<p>I visited Notre Dame this weekend (beautiful campus) and was convinced that I should consider a good music program; not a conservatory. I want a diverse degree; studying music all day every day would make me pop.</p>
<p>So here's my criteria.</p>
<p>Preferably 2500 or less students (but any size under 10,000 is fine)
Strong liberal arts core curriculum
Great music program with an emphasis on voice/opera.</p>
<p>University of Rochester (not necessarily Eastman Conservatory, which is part of Rochester). It's about 4500 undergrads, with as strong a liberal arts curriculum as you can get. It has its own music department, separate from Eastman's. And you can audition to take private voice lessons from Eastman grad students for free. Lots of performance opportunities too, and of course the listening opportunities through Eastman, available to all Rochester students, can't be beat.</p>
<p>Vassar College also has an excellent music program.
Muhlenberg College has a good music program, but it may be tailored more towards musical theater - you'll have to check it out.</p>
<p>What are your stats?</p>
<p>Oberlin college and Rice are both considered strong in liberal arts and have strong musical program. Also, don't discount some conservatories such as Peabody and CCM that have tie ins with major universities.</p>
<p>what do you mean by stats? not sure.</p>
<p>Stats= grades, class rank, SAT or ACT scores, APs, and things like that. In other words, how good of a student are you? That matters at colleges and universities more than it matters at conservatories.</p>
<p>For a college around 2500 with a strong vocal/opera department , you might want to look at Furman in SC.</p>
<p>I did great on my ACTs (I believe I got a 28) but I never kicked up my high school grades until senior year. The rest of the years they were mediocre to just plain awful.</p>
<p>I'm not planning on getting into any college unless I go to a community college first; how much would they look at high school if I completely buckled down for my 1-2 years and got a GPA of 3.5 or up?</p>
<p>Because of my high school history, I'd like to have a variety of selectivity for schools.</p>
<p>Vassar? They don't have specific music degrees though do they?</p>
<p>There is no music major at Rice (i.e. no BA in Music). You have to be admitted to Shepherd and get a BM degree.</p>
<p>I second that question. I too am looking for a liberal arts college with a strong vocal performance major/program, so that I would be able to double major in vocal performance and something else-- probably something in the humanities or in international relations.</p>
<p>Just to give you an idea, I'm looking at schools like Reed, UChicago, Swarthmore, Williams, Middlebury, Amherst, and etc. However, I don't really have any sense of the strength of their respective music departments. I'd really appreciate any help you guys could give!</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>the_daydreamer, it dependson what you are looking to do. There are strenghts/weaknesses to those kinds of schools. They are VERY rooted in academics, and I'm sure have good voice teahcer. I looked at them but they won't give you the necessary training that you need to have in auditions. Like, none of those have voice auditions, and it's an EXTREMELY liberal experience, (not politlcally,) if that is what you want, I'd say look at tulane. haha where i am. it's rediculously liberal arts, but also maybe any state school (penn state, nyu, they are somewhat liberal.)</p>
<p>OMG. How could I forget, try Oberlin! That's a great liberal arts college w/excellenetttt voice.</p>
<p>The schools you mention have music departments of varying strength, but I don't think any offer a major in music performance; instead, they are academic programs with a performance element. If you want a degree in vocal performance as well as an academic subject, in a comparable liberal arts college, you should look at Oberlin, which has a strong vocal program.</p>
<p>You both might also want to look at Lawrence University. Contrary to it's name, it is a very small school, about 1500 students I think, with a conservatory that is very much integrated into to the regular program.</p>
<p>I don't know about other schools, but you would not be able to able to major in vocal performance at UChicago (you would, though, be able to major in music here).</p>
<p>Few schools, I imagine, will have a specific vocal performance major and will allow you to major in liberal arts. If having that vocal performance major is very important to you, it's going to slice off a lot of the schools on your list (if not all of them). If you are willing to study music or pursue singing on the side, you will be able to do so at all of the schools on your list.</p>
<p>I had to make a similar decision when it came down to choosing a school based on its creative writing programs or by its overall academic feel. I decided to go with the overall academic feel, which was the best decision for me, because I haven't wanted to take a creative writing course here yet... I've enjoyed my other courses so much that I don't know if I could fit creative writing in!</p>
<p>At Rochester/Eastman, you can double major in vocal performance and another discipline in the liberal arts, including math and science. Of course, it's not easy to do so!</p>
<p>If you look through the thread here <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=6280%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=6280</a> you'll see s number of schools with well pespected liberal arts prograns and strong music programs. Oberlin has been mentioned, and is a highly competitive admit through the conservatory. They do offer double majors. St Olaf is repeated mentioned here, and has an exceptional vocal progam.</p>
<p>If anyone has questions about the voice department at Oberlin please feel free to send me a PM. I'm a freshman this year and if I can'y answer your question I will be able to find someone who can!</p>
<p>I'd rather the school be in a major city (I really don't want to pay for or deal with a car right now). Because of this, size doesn't matter but I'd like it to be 10,000 or under.</p>
<p>Sarah Lawrence has a very good voice program. Not in city, but only twenty minutes away by public transportation. No need for car.</p>
<p>Columbia College NY (extremely selective)
New York University (very selective)
Boston University (selective)
University of Minnesota Twin Cities (not too selective)
Columbia College Chicago (I'll get in if I fog a mirror)</p>
<p>From what I know, the top four would match my criteria...of course I could very well be mistaken too.</p>
<p>When I was at Sarah Lawrence long ago, as a pianist I took a vocal accompaniment class with Margo Garrett. You can't get any better than that!</p>