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Cellists under-enroll in Con

by Tracy Langworthy

This fall, the Conservatory is over-enrolled by 11 students overall. Yet, the voice and cello departments are "somewhat under-enrolled" according to Director of Conservatory Admissions Michael Manderen.

In contrast to the 45 percent of accepted students who on average enroll in the Conservatory, this fall only four out of 14 accepted cellists enrolled according to Manderen.

Manderen cited a combination of reasons, one of which is the conservative projection made last fall by the Conservatory Dean's Office for the anticipated number of cello openings in 1996. These projections, done every year for every department, are based on numbers received in the Registrar's Office.

"Projections are based on paperwork filed," Manderen said, "and such paperwork is not always representative of the truth."

"The bigger question is why do people come to Oberlin and why do people go elsewhere," Manderen said. According to Manderen, "about one third of the time it's due to monetary reasons." Another third of accepted students choose not to enroll because "they don't like Oberlin's location," and a final third choose to go elsewhere because of a specific reputation of a teacher or department, said Manderen.

Manderen recalled from surveys sent out to those students who rejected Oberlin's offer that one cellist passed up Oberlin because the student believed another institution's cello teacher had a better reputation. Two cellists who returned surveys declined to enroll because they were dissatisfied with their financial aid packages at Oberlin.

"It's a feeding frenzy in the spring between schools," said Manderen, and Oberlin is "increasingly overlapping with some very hard-to-beat schools." Also, if there's a small number of projected openings, the people admitted to the Conservatory tend to be top candidates according to Manderen, and "they are likely to get attractive financial aid offers from other places."

Professor of Violoncello and Chamber Music Andrew Toth said Oberlin was "simply outbid" in some cases. "Cello was not a priority last year and the financial aid packages reflected that," he said.

Manderen said that financial aid packages do reflect the needs of Conservatory departments in any given year. "Every area is a priority, but some more than others in certain years," he said.

The recently replenished french horn and bassoon departments are results of the higher priority horns and bassoons were given in last year's recruitment strategies. "I don't want to make the french horns feel bad," Manderen said, "but I was on the horns of a horn crisis."

This potential horn crisis was the result of many years of under-enrollment in french horn. "Clearly, it [under-enrollment] gets to be a bigger problem if it goes on for consecutive years," Manderen said.

Despite the dearth of first year cellists, Mandaren said "the orchestra still looks like it's able to maintain its strength." Toth said the bigger concern in his studio is two students who are in Europe this semester. "And they happen to be good ones, too," he joked.

"The admissions and financial aid representatives know that next year cello needs to be a priority," Toth said.

"Logically, next year, we're going to work as hard as we can to compensate," Manderen agreed. "If we find ourselves in this position next year," he said, "I will have to be more responsive because we can't afford under-enrollment [in cello] two years in a row."


Oberlin

Copyright © 1996, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 125, Number 1; September 6, 1996

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