<p>Hey, I'm a high school senior going into vocal performance and education, and I need help sorting through my list of schools so i can decide which to apply to. I'm not sure which allow dual majors and how the vocal program is in each.. So any basic information would be much appreciated.
And now the fun part. Here's my list:
Adelphi university
Berklee college of music
Carnegie Mellon
University of Cincinnati conservatory of music
Cleveland institute of music
Columbia college
Eastman school of music
Five towns college (?)
Gettysburg college
Hampshire college
CUNY Hunter college
James Madison University
Johnson state college
Juilliard
Lawrence university
Lyndon state college
Manhattan school of music
U of Maryland college park (in state for me)
New England conservatory of music
Northwestern
Oberlin
SUNY Potsdam
Hartt school
Virginia commonwealth school of the arts
Westminster choir college
Boston university and/or conservatory (i don't think either allows double majors but I'm not sure)
AND THAT'S IT YAYY. I don't need an in depth analysis of each one but just which to get rid of and which to keep will help sooo soo much. Thanks again :)</p>
<p>I cannot tell you about the vocal program at these schools but I can tell you go to each of the websites of the schools and look at majors offered. This information should not be hard to find. I will also tell you that some of these schools likley have required pre screen recordings and I seem to remember Nov. 1 was the date my son’s first prescreen was due last year. He is not a vocalist but just a heads up. Look now so you are not surprised later. You have a diverse list of schools. If you are looking for ed you might want to start with looking seriously at schools in the state you hope to teach in. Good luck.</p>
<p>You did not say what you wanted to double major in. Two music degrees (performance an music ed?), or one music and one academic. It makes a difference.</p>
<p>University of Cincinnati conservatory of music - top music school for voice. Probably can easily double major
Eastman school of music - top music school for voice. can double major, but the music campus is a shuttle ride from the main campus
Lawrence university - Excellent music school. Easy to double major. Has 5 year double degreep program
New England conservatory of music - music school only. But has joint degree programs with other schools
Oberlin - top music school. Easy to double major.</p>
<p>Also consider:
Indiana University, Bloomington
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
University of WI, Madison</p>
<p>I take if from your handle that you are a female. Voice is very competitive for females.</p>
<p>What kind of vocal performance are you interested? Classical voice is not meant for Berklee, but better for Hartt or Julliard. </p>
<p>What kind of background do you have (grades, experience) and what do you really want to do after 4 years?</p>
<p>Oberlin does not offer an undergraduate degree in music education. It does offer a Masters in Music Teaching for those who have BM’s in performance or composition. You can double major in the conservatory, but that requires an audition/interview for each intended major. If you are interested in the 5 year dual degree program, you must be admitted to both the conservatory and the college.</p>
<p>For starters, I double checked Juilliard and it does not offer any music ed. Checking took about 20 seconds. I think you should first go to every school’s music website and eliminate those without music education, if that is one of the things you really want to study. Also, often state universities will offer music education with a BM in their music schools.</p>
<p>After eliminating those without music education, then go to the websites and check out their vocal performance, including faculty and coursework. Then come back on here and people can give you more targeted feedback.</p>
<p>If you are a senior, you don’t have a lot of time, anywhere from 1 to 2 months for getting your DVD and application in. So come back quickly!</p>
<p>I also would think about what environment you want: Urban versus Rural. Small versus Large. Nurturing versus competitive. It looks like you have already decided against going west, so that is good. But think carefully about the living experience you want. New York and Boston are very different cities and the experience of living and studying in them will be very different. Oberlin’s social scene is entirely campus based. Eastman is in Rochester, which can be snowy and dark in Winter. Hampshire college is going to be a totally unique experience. If you have not visited any campuses then you might want to take a weekend and do some campus visits. You don’t need to go to all the schools, but you do need to figure out what living environments you think you can tolerate for four years.</p>
<p>By “five towns college” are you thinking of the consortium of UMass Amherst, Hampshire, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Amherst College? </p>
<p>Here is some info on NEC’s music-in-education program: [Music-in-Education</a> | New England Conservatory](<a href=“The College | New England Conservatory”>Music-in-Education | New England Conservatory)</p>
<p>Like Oberlin, Manhattan only has a grad level degree in music education, in conjunction w/Columhttp://<a href=“http://www.msmnyc.edu/Instruction-Faculty/Academic-Departments/Music-Education-Performance-”>www.msmnyc.edu/Instruction-Faculty/Academic-Departments/Music-Education-Performance-</a></p>
<p>Hartt has an undergrad minor in music education, and a master’s in music education.
[The</a> Hartt School | Music Dance Theatre > Music](<a href=“The Hartt School - University of Hartford”>The Hartt School - University of Hartford)</p>
<p>Ithaca has a BM in music education: [Music</a> Education (B.M.) - Music Education - Ithaca College](<a href=“School of Music, Theatre, and Dance | Ithaca College”>School of Music, Theatre, and Dance | Ithaca College)</p>
<p>Lawrence looks great for you. They have an undergrad music education major and within that major you can concentrate on choral or instrumental. [Music</a> Education - Lawrence University](<a href=“http://www.lawrence.edu/conservatory/dept/musiced/]Music”>http://www.lawrence.edu/conservatory/dept/musiced/)</p>
<p>Well, I have been waiting for a repair person, who is now pulling up, so hope that little bit was helpful!</p>
<p>Hartt’s undergrad music education program is actually a major, not a minor. [University</a> of Hartford Music Education](<a href=“http://hartford.edu/academics/AreasofStudy/UndergraduatePrograms-listingpage/Music%20Education.aspx]University”>http://hartford.edu/academics/AreasofStudy/UndergraduatePrograms-listingpage/Music%20Education.aspx)</p>
<p>Five Towns College is on Long Island, and has a music education program, but I’m not familiar with the details. [FTC:</a> Academics](<a href=“http://www.ftc.edu/Academic/aca_music_edu.html]FTC:”>http://www.ftc.edu/Academic/aca_music_edu.html)</p>
<p>I will be honest, this kind of post is frustrating because it is so broad as to be impossible ?to answer the way the OP wants. Here are some questions to ask yourself to make answering this easier for everyone:</p>
<p>-What is it you want to do in college? Are you looking at vocal performance in classical music combined with music ed? As someone else pointed out, the answer makes a difference in where you apply, since not all the programs have joint programs in vocal performance and music ed…are you interested in ‘contemporary’ singing, if so then a Juilliard or other traditional conservatory might not make sense (likewise, if interested in classical singing, then Berklee or something like 5 towns are not going to be where you would want to apply, since I know Berklee is contemporary and 5 Towns I believe is towards commercial/contemporary as well, least from the radio ads I have heard here in the NYC area (5 towns is a local Long Island school in the NYC metro area)</p>
<p>-Actually, the real question is what do you want to do with your degree. When you mention teaching, do you mean in public schools, or do you mean privately or at the college level? If so then dual majoring in music ed may not make much sense, since that is geared towards teaching in public schools (not saying it isn’t a worthwhile degree). You could potentially as has been mentioned on other threads on here before (and i recommend using the search to find threads on here, search for threads with title of vocal music for example) major in vocal performance through masters level and then perform and teach, you could do performance as UG and gets a masters in music ed or teaching if you wanted to head that way. </p>
<p>-What level are you at? What is your background? Have you sung in high school chorus and feel you want to sing as a career? Have you been taking private lessons all along? Have you been evaluated by a teacher? I don’t want to sound negative, but from your initial post it is hard to tell anything about you. The problem is the schools you have listed range from what I know to being you pretty much get in there if you apply to schools like Juilliard, Cincinati, NEC, etc, where it is extremely difficult to get in. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that for musical performance it is very different often than ‘regular’ college, you don’t apply with your grades and SAT scores and AP’s and so forth and then you major in music performance like you would history or accounting (or even music as a B.A, like music history). When you go into music performance it generally is auditioned (some programs are non auditioned) and pretty much the whole shebang is based on the audition (note, I am not that famliar with vocal music admissions, but I am pretty certain the audition is the big factor, if not the total one). You may already know this and I apologize if it is trivial, but from the broad nature of your post I was afraid you weren’t as familiar as some posters were…it is really important you understand the process to help in finding appropriate schools for you. Again, vocal music is a bit different then instrumental, vocal performance majors mature later then instrumentalists, there is a different track there,but I can tell you that for top programs like NEC, Juilliard, Cincy and so forth, to get in means you already need to be pretty accompliished.For those who really know to answer you they need more information about what you are thinking of heading into, your background and so forth, to help…there are a lot of students who post on here, who come in not knowing, who find an interest in music, dream about it, but don’t realize the reality, that it is quite different then going to college to study other things.</p>
<p>stradmom, glad you caught my error! </p>
<p>The link stradmom posted is for the BM in Music Education at the University of Hartford. The link I posted is specifically Hartt and lists both Bachelor of Music and a minor in Music Education on the first list that comes up, but if you click on “Bachelor of Music”, on top of the list, then Music Education is listed under that.</p>
<p>So some difficulties accessing the music education major for me, but I should have clicked on “Bachelor of Music” before eliminating Hartt for music education as a major. It’s a great school!</p>
<p>For many years, Hartt has offered a double major in music ed and performance. Check the website to see if they still offer it.</p>
<p>Music ed is excellent at Hartt and Ithaca. I don’t know about the actual vocal programs.</p>
<p>Your list is really random. That should make it somewhat easier to narrow down. Ask yourself these questions to start:</p>
<p>Do you want to be near a city or in a rural area? Lyndon State, Hampshire and SUNY Potsdam are in rural areas, I believe</p>
<p>What kind of music do you want to study, classical, jazz or centemporary?</p>
<p>Do you want to go to a university or liberal arts school, or a straight up conservatory?</p>
<p>What is a reach school for you and what is a safety, bith from an academic/talent perspective and financially? </p>
<p>It’s good to start out with a pretty big list and narrow it down to about 5-7 schools.</p>
<p>Thank you guys so much for the help. I am a mezzo-soprano and i plan to major in vocal performance and musical education, and since my noteworthy experience (chorus in school since fifth grade and voice lessons) has been mostly classical music I’m guessing I have the greatest chance of success if I focus on that. I would love to do contemporary but i have very little experience with that. The one thing i want to avoid is musical theater, b/c i am not a good actress (and I’ve tried…)
I got most of these schools from a huge list of music and arts colleges and looked through each one to narrow it down, so schools like five towns college which i havent heard much about in terms of their vocal program are just on my list because they were on the original list. At this point I am just trying to narrow down my list to a reasonable number of schools that I can apply to. I am pretty flexible in terms of climate but I will go check out as many campuses as I can ASAP.
My GPA is 4.23 and my last SAT score was 1850, but I plan to retake it in October. As for auditions my voice teacher is helping me prepare the pieces and I can use the schools recording equipment if necessary.
At the moment I am leaning towards UMD because it is in-state and has an amazing voice program from what I’ve heard. Others that i am keeping on my list for now are Hartt, Oberlin, Lawrence, etc… Juilliard has such a big name and so many different music majors I actually didn’t realize they don’t have music education…
As for the future… I’m not totally sure… Since vocal performance is so competitive for girls I was thinking education would make a good backup. Then again, musicprnt, the idea of focusing on performance and turning to education later makes sense… I like it 
what do you guys think?
Anyway sorry for being unclear you can probably tell I’m a pretty disorganized person, but I have been looking through schools and was just overwhelmed by the number of possibilities. Your advice has been really helpful, so thanks again.</p>
<p>Just another “heads up”, but auditions take an extraordinary amount of time, money and organization. Most of the bigger names listed have their pre-screening tapes due in a matter of weeks. The better the program, the more thorough and organized your approach needs to be. Disorganization is going to cost you. And with some of these schools charging more than $25,000 a year in tuition it’s going to cost you A LOT.</p>
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<p>I can tell you without looking that they still do. (My D’s roommate is enrolled!) It is a five year program.</p>
<p>I have to agree with Musicamerica, you are going to need to get organized with all this, applying to college academically is a pain in the tail, but with the common app and such it has gotten a bit easier in some ways…with music school, there is a lot to work on and you have a tight timeframe…one of the best resources is going to be your private teacher, but here are some thoughts:</p>
<p>-Get a realistic evaluation of your skills, where you are, your teacher is going to be a primary resource here…as you note, vocal music is very, very competitive, and for a Soprano it is as you note the case of a lot of gals out there in that range…in a top school, like a Juilliard and NEC and Cincy (or other fine programs), you will have girls from all over the world competing as well as the US…and it may not be worth the time and effort to apply there if you aren’t ready…vocal music from the little I know is different, because voices mature slower, so getting into the big leagues may not matter at this point, but rather find a school with a good teacher who can help you prepare for further education down the road…knowing where you are says realistically where you apply.</p>
<p>-Your academic GPA and numbers may or may not matter, for stand alone school it means little or nothing, for a program within a university (or where you plan on double majoring with music ed), it can be important (for example, University of Michigan has a great music school and is academically competitive as heck, and you would need to get admitted to the school of music and the college academically, so your scores and such would matter; whereas at Juilliard it would mean nothing, unless you were a D and F student). </p>
<p>-For performance, every school has their own requirements. Often they are similar enough that you won’t be custom doing rep for each school (for example, on violin most schools require a solo bach sonata or partita, one movement or contrasting movements, Curtis wants all movements, prepare for curtis, cover the other schools; School A wants a Sonata, School B wants a 20th century piece, sonata for school A could be a Bartok piece that also covers the 20th at another…). </p>
<p>-Once you have feedback from your teacher 9and they should be helping you), use that to eliminate schools. For example, Juilliard might be out of range or NEC if your talent level isn’t where they generally admit students from. </p>
<p>-Also, look at your realistic financial situation and how much, if anything, there will be available for school. A good state program in state may be a better option if your finances are modest, even with financial aid a lot of music schools with tuition, room and board rival the ivy league schools in cost, and even with financial aid could be a major ,major amount of cost. Others have stressed to not take on student loans in UG performance, and I think that is wise…so finances come into play, too…look at the tuition, room and board and your financial situation, and use that to weed out schools. I can tell you that at a top level school, like Juilliard or NEC, unless you are really out there, it is not likely you will get serious merit aid, so finances have to play a role in the decision. </p>
<p>-Once you narrow down your list of schools to something reasonable, that meet what you decide to do, put together a spreadsheet or whatever listing the things you need to do to apply. What are the dates for submission? Do you need a pre screen dvd (more on that in a second)? What are the repertoire requirements for pre screen and (hopefully) live auditions? What fees do you need for the submission? And of course, most important, when are the deadlines? Writing this stuff down is import, at a glance you can see what you need to do. Information on deadlines and the app process will be on their websites, any questions, e-mail them. </p>
<p>-With repertoire, hopefully what you have matches the requirements, at this point you will be only a couple of months removed from when you will be auditioning and should be fine tuning existing rep, not learning new stuff.</p>
<p>-You will be likely in any kind of competitive program have to submit a pre screen dvd or maybe cd (mostly dvd’s are common these days), they will list the pre screen requirements. I believe for a pre screen it is december 1st at many schools, but that can vary, so you don’t have a lot of time. Among other things, don’t dawdle with this, make a definitive plan to have it done by let’s say end of October for Dec1, and keep in mind you may have to do different ones for different schools if requirements for the pre screen rep are different.</p>
<p>I have to agree with Musica, time right now is pressing, you can’t dawdle, and especially in making a decision about what you want to do. With academic admissions you mostly put together a n application form with all your info, write your essays and such and you are done and then are waiting for December or April. With music schools the application is the easy part, that is just the start of the fun…lot of work, to put it all together so don’t drag it out. I would say given the timeframe, that by this time next week you should have a narrowed list of schools, hopefully will have gone over the audition rep required with your teacher to see if he/she thinks you can do it, eliminating any of them you aren’t likely to match, and also should have a timeline of “I’ll have the apps done by X date, pre screen DVD’s by Y, app done and ready to submit with everything by Z”…and of course, putting a plan together with your teacher to work on the rep to have your stuff ready when audition season rolls around in January and February of next year.</p>
<p>In terms of doing a double major in vocal performance and music education at a top performance school, here are most of your main options: Northwestern, Indiana, CCM (Cincinnati), and Vanderbilt (which offers a 5 year program where you come out with a BM in Vocal Performance and a Masters in Music Education).</p>
<p>In terms double majoring in music and something academic at a top tier performance school, here are your main options: Rice, Oberlin, Northwestern, Indiana, Carnegie Mellon (although not such a great program for voice at the moment), UMD, Michigan and CCM. True, Eastman and Peabody are linked with universities but honestly it is a HUGE commitment to shuttle through what can be hours of traffic every day.</p>
<p>In terms of the quality of the music program, I would strongly suggest looking into Rice and Oberlin. Rice is extremely selective, which provides undergrad singers with a very personalized experience and Oberlin is undergrads only, which provides more performance opportunities. Not to mention that both are fantastic academic schools.</p>
<p>Berklee should be out for you, most likely.</p>
<p>If you want to do performance and music ed as an undergrad, so far we know that Hartt, Ithaca, Lawrence and NEC have programs for that (don’t forget to look into Ithaca, by the way: I don’t see it on your list). U. of Maryland or other state schools would work. Rice and Vanderbilt might fit too. I don’t know about CIM or CCM or Eastman: you can look them up.</p>
<p>You could then eliminate Juilliard, Manhattan, and Oberlin.</p>
<p>However, if you might want to do undergrad performance and then do music education later, your choices are more open.</p>
<p>As others have said, please don’t spend too much time on this stage of the game. Take an hour and google the music departments of the schools on the list that appeal to you for their size, location, focus or vibe. Make a list of those that offer music education in a double major with performance. Make a list of those whose performance programs you are most interested in, without the music education piece. You can choose to apply for both options (schools w/music ed/perf. AND schools for perf. alone), and decide in the spring, OR decide now- up to you.</p>
<p>Do you have anyone advising you?</p>
<p>Rice does not have music education.</p>