<p>Sorry for what? It was a useful cross-post. I was considering St. Rose for a brief time, maybe I will visit sometime this fall and see. Gosh, all of these recommendations are expanding a list I already thought was finalised!</p>
<p>Music ed sounds like a good idea. Means going to dual grad school, but that's okay. May I ask whereabouts you live/teach?</p>
<p>Music Ed is a good (and vocationally safer) alternative, but make sure that you'd actually like teaching (it sounds like you might). There's nothing worse than a bitter music teacher who really wanted to be a performer.</p>
<p>Not too far from you (based on your EC's) but closer to Albany (gotta keep a little anonymity on the posts). Both of my degrees are performance, but when I realized I needed a steady source of income to live, guess what? I had to go back to school again to complete the education credits. </p>
<p>Music Ed is a great career. I recommend it (but don't go into it lightly!)</p>
<p>Yes, Keil, I agree, but teachers can perform too. Those "bitter" teachers are usually just bitter people. Real musicians will always find a way!</p>
<p>My teacher does perform in various ensembles around here, from what he has mentioned. And he's just a bitter person in general. :) Music ed, music performance...either way, you get to play music all day. Well, alas, there is still time to decide.</p>
<p>Before you comit to music ed, you have to make sure you could tolerate it if your first job was Beginning Band. When I think about how bad our junior high band must have sounded, and how were were all such disrespectul little twerps, it's a wonder anyone was willing to teach us at all....no wonder they get bitter! </p>
<p>Have you read Musicophelia? Sounds like a great read for you if you are interested in both neuroscience and music. </p>
<p>A few years back, the principal clarinetist (sp?) of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra had a catering business on the side. He was a great cook. His specialty was catering parties for musically-oriented groups, where he'd provide the food AND the entertainment. </p>
<p>There are a lot of ways you can still use your musical expertise as adult. However, I suggested a fall back because by the time you get out of undergrad you will be tired of being poor, and you will also need health insurance (paid holidays are nice, too.) It would be nice to be able to have a regular pay check and benefits, perhaps even starting grad school on the side, saving some money, then possibly going back to grad school full time later.</p>
<p>I mean it about the health insurance. My sister (the one with the daughter who got through school with no $ from either parent) is perpetually poor and has only had health insurance during the times she was a full time student. At 53, she has some chronic health issues that I don't think she'd have if she'd had access to good health care throughout her life. Anyway, even if you can get some terrific flute gigs, you've got to find a way to have health insurance as an adult. End of lecture.</p>
<p>Couple things:</p>
<ol>
<li>Sorry, missypie, but I have to disagree.</li>
</ol>
<p>If music is what you want to do, do music. Take some Gen Educ courses (I would say "learn to write" but you're already covered there) and you'll be fine.
If you do what you love to do, you'll do it better than anything else and the economics have a way of working out. </p>
<p>Proof? I'm watching my friend in the front row of the Dem Convention right now, a PR person for the Dems with, yes, a hautbois degree.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Many (most?) colleges will take all your current credits. I'd bet PSU would take them all (whether they apply to a given requirement is a different question). Many schools will base your admission on your outstanding college gpa and you'll be accepted in many places on that basis. Top LACs would be least likely to accept them, I'd guess.</p></li>
<li><p>Music performance is a whole diff admissions process; check threads elsewhere for that.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I would agree, MSUDad, except for this:</p>
<p>
[quote]
teaching English or music to Spanish schoolchildren
[/quote]
</p>
<p>And her subsequent response makes it seem, to me anyway, that she isn't necessarily attached to the idea of music performance, but the idea of working with music all day. And if you like children, Music Ed is way less risky than Music Performance.</p>
<p>Just responding to the post re: if you do music have a fallback.</p>
<p>I knew a lot of music majors and theatre majors in college. Of the scores of theatre majors that I knew or knew of, three have either "made it" or "sort of made it" in acting. All of my close friends had to either get degrees later on in something other than performance, or do office (secretarial) work. Of the music majors, although some have performed all over the world, all eventually started teaching or doing something else, for the regular paycheck and benefits. I'm not saying anyone can't support themselves with music...it's just that the odds are stacked against it and after a while, a steady paycheck is refreshing.</p>
<p>Yep. That's one of the reasons I went back and got my teaching certificate. But, I was older by then, and I knew what the employment options were (plus, I don't look back and say "it might have been...", since I already know)</p>
<p>But you do have to like kids; elementary, middle and high school, since a music ed degree usually certifies you for k-12.</p>
<p>And let's admit it - a lot of students' "fall back" is mom & dad. A young woman I know who has a great voice spent two years in New York studying with a good teacher and trying to get hired; her dad is a very wealthy lawyer who paid 100% of her expenses during those two years. My neighbor's daughter, who has had some success in acting locally, went to New York to see if she could make it. She did work at Bath and Body Works in NYC, but mom and dad certainly subsidized the NYC rent. And then they drove to NYC to help her move when she gave up on New York.</p>
<p>If a person knows that mom and dad cannot be there for them financially, then he or she may have to take a more pragmatic approach.</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>To be honest, as someone who is planning to pursue a degree in instrumental music performance, I probably should have had it at least a year ago.) >></p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>OK....here goes. If you are planning to audition on flute, your competition will be very very stiff. In order to get any music based performance scholarships, you would likely have to be exceptionally talented. Most schools do NOT need to recruit flute players. There are more than enough of them applying.</p>
<p>Now...having said that...your admissions to most music performance programs will be determined primarily by your audition. At places like Boston University, you would also have to meet the academic admissions requirements...and you are clearly on the line on that one. </p>
<p>Re: music education, please don't enter the field just "because". Please do it because you are truly interested in being a music teacher. Music teachers do NOT get to "play music all day". They get to teach OTHERS how to play music all day. There IS a difference.</p>
<p>Most of the schools on the list you posted do not have strong music performance departments. And did you know that at most flagship universities, you can get a music education undergrad degree to begin teaching. Yes, eventually you would need a masters, but not right away.</p>
<p>keilaexandra wrote:
[quote]
Unless you're applying to conservatories, you won't need to audition even as a music performance major. But since you'll probably want to send in a supplementary recording, and as a clarinetist myself (too much experience with crappy student models, ugh), I say go for a relatively cheap flute (gently used, maybe) and splurge on the head joint. (I have a lot of flutist/flautist friends.)
[/quote]
</p>
<p>This is JUST PLAIN WRONG.</p>
<p>Please, please, do your homework before making a blanket statement.</p>
<p>Almost all of the performance majors offered at the BA and BM levels are auditioned based admits, be they conservatory, conservatory level programs attached to universities, public and private programs. Most music ed programs are ALSO audition based admits, but the standard is lowered when compared to performance admissions. Music ed applicants are often held to a higher academic admit standard than performance majors at institutions that offer both degree routes.</p>
<p>Academic criteria vary widely by program. </p>
<p>I would question the veracity of ANY program offering a performance degree without an audition based component.</p>
<p>OP, please spend some time on the music major forum at CC. </p>
<p>Your financial situation can be a plus and a negative depending on where you apply. Straight music ed is often most cost effective at a state institution. However, the level of merit and talent scholarships can often bring down the cost at a private in line (or less) than a public would offer.</p>
<p>If you plan a music degree, be it ed or performance, I suggest either reading the posts in the music major foum in their entirely, but would urge you to please actively question the music aspects of your search there. There are variables that need to be weighed, and most folks here have neither the experience or expertise to offer the best options.</p>
<p>If nothing else, read this <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/258796-so-you-want-music-major-one-family-s-experience.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/258796-so-you-want-music-major-one-family-s-experience.html</a> if you haven't already.</p>
<p>Please be wary of all advice offered on an internet forum, and do your research </p>
<p>For the record, been there done that. My son is a BM summa cum laude grad with a degree in performance, and is performing professionally. You need all the help you can get in selecting the right school options to consider. Do not expect your gc to have a clue.</p>
<p>Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>Beating the music horse one final time:<br>
Many people change careers and get second degrees. Life isn't a race, and college is about more than raw economics.</p>
<p>I understand many disagree, but then again those people will not likely be the ones who want to study music (or poetry, or art, or history, etc)</p>
<p>
[quote]
Many people change careers and get second degrees. Life isn't a race, and college is about more than raw economics.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>MSUDad, I agree completely. But a performance or (even a music ed) path is not easily achieved later in life, without the extensive early training, undergrad or privately, to be a proficient musician and performer. </p>
<p>If the desire to achieve financial success is one's prime mover and you have other areas of interest, then by all means pursue that route other than music performance. It is quite possible to switch into the academic areas of theory or music history at a later juncture, especially if music has been a lifelong avocation.</p>
<p>But do not think of it as a second career choice unless you've had the earlier and continued training to make it possible.</p>
<p>^^^ Color me wrong. My apologies; I had read up on conservatories, but not music performance, and I had the (obviously mistaken) impression that it was very different from applying to conservatories, which are almost purely audition-based (so long as you meet minimum academic criteria). Still, if you absolutely can't afford a new flute, I don't think the student model will kill you at the university level (would it be BM or BA?) if you have the talent.</p>
<p>^^ my son's conservatory level auditions (all acceptances, with significant talent scholarships) were done on a student quality instrument. At one audition, he was mistaken as a grad student applicant. His undergrad teacher, a consumate chamber artist could not get the notes out of the instrument my son could attain.</p>
<p>Anything is possible. In hindsight, he should have auditioned on a better piece instrument. </p>
<p>Make do, but do not limit your chances for a relatively small outlay. Flute is far too competitive an instrument to handicap yourself. An instrument upgrade CAN be factored into cost of attendance at the right school.</p>
<p>I will respectfully disagree with post #57. The instrument must be able to respond to the musician as the musician's skill and artistry progress. My experience is not with woodwinds, but I strongly suspect that the same is true in her case. The student flute will have been sufficient to learn the basics. But it will not permit the tone variations, other subtleties and control that are required of a university level musician.</p>
<p>Clumsy comparison: we would not tell an aspiring sculptor that play-do will do.</p>
<p>^ My experience is with clarinet, but you can do wonders with a crappy instrument if you must. When I only had my plastic instrument to work with, a new intermediate mouthpiece and selective choosing of reeds got me into All-State. On flute, the head joint serves much the same purpose.</p>