<p>I have a friend with a home-schooled daughter who wants to attend a small to mid-sized Catholic College with a good choir and orchestra within driving distance of North NJ. She currently sings in a choir and plays violin in a local orchestra, but doesn't want to major in music. She'd like to work with kids and maybe major in education or speech therapy. They are feeling a little overwhelmed by the college search process.</p>
<p>U Dayton might be a fit.</p>
<p>Without her stats it is hard to know…but BC, Villanova, Fordham, Siena, Fairfield might be worth looking at (don’t think any of them have speech therapy though. Iona in Westchester has speech but it is largely a commuter school. Maybe get a good college guide book (Princeton Review, Fiske, or another one) so you can read through some different options.</p>
<p>Boston College has a wonderful music professor (John Finney) who directs both the chorus and orchestra. Could check out Catholic U as well.</p>
<p>Loyola MD has a great speech department, but don’t know about orchestra.</p>
<p>Holy Cross</p>
<p>Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, IN sounds like a good fit for her. They have a fun music program with an all women’s choir (it tours the country) or a co-ed choir with Notre Dame, In addition there are many other singing opportunities with church choirs, You do not need to be a music major to participate in the choirs. As for the Orchestra, she can join any Notre Dame Orchestra – they happily accept St Mary’s and Holy Cross students. It is a warm, safe, and friendly environment. The only “con” is it is an 11 hour drive from NJ, but since many in the student body of SMC and ND are from the East Coast I believe it can be easy to share rides and some local clubs organize buses for the breaks.</p>
Update: She (my friend’s daughter) ended up at the College of Saint Elizabeth in NJ.