Does anyone understand the conservatoire application process??

[fadingfast]

I’m struggling to understand and DS is very defensive about it (and frustrated with me) when I try and discuss it with him.

He has a reserve offer from Birmingham having auditioned in the second round (February). I understand this means that he will only get a confirmed offer if someone else offered a place (for the same instrument) turns it down in favour of another institution.

I have tried to find out firm timescales but without much success so far. However I’m assuming that by now, most applicants will have confirmed their offers already, meaning that he is unlikely at this point to be in with a chance this year?

His plan all along was to take a gap year to concentrate on music and prepare to apply next year, so all is not lost if he doesn’t get a place this year. It just feels like he’s in limbo at the moment though. Has anyone else been through this process? It’s all new to us and school has been pretty useless.

It was a long time since my cohort applied for conservatoire- but there’s a number of reasons why people might pull out or not have decided. Finances, not feeling ready, injury or illness, deciding to go to university instead, waiting on another college, all sorts of reasons. Ok it means that you can’t ‘firm’ the plan if there’s a reserve place in the mix but if he’s planning on taking a year to consolidate if he doesn’t get in this year then I think that’s a sensible way of looking at it.

Yes people could pull out of their place all the way up to September so it is possible he will get offered a late place, which may not be that useful to him but could happen!

My daughter has been offered a place at drama school, but has not accepted as she still has auditions at LIPA. So I think there will be others that have not confirmed their places yet as auditions have not finished yet. The drama school wants confirmation by June.

Drama conservatoire lists continue to move last year until around 10th September when people failed to enrol in the first week.
DD firmed one drama school even though she had a reserve at a conservatoire - drama/MT there are three main routes for application so you can firm an offer by one route and hold a reserve by another route.

I've got a foot in both camps (dd did MT and ds currently doing music)

There is probably more movement for drama/MT due to the different funding mechanism where some might also be applying for Trinity Diploma or non UCAS/CUKAS places.

However there may be people who drop out of conservatoire offers. Not making the grades is uncommon at places where very low offers are given but they might do better than they though and go to a more academic university instead.

I would, however assume that it will be a gap year and start preparing for next year's auditions.

I know more about drama than music, but if not everywhere has finished auditioning I would think it's possible people may still be holding offers they go on to release. The UCAS deadline for accepting is early June, so unless UCAS conservatoires is different, I would say there's quite a bit of time yet in which things can change.

We have a related dilemma, if anyone can help. DS has a place for Acting at a UCAS institution (place A). He is also on the reserve list for another, also through UCAS (place B) It shows as a rejection on Track but they emailed him to say he was on the reserve list. He's worried that if he accepts the place where he has an offer (A), UCAS will remove him from the reserve list for the other place (B) and they will think he's withdrawn, when actually he would rather go to B if a place came up. He wants to sit tight and not accept Place A for now, but I'm worried all the accommodation will start getting booked if he delays for too long. Any advice?

Ucas conservatoires deadline for music is earlier. Think it’s already passed.

My son was initially told he was on the reserve list but then has had notification on the ukas site that he has a "full offer" conditional on obtaining minimum of 64 tariff points??? Am I right in assuming as long as gets the grades he's in???

Sounds like it.

Turns out no - he's still on the reserve list, so even if got the grades wouldn't necessarily have a place. Finding the UCAS site information misleading and it's lead us to think all was sorted only to find out far from it, probably be end of June before the Conservatoire decide if they want him - which then - I presume - would be conditional to him getting sufficient grades - that isn't a concern as predicted over and above the requirements stated on UCAS

I think there may still be a chance with a reserve offer although a lot will depend on instrument I guess. Some offer holders may turn down a place even now or may decide to defer or whatever.

I’d completely forgotten I’d started this thread, so thanks for all the comments.

This morning DS checked his UCAS account and his offer has been changed from reserve to a firm conditional offer. No email confirmation from RBC yet, so still not entirely sure what’s happening (particularly given your experience @ficklemissfickle).

He seems to think it means he’s got a place, subject to getting two Es at A level. Delighted for him if that’s the case, but not entirely great timing given it’s his first A level exam today! Good perhaps to take the pressure off, but I’d rather he got some decent grades in case his plans to be a world famous musician don’t quite work out

That’s excellent news, well done to him. Maybe email admissions when he gets chance.

@fadingfast I really hope it is an offer but I would check with the admissions of the establishment he is hoping to go too as that was exactly our experience regarding UCAS statement. If he has an opportunity to click accept or decline on the UCAS site I'd say it's in the bag. Fingers crossed 🤞 for your son

@ficklemissfickle I think he had already accepted the reserve offer? Not certain though. His status has changed in both the UCAS conservatoire hub and the RBC hub, which I’m hoping means it’s now a confirmed place. But he’s emailed admissions just to double check (he thinks I’m mad for even questioning it!)

Oh that sounds promising. My son is awaiting news about acting at RBC & I gather they are still doing call back auditions so the wait continues

We only realised the offer wasn't really a firm offer when the UCAS site wouldn't let me proceed to the accommodation portal!

Was that the conservatoire portal @ficklemissfickle?
It’s such a torturous process isn’t it? Shrouded in mystery and vague dates.

No the ucas site. Ucas said full conditional offer (just dependent on results) but no option to accept/decline and then apparently once accepted you can access accommodation portal. RBC didn't alter from saying reserve offer. It certainly isn't straightforward & it sounds as though my son same as yours - defensive and gives information in a drip feed manner!

HE’S IN!!!!
Confirmed by email this morning 🎉
(oh Christ now we’ve got to work out how to pay for it 😱)

Congratulations to him.

With regards to paying for it I assume that he will get his fees paid by student finance and that he will be entitled to at least minimum loan.

The good news is that Birmingham is much cheaper to live than London and it is also a good city for part time work. I would reccommend starting to look now at flexible places that understand the demands of music students such as front of house work. Many years ago I worked front of house at Symphony Hall and more recently whilst at drama school dd worked FOH for ATG (who own the Alexandra Theatre), he could also look at any vacancies at The Hippodrome.

My son is in Leeds which is a similarly priced city and after his accommodation is paid we give him £70 per week to live on. That is more than enough and he says he could manage on less.

Also what instrument does he play and is it in demand. My ds plays keyboard and regularly earns between £300-£500 for playing for amateur theatre shows (admittedly he spent a lot of time learning the common software MT musicians use and he has found that often MD's like to hire good sight readers rather than the best technical players).

Thanks @Comefromaway, that’s helpful information. We’ll certainly be encouraging him to get a job! He plays the trombone and is very often sight reading when he’s depped for various different bands/orchestras. Not sure what the demand would be like for a trombone compared to keyboard though.

Yes, not as common, often shows hire people who can double or even treble brass and reed instruments.

Classical or Jazz trombone?