also I can imagine many of the graduates being fairly normal and not too up their own ass, which you would expect from one of the royal conservatoire.

LIPA
Very hands on, you get lots of chances to perform and especially with bands outside of college. You seem to get to know everyone really quickly and the facility are the best in the country without a doubt.

Leeds College of Music.
I've heard great things about Leeds College of Music especially for the Jazz course however they're slowly falling down the league table. Every year, I don't think partnering with Bradford was a good idea at all.

These are the three options i've chosen so far.
Reply 10
Original post by blue_star221
A bit too far away from home for me, but I did consider it at one point - I think Edinburgh is a great place :smile: got my sights really set on Surrey, I love the campus and the place, and the staff and students were all lovely and really enthusiastic. Got an A in Music AS level so hopefully... I'm on my way! Just need to keep working hard...


Yeah, its the distance to Edinburgh that is making me think twice too (I live in Surrey). I did get an A in AS music, but probably won't get near that in my other subjects- probablly ABC in Music, Biology and Chemistry next year,would love ABB, but Chemistry could be doubtful! :biggrin:
Original post by Debbie_xx
Yeah, its the distance to Edinburgh that is making me think twice too (I live in Surrey). I did get an A in AS music, but probably won't get near that in my other subjects- probablly ABC in Music, Biology and Chemistry next year,would love ABB, but Chemistry could be doubtful! :biggrin:


lucky you for living in Surrey! I love the place, as you've probably guessed lol. Guildford especially. & it's nice and close to London which I like :smile: I dream of being a musician on the West End so would be perfect for me there.
Are you not going for conservatoires? What instrument do you play? :biggrin: I'm a pianist, but I sing and play clarinet, organ and saxophone as well (badly). Just don't think I'm good enough to get in to any of them, and I'd rather stay academic based... I think!
Original post by blue_star221
lucky you for living in Surrey! I love the place, as you've probably guessed lol. Guildford especially. & it's nice and close to London which I like :smile: I dream of being a musician on the West End so would be perfect for me there.
Are you not going for conservatoires? What instrument do you play? :biggrin: I'm a pianist, but I sing and play clarinet, organ and saxophone as well (badly). Just don't think I'm good enough to get in to any of them, and I'd rather stay academic based... I think!


Go for what you love to do!

Theres plenty of great university and colleges other than just the Royal Conservatoires.

Many people say all the professor are pretentious and have even laughed at peoples work, do you want to be in that environment for 4 years?
Reply 13
Well I'm panicking cos I only play piano!!
Am thinking of Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol, York and Newcastle!!
Original post by woodhel02
Well I'm panicking cos I only play piano!!
Am thinking of Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol, York and Newcastle!!


Piano is the best instrument though :awesome:

Nice choices :yes:
Original post by woodhel02
Well I'm panicking cos I only play piano!!
Am thinking of Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol, York and Newcastle!!


I really don't think it matters if you play one instrument, especially if you play it well.
Most University want people to play a bit of piano for composition.
However because Piano is your main instrument, you should be fine.
However there might be a lot of competition but it's music after all.

Good luck.
Original post by woodhel02
Well I'm panicking cos I only play piano!!
Am thinking of Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol, York and Newcastle!!


I only play piano really (got my grade 8), I've got Grade 5 musical theatre but don't have singing lessons now! I'm a paid organist though, and learnt the clarinet and the sax by myself... but really I only do piano :L There is a lot of competition between pianists to get into conservatoires, but with universities you'll be okay. I think it was the people at Sheffield who mentioned that they don't really look at what instrument you play too much, it's everything else including academic work and your personal statement that they concentrate more on - & they don't take a certain amount of people who play one instrument. For example, one class could have 20 pianists... or 3! If you get where I'm coming from :smile:

I'm off to the Nottingham open day on Saturday, and if I like it there then I'm all set to apply! Just got to get my personal statement sorted. Quite worried about writing the academic part because I do loads of extra-curricular stuff...
Original post by blue_star221

I'm off to the Nottingham open day on Saturday, and if I like it there then I'm all set to apply! Just got to get my personal statement sorted. Quite worried about writing the academic part because I do loads of extra-curricular stuff...


It's really only Oxford and Cambridge that require you to have an academic part :yes: So if you can't fit it in, it's not the end of the world :nah:

I'm a PS Helper on TSR, so if any of you would like me to look at your statement, you can just post it in the Humanities and Arts section of PS Help :yes:
Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd
It's really only Oxford and Cambridge that require you to have an academic part :yes: So if you can't fit it in, it's not the end of the world :nah:

I'm a PS Helper on TSR, so if any of you would like me to look at your statement, you can just post it in the Humanities and Arts section of PS Help :yes:


Aaaah now that is a major relief! Thank you so much, I'll definitely get in touch when I've written mine :yes: Drafted a plan out earlier and it didn't go too badly, so I should be alright.

Is it wrong that I'm REALLY excited about applying to uni?! :L :biggrin:
Original post by blue_star221
Aaaah now that is a major relief! Thank you so much, I'll definitely get in touch when I've written mine :yes: Drafted a plan out earlier and it didn't go too badly, so I should be alright.

Is it wrong that I'm REALLY excited about applying to uni?! :L :biggrin:


Definitely feel free to drop your PS in if you like :yep:

Not at all. Uni is very exciting and stimulating. Part of the reason I decided to do an MA was to extend my student years :biggrin:

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