The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University

If you have been taking private lessons for several years, and if you play a leading part in your school's ensembles, you stand a reasonable chance of being accepted to Peabody. If you have been selected for all-state or regional ensembles, you have an excellent chance.

Acceptance rates vary widely from instrument to instrument and from year to year.  Keep in mind that Peabody has two orchestras and typically half of our students are in two-year graduate programs.  Thus there are usually enough openings for us to accept students at an appropriate level of development without concern for overpopulating the ensembles.

Less recognized as an element in the acceptance process is available space in the rosters of our major teachers.  The teachers tend to tighten up the acceptance level in years when there are fewer openings.  You already know if you play a relatively rare instrument like double bass, or a more popular one like flute.  It might surprise you to know that in some years we have needed as many as nine flutes at Peabody.

In the context of a group of music schools, you will probably not know which ones have a high need for your instrument and which ones are overloaded in a given year.  Thus the wisdom of applying to schools of various sizes.  In the process you will visit different campuses, and will get a better sense of how the individual schools feel.

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