- #1
Catria
- 152
- 4
First, here is some context for a series I'm writing. The main setting for tomes 1-11 (I'm writing tome 12 now, which takes place after the 4th generation main character graduates from her music PhD) is an otherworldly city surrounded by a LHC-like particle accelerator whose radius is 2π km, and some entrances into the city are named after positions on the trigonometric circle: viaducts π/10, 3π/2 and bridge π/2.
Long story short, the first three generations of main characters (I wrote very little about the third generation, though) were hockey players with one quirky particularity: they seemed to score goals only on the power play, although they seemingly scored lots of goals on the PP, with even a prize on that world's top-level hockey league named after the second-generation main character, awarded to the top PP scorer.
Education-wise, though, the educational system on that world resembles Quebecer education quite a lot: 6 years of elementary schooling, 5 years of high school, 2 years of college (for the university-bound; 3 years if you wanted to learn a trade) and finally, 3 years of university, with grad school as we know it. But with a twist: continuing musical studies past high school required students to declare for the college draft, and, likewise, the ones who wanted to continue in music past college had to declare for the university (undergraduate) draft. For the country where the various generations of main characters live, there are 32 draft-eligible colleges and 14 draft-eligible universities, later expanded to 16. By the time the 4th-generation main character gets to the university draft, the draft-eligible universities are the most prestigious universities in that country, aside from some specialty schools, only one of which is draft-eligible, the "National School of Performing Arts", which is the only draft-eligible institution at both the college and the university levels.
The 4th-generation main character dreams of being picked first overall in the university draft. Said draft works very much like a professional league draft; schools can even trade away draft picks to get students (both undergraduate and graduate) or assign no-trade clauses to upperclassmen and grad students. However, music grad school admissions resembles free agency more, as students could be admitted mere weeks before fall semester begins, signing contracts of admission whose terms can get quite extravagant, especially for highly sought-after, grad-school-bound students.
There's ~1,000 yearly seats in music at the university level and ~1,500 yearly seats in music at a college level, with a population in the 80-90 million range. Also, about 3/4 of the university seats are used for training music teachers at the elementary and high school levels. Perhaps the concept of music school applicants being put into one giant pool and, while offered what amounts to a full ride, admitted students have no control whatsoever as to where they enroll, isn't a good concept.
Long story short, the first three generations of main characters (I wrote very little about the third generation, though) were hockey players with one quirky particularity: they seemed to score goals only on the power play, although they seemingly scored lots of goals on the PP, with even a prize on that world's top-level hockey league named after the second-generation main character, awarded to the top PP scorer.
Education-wise, though, the educational system on that world resembles Quebecer education quite a lot: 6 years of elementary schooling, 5 years of high school, 2 years of college (for the university-bound; 3 years if you wanted to learn a trade) and finally, 3 years of university, with grad school as we know it. But with a twist: continuing musical studies past high school required students to declare for the college draft, and, likewise, the ones who wanted to continue in music past college had to declare for the university (undergraduate) draft. For the country where the various generations of main characters live, there are 32 draft-eligible colleges and 14 draft-eligible universities, later expanded to 16. By the time the 4th-generation main character gets to the university draft, the draft-eligible universities are the most prestigious universities in that country, aside from some specialty schools, only one of which is draft-eligible, the "National School of Performing Arts", which is the only draft-eligible institution at both the college and the university levels.
The 4th-generation main character dreams of being picked first overall in the university draft. Said draft works very much like a professional league draft; schools can even trade away draft picks to get students (both undergraduate and graduate) or assign no-trade clauses to upperclassmen and grad students. However, music grad school admissions resembles free agency more, as students could be admitted mere weeks before fall semester begins, signing contracts of admission whose terms can get quite extravagant, especially for highly sought-after, grad-school-bound students.
There's ~1,000 yearly seats in music at the university level and ~1,500 yearly seats in music at a college level, with a population in the 80-90 million range. Also, about 3/4 of the university seats are used for training music teachers at the elementary and high school levels. Perhaps the concept of music school applicants being put into one giant pool and, while offered what amounts to a full ride, admitted students have no control whatsoever as to where they enroll, isn't a good concept.