Let me first of all say, I do not play a flute, nor do I intend to. I am a pianist for a church. Last week a college student tried out for a singing part with us. She did very well. She also plays flute, and once again did very well. However, her instrument seems to be low grade at best...Now, what I would like to know, is if my group was to invest into an instrument for a college student, what should we be looking into? Any advice is welcome, thanks!

Any idea of the budget available? This is an important issue to begin defining an advise.

If you are thinking of having an instrument at the church for players to play then stop right now. You cna never satisfy all.
If you want your church to make a contribution to the flute player in question, then you need to see waht his or her needs and desires are. Instruments are very personal.

Piano players get used to playing what is supplied. If I were to play piano somewhere I would insist on a Steinwat D seies with euourpean strings; but then I can supply, transposrt, tune, and regulate that myself. All other instrumentalist need at least month to get used to a new instrument.

If you were to have a certain flute on hand for performaers you would need to loan it out a month or more in advance. And then they would need to relearn their own instrument all over again to play their own stuff.

Nive idea, but it just doesn't work.
(unless I misunderstood your question, in which case I appologize).

Thank you for your honesty...I was actually hoping to avoid what could be an uncomfortable situation for this musician. She is on an extremely tight budget (college student)and certainly not able to purchase her own instrument at this time. I was just really wanting to help if I could, so she could play in our group. I hate to see someones skills wasted, if they need not be.

As for a budget, we can be pretty resourceful...

Good. Then you may stablish that this flutist doesn't need exactly a very expensive flute, like a handmade, gold or alike.
In any case, for this idea to come out with a match, it's an important matter for this flutist to acctually have prior contact with the models you could afford, before you buy it.
Maybe you first choose a dealer and arrange with them some flutes of different brands (inside the limits of your budget) and later you invite the flutist to try playing the instruments, say 4 or 5 of the available from the dealer.
You can help the trials by putting attention on the sound the flutist can get from each of the instruments, and trying to imagine how the sound could better merge with the necessities of your group. For example, if there is a flute with which the player sounds too metalic, not in a harmonious way, you may imediatelly discard it.

Is she playing flute in college for fun or in hopes of a serious musical future? If she is just playing it outside of college activities for fun, an intermediate model like an emerson EF6 would be a nice upgrade for her. However, if she plays the flute for college and hopefully a musical career, she'll need a nice proffesional model. I do agree with the poster above though, before buying a flute, you MUST try it out. Flutes are very personal, and everyone has a different taste and a different model that works well for them. Another option is to just buy a nice headjoint that fits her current flute. The most important part is that the headjoint sound hole cut works for her, and that makes the biggest difference in both sound and ease. If her flute is falling apart ,though, it would be best to just buy a new flute. Even with a new headjoint, the cost to continue fixing a flute over and over would add up. If you buy a new flute, I personally like a solid silver head, but the gold and the solid silver body are not worth the extra cost.

I believe she is a 2nd year medical student...so probably not planning a future career in music. However,she really wants to be involved in music as well, and who can blame her for that!

how resourceful are we talking?

You admit to not being a flautist but say 'her instrument seems to be low grade at best..'. On what factors do you base this comment?

contra:

I am indeed not a flutist. However, I do tend to spend quite a bit of time with musicians, so I have learned a little. I know enough to ask for help when I need it, which is the ONLY reason I am in this forum.

But WHY do you consider the flute low grade? Can you see what brand it is? Does it just LOOK old or is it truly out of date?
I'm sorry if this comes across as rude, I mean to say it in a nice way.

Sometimes folks mistake a flute's visible features for its quality. Most American flutes have open holes and a B-footjoint, but it is actually the engineering of the flute and the headjoint that make a flute play like a great instrument.
There ARE closed-hole, offset-G, C-footjoint flutes that are indeed extremely high-quality, professional instruments.

We unfortunately tend to judge on what we can see, so sometimes an instrument intended for an upgrade (for example, a Gemeinhardt flute with silver headjoint, open holes and a B-foot) is actually not as good an instrument as, for example, a Yamaha, Pearl or Jupiter student model with a professional, handcut headjoint in it.

In fact, if we assume that the flute body is in good adjustment, with no pad leaks, then the headjoint is where the response and tone happen.

I agree with Micron. A well set up student flute is more that efficient for church music.

If I may be so bold as to suggest that the money go for another cause that takes higher precedence over a more expensive flute. Just get the one fixed that she has or get a well adjust student Yamaha. If she is not going to major in college with it or making a career out of it then I really don't think that anything much more than a student flute would be necessary.

I wish my old church would have helped me out with my flute purchase but I guess I came from a poor church.

We did end up going to a music store. I believe the one she is seriously considering is indeed a yamaha. (221? I think it is rebuilt -does that sound right?)- I was playing with the keyboards...I'm a little more comfortable in that section!!!