<p>My D is looking to major in music education. We have begun the early process of developing a list of schools that meet her initial requirements. Is there any information available for the Music Admission rates? Also, does anyone know if the schools have different admission numbers for different majors (e.g Music Performance vs. Music Education).</p>
<p>It really depends on the school, and the size of the program at that school. It also depends on whether you are vocal or instrumental, and then further on what instrument you play. They often will not come right out and tell you at an Open House how many they admit each year, but you can often figure it out. If your daughter plays the clarinet, for example, you can find out how many undergraduate clarinets are currently there, then divide by 4 to get a rough estimate of the size of the graduating class - that is about how many slots they have to fill. Some of the schools might take Performance vs Education into consideration. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>Agreed that you have to take it on a case-by-case basis. If the numbers are small, finding out how many seniors play that instrument works better than dividing by four. If none of their undergrads are currently seniors and the section is fully staffed, they may not take anyone that year unless they get someone completely exceptional. Many schools will come right out and tell you if there are no openings. If you cannot get this information from the admissions people, try the teacher for the specific instrument or some of the students.</p>
<p>I don't know if schools set a certain number of music ed majors vs music performance majors. But it is something to ask about when you are visiting schools. When our D was going through the process last year, some of the flute professors obviously preferred performance majors, some seemed to want a mixture, and some seem to prefer music ed. majors. My D lost interest in the schools where it was obvious the professor preferred performance majors. She didn't feel very welcomed. She immediately hit it off with her current professor, who said, "I love my music ed majors!" Be sure you have read all of BassDad's posts. It really helped us. The biggest help of all was asking for a private lesson with the professor.</p>
<p>Thank you. I have been a lurker on this site for much of the past year and have gained alot of good information. I will definitely add this question to those that I have, when my D and I begin our college visits.</p>
<p>I really don't know about the "numbers" question. BUT I will say, that in most cases, music education majors are not held to as high an audition standard as the performance majors. Music ed majors do usually have an interview as part of their application process.</p>
<p>Just a by the way...I personally think that Duquesne (in Pittsburgh) and U Hartt (Hartt School) have excellent music education programs.</p>
<p>I'll agree with thumper, but will expand at bit further. Just as many schools with both performance and music ed majors hold ed majors to a "lower" audition standard than performance candidates there is a corollary that these same schools will generally apply higher academic admission criteria for music ed majors than for straight performance admits.</p>
<p>Slightly off topic, but another thing to ask about concerning differences in music ed/performance is length of lesson. Some places the ed. majors get a 30 min. lesson to the performance majors one hour lesson. Other places everyone gets an hour (this, I gather is much less frequent).</p>
<p>One VERY important question to ask is who the music ed students take their private lessons with. At many places, the applied faculty teach the performance majors and grad students teach the music ed majors. That is NOT the case at either Duquesne or Hartt, but it is the case at places like U of Maryland College Park.</p>
<p>I wish I had something to add, but I'm just starting the search. I just wanted to thank everyone for all the info I'm getting. I actually taking notes.</p>
<p>musmom2 has a very good point. My D gets an hour lesson each week. But she says that the performance majors get 2 45min. lessons each week. </p>
<p>thumper1 -never realized that at some schools grad assistants teach the music ed majors. We didn't run into any of these in our lessons/auditions. My D is taught by the flute professor. Non music majors can take lessons from the grad assistants.</p>
<p>Wow, there is so much to find out about different music programs. I'm a little glad that my other two were interested in other majors. It was so much simpler with them. Also glad my D is already a happy music ed major with a month to go in her freshman year. Seems to have survived it all. Everyone has told me that freshman year is the hardest for music majors. I think she has one more concert and then her jury to go.</p>
<p>You can always ask the school of music admission counselors what the statistics were for this year. My husband and son were touring schools last week and they would ask the numbers for applied/accepted/enrolled for each program they visited. It helped our son learn the which schools would be more or less competitive for his interest.</p>
<p>What Musmom said about lesson time is something we just found out during auditions. I was shocked that some schools only give 1/2 hour per week. Also the performance opportunities can be limited at some schools compared to others and senior recitals can vary as to format as well. These are all questions people may want to ask.</p>
<p>Probably my most useful advise to a parent is to help the kids start some sort of filing system and to get a notebook that won't fall apart or get lost (ie my red marble composition), and take copious notes! Both when you are reading (either online or catalogues, articles etc.) and visiting. Leave several pages per school so that if you go back for a revisit and/or audition, everything from that school is together. Use this same notebook for everything from note taking while at various schools, to lists of questions to ask, comparison charts (like homemade spreadsheets!) to anecdotal impressions and hotel info. Kids are free to write in it too if they so desire. I believe that we are not being helicopter parents, but rather, that this is a complicated process and your average busy high schooler (music kid or not) needs some help with the organizational aspects. It also helps to have a ready place to check your facts when all the school visits start to run together, or when you want to check which school it was that gives all the different majors the one hour lesson or how grad students and TAs are used at school X. After 3 kids (one engineer, one biology-turned-music-major and one who has been music from the start), mine is pretty much full. Just don't know whether to burn it or keep it as a souvenir!</p>