My son is torn between Lawrence and Gettysburg/Sunderman. Any high-level musicians players who can chime in? Lawrence had the deeper conservatory but is in a less good location and has a less appealing campus; Gettysburg has his favorite prof and a very good and pretty location. Lawrence seems to have turnover in strings faculty but all the studios seem solid no matter who is in charge. Thanks.
I tried to get him to apply to Florida schools…
I have used College Navigator to help assess music programs at multiple colleges. My D was interested in a school that had more than just a few music majors, as she wanted to be in orchestra and choir. You can see numbers of majors under the programs tab.
She was admitted to Lawrence, but the prof in one of her instruments there at the time (he is no longer there) was not fond of her pursuing two musical interests. She ended up at a school where she successfully pursued both voice and cello for four years. I believe they have new faculty there, and my D has a friend who is very happy there as a viola major.
I have heard that the conservatory and academic areas can feel somewhat separate at times, but that the music program is very strong.
I have heard good things of Gettysburg as a college but do not know whether Sunderman is as large as the Lawrence Conservatory—something you can probably find on the College Navigator pages.
My D loves collaborating with others so merely having a prof she liked (and one of her profs moved away after a year) was not enough for her. It all depends on what your S would like to do with his time.
Is the favorite prof his private music teacher? For my musician, this was THE number one criteria.
No, he had never worked with him before starting the college search. This is based on sample lessons, master classes, etc. His private teacher lives two hours from us and is retired other than her private studio. We live in the Southeast.
The Sunderman prof had studied under his favorite living cellist, and his favorite living cellist has been a house guest of his private teacher… But that’s not why he’s the favorite!
Should I be able to see data broken down by major? I don’t see that available.
And it is amazing how similar these two look on College Navigator! According to US News, also similar:
Gettysburg #61** in National Liberal Arts Colleges (tie)](https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges)
Lawrence #63
Gettysburg #49** in Best Undergraduate Teaching (tie)]
Lawrence #38
Gettysburg #54** in Best Value Schools
Lawrence #35
Gettysburg#42** in First-Year Experiences (tie)
Lawrence #49
so the differences between these schools are not something the data really captures!
Go to College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics. Type in the institution name. On the right-hand side of the page there is a set of drop-down menus. Click on programs/majors. Scroll to Visual and Performing Arts. It lists # of graduating seniors for that year.
Note that there are also Music Ed seniors under Education.
I can see 17 graduating in music at Gettysburg with only 2 listed as performance. I see 69 graduating in music at Lawrence with 34 listed as performance.
This isn’t surprising given the sizes of the the conservatories; should I be able to get more data on those who have graduated with music majors?
That is the data I was thinking of. It gives an idea of the number of music majors graduating in a particular year. Therefore, I would quadruple the number to get at an average of music majors on campus. There are a fair number graduating in five years if dual majors, though.
You may be able to get that info from Admissions (how many dual majors do they have?), etc.
Yes, admissions at both schools is good about that - I was trying to dig a little deeper to find out if the outcomes are better at one school versus the other for the subcategory my son falls into.
You need to ask the teachers what happens to their students once they graduate. My son is studying at Oberlin, with his first pick teacher when he went through the college process. Lawrence was added to his list of schools by his college counselor who feared he wasn’t applying to enough schools. He actually very much liked the Lawrence teacher and he noticed that Lawrence and Oberlin have a similar program, which put Lawrence on his radar once he focused on the double degree program at Oberlin.
My son asked all the teachers he met about what happens to their students once they graduate. If memory serves me correctly, the kids at Lawrence, who study his instrument, are more focused on their other major but i could be wrong. I know he loved the teacher.
The kids in his Oberlin studio are often accepted into top graduate schools/studios for his instrument. My son hasn’t decided if he is going to pursue music or something else, hence the reason he applied to schools where he could double degree and stay on one campus. My kid wants to keep his graduate school options open. He went into college auditions playing on a pre-Professional level, after studying with a conservatory teacher at SFCM for two years while he was in high school. He never applied to Juilliard–he wanted a place that offered a strong liberal arts program side by side with a strong music program. So, we have no idea if he could have gotten into Juilliard but he is highly musical and lives in an area where he had access to excellent teachers since he was young. When music started sticking is when I started caring about making sure he was studying with a great teacher.
We actually know people who have gone from a local state college to Juilliard so it is really about the teacher and what the teacher prepares the student to do next.
We live in California where the best music program, on the public university level, is at UCLA. His particular instrument is problematic at UCLA–there has been a high rate of turnover in the faculty who teaches his instrument. So, he never applied to UCLA. We know a few kids in the UCLA conservatory program who play different instruments and it is a great program. So, it is really all about the faculty and the fit.
Gettysburg was never on our radar so I know nothing about its music program.
Thanks. Both teachers have had students go on to do impressive things; I think at LACs what students actually do next may be more based on whether the students wants music and something or something and music.
Gettysburg’s conservatory is newer and smaller but is well-respected by the people who are familiar with it. But much smaller than Lawrence, Oberlin, or Bard, at least for instrumental.
When he visited schools, there also seemed to be difference between those getting BAs in Music, those getting BMs in Music Ed., and those getting BMs in Performance. He loves musicology but is going in as a Performance major, that’s what he most wants to do.