<p>Parent of son who’s passion is MUSIC – popular/jazz/electronic composition, recording, performing. Plays sax, guitar, piano, etc., plus vocal. At Lawrenceville School, jazz ensemble lead sax and guitar, lead baritone in vocal group Laurentians. He is and would be a regular at the local Coffeehouse, etc. Plays in bands/ensembles and has numerous original compositions/recordings ranging from acoustic pop to hard rock electric, jazz and electronic (think Trent Reznor!!) on net.) This past year, he discovered musical theater, too!! Academically, VERY strong…you get the idea. I rally think liberal arts makes sense with a music concentration vs. a conservatory (he visited Juilliard and pursued a more academic route…)</p>
<p>Waitlist Columbia (#1 choice) and accepted Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Oberlin, JHU, NYU Honors, and Rochester…</p>
<p>He visited Bowdoin and really liked it, recognizes strength of academics, loves the house system (similar to Lawrenceville) but it appears his concern is the perceived weak Bowdoin music program…</p>
<p>Can anyone weigh in on Bowdoin music vs. say Wesleyan, Oberlin, JHU?</p>
<p>More importantly to a parent, can anyone provide insight as to how important the music program is to the “quality” of the overall liberal arts academics??</p>
<p>I know that Bowdoin has a very well known music festival during the summer, but I don’t know if that says anything about their music program in general.</p>
<p>I do know that Oberlin, and especially Johns Hopkins have VERY well regarded musical programs (at both places you can pursue a joint degree in music and an academic subject)</p>
<p>Oberlin has a very well known music school. In terms of music alone Oberlin is stronger than Bowdoin, especially in things like violin performance and whatnot
What does your son want to pursue?
I would say that if he wants to be a music major it might be good to go to Oberlin because of possible connection and stuff that aren’t as accessible from Bowdoin. But if he wants to get a degree, Bowdoin is academically stronger than Oberlin.</p>
<p>I don’t know very much in terms of Hopkins.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m interested in this topic as well––I did a lot of work in music composition throughout high school, and plan to continue in college. From looking through Bowdoin’s course catalog, the offerings for composition are a bit disappointing (though I suppose that after the intro level, independent study is the way to go).</p>
<p>My son is all over the map musically – jazz, pop. Plays sax, guitar, piano, voice and composes and digitally records his own music. Has created CD’s of electronic music (think Trent Reznor), rock, jazz and acoustic guitar/vocal compositions with his own poetry/lyrics…</p>
<p>IF he likes Bowdoin otherwise, will their music program be enough? How about the local music scene – anything?? Or is Wesleyan a better fit???</p>