<p>I did not apply as a music major, I was accepted into the College of Arts and Sciences. I haven't noticed any discussion on the College of Fine Arts, so I am assuming that it is not as difficult or as prestigious as Michigan, New England, Oberlin, and others often mentioned. How respectable is the College of Fine Arts and how difficult would it be to change my major or add music as a double major?</p>
<p>BU has some excellent departments in the College of Fine Arts. Their double bass faculty is among the best anywhere, for example. Two years ago my daughter was accepted at Oberlin, NEC and Peabody but not there. I would imagine that you would have to audition along with everyone else to be able to major in music there.</p>
<p>Agree with BassDad, if you want to do a performance major you'll have to audition. You may be able to go for the B.A. degree without an audition. If you play an orchestral instrument, consider auditioning for the orchestra. The conductor is terrific and it'll give you an idea of where you stand.</p>
<p>Fiddlefrog hopefully will respond here. She's a student at BU...I'm just a parent. Skie...the only students who can audition for the BU Symphony are music majors. There is an all campus orchestra for non-majors, however. It is possible, but not all that easy, to double major, but a student can't just "switch majors". They must audition...and those auditions have already taken place for the 2007-2008 school year.</p>
<p>As thumper mentioned, I'm a violin student at BU (incidentally, I'm a male, thumper!).<br>
To generalize about the level, the School of Music at BU is in the first tier of university-based music programs, including schools like Indiana, Rice, USC, Northwestern, Michigan, and Wisconsin. It is somewhat less selective than the first four of those for most instruments (although for percussion and double bass it's probably more selective). The faculty is truly first-rate in most areas including many world class musicians (Simon Estes, Lucas Foss, Muir Quartet, Anthony diBonaventura, Roman Totenberg, Ed Barker, Tim Genis). The level of the student body is diminished by (in my view) two things: no financial aid is available for international students, and the facilities are horrible. Both problems lead to recruitment troubles.
If you switch into a CFA program you can count on staying a fifth year, because a BM in performance requires 8 semesters of lessons and orchestra.</p>
<p>I believe Rice and BU are similarly selective in double bass. About the only more selective DB department than those two is Curtis.</p>
<p>In addition to quality, the BU music program is very selective partly because of the appeal of Boston and partly due to the extremely small size of the program. Last year there were 16 undergrads who complete a degree in music performance.</p>
<p>Edad...only 16 undergrad performance majors last year to get degrees? Wow. I suspect there are a few more than that this year.</p>
<p>I am sorry - the number I posted is not correct. I rechecked the IPED webpage. There were indeed 16 grads for music performance, but there are also separate categories for voice/opera, 13, and strings, 12. The total is 41. That is still pretty small compared with most other conservatory programs.</p>
<p>My D graduated from BU with a cello performance major and went on to get a master's with a major teacher in NYC and is now actually supporting herself as a teacher and performer. BU (plus her own very hard work) turned her from a talented but unfinished high school player to a mature and disciplined artist. Facilities are threadbare but lots of practice rooms, a top-notch faculty and an unbeatable location. I don't know about international financial aid but she went to BU a full-tuition merit scholarship. Other posters have already noted the nationally-reputed double bass program.</p>
<p>Word on the street is that BU is planning a major fund drive for the College of Fine Arts. Don't know if/when it will be announced and how soon it will help the current crop of matriculants.</p>
<p>What about piano program there? How selective it is and which teachers are good?</p>
<p>BU has already started the fund drive for the College of Fine Arts. Donations are already being accepted...</p>
<p>Any updates on BU School of Music facilities? Fundraising [as mentioned here], facility upgrades, etc.</p>
<p>In response to posts #7 & 9:</p>
<p>Number of majors graduated in various music disciplines in a recent year, from <a href=“USA University College Directory - U.S. University Directory - State Universities and College Rankings”>USA University College Directory - U.S. University Directory - State Universities and College Rankings;
<p>Conducting 5
Music History, Literature, and Theory 2
Music Performance, General 31
Music Teacher Education 41
Music Theory and Composition 7
Music, General 5
Musicology and Ethnomusicology 1
Piano and Organ 13
Religious/Sacred Music 1
Violin, Viola, Guitar and Other Stringed Instruments 30
Voice and Opera 18</p>
<p>Total 154</p>
<p>BU facilities have had a fabulous upgrade. The practice rooms have been TOTALLY redone…they are spectacular. You can go to the BU.edu website and then do a search for CFA Music Practice rooms. There is a slide show of pics of the newly done rooms. More renovations are underway this year to remaining parts of the facility.</p>
<p>Also in response to posts re: numbers of grads…how come the wind and brass students are not listed? The year my son graduated (2007) there were at least 20 if not more…wind and brass students who graduated with degrees in music performance.</p>
<p>Thanks, thumper.</p>
<p>Link to slide show on this page: [Boston</a> University College of Fine Arts](<a href=“http://www.bu.edu/cfa/about/renovations]Boston”>http://www.bu.edu/cfa/about/renovations)</p>
<p>Also, story on pages 6-7 of Spring '09 edition of Esprit [PDF pages 8-9]: <a href=“http://www.bu.edu/cfa/documents/esprit_spring2009.pdf[/url]”>http://www.bu.edu/cfa/documents/esprit_spring2009.pdf</a></p>
<p>Aren’t those practice rooms nice???</p>
<p>Believe me … we’re thrilled to hear about this. BU is just 1.25 hours from our house. Not the ideal of what we have in mind as a college, on the whole, but that doesn’t seem to exist in New England. BU has all of the non-music academics that my son is interested in. Those academics play a big part in the formulation of our list of near-ideal schools.</p>
<p>He responded well to UArts’ setting in Philly [not on that list] – which I described in my visit report as like BU’s, though on a smaller scale, and without the trolley cars – so there’s a pretty good chance he WON’T flip out when we make our first attempt to cross Comm. Ave. … something I’ve done numerous times and have lived to tell about.</p>