All, I really need advice. Please.

College Majors Music Major
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<p>Hello all. I am a senior in high school from Little Rock, AR. I am going to be a jazz drumset major in the fall, and I need some advice as far as selecting a school. Hear me out as I drabble on a bit about my situation. I apologize for the length. But any help or advice would be very very greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>As a prologue of sorts, let me say that I come from a small school, with an even smaller music program and players that are a little below my skill level within the realm of jazz music. I'm not saying that to be arrogant. I really wish I were among musicians who are better than I am. That's why I can't wait to go to school.</p>

<p>I was accepted into the following for Jazz Studies: Miami (FL), North Texas, Loyola-New Orleans, Tennessee, Memphis, and Belmont. I was waitlisted at Michigan.</p>

<p>Of all of the schools, ironically, Michigan was definitely my favorite. So, I want to start off by saying I am on the waitlist, and I am waiting until the last week of April to decide on a school on the chance that Michigan might have room. If they do, I will go there, no questions asked. My problem occurs if they don't have room, which is very likely. Of the other schools which was accepted to, my three favorites were Miami, UNT, and Tennessee.</p>

<p>Allow me to list my most important factors, in order:</p>

<ol>
<li>My individual professor. I admire kindness, musical ability, and networking ability. But my biggest attraction is how good of a human being he is.
Also 1. Quality of other students, both in ability and in genuineness of person.</li>
<li>Quality of the school's program</li>
<li>Program's legacy/success</li>
<li>Program size</li>
<li>Location (relative to the jazz scene)</li>
<li>Quality of the actual University</li>
<li>Location (relative to the school itself)</li>
</ol>

<p>I do care quite a bit about my education outside of music. Ultimately, I'd like to be a gigging musician who also teaches, be it privately or in a school. It is my goal to eventually get a Master's degree. Although I do want to be a professional musician, I also care a great deal about self-expression, because that is what attracted me to music in the first place. I also love teaching.</p>

<p>Anyway, to refer again to that favorited three (Miami, UNT, UTenn), I cannot decide among them. I really need advice. I feel that I like all of the teachers for different reasons, but my favorite is at Tennessee. The sizes of the programs range greatly. UNT's size almost scares me. I've heard many bad things stemming from that issue. However, UNT's jazz program is THE best, the legacy is THE best, and I have no doubt I would be best trained there. Overall, I like Miami the best, because it encompasses all of my needs to varying degrees. However, the pull of the strong suits of the other two schools is impossible for me to ignore, and I quite frankly am stuck.</p>

<p>Please, pour on your advice, criticisms, suggestions, help, corrections, support, ANYTHING. Ask me questions if it can help me. College Confidential is what really got me into the research for music school, and I am always amazed at the intelligence and kindness that the forum-goers, especially within the music major forum, have always offered. Thank you all so much!</p>

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<p>First of all, congratulations. You have some nice choices there. I have added the new ones over at the acceptance thread and have assumed that they are all for BM degrees in Jazz Studies with your main instrument being drum set. Please let me know if I should change any of that.</p>

<p>I am not one of the Jazz program experts around here, so will leave the specifics of one school vs another to someone who is. It sounds to me like you have a good set of priorities. Is money an issue here? It is not a good idea to go into debt for an undergrad music degree.</p>

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<p>Bass dad, thanks for the support and doing all that work. They are all BM degrees in jazz studies except Michigan, which is B.F.A., but i’m not sure if you counted that one anyway.</p>

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<p>We are only keeping track of acceptances. If you get off the waitlist at Michigan, please let us know and we will add that as well.</p>

<p>Are they all for drum set? We have one of your schools listed as being for percussion, which would include lots of other instruments.</p>

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<p>Yes sir, they are all for Jazz Studies/Drumset.</p>

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<p>tonofclayfin, congratulations. I’ll agree wholehearted with BassDad and reiterate the “do not go into serious debt for an undergrad music degree” mantra. And again, there are those far more knowledgeable about jazz than I. Hopefully they will chime in.</p>

<p>A couple of points to consider: the applied instructor is an important consideration, but many feel the peer level and collaboration aspects for jazz may be even more important. </p>

<p>There’s some general info thought processes in the “Making the Decision” section of <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/901390-2010-collective-experience.html?highlight=2010[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/901390-2010-collective-experience.html?highlight=2010&lt;/a&gt;. Again, not jazz specific, but food for thought.</p>

<p>And sometimes you just go with your gut, all other things being equal. Good luck to you.</p>

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<p>Violadad, thank you for that advice. Luckily I have great music+academic scholarships to all of the schools, so money isn’t an issue. Thank you very much. I really appreciate your support.</p>

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<p>Go CHS Rockets! (My son was at all-state with you this year, and probably the last two years before that if you were there then in Hot Springs as well. Not in jazz - all-state mixed choir.)</p>

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<p>My S is trying to decide between UNT and Northern Illinois for percussion performance. Big vs small, near vs far, is basically what it comes down to. We are waiting for April 1st when we were told UNT starts sending out merit scholarships. He loves UNT but cannot commit right now. I do have dorm reservations at both places however!</p>

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<p>I know about half a dozen people who have gone through Miami’s jazz program, a few of them set players, and they’ve all loved it. It’s a really, really great program, and it offers students a ton of connections for gigging and teaching.</p>

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<p>Tono, this is going to sound a little crazy, but you said UMich was your best fit. I have enormous respect for the UMich jazz and percussion faculty from a couple of different vantages (my son attends there and loves working with the “jazz guys” plus working musicians/SOM profs I know abroad travel to enjoy the many percussion events that take place at Umich.) If you connected with a particular prof there, why not simply call him and ask him what program most closely matches his style - explaining of course that UMich is your first choice IF you get off the waitlist.</p>

<p>This would accomplish two things – #1 I predict the prof will give you straight up good advice with an insiders perspective on the programs – even-handed and professional, but might be able to discern a good style fit; and #2 This will remind him to get you off the waitlist in a timely fashion ;)</p>

<p>Best wishes and kudos on a great set of admissions, btw.</p>

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<p>Thank you all. Any other advice would still be greatly appreciated!</p>

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<p>I don’t know anything about Jazz programs, so I can’t say which of the other three are the better choice(s). I wanted to throw in the idea that if you are waitlisted at U Mich, and that is where you would really like to go, you may want to keep in contact with them. As someone else pointed out, it wouldn’t hurt to contact any faculty or administrators you actually have met, to ask them about other programs and also to ask them if they have any recommendations about possibly getting off the waitlist and so forth. I have heard the stories of enough people with waitlists to believe that being passive and waiting is not necessarily the way to go, that actively seeking out help from admissions or someone you talked to might help you get in (no guarantees). The fact that someone shows enthusiasm can be a factor, if the examples I know of hold true. Obviously, you don’t want to make a pest of yourself, but keeping in touch shows someone who actually cares about where they go to and has shown an interest in the school. </p>

<p>The other thing to keep in mind is that Mich may not know by the end of april if a slot opens up, since kids have until May 1st to commit. One possibility would be to commit to another school if you don’t hear by the end of April, and if somehow something opened up after May1st at U Mich, you could attend there. The downside would be you probably would lose your deposit with the school you accepted and that is not generally small change if you did that, but it would leave the door open (in effect, because kids have until May1st to accept or decline, and I would bet a lot of kids wait until the last minute, kids on the waitlist seem to often have this quandary, since most schools are on a may 1st deadline).</p>

<p>In any event, with U Mich, I would recommend actively keeping in touch with them and perhaps talking to a professor you met or know somehow, it may help, in the very least, getting a recommendation on where to possibly go if U Mich falls through:)</p>

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<p>Oh I forgot an important statement made this last weekend by a percussion grad from UNT my S just happened to meet-“Let me get this straight. You were good enough to be accepted to UNT for percussion and now you’re TRYING TO DECIDE if you want to go there???”</p>

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<p>@musicprnt Thank you so much. I appreciate that advice. I will definitely try to be more active.</p>

<p>@hawkrn: No disrespect, but first of all there are more things about a school than its name and how selective it is that matter to me, second of all, you were not talking to a jazz student I presume, and third, the person you were talking to is obviously biased because they actually went to UNT. I simply tend to be a little more reasonable when selecting the school I will attend for the next four years. Big schools aren’t for everyone.</p>

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<p>That person was a jazz studies major who played in a lab band! My S listens to what the people say that actually attend the schools he has been interested in. I’m not sure how else you find out any info otherwise. If big schools aren’t for you, then you need to reevaluate your list and pick Belmont!</p>

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<p>I stand corrected. But you should know that I’ve done the same. I have talked to students from each school in detail over social networking sites. And I was referring to big music schools, not big universities.</p>

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<p>I don’t know if this helps, but UMiami’s jazz program was ranked second in the nation by U.S. News & World Report :)</p>