@IronCitEE, she is not going for MT programs, which I know seems a little weird. Do you have a singer? My kid doesn’t want to be a MT performer as a career (and she’s not necessarily suited for it in these times - she’s out of fashion) and doesn’t necessarily really want the intensity of BFA training either. The acting BFAs she’s auditioned for seem to allow more liberal arts (or possibility to switch to acting BA).
She’d really like to be a film actor and she wants some performance training and experience during college. She’s still a bit on the fence about studying acting in college - plenty of successful actors were English majors or didn’t go to college. But she’s not on the fence at all about studying music - she sees that as much more compelling academically, with performance opportunities as a bonus. I don’t see her as a professional opera singer, but I could see a pivot to academics. And who knows? I’m very new to this world, but it seems like 18 is awfully young to make any predictions about the future of a classical singer!
Honestly, I think that an acting (not theater) BA program where she could dual degree/double major/minor in music would be the best for her. She’s done as much research as she can with publicly available information but she is afraid to ask too many questions during the admissions process - she’ll push more once she has some offers. In the end I know she’ll end up going with her gut and the program where she is most wanted. Fingers crossed that it is a school with great merit money vs. somewhere she’s locking in 5 years at full pay (hello, Northwestern!).
@MathandSinging, there’s no such thing as “weird” in college application decisions. It seems like your kid has thought things through and is wisely leaving some options open for fine-tuning down the road. My older D (26) is a singer and took a similar tack. She actually loved (and excelled in) MT throughout her childhood and in high school, but decided she wanted to become more of a musician. She ended up double-majoring in VP and Music Ed at Carnegie Mellon. Even at 17/18, she knew that being a professional opera singer was probably not in the cards for her, but she wanted the training in classical voice, music theory, music history, voice pedagogy, languages/diction, etc. She also had acting and dancing classes at CMU. I think these were required for VP but not for other music degrees. Now she’s a certified music teacher and has a successful private voice studio (with lessons via Zoom at the moment, of course). My younger D is a freshman in Violin Performance at MSM. She’s “all-in” for performing professionally in a symphony and/or chamber ensemble someday. Fingers crossed!
Just a heads up that Oberlin prescreen results came out yesterday. Unfortunately my daughter did not pass pre-screen. She said she is “disappointed but not surprised”. Ah, well. On we go!
A question for Belmont music applicants: did you receive a separate acceptance from the music program and was it snail mail and how soon after the initial college acceptance?
Maybe it’s by dept. this year, idk.