Undergraduate / "Hopes for educational development during the next ten years" Oberlin admissions [3]

Here is an essay I just finished for my application to Oberlin Conservatory.

Write an essay in which you describe your hopes and plans for your educational andprofessional development during the next ten years. Include such aspects asdiverse interests, career goals, and options you wish to explore.

In 10 years, I want to be a different person then I am now. I want to be someone who has learned from the past decade of experiences, someone who has had their mind opened to new ideas, someone who is constantly trying to learn and improve. I want to be able to look back on a decade of improvement, both as a musician and as a person.

I have always loved everything related to music, and after graduating with a degree in piano performance, I would like to teach at a music school. During a two week summer music intensive at the Lamont School of Music, I discovered that I really love the general atmosphere of a music school. It feels so amazing to be surrounded all day every day by musicians who share so many interests with me, and who love music just as much as I do. I love being in a place filled with musicians who want so much to learn and progress, it makes me feel like I'm advancing just by being around them. I think I would be very happy living and working in that kind of atmosphere.

I don't really have a concrete idea of what I would teach, I just know that I want to teach something related to music. I'm not completely decided in what I want to teach just because at this point in my life, I have barely even started to learn about all the different areas of music, and I want to be open to as many new things as I can be. I've heard so many musicians talk about going to college and having their eyes opened to something completely new to them, something they hadn't even thought of before. In fact, I haven't talked to a single person who said that they the same person with the same goals before and after college. I know one woman who went into college hoping to be a concert pianist, learned about Alexander technique, and now 20 years later is one of the leading therapists for injured musicians in the country. The thought that I may end up devoting my life to something that I know nothing about right now isn't worrying or frightening to me like I know it is for some people, its really exiting. It's the kind of uncertain future I would want.

Whether I end up teaching music theory, music history, music therapy, or something else entirely, I think just working in the atmosphere of a music school, surrounded by music and musicians everyday would be enough to make me happy in my career. Whatever I end up teaching, my goal for the future is to feel like I'm doing something important with my life, something that makes me wake up every day looking forward to what I have to do.

I've read this essay so many times by now that I cant get an objective opinion on it. What do you all think?

Thanks!

Undergraduate / It's time to do what you have been working towards for 11 years. Peabody admission [4]

Here is an essay I wrote for my application to Peabody Conservatory. I dont really know about the last sentence; I cant decide if it is conclusive enough to close with. What do you all think?

When I think back on all my performances, good and bad, one really stands out in my mind as completely different from all the rest. I was selected to perform in the Honors Recital at a music camp with a piece that was so old and stale that it wasn't getting any better, it was getting worse. The piece had hit that point in its life where after months and months of practice, it was as good as it was going to get, and now it literally felt like a fight every time I played it to keep if from slipping further downhill. The piece was Liszt's Un Sospiro, and the worst part was that I had worked on it for so long and performed it so many times that it didn't sound like music to me anymore. One of the worst feelings in the world to me is getting on stage, performing, and hearing the applause for a piece that I don't like, and am not passionate and committed to. The Honors Recital was expected to have the largest audience of any of the camp performances, and I wasn't looking forward to performing my piece yet again under so much pressure.

The day of the performance, I didn't feel good at all. As I always do when I'm nervous, much to the annoyance of my roommate, I started dropping everything I held and knocking things over. As the day wore on, it got worse and worse, until I thought I was going to explode. For my entire life, whenever I have to play in a recital I get a sudden lack of self esteem. Who am I fooling, I cant play the piano. I mean, look at all those keys, how am I possibly supposed to play this thing? There must have been some mistake.... I always end up performing just fine, but those moments beforehand have always been horrible. The usual lines were running through my head as I paced backstage, waiting for my turn. The stage manager whispered "Ready?" gave me the thumbs up, and opened the stage door. I took a deep breath, and walked out on stage.

I don't know why, but when I walked out onto the stage, my nerves completely disappeared. It was one of those stars-align-in-you-favor kinds or moments, where everything seems perfect. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I felt completely relaxed and at ease on stage. Gone was the usual counting down the seconds until its over feeling, and as I started playing I realized how good it feels to be onstage in a gorgeous concert hall, playing with complete confidence on a nine foot Steinway concert grand. I don't know why my nerves disappeared, maybe I had reached the golden number of performances of one piece, and my brain had realized how pointless it was to be nervous, or maybe I had just run through all the nervousness one person can generate in a day. Whatever the reason was, I count the Honors Recital as my best performance to date, just because of how incredible it felt.

I think moments like these are why I want to be a music major. I can't think of any other profession where so many hours and hours of hard work goes into just a few minutes on stage, but I also can't think of any other profession where those moments are so rewarding. It feels amazing to reach the point where you can sit down at a piano knowing that no matter what happens in this performance, you have prepared as much as you could, and now its time to do what you have been working towards for 11 years.

Undergraduate / "Homeschool" - Rice - What unique life perspective will you contribute? [3]

Here is my essay for my Rice application. The exact promt is - The quality of Rice's academic life and the Residential College System are heavily influenced by the unique life experiences and cultural traditions each student brings. What perspective do you feel that you will contribute to life at Rice? (Most applicants are able to respond successfully in two to three double-spaced pages.)

I have noticed, throughout the years, that my siblings and I have a very different attitudes towards learning than most people. We would listen to our friends talk about how much they hated school, and how they hated their teachers, and how they couldn't wait till they were out of school, and we would look at each other, confused. We loved school, and people wouldn't believe us when we said so.

My siblings and I have been homeschooled our entire lives, and to us, school wasn't a chore, school was life. We would practice math while designing a bookshelf with our dad, have impromptu biology lessons with our mom after finding a strange bug in our backyard, and get real-world perspectives on history while sitting on our neighbors porch, listening to him tell stories of being a white man during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. While some of our schooling was done at a desk with a textbook, most or it was done in everyday life. We didn't had our love of learning beaten out of us with boring classes and endless desks.

Homeschooling us gave us the freedom to have our curriculum's custom-fitted to each of our strengths and interests. I have always loved reading, so many of my "classes" involved me sitting curled up in a chair, reading about certain subjects. I would sit and read plays by Shakespere for hours, or books on philosophy books by Carl Sagan, or books on chemistry by Oliver Sacks. One of my nicknames growing up was "Miss Britannica" because one of my friends arrived at our house to find me sitting with Britannica's stacked around me, reading away. I can think back on many hours happily spent absorbed in the worlds of great books.

It seems like so many of my friends have such a bad stigma attached to school that they shut down their brains to anything even vaguely related to learning outside of the classroom. My friend would ask why I was going to the library to research a subject on a Saturday, and would be shocked when I told her that no, it wasn't for school, it was just because I was interested in the subject. Growing up, we always had a lot of input into shaping our curriculum, and we were encouraged to study things we were interested in. It always shocked me that people viewed studying as something you had to be forced to do. I studied because I was genuinely interested in what I was learning.

This perspective is what I will bring to Rice university. I am a proud homeschooler, but now this means so much more than just being different. It means I am an independent thinker and a voracious reader. It means I am a teacher to myself. It means I view learning as a lifelong activity. I'm grateful for my background in homeschooling, and what it has taught me. Homeschooling has given me a valuable mindset, one that I will want to keep for the rest of my life.

What do you all think?

I think I might need to make it a bit longer, (I think I have about a page and a half right now) even though the "two to three double spaced pages" is more of a suggestion then a rule, right?

Any comments are greatly appreciated. :)

Undergraduate / "If I was suddenly unable to play music...." Oberlin conservatory admissions essay [2]

Here is my essay for my Oberlin application. It didn't have a word count suggestion, so do you all think this is a good length? I've got it at 378 words at the moment.

Its hard for me to imagine my life without my ability to play music. Creating music has been a central part of my life ever since I was very young, to the point where I can hardly imagine my life without it. However, the music world has so many different sides to it, playing an instrument being only one of them. I could teach, or conduct, or compose, or even become a sound engineer. Even if I were suddenly not able to play music anymore, I would still consider myself a musician, and there would still be many things I could do within the music world.

I would use my knowledge and background in music to become an advocate for keeping music in the school system. There is such small, wonderful window of opportunity for music in childhood that is being increasingly overlooked by schools in recent years. Learning music is like learning a new language; it is almost impossible to gain a full mastery unless it is introduced and studied in childhood. Besides this fact of ease of learning, students who study music simply do better in school. All academic subjects are related in some way or another and music is no exception. Various studies indicate that certain skills used in school are directly influenced by music. Early exposure to music has been linked with higher test scores, graduation rates, and even college acceptances. In fact, an applicant to medical school is 50% more likely to be accepted if they have taken music classes. Music has such an important role in society, I think it is of the utmost importance that we keep a music program in our schools to ensure we have musicians in the future.

If I could no longer play music, my life would undoubtedly change, but my goals for the future would stay the same. My goals for my future career has always been to do something that makes me feel like I'm making a difference, something that makes me wake up every morning looking forward to what I have to do. While I am sure I would be devastated if I was no longer able to play the piano, I'm sure I would still have a fulfilling career in the music world.

Thanks!

Undergraduate / "Why are you applying to the music school?" Rice Supplement [2]

Okay, here is what I hope is the LAST of the essays I have to write for applications...whew...

I put in a lot of sentences starting with "I" in this essay. Do you all think it is too repetitive?

For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to make music part of my everyday life. I was singing before I could talk, and I remember going though a phase where every word that came out of my mouth was sung. When I was 7, my parents enrolled me in piano lessons, and I immediately fell in love with it. From the very beginning, I didn't practice piano because I was forced to, or because I wanted to make my parents proud, I practiced because I really liked what I was doing. I can't imagine my life without music, and I'm going to music school to make sure that playing the piano will be a central part of my future career.

I'm really looking forward to being surrounded by people my own age who share so many interests with me. I can't wait for the day when I can sit in a class of like-minded students and have a deep conversation about music. I want to learn from all the different backgrounds, musical styles, and philosophies represented in a music school, and I want my views and opinions about music to be challenged by my classmates. I hope to develop friendships and relationships that I will carry with me the rest of my life.

I've heard so many musicians talk about going to college and having their eyes opened to something completely new to them, something they hadn't even thought of before. In fact, I haven't talked to a single person who said that they were the same person with the same goals before and after college. I know one woman who went into college hoping to be a concert pianist, learned about Alexander technique, and now 20 years later is one of the leading therapists for injured musicians in the country. The thought that I may end up devoting my life to something that I know nothing about right now isn't worrying or frightening to me like I know it is for some people, its really exciting. It's the kind of uncertain future I would want.

When I graduate from college, I want to be able to say that I have advanced, both as a musician and as a person. I want to be someone who has learned from the past years of experiences, someone who has had their mind opened to new ideas, someone who is constantly trying to learn. Music has always been an important part of my life, and going to music school will help it become part of my future.

Thanks!

Undergraduate / "Influential person in your life" My piano teacher [NEW]

Here is my short essay for CU Boulder.

Growing up, I was very lucky in the fact that I had many influential people involved my life that I could look up to. If I had to pick just one person that had the biggest effect on me out of all the people that have influenced me, I would pick my piano teacher, Mr. English. I started taking lessons from him when I was 7, and right away I could tell that he wasn't going to treat me like I was a cute little girl who needed coddling. From day one, he related to me as if I was an adult, capable of working hard, forming my own opinions about music, and meeting his expectations. Many of the things he taught me during piano lessons translated into everyday life, even if I didn't realize it at the time. When I would whine about having to play scales, he would say "Well, sometimes in life you just have to suck it up and do things that you don't want to do." Thanks to Mr. English, I can handle stressful situations with a smile, both in performance and in life. Mr. English has had a huge effect on my life, and is the reason why I want to be a piano teacher. I just hope that I can be just as important in my future students lives as he is in mine.

Thanks in advance for any comments!