<p>We need help with college suggestions. My daughter wants to pursue vocal performance study BUT does not want to give up exposure to theatre and dance. She would prefer to attend school in the southeast or northeast regions and we live in New Jersey. She has the voice without a question, Allstate and Eastern Choir but her academics are a bit shy of her talent. She is a good student, 3.25 GPA, but not an exceptional one and she was a star athletic in High School, an active volunteer, therefore she is well rounded. Her brother is attending Muhlenberg and she does not want to be at the same school. AAAHHH sibling rivalry. She has no doubt that she wants to pursue a music vocation for it is her passion. I hesitate with the conservatory mode because of her drive for theater and sports also. BOTTOM LINE..can anyone suggest a good school with these requirements and one that won't cost a fortune since this will be my THIRD at college. Rutgers, Muhlenberg and....??? I will NEVER retire!</p>
<p>I would look at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). The program they offer is a bachelors of fine arts (BFA) rather than a bachelors of music. At CMU the degree program requires acting and dance in addition to voice study. I cant speak to the quality of the faculty there, theyve recently had some retirements and replacements, but I suspect they are still quite good. CMU also keeps you in Pittsburgh, so she isnt going across the country.
The BFA program at CMU seems to be pretty good. They often send students to top conservatories for graduate programs. </p>
<p>CMU is very good, and the one thing that I would worry about is her GPA. She would have to really nail an audition. Most of the students at CMU were in the top 10% of their class. Good test scores would help, the average at CMU on the ACT is English: 29, Math: 31 and Comp: 30. I a few people out there who were in you daughters boat, and got in after their auditions.</p>
<p>Make sure that she is prepared to give an amazing performance, if she is applying/auditioning this fall/winter she should have started learning and/or perfecting six (or so) pieces for the auditions at the schools she wants to go to by now. While you may believe she has a great voice, only an excellent audition will make it happen. Also, a good program won't care about Allstate Choirs...it's all about what she does in her audition. She needs to come up with a list of possibilities and make sure she has repertoire that will work for them. Usually a student should prepare the following and that will get her through 99% of auditions:
-two art songs in English
-one or art song in German OR one art song in French
-a baroque aria in Italian
-an Italian art song</p>
<p>I would agree that CMU should be a good choice IF they work out the faculty issue. I haven't looked at the faculty lineup lately, but they had some work to do last year. Take a close look at the voice faculty listed on the website and definitely schedule a sample lesson. She may want to consider scheduling the first audition at West Chester University - if she can be ready - it is in November and they give you the decision before you leave. It would be a great way to deal with audition nerves and the decision could inform you about future auditions. They also have theater and dance BTW. I agree that the main focus right now is to work with her voice teacher on rep. Don't let the choral work interfere with that preparation because, while it is fun, it will mean little with regard to admission. If she has not taken theory or doesn't feel comfortable with it, then some time should be spent reviewing it on various websites.</p>
<p>Make sure to choose some safeties. You may think that she "has the voice, without question" but in the scheme of things All-state and Eastern don't mean much. (I'm still surprised at the number of high school aged students and their parents who are so caught up in all-state auditions. At the high school age, students should be focused on practicing and improving their technique chops and trying to gain musical maturity than they should be aiming for accolades.) Keep in mind that at top conservatories, competition for vocal spots are fierce. There can be often as many as 150 applicants and 70 or so invited to audition for just 4 or 5 spots.</p>
<p>While many music schools give far more weight to the audition than grades, CMU is one of the ones that also insists on very good academics. A 3.25, particularly if that is a weighted score, is on the low side there - only 12% of their student body had a lower GPA in high school. She would have to have a really phenomenal audition, particularly if she is a soprano, to get in and to get the kind of merit aid that you may be looking for.</p>
<p>You should repeat your question over on the Music Theater area of College Confidential to ask about schools that also have decent theatre and dance departments. There are a lot of very helpful posters over there, too.</p>
<p>Montclair State
Shenandoah University (Conservatory)
Appalachian State University</p>
<p>(Please ignore, I've posted on the wrong thread. Long day.)</p>
<p>What about Susquehanna? They have a good music program.</p>
<p>Perhaps look at Appalachian State (excerpts from website):</p>
<p>peace and beauty of this green valley in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains </p>
<p>Academic year total - Instate: $9,894 Out of State: $19,954
a TIME magazine “College of the Year”</p>
<p>Each year, Appalachian awards more than $2 million in scholarship funds to encourage the endeavors of talented students.</p>
<p>Average Freshman high school GPA: 3.73
Average Freshman SAT: 1131 </p>
<p>Theatre productions, concerts and recitals by Appalachian’s highly acclaimed Hayes School of Music and Department of Theatre & Dance</p>
<p>My D and I visited Appalachian State and Susquehanna. We loved ASU - and especially Boone - a beautiful town with a great sort of hippy vibe. I would have moved there in a minute, but it was just a bit remote for D. A cousin went there for dance and she absolutely loved it. She ended up designing her own interdisciplinary degree of some sort that included dance. The people were incredibly nice and the kids seem really happy there. The voice faculty is very well thought of there. </p>
<p>We liked Susquehanna too but went when school was out so we didn't get a good sense of the place. She chose to apply to West Chester instead because of the early audition and acceptance date there.</p>
<p>Susquehanna does indeed have a good music department (full disclosure: my wife is an alumna of their Music Ed program and my son just started his freshman year in the Business School there). The performing arts facilities were updated a couple of years back and are very good. SU's music department does not rival the top conservatories in terms of the overall average level of their students, but I have known several excellent individual performers who went there for their undergrad years. I know that they have a theatre department, but very little else aside from what is on their website. Perhaps there is more about them in the MT section.</p>
<p>They are a Division III school in all of their varsity sports and about half of the student body is on one varsity team or another. </p>
<p>Costs are on the high side at $40K per year, but they offer pretty good financial aid, gapping need-based aid at about 85% but giving a relatively large proportion as grants rather than loans. They also have some decent merit scholarships. My son got a totally unexpected $6K per year merit scholarship there with OK but not great scores on his SAT and a GPA in the B- range, but there was the legacy angle working for him.</p>
<p>( Now I know this is not in the East.) But ASU (Arizona) offers a BM in musical theatre thru their school of music (Herberger) with some of the best Voice faculty in the country. Great teachers like Jerry Doan and Carole Fitzpatrick. OOS tuition runs about 19,000.</p>
<p>Take a look at Ithaca College (great music school, theatre and dance, reasonable liberal arts program). Also, Syracuse University. Both of these schools have SATS in the 600 range (M/CR). </p>
<p>Financially, SUNY Fredonia and SUNY Potsdam are great for Music Ed with liberal arts (esp. Fredonia, since it has a musical theatre program), and SUNY Purchase for a more conservatory atmosphere (no Ed there). The SUNY price is good, even for OOS.</p>
<p>Re: the above-mentioned schools in post #13 (and any others that offer vocal performance, theater and music theater degrees). D and I looked at all 4, she applied and was accepted to 3 of 4 (did not like/apply to Crane). In none of these (Ithaca might have been an exception, I'm not sure without looking it up),is there any real cross-over between vocal performance and music theater. If you have a kid who wants to be able to do both, MAKE SURE you understand whether or not that will be possible. In many schools it is NOT- Vocal performance majors are not allowed to audition for the musicals. This can be for "philosophical/musical" reasons or just because the music theater roles are always given to those majors so that they get the experience. It wasn't really a serious issue for my daughter, who is much more interested in the classical/opera side of things, but kids should be aware of what they will and will not be able to do.</p>
<p>Westminster Choir College was offering the opportunity and encouragement to do both when DD was looking at schools. That and good voice teachers were attractive to her. You might want to check them out, too. They were also relatively generous with merit awards.</p>
<p>Musmom: yep. I agree. I tend to think of voice and theatre in the classical sense (as in opera). Opera kids do get dance and acting training, but musical theatre is a whole different ball game!</p>
<p>I know it is out of the area specified, but you might look at Oklahoma City University. They have both MT and VP and students from both areas audition for both operas and musicals and there is lots of cross-casting between the departments. You can get a double degree there in 5 years. I know all of these schools have lots of successful students, but I mention two OCU graduates because while they work mostly in MT these days I believe they have degrees in VP one is Kristian Chenowith and the other is Kelli O'Hara. Good Luck in your search!</p>
<p>We visited OCU for all the reasons above. The only warning I will give is that you have to take a good thorough tour of the school before you commit. Especially if you're coming from the NorthEast, it may be too much of a culture shock for you and your daughter.</p>