Alright, here’s my situation.
For a couple years I had planned to go to college as a music education major (flute). At the beginning of this (senior) year, I had basically an identity crisis to put it simply. I freaked out, for many reasons, including job search post grad, intensity of music school, etc etc, and basically wimped out. I applied to all my schools as a media production/film major, and I’m committed to Ithaca College in the Park School.
Now looking back, I’m starting to regret this a lot. Like extreme regret and guilt. I’ve done a lot of thinking in the last couple weeks and ultimately decided that I made the wrong decision- and I want to change my major to music ed as soon as possible. I know going to Ithaca it would be extremely hard to transfer to the music school, so I’m also considering the possibility of having to transfer to another school second semester/sophomore year to pursue this. (I’d rather not, but if it comes down to it, I will)
I’ve started up private lessons again after a brief hiatus (when I thought I wasn’t going to be a music major lol), and I’m trying to do as much as I can to make up for lost time. Please don’t tell me that I should’ve auditioned for places just in case, or that I dug myself into a hole or whatever, because trust me I am fully aware.
Basically what I’m looking for here is some advice from any music majors, especially music majors who transferred/changed their major from something else. Any advice really will help a ton. Thanks.
You might feel a bit overwhelmed right now, but you are very young and you’ve got plenty of time to work this out. Have you considered taking a gap year to practice practice practice and go through the audition process properly?
Could you study with a teacher in the music school, perform in any ensembles you have access to, then apply to the music school in the fall? Take classes that satisfy gen ed requirements as much as you can?
Do you have interest in media/film? You could also continue that, take lessons and play in ensembles, and then do music ed in grad school. Just a thought if you are torn.
Or maybe a double degree would be possible. Often students can join the conservatory part of a double degree after freshman year. Is that possible at Ithaca?
There is a way to figure this out over time.
"You might feel a bit overwhelmed right now, but you are very young and you’ve got plenty of time to work this out. Have you considered taking a gap year to practice practice practice and go through the audition process properly? "
This was exactly what I was thinking. Life is not a race. From what I have heard gap years are usually valuable, especially when students have something specific that they want to do during the gap.
I don’t know enough about Ithaca to know how difficult it would be to change majors there. I am wondering whether there is someone at Ithaca College that you could discuss this with before deciding whether to take a gap year. These sort of “should I do music or should I do something related or should I do something totally different” questions are something that university professors deal with on a relatively frequent basis.
By the way: I have heard of cases of university professors dealing with this same sort of questions from students who are already seniors in the university. It is much better to be asking these questions now.
You are fortunate to have chosen a school with strengths in both fields you’re interested in. There are certainly opportunities for non-majors in the music school: http://www.ithaca.edu/music/admission/nonmajors/ which might be a good place to begin.
I can’t really imagine myself taking a gap year, I don’t know if thats even an option if I’ve already put my deposit down. I don’t really think I’d consider it. I will definitely be participating in non-major groups as much as possible, and I will be taking lessons from a grad student all first semester, because I had already planned on auditioning for the music minor.
I will definitely try to talk to a professor ASAP and explain my situation, and see if they have anything to say.
Thank you for all your advice
@stradmom @DadTwoGirls @compmom @BassTheatreMom
You could take a gap year, and since it is not May1st yet I seem to recall you could get the deposit back (I may be wrong on that one).
One suggestion, have you tried talking to someone in the music ed department about that, maybe e-mail the head of it and ask what their advice is? You might find they are supportive, they may suggest taking certain classes this fall, maybe study with a teacher on your primary instrument, and then maybe you could switch for 2nd semester (I am offering this only as a hypothetical, I don’t know the department or school or their policies)…but I highly encourage you call or write and ask them, they I would bet have seen this before, plenty of kids decide to switch in/out of music, it isn’t rare. You could use the first semester getting rid of core courses, and then try and audition in the second semester for the music ed program. Nice part is you will also have time to make up your mind and see if you really want to go forward, and if you audition and get into music ed (assuming they allow it intra year), and you decide you dont’ want to do it, you haven’t really lost much…in any event, it doesn’t hurt to ask and you may be surprised. If they say no, then you always would have the option after your freshman year of applying to other programs to transfer, if Ithaca refused to allow you to try and transfer eithe inter year or after your first year.
I agree that it’s great you are at Ithaca, which has a great music/music ed program. I also agree with the others above that you should talk to the prof on your instrument and/or the head of Music Ed at Ithaca. Your timing may be good, because if they misjudged their yield for that studio and have space, you never know, they might let you audition late since you already are admitted to Ithaca or when you audition for a music minor they can give you a sense of whether you would be competitive to transfer into Ithaca’s music program. They also may let you enroll in some of the freshman music major classes so you wouldn’t get too far behind. Music Ed has a very specific sequence of classes in a specific order, and transferring into a music program later from a non-music major might mean an extra year of college. Probably only gen ed core curriculum classes would apply to a music degree (depending on the school). That’s one reason why a gap year might be wise.
I seem to remember someone else in a similar situation and it worked out 