Chance Me for Reaches!

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Hi everyone, I’m new here, but I wanted to see what others think of my stats and the schools I’m applying to. Here are my stats :smiley:

Demographics
-Vietnamese female
-Texas
-Very low income
-First generation student
-Parents are immigrants who did not get the chance to attend high school or college because of war
-6 member family: mom, dad, me, 3 siblings
-Early college high school, mid-sized. School doesn’t rank except for the top 10%
-Multilingual in English, Vietnamese, and Spanish

Academics
-3.8/4.0 GPA high school
-3.7/4.0 GPA community college
-Rank 2/300
-Graduating with an associate’s degree along with HS diploma
-3 AP classes: one 5, two 4’s
-20 dual credit classes with about 60 credits
-Traveled to another school for the second half of the school day for band

Extracurriculars
-Marching band (largest organization at school, 360+ members) (9, 10, 11, 12)
-Leadership: Drum major (11, 12), clarinet section leader (10), equipment crew (11, 12)
-1200+ hours of service
-School concert band (9, 10, 11, 12)
-Leadership: principal clarinet (9, 10, 11, 12)
-Volunteered to play piano in top band
-Study clarinet with a university teacher on scholarship (9, 10, 11, 12)
-Youth symphony (nationally renown) (10, 11, 12)
-Leadership: Principal clarinet, clarinet section leader
-Chamber program at youth symphony (12)
-Vietnamese Catholic church school (1st grade to 10th)
-National Honor Society (11, 12)
-Asian Culture club (12)
-Community service club (11, 12)
-Health professions club (9, 10, 11, 12)
-Self-taught pianist
-Lots of volunteering at food bank
-I run a lot outside of school, for fun
-I like to do intense research on things I find interesting

Honors
-3-year (gonna be 4) Texas All-State musician (top 2% of all HS musicians in Texas)
-3-year Texas Music Scholar (gonna be 4)
-AP scholar (11)
-2-year all-A honor roll
-Recipient of many scholarships totaling $6000+, including a foreign language scholarship for my proficiency in Spanish
-Region band top 3 clarinets (9, 10, 11)
-Region band and region orchestra 1st chair clarinet (10, 11)
-Outstanding band musician award (9, 10, 11)

Tests
-SAT 1360 (its eh and i didnt have the opportunity to retake it… should i go test optional for my reaches?)

I am seeking to double major in chemistry and music performance at every school I am applying to (except for Rice, so I want to just do chemistry there). I am seeking to earn lots of scholarship money for music, in addition to financial aid based on need.

Future plans: become a health professional (undecided career) at a hospital in the Texas Medical Center and play clarinet in the Texas Medical Center Orchestra, possibly be a freelance clarinet teacher on the side.

Safety schools: University of Houston, UT Austin, Texas A&M
Reach schools: Rice, Northwestern+Bienen, Johns Hopkins+Peabody, Columbia, Carnegie Mellon, Princeton, Vanderbilt+Blair, USC+Thornton

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I forgot to include, I’m also applying to Yale and its music school.

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I think music goes beyond academics - but first gen is helpful but the SAT will be too low (but why they invented test optional).

That you’re auto admit to UT is awesome…so congrats.

I know that doesn’t mean the major but hopefully you can pursue what you want.

I think it comes down to musical talents/auditions at many programs so won’t be able to chance you.

Best of luck to you.

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For a BA in music?…because Yale doesn’t have an undergrad performance major in music. So you won’t be able to major in music performance as an undergrad at Yale.

You need to check to see how supportive some of these schools are for double majors with music performance being one of the majors. Music performance is a lot of small credit courses that meet multiple times a week. It’s not easy to double major…and some schools just don’t support this.

And the music performance programs you highlighted are highly highly competitive for admissions.

Also some of these combined programs might take five years to complete.

You can play in a doctor orchestra someday without being a music performance major in college.

@compmom might have some ideas.

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I suggest you read the Double Degree Dilemma essay in the Read me thread on the music major forum; the essay covers different ways to study music using hypothetical individuals.

For some of your schools, are you interested in a double degree, or a double major? Double degrees are generally 5 years. A double major of music and chemistry is tough to work out, due to conflicts between music commitments and labs (among other reasons).

For BM programs, have you submitted prescreens? For BA schools, are you submitting a music supplement (recording, resume, letters of recommendation if accepted)?

If you ended up at Yale, you might study with a grad student at the School of Music for lessons. IT is not a performance degree, as others have said, and music classes would be about 1/4 of your total classes if you were to major in music.

One option you have, given your goals, is to major in something else (chemistry? whatever you want…) and do music lessons and extracurricular performance (often for credit).

You can also major in music and get into a health care career, as long as your prerequisites are covered, either during college or in a post-bacc prgram (which costs!).

I think you will do fine. Make sure you don’t have loans if you can help it. A school with great financial aid would seem to be a good way to go.

You could add Wiliams or Vassar or other LAC’s that interest you. Tufts is another one: I don’t think they have loans anymore but not sure how the financial aid picture is there. Great music dept. there as well as double degree with NEC. The Colleges that Change Lives website might be helpful. Obelrin has a Musical Studies BA that might interest you and it is very supportive of double degrees, as are Bard and Lawrence.

It seems, from what you have written, that you could have a satisfying musical life at school and for life without majoring in music, unless that is what you want. You can continue lessons and performance regardless.

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ps Were your commmunity college courses dual enrollment? Does an associates degree affect your status as incoming freshman and therefore, potentially, financial aid? I do not know the answer to these questions.

If you major in music or chemistry, it is often a 4 year sequential curriculum starting with foundational courses. Are your 60 credits mainly gen eds? It is doubtful that all colleges will accept these credits either. Have you looked into this issue?

If Texas state schools have transfer programs from community colleges, that might be a really good way to go and save time and money. I don’t know how that works but others can chime in.

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The Tufts/NEC program, and the JHU/Peabody program require acceptance to both programs. IOW, you would need to get accepted to Tufts AND NEC to do that program. You would need to get accepted to Hopkins and Peabody to do that program.

You will need to be a top applicant to earn lots of music scholarships at the schools on your list. Go for it, but have a plan B just in case.

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Typically, with early colleges, after you finish the program, you will start a four year as a freshman, but with sophomore or junior status. Therefore, you can get freshmen scholarships.

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College of Wooster might be worth looking at: Areas of Study - The College of Wooster The College of Wooster

There are a lot of schools out there that will fit your needs.

I would not count on merit aid for music. Even when awarded for exceptional talent, that kind of merit aid is often not nearly enough to make a school affordable. Again, have you done prescreens and/or are you submitting a music supplement?

What health care careers are you interested in? I am PM’ing you.

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oop you are right, thank you

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University of Rochester is one where students can do a double major in music and another subject. And yes, it does require separate applications and separate admissions to both the College and to Eastman School of Music. And it normally takes 5 years to complete the DDE (Dual Degree with Eastman).

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@Bil Marsh you are describing a double degree, not a double major.

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Congratulations on a great academic career so far.
So, here is my question for you – why not just apply as a music major? If you are thinking med school or allied health then you can practically be any major. You already have a lot of DE hours under your belt.

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This student apparently is a senior now.

Have they done Pre-screens for music performance already?

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Thank you everyone for replying : ) I haven’t gotten the chance to reply back yet since I’m in school, but I’ll get back.
Disclaimer, if it seems like I don’t really know what I’m doing, that’s bc I’m kinda clueless when it comes to college applications. I haven’t had any guidance in the college application process. It’s hard when I don’t have family members to seek help from and when most of my friends aren’t dual credit students :’)

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@bongcha

I know you can’t respond now because you are in school…but really, if you are taking private clarinet lessons, your private teacher would be the best one to help you in terms of music admissions. And also your ensemble directors.

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