<p>I am an HS junior interested in possibly double majoring in international relations or history and music (particularly production/technology) in very selective schools. I do not want to go to a conservatory or do a joint university/conservatory program (julliard/columbia or harvard/NEC). I also do not want to be in a city or an extremely big research university... prefer NE area or California. Interested in a liberal arts education, especially small LAC's. All suggestions welcome!</p>
<p>Current stats--
ACT Composite: 34
Writing: 11
SAT II (World History): 740
SAT II (Math II): 780
UW GPA: 3.96
AP World: 5
Violin: passed dipABRSM
Piano: passed ABRSM Grade 8</p>
<p>Interested schools--
Yale
Brown
UPenn
Williams
Claremont McKenna
Pomona
Amherst
Swarthmore
Stanford
Middlebury</p>
<p>Please tell me about the IR/History department and the Music department in those schools or suggest other ones!</p>
<p>Have you checked websites to see if music production/technology is included in curriculum or degree offerings? Harvard (not on your list) has HUSEAC (electroacoustic composition), Brown has a technology strand in the music major, but not sure if that is what you are looking for. Others will know about other schools on your list.</p>
<p>Are you referring to a career-oriented program for music production and technology? Many selective schools have only academic music. But perhaps that is what you are looking for and I am just not understanding your terms. Also, the context of schools may provide opportunities outside of the school itself, such as internships, to learn about your interests.</p>
<p>Looks like a great list of schools and suggest you read the website, if you haven’t already. Check course offerings, distribution requirements, how many courses in major, minor, double major, faculty, and so on. Good luck!</p>
<p>Some of those are very, very difficult to get into as they also require you to be in the very top % academically. If you’re not quite an Ivy League student or aren’t quite ready for Julliard, I suggest you check out some other colleges that aren’t on these lists:</p>
<p>U of N Texas is #1 in jazz
Florida State University has an outstanding arts & music program
U of Miami has an outstanding music program
U of South Carolina has an outstanding music program</p>
<p>Agree with compmom, that at most LACs, being a music major mainly revolves around performance and the academic study of music, not so much production/technology. At least, this goes for primary concentration, though you may often find classes and electives available dealing with production.</p>
<p>My older S went to CMC and his friend at Pitzer double majored in music mostly taking courses at Pomona & Scripps. Music production/tech is not something I would associate with those schools. On the other hand, if you’re interested in electroacoustic music, there are interesting courses at Harvey Mudd. I think, as Compmom said, that if you’re interested in a more pre-professional pursuit like Music Production rather than the study of music, with possible exceptions, you’ll need to look beyond academic LAC’s & Ivies to larger universities, or ones with a different focus.</p>
<p>I would check out USC - it may have most everything you’re after, except for being in a city!</p>
<p>@Spirit if by USC you mean = South Carolina and not Southern California, I have to agree. My son has decent academics but is by no means an Ivy Leaguer. He made All-County and All-State in Florida, and I’m confident he will get in with some extra $$ at several of the larger Florida universities…however, he has USCarolina #1 on his list. Provided the OOS scholarship works out, he should be a Gamecock by August.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure 95% of the time when people say USC, they mean the USC of the Trojans and the Memorial Coliseum, hehe.</p>
<p>SM is true that USC’s music department offers a heavy amount of opportunities for music production related study - but SM is also right that being in LA may be a disqualifier for the OP. It is also a large research institution, and not an LAC.</p>
<p>Yes, being from California I automatically say USC for Univ. of Southern California - although absolutely no one refers to it that way. South Carolina may have everything the OP wants, as well, except it’s not in California or the Northeast but I know next to nothing about it.</p>
<p>IR at CMC is certainly everything the OP is looking for - it’s Music Production that’s the problem.</p>
<p>As for whether our California USC is too big and too grad school oriented - the OP did list Penn, Stanford, Brown & Yale which aren’t exactly tiny nor undergrad only.</p>
<p>I think @taanje’s main problem is going to be reconciling elite small academic suburban/rural colleges with a strong IR dept, with majoring in Music Production. It’s going to limit the options, and some of the requisites are going to have to give.</p>
<p>Amherst College does not realy have much of a “music scene”. They do offer more by way of the 5 college consortium, but that is not much different logistically than say Harvard/NEC, in that it requires alot of travel between multiple college campuses to take classes.</p>
<p>Also, have you been to Yale? It is right in the middle of the city with the most homicides in the northeast this year (just heard this on the news). While Yale is a great, great school, the city is truly awful. They are trying to revitalize it, but it is going to take some time and alot of money.</p>
<p>I’m not sure that I agree, when it comes to the Ivies on the list. I don’t know any kids who have gotten into an Ivy w/o a >4.0 and almost perfect SATs (and by that I mean w/in 10 points of perfect.</p>
<p>I know a number of students who have gained admission to Ivy League schools with similar stats. In fact, one got into Harvard but didn’t get into Brown. I guess you never know.</p>
<p>^Same here. We’ve known a number of students over the years who got into Harvard (and other ivies) with stats very similar to the OP’s. AND, we’ve known bunches of students over the years who have had stats like the OP’s or higher (including kids with the “perfect” stats that mtiger1 was referring to) who DIDN’T get in. The ivies are kind of a crap shoot. At least from our geographic area, you seriously can’t predict.</p>
<p>Taanje, I’m not sure of your rationale or the assumptions you are making about cities and large universities that guide your preference, but it might be unfortunate that you feel this way. I say that because to find really stellar programs in the three disciplines within a single institution almost REQUIRES a large institution such as the University of Michigan, which ranks among the top in History, and IR, AND MUSIC TECH via its conservatory. I say that because generally to have the program depth to offer a lot of production/tech courses necessitates a healthy student music population, which one normally only finds at a SOM. (Another good one would be McGill University in Montreal. Also large. Also rigorous. Also NOT an LAC.) – Oberlin’s TIAMARA program in its conservatory would be a great fit as far as the music aspect; also LAC approach…just not sure about IR there but worth pursuing.</p>
<p>However, if you find need to reconsider your options in terms of size, you can turn large research institutions into small learning environments usually by joining the honors programs, or belonging to the SOM – by nature a small population – or in the case of University of Michigan, by belonging to the RC - residential college, which has a humanities-based, language intensive program that could conceivably integrate music with IR.</p>
<p>Again, TIMARA is an academic music program (elctoracoustic composition), not the more career-oriented music production/technology that the original poster wants. Northeastern and UMass Lowell have programs in production/technology. Perhaps the original poster could clarify terms, because the schools listed would most likely not have that type of program.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if the original poster means an electroacoustic program, then there are lots of possibilities in that list. And the suggestion of Oberlin’s TIMARA is a great one. For the OP, here is a link to TIMARA, as an example of one of the electroacoustic programs anywhere.</p>
<p>And Oberlin is small, and definitely not in a city! Conservatory and college have a “low wall” though being in the conservatory would mean more musical opportunities.</p>
<p>^Compmom, while I agree that the TIMARA degree requirements do not include the volume of studio and engineering/producing/programming credits that, for example, my son’s program does, my understanding is that in addition to computer music course requirements there is a required course in multitrack studio recording, circuit design and digital synthesis etc. Their studios are all protools equipped, and while I don’t disagree that there appears to be the electro-acoustic composition flavor (as there also is in my son’s program) I doubt “career-oriented” music production/tech programs are significantly more robust at the end of the day in terms of developing the ear and tech skills to produce/record/program ;)</p>
<p>So if by “academic” you mean “not hands on” – not sure that’s a fair assessment. If by academic you meant depth, then, yup ;)</p>
<p>We’ve had this debate before on this forum, but I am pretty sure that 99.999% of the time when people on the east coast, or at least the southeast say “USC” they are refering to South Carolina, although I understand that people west of the Mississippi or north of the Mason Dixon line tend to refer to Southern California as USC.</p>
<p>In all fairness, the east cost edition is more famous for academics, and even for music, but the east cost USC is much older, has graduated far more students, and is larger. Now last time we went through this, a west coast fan brought up how Southern Cal was ranked in the top 30 public colleges in the US, so I do want to toss out that South Carolina is ranked in the top 20% of public universities, #1 for International Business, one of the top colleges for other business majors, has recently been ranked in the top 10 for “upcoming universities”, and also recently ranked in the top 10 for “best value”.</p>
<p>So instead of arguing which one is the “real” USC, I don’t understand why anyone just assumes that they can conversate on a national-international forum using terms that only have a consistant meaning on a local bases. Thats why I ALWAYS designate which USC I am talking about.</p>
<p>For those who think that USC is clear and concise and can only mean one college or another, you are absolutely wrong. There’s about 150 million of us who call the U of South Carolina “USC”.</p>