Any music schools/universities with easy admission?

College Majors Music Major
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<p>Hi</p>

<p>So I'm looking for a university or college that doesn't need an audition for admission into a music degree. I'm okay with a BA or a BMus.</p>

<p>I play the cello, but I'm out of touch, so I'm afraid I won't make it in an audition.</p>

<p>I know that Columbia College Chicago offers such a thing. However it is out of my budget.</p>

<p>I'm an international student, so most public institutions are too expensive anyways. </p>

<p>I need somewhere to go for one year after which I can directly transfer to a better university for the second year. If there are any 'preparatory programs', let me know about those too.</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>HS GPA: 3.35
SAT: 1910
TOEFL: 114
IB: 33/45</p>

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<p>If a public university is out of budget, then most private universities will also be out of your budget range as an international student.</p>

<p>Yale offers a Bachelors in Music, but you have to have competitive admission stats to be accepted to Yale. I’m not sure yours would gain you admittance.</p>

<p>Re: transfers…if you need financial aid to attend college, you need to know that transfer students typically get much less aid than incoming freshman.</p>

<p>I’m a little confused about your goals. You say you are “out of touch” with the cello, but you feel this will be an admissions asset? How would that be?</p>

<p>Now…having said all of that, there are colleges in this country who would welcome you as a cello player in their college orchestra. These would not be competitive orchestra programs. Is that what you are looking for?</p>

<p>Why do you want to major in music?</p>

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<p>Hartwick. </p>

<p>But why do you want a music major if you don’t even really play?</p>

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<p>And why a school with no audition? Might as well not bother as go to a place that will accept anyone… Kids are graduating from top conservatories and are unable to gain admission to graduate schools or find performance positions. There is absolutely no guarantee that you’ll be able to transfer to a “better university” after one year, and chances are good that most of the credits wouldn’t transfer into a good music program anyway. This just doesn’t sound like a viable idea.</p>

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<p>There are too many colleges to name, honestly. Many BA programs don’t require auditions for music majors. Choose colleges that you might be interested in and look up their music department online. You can also enter without a declared major and try music classes out.</p>

<p>Can you give more information about location you would like, whether you would qualify for any financial aid, and perhaps most importantly, what kind of music program you do want. A BA and BM are different programs. A BA will have 1/4-1/2 music classes, and a BM will have 2/3=3/4 music classes. Here is a good essay on various ways to study music: [Double</a> Degrees | Peabody Conservatory](<a href=“http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/conservatory/admissions/tips/doubledegree.html]Double”>http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/conservatory/admissions/tips/doubledegree.html)</p>

<p>Check out distribution requirements as well: a BA program will often have required courses in language, humanities, social sciences, math, science etc.; a BM will have fewer of these.</p>

<p>Do you want to focus on cello performance? Or study general music (theory, history, composition, ethnomusicology, etc?)? Have you considered majoring in something else and playing the cello in extracurricular ensembles? Can you afford lessons to get yourself back to where you were? </p>

<p>Columbia College in Chicago doesn’t just not require auditions; it is open admission. That is not what you need to look for. Just look at liberal arts colleges with general music majors and extracurricular music performance (which may have auditions). </p>

<p>What do you mean by preparatory programs? Most conservatories have preparatory programs for high schoolers and may also have continuing education for adults. Are you near a major city?</p>

<p>p.s. Yale does not have a BM degree.</p>

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<p>ps my daughter is a music major and hasn’t touched an instrument in a few years now</p>

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<p>Columbia College Chicago describes its admissions policy as “generous” rather than “open” - perhaps a fine point to many around these parts. However, auditions are required for scholarships in the music department and there are placement classes/tests/auditions for both courses and ensembles. It is definitely NOT a school for anyone interested in a serious classical performance career, but it does have other strengths (contemporary performance and audio arts & acoustics in particular), and should not be discounted. Further, in our experience, the process of getting from admission to degree weeds out lots of those “generous admits,” so your peer group becomes more and more selective the longer you remain in the program.</p>

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<p>You could try applying to a community college (2-year college) for one year, if you could find one that charges you in-state tuition. As others have said, many music courses taken in one year of college do not transfer well. Many students find that due to finances, their only way of getting a music degree is to first attend a community college, which is usually much cheaper than a 4-year college.</p>

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<p>I think the question you need to be asking yourself is what do you want to do? Are you saying you want to major in cello performance, and hopefully make a career in music, or do you simply want to keep playing while going to school for another degree. It is true there are programs out there that have lower standards or very few or none, but Mezzo IMO is dead spot on, if you are dreaming of studying the cello in college and going on to grad school and/or becoming a professional cellist, getting into a no audition or low standard program is of dubious value. All music is extremely competitive, and cello is up there with the violin and piano (and probably flute), you have kids at the top programs who have been intensively studying for years to get into these places, are working at an intense level, and then come out and find how rough it is…</p>

<p>If your dream is classical performance on the cello you are trying to climb a mountain covered in ice with sneakers and a pair of shorts…that doesn’t mean you can’t play music, a lot of colleges have orchestras open to non majors, they have lessons for non majors, and you could get a lot out of that while studying something else (perhaps music as a BA with a double major/dual major, etc).</p>

<p>One of the questions here is how far were you on the cello in the first place…were you flying high, playing with a high level teacher, getting into advanced repertoire and were forced to stop, or were you a casual player in school, maybe with a private teacher, who now thinks you want to go for it? In the first case, if it wasn’t too long a layoff and you were at a pretty high level, you might (still difficult, but might) work intensely in a gap year and apply next year, though I suspect the odds of getting into the most competitive programs would be very high against you still, if the second, I don’t think a gap year would do it. Gap years and such work with kids who just miss their goal in school, but if you are way behind, there just is little chance of taking a gap year and catching up…and it sounds like you have been away from the cello a long time. </p>

<p>On the other hand, if your dream is to use your cello and for example, play with an indie rock band or something, something away from the world of classical music (orchestra/chamber, etc), it might be possible, but you could do that while majoring in something else, ti is a different world. A generation ago I saw/heard a lot of stories of casual players who got into good/great programs, did well, but that is a while ago, today the entry requirements to top schools are incredibly high, and even those kids struggle as Mezzo says…and you might be able to do what you want, and find a grad program that would take you, but likely it would be like the undergrad programs with low requirements, looking for kids to pay tuition to go there…and especially if money is tight, you might find it better to spend what resources you have on something a bit less crazy…the sad fact is a lot of the schools you are talking about, with low requirements, are not particularly cheap.</p>

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<p>U of Minnesota Twin Cities, a school I would choose as an international cuz its tuition are quite.affordable even compared to other public schools. And it has great music program. You can get into its BA Academic Emphasis without an audition. Wish you good luck:thumbup:</p>