<p>This is my first thread, so please be gentle with me. :)</p>
<p>My daughter is currently a junior and compiling her college list. After looking at the curricula for both performance and Music Ed. majors at various colleges, she has decided that neither major would afford her enough time to pursue her other interests, namely in languages. Therefore, she is considering a either a double major or a BA-Music (flute) and minor in languages (programs vary by university).</p>
<p>She is also interested in continuing in marching band, so the schools she is looking at are mostly state flagship U's, with Schools of Music attached. All require auditions. Her academics are very solid, so we're not worrying too much about that part of the equation. My questions, so far:</p>
<ol>
<li> Audition standards - I know they will not hold her to the same standards as a performance major, but how tough are they on BA's? </li>
<li> Performance opportunities - aside from marching band, realizing that performance majors will get the slots in the most prestigious ensembles, but are there many spots left for BA's?</li>
<li> Private Study - required for the degree. I'm assuming that BA's take their lessons from the TA's or grad students? That doesn't bother her at all, as long as she can keep progressing, but I'd love to hear opinions on this.</li>
<li> Scholarship opportunities. She may be eligible for some merit aid based on her academics, but do music schools generally give any merit aid for a BA?</li>
<li> Study abroad - although she would be studying one of her languages, I'd love to get any thoughts about studying music abroad as well.</li>
</ol>
<p>She loves music and would like to continue her studies in the field, but in talking to a few performance major friends, it feels like the BA students seem to be considered second-class citizens in the schools of music. Her thinking right now is that she would like to eventually teach, so she will probably get her graduate degree in education. She has an EU passport, so teaching abroad is a possibility that also interests her.</p>
<p>Any smaller college suggestions (with marching bands that include piccolos/flutes, of course) to throw into the mix would be appreciated as well.</p>
<p>I have learned so much from reading all of your posts. I really appreciate all of the time you take to help out the uninitiated. Thanks!</p>
<p>Gettysburg and Susquehanna might fit the bill. Both have decent music programs and strong study abroad opportunities. I know Gettysburg has a marching band because they were rehearsing outside the window at our info session (!) and I’m pretty sure Susquehanna also does. Both schools offer scholarship opportunities for non-performance majors, and your D would be taught by a faculty member.</p>
<p>We’re in CA, but she wants out of here. Based upon everything I’m reading about the UC/Cal State budget woes, I’m not arguing with her, but will convince her to include at least one in-state school.</p>
<p>Well, UCLA’s music school is well funded, they offer a BA and have VERY strong language depts. Even though it’s a BA, auditions are highly competitive.
USC, of course, is very generous with merit aid for students with good academic records and has a legendary marching band. But they have recently cut out some significant language programs (such as German).</p>
<p>Susquehanna has a Stadium Band that plays at home football games, but I cannot recall having seen them marching. I believe they are only active in the fall semester. </p>
<p>The school does not have enough performance majors to fill their ensembles, so there is plenty of opportunity for BA, music ed, non-majors and community members to join in.</p>
<p>If you are from California and your daughter has good grades, you should definitely visit the UC’s - for California students they are still a terrific deal and the budget cuts should not affect someone with her interests. They offer a huge range of language courses - they have not, like USC, cut their departments in German, etc.<br>
At UCLA, there is a lot of new funding (Herb Alpert Foundation) in the music department; they offer all the things your daughter says she wants, including a BA program in music. One thing about UCLA though, is that music performance is in College of Arts and Architecture - you can only apply to that college or Letters and Sciences; if you are not admitted for the music program, you are not admitted to UCLA. As to UC Berkeley, I just attended CalDay, and heard the marching band - they are terrific; I also attended the music department concert - which was very good! But at UC Berkeley, the BA in music is a general program, like most academic music programs, and has performance only as a component, and lessons are arranged privately. There is an orchestra, with a good conductor, and chamber music with excellent coaches. But the department is geared toward academics - there is virtually no performance faculty and the courses will be predominantly in music history (apart from the harmony and aural skills sequence).
Also look at UCSB - it offers both BA and BMus majors, scholarship money for music, and for students with top grades, honors and Regent’s scholarship possibilities.</p>
<p>If she has the academics and SAT’s to get in UCLA or CAL Berkeley - either one would be ideal and a better bargain and education than 90% of the private colleges.</p>
<p>I’ve been curious about this too as my S is one of the few on this board doing a BA in Music, along with Asian Studies. He will be at University of Puget Sound this fall. They are a LAC, and do not distinguish between BA and BM for music scholarships or performance opportunities. No marching band though!</p>
<p>Once your daughter develops an initial list of schools, she should carefully look at the degree requirements for B.A., B.M. and music education. The major state flagship universities will likely require liberal arts distribution credits. Your assumption that your daughter will have more time for languages as a B.A. student may not be true. Anything she can do to get some of those requirements done in advance (AP, community college, etc) will free up more time for electives.</p>
<p>At the UC’s, there are breadth requirements, but they are not onerous - a music major would have time for languages (in fact, the guidelines for the music major at UC Berkeley recommend taking German).</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the responses, so far. Most of the universities that she is interested in so far recommend a second major for those going into their BA-Music programs. </p>
<p>Again, she really wants to experience life outside of her “bubble” as she calls it, and since the top three schools attended by graduates of her HS are USC, UCLA and UCSB (in that order) there is no way she will consider them. </p>
<p>Mamakin, congratulations to your son. I hope you get the information you need.</p>
<p>I would encourage your daughter to reconsider the UC’s. They are huge schools - even if her entire graduating class went to them, they would be a drop in the bucket in the student body. We live in Berkeley and every year Berkeley High graduates go to Cal - live on campus, never see their parents, and make an entirely new set of friends.</p>
<p>I totally agree with my fellow-Berkeleyan SpiritManager - and unless you are wealthy, to discount the UC’s doesn’t make a lot of economic sense.
As a kid, growing up in LA, I went to UCLA with 100 kids from my public high school class (amazing but true, and this was when graduating classes were by semester, not year)- and I had no trouble at all meeting loads of other students from all over; I saw my parents on holidays - we didn’t even make many phone calls in those days because it was a toll call.
Students at Cal, similarly are in a bubble - and there are something like 8,000 students in every entering cohort. The music departments at the UC’s are fairly small, though, and students don’t get lost as they might majoring in chemistry.</p>
<p>I’m inclined to agree with the UCs making the most sense fiscally, but will tell you about our state flagship in the event she REALLY REALLY wants to move away
The University of Michigan has a Bachelor of Musical Arts program at the school of music itself that allows students to marry their musical interest with other majors, though most school of music students don’t have time to do marching band, which Michigan takes very very seriously, due to time commitment (eg, rehearsal conflicts). However, UMICH also has a program called Residential College (RC) that is more like an LAC environment with an emphasis on languages (intense emphasis) but also runs a very strong BA music curriculae taught by many of the profs from the SOM – so you really can get the best of both. The RC program, for example, requires freshman to take an 8 credit immersion in a language right off the bat – so it is tailor made for students who love languages. The college of Literature Arts and Science ALSO offers a music BA. Each has a varying degree of flexibility vs. performance focus. You can also dual degree in 5 yrs. via the SOM performance degrees IF you apply to both the SOM and cohort college (eg. Engineering, LSA, etc.)
Michigan is not typically especially generous with out of state students due to high demand and public status (30,000 apps this year; 30% of the apx 6000 admits will be OOS) BUT we’ve seen some with very generous awards, so it really depends on the individual case. If she’s competitive for Berkeley, she’d be competitive for UMich. But I would expect the price tag to be very different. Umich OOS tuition is up to $34,000 this year, plus living and expenses, for a COA of $48,000. (Living expenses are slightly less than Berkeley, but OOS tuition is higher).
Good luck with your search!</p>
<p>PS Presumably, if your d’s into marching band, you’re aware that that element of U Mich is known to be quite awesome to experience.</p>
<p>UC’s are a good deal, but if your student’s academic stats are high, you are likely to get enough scholarship $ from a number of LAC’s that will come out less than the UC’s. My D also wanted to experience live outside her bubble, so she applied, but honestly wasn’t all that interested in California schools–private or public. Fortunately, she did end up with enough scholarship $ to make her out of state choice possible–still more COA than UC, but we can make it work.</p>
<p>It does seem that most of the UC’s will fare okay with the budget cuts, (especially Berkeley and UCLA) but IMO the CSU’s will not manage well at all. I’d say buyer beware for most public U’s in CA for the next few years. It’s very sad to see higher ed in CA slipping downward. I imagine other states are experiencing the same thing.</p>
<p>The problem with LACs for the OP is she wants a marching band - and that is unusual at an LAC. My son did get academic merit from Michigan, and from Montana - it’s certainly possible to apply to an out of state public and make it doable financially - as long as it is not dependent on their minimal or non-existent financial aid for out-of-staters. There are also Western Exchange public U’s which charge high achieving kids 1.5 in-state tuition. And some out of state universities are still a bargain by California standards (such as the SUNY’s.)</p>
