<p>For those that have experience with BA or BS in music would love to get your thoughts on the experience.
My S did audition and applied to a few schools for BM but also applied to others that only offer a BA or BS and would really like to hear about Music Major experiences at schools that only offer BA or BS.
The specific schools he applied to without a BM are Tufts, Amherst, Princeton, Brandeis, MIT and Dartmouth. You actually don't enter any of these schools declaring your major. </p>
<p>I think the Music Major experiences are going to differ widely from school to school depending on the faculty, the program, the ensembles, etc. Hopefully someone with experience at those specific schools you mention will respond. My son is getting a B.A. at Yale in music. Did you have particular questions in mind about the degree?</p>
<p>The answer may have to do with what he wants to do with a BA in Music. Is he planning to go to grad school for a performance degree, or is he more interested in musicology, ethnomusicology, or electronic music etc.? Tufts, Princeton, MIT, and Brandeis are known to have strong music departments. I don’t know as much about Dartmouth except they offer an interesting grad program. Of all of these on your list, in the past, at least, Amherst would be thought to have the weakest music department. There is no reason your son could not go on to grad school in performance with a BA, if he continued to study and perform throughout undergrad at a high level.</p>
<p>When my S was a junior in high school, my wife and I were not sold on him attending a conservatory as we placed great value on the liberal arts experience. We wanted him to arrive at the conclusion that a good performance experience was available outside conservatory walls, and so we hatched a plan. We identified a strong liberal arts school with a highly regarded music (jazz) program. It just so happened that a prominent performer was scheduled to hold a concert at the school, and opening for him was the school’s premier jazz ensemble. The planets had aligned. We offered to take him to the concert, which took no convincing due to the prominence of the headliner, and got front of house seats. We were convinced that his eyes would be opened, and he would independently arrive at the conclusion that a satisfying performance experience would be available at lots of places. Eyes were opened, but they were mine. I’ll be kind, and say the student performances were less than I had hoped for. The drive home has come to be known in our house as the night of a thousand “I told you so’s.”</p>
<p>I share this with you not to indict liberal art music programs. Our experience was anecdotal and nothing more. I would, however, strongly suggest that if you are considering a B.A., and your child wants to pursue a performance emphasis, that, before you pull the trigger, you go and listen to actual performances by the school’s preeminent ensembles, orchestras, choruses, etc. That’s where he will, in all likelihood, be musically in four years, and those are the types of musical peers he can expect to be surrounded by. It’s the closest thing to a look into the future that I can think of.</p>
<p>Just as an anecdote - there is a recent grad from Vassar (as in, last spring) who is now attending Bard’s prestigious Vocal Arts Program, run by Dawn Upshaw, and has a part in the opera about to premiere. He made it work. And plenty of Yale and Princeton grads continue to study music at the highest level, as Clarimom’s son has. And, if your S is interested in composition, a number of the colleges on your list have some of the top programs in the country.</p>
<p>I hope he has the ability to make some choices in a couple of weeks. I don’t have any specific questions but just trying to get a sense from those that have gone through BA if they would have done it differently or if they were happy with decision. Thank you for your prospective!! </p>
<p>Whether a program was a BM,BS, or BA I would encourage ANY applicant to attend a performance at the school they are attending. There are many excellent BA music programs and as Clarimom points out, they vary widely from school to school and from instrument to instrument. For example just because a “top tier conservatory” is tops in violin, it does not make it tops in vocal performance. D got her BM as an undergrad and was hesitant to go to a grad school for her MM at a state u (that happened to offer a BA for undergrad.) It was not until we attended one of their operas that she decided that that was the school for her. The level of talent for grads and undergrads was staggering.</p>
<p>I think it is important to know who the teacher of your instrument is at each school as well–and even make a connection of some kind (such as getting a sample lesson) with them if you can. It’s getting close to D-Day right now–in a few weeks you’ll know exactly where he was accepted and you can go from there in trying to make an informed decision. He must have chosen this set of schools for a reason–there must have been something at each that interested him. After you have the acceptances in hand, you can explore that further. I don’t think it really made a difference for my son whether it was a B.A. or a B.M. as long as he had high quality musical experiences that prepared him well as a musician. I don’t think he would have done anything differently, although if he had chosen any of the schools he had received acceptances from I think he probably would have had just as great of an experience, as he had selected all of them for the teacher, the academics, and the ensembles.</p>
<p>My daughter also applied to several conservatories, and some colleges. She had a hard time deciding and it took her the whole month of April to say yes to a university with a great music program (an Ivy not on your son’s list) versus a wonderful conservatory. There are pros and cons to both. And she was primarily a composer.</p>
<p>She has been surprised by the talent level of students where she is, but she mainly works with small, selective ensembles and soloists, especially strings.</p>
<p>Does your son have other academic interests? Would he enjoy the intense focus on music available at a conservatory or prefer diverse coursework? What are his social needs? How would he feel about taking distribution requirements?</p>
<p>Many top musicians do attend BA schools like those your son has applied to, Colleges vary in the amount of applied music offered. Some are purely academic music and leave performance to extracurriculars, and some have classes involving performance as well as private study. Academic music includes theory, music history, ethnomusicology, composition and technology. Conservatories will have these as well. A BA might involve more theoretical and historical study and reading and writing, but conservatories do, of course, offer liberal arts. At a university music majors will generally take 1/4-1/3 of their classes in music (at my daughter’s school is was 50%, one reason she chose it) and at a conservatory music will be 2/3-3/4 of the classes.</p>
<p>Your son can visit, go to concerts, talk to teachers or students, spend time on websites for schools and professors, but really it will come down to what he wants in his heart (and you can afford!). </p>
<p>I think the Peabody Institute essay on different ways to study music is really helpful: <a href=“http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/conservatory/admissions/tips/doubledegree.html”>http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/conservatory/admissions/tips/doubledegree.html</a></p>
<p>it’s a tough decision. Maybe what you really want to know is, is it okay to do a BA? The answer is that it can be, certainly. And those who do the BA route and continue practicing and performing, can certainly end up at top conservatories for grad school.</p>
<p>I agree with all so far. Really try to visit rehearsals and/or concerts. Five minutes listening to the Vassar orchestra rehearsal convinced S1 that Vassar music was for him. He heard music ensembles at several other BA(and BM) schools and they just did not ‘speak’ to him and he had already been accepted to a conservatory. Start now and check when the rehearsals are and get the calendar out so when the acceptances arrive, you can jump into action and visit. The BM allows a lot less time for exploration outside of music. Take a look at the B. M. schools’ course requirements and plan out the four years. Compare to the BA. See which is more appealing and how he wants to spend his time at college. He may need the structured discipline of the B.M. degree to help him stay on track with practicing or he might be disciplined enough to progress well in a BA environment if surrounded by strong musicians. </p>
<p>I would strongly agree with comments about sitting in on rehearsals. After 15 min., my son left one of the rehearsals at one of the schools on your list - he was so disappointed in the quality of what he saw. Maybe it was just a bad day, but it still was important that he visited them. He did not attend that school.</p>
<p>I agreee. We actually did visit some of the schools. A lot of the schools he did (and didn’t) apply to are from those experiences. For example, before visting Cornell, I thought he was going to apply there. We didn’t like the vibe from the jazz rehearsal. At Yale the focus of the school seemed to him to lean heavly on classical (not what he is looking for).<br>
We were not able to get to all of them so if he does get accepted we will have to make a couple of more trips.</p>
<p>As others have said, it really pays to investigate and look around. A BM degree is a different kind of beast then a BA (I am assuming a BA with performance, rather than an academic one in theory or whatnot), it is very immersive and intense but also has drawbacks, the liberal arts classes tend to be somewhat minimized, and you don’t have the core courses you do in ‘general’ college. On the other hand, in general, BA programs because they are less intense in terms of the musical experience (since you are spending significant time on non music stuff) may not work for people, it depends on the kid. BA programs in music on an instrument IME tend to draw a wider variety of students, which may mean playing with others who are at a level much lower than yourself (it all depends). A program with a BA in music will probably have ensembles that are made up of non majors and majors, so may not be as high level as a BM program would have (which would likely be all majors)…</p>
<p>And yes, some schools have fantastic orchestras and such even though they don’t offer performance or even a BA on an instrument,the Ivies come to mind. In part that is because they recruit high level music students who want an ivy degree (put it this way, Juilliard pre college sends a lot of kids to the ivy league, percentage wise they probably give the old NE prep schools a run for their money), these kids are already at a level higher than many kids coming out of high school, and the Ivies snatch them up (and no, it isn’t just because these kids are musical, it isn’t like division 1 football, most of the kids I am talking about also had blistering academic stats and test scores to boot), so going to a school like that could mean having a very rewarding musical experience, on the other hand my S went to a concert at a university that supposedly had a great BA program/great orchestra, and he said the level of playing was about the same as a good middle school youth symphony program…so it all depends. </p>
<p>A kid could also go to a good university, get a degree in something and take private lessons and do ensembles and okay, again depends on the kid and their needs. In classical instrumental music it all comes down to how well the kid is playing coming in, the kids from pre college I am talking about could probably find a great private teacher, play in ensembles and then get into a grad program doing a degree outside music, because they already had the discipline to practice and work, whereas another kid might need the structure of a BM degree to make it work…</p>
<p>Again, some BA programs are just as “immersive and intense” as a BM program. It pays to investigate and not to make gross generalizations. </p>
<p>S applied for the Tufts/NEC duel degree. He did not get into NEC but did get into Tufts. If he goes here he will double major. Anybody have any experience with Tufts music department? Looks like he can take some classes at NEC.<br>
Also wondering if anybody has any experience with Northeastern and Brandeis </p>
<p>I went to University of Chicago and graduated with honors in music if anyone has any questions. </p>
<p>I took piano, violin and voice lessons before college. In college, I sang in three choirs, one of which I directed the last two years, and took singing lessons 1-2 times per week. I also played in a string quartet. I wrote a thesis for honors and did a shared senior singing recital with a friend. There are lots of very talented musicians here. My roommate got into NEC/Harvard (for cell) … and came to UChic and he has no regrets.</p>
<p>Tufts Music dept. is great, with great facilities, teachers and vibe. We have some personal experience there and also know a young man currently there who is a musician and studying physics, and very happy there.</p>
<p>If your son were to choose to attend Northeastern he would be able to attend classes at Berklee through an organization called Pro-Arts which makes cross registering among a certain set of Fenway colleges easy. MIT might actually be part of Pro-Arts as well….I am not sure. <a href=“http://www.proarts.org”>http://www.proarts.org</a>
NEC is not part of the pro-arts network. I have not heard of Tufts kids who are not part of the duel degree program taking classes at NEC, but that might simply be due to the fact that once these kids are at Tufts they do not find that there is a need since Tufts music department is relatively strong. Or it could be due to the fact that attending classes at NEC is a pain given the transport time and so students decide once they are enrolled at Tufts not to bother.</p>
<p>Don Braden, who runs the Litchfield Jazz Festival and Camp, went to Harvard and he tells campers at the camp when thinking about college to remember that you can make your Jazz scene where ever you are. It is up to you to pursue it. </p>
<p>I do not believe Northeastern is part of proarts. Harvard and Northeastern both have affiliations with NEC.
The Northeastern association is not strong - kids basically take classes with NEC continuing education department - not with the professors that NEC students study with. </p>
<p>I think Tufts music has grown a lot over that past 6 years or so. There were people practicing during our visit on a beautiful Friday afternoon in April. We did not hear the Tufts jazz groups. Brandeis has a small friendly music department. The jazz group seemed solid but we did not stay long to listen. We did not see much activity when we visited the Northeastern music department but we did not hear any groups.</p>