Colleges, what do you think?

College Majors Music Major
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<p>@jkviolin‌ – EXCELLENT post. I wish you’d shared all your preparedness at the outset. I think what happens is that, without some “preparatory validation,” as it were… because you’d be surprised at the number of students who start asking questions that aren’t really the questions they <em>should</em> be asking — because they have NOT prepared, among other reasons, and because a senior who jumps in with somewhat vague questions is going to ring bells among a group of people who’ve likely been taking a longer view. </p>

<p>Now. That said, I really think you’ve done your homework well. It sounds like you’re having to do much of it on your own, which, fwiw, will serve you very well as you go along, but I do understand it can be frustrating.</p>

<p>The problem with these boards is that you’ll get only a micro-perspective from any one person or poster, which may not really apply to your personal situation. And one person’s best happy place can be another person’s nightmare. So do take anyone’s personal opinions about the schools you’ve listed with a grain of salt. Especially from the many folks on these boards who know a lot about the process of applying, and the facts, figures, reputations and even some insider knowledge about some or even many schools, and keep in mind that what you’ll get are personal opinions that may not be as relevant as you’d like.</p>

<p>It sounds as though you are on the right track. I honestly think the best advice you can get right now is to keep doing what you’re doing. And you’ll feel more secure in your planning after you’ve had a couple of visits. These boards can cause at least as much frustration as they can cure.</p>

<p>Best of luck to you in your journey; sorry I can’t provide any personal perspective on CA schools.</p>

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<p>@compmom @momof2violinists @glassharmonica thank you so much for those comments. It’s been a while since I’ve heard something encouraging like that. The essay seems a bit long, but I have saved it in a bookmark, and will read it when I have time! I am not aiming to become a top tier soloist (although it would be great if I were), but my goals, are just to become a great musician, and form a trio or form a small chamber group. For me, music is not about acquiring fame. I do realize that it is EXTREMELY difficult to make money as a musician, or any body in the art field. But, have you ever heard of Camerata Pacifica, they are a great group of musicians. Richard O’Neil, one of the members, for one, is a Julliard graduate, and a grammy award winner, professor at UCLA, and a “humanitarian”, is not exactly as famous as Sarah Chang or Itzhak Perelman, but has achieved so much as a human being. I guess he’s my quote on quote “role model”. So my point is, yes, music is going to be a difficult route, I have had many people tell me that, and ultimately it was me that chose this route. So whether or not I succeed or fail, (extremely sorry for the religious reference), I believe that God brought me into this way of life, because it was meant to be. (I realize what I said, is going to stir up some conflicts) but honestly, I’m not asking to be a top tier soloist, I’m not asking to be in NY phil and be known by everyone in the world. I just want to do music, and if I work hard, in what I love, I believe that I will “survive” in this society. Hopefully I don’t sound overly optimistic, this is what my “realist views” are of this issue. </p>

<p>Also, @glassharmonica, I realize that gap years may seem normal in the US. But, I think i’m too far into the audition process that it is too late to decide to take a gap year. I want to move forward in life, even if it means that I have to go to a community college for 2 years. I don’t want to rest. And a first generation american, (in my family), i think it will be very disappointing for my parents. I do hope you would consider that. My parents expect me to go to college next year, and so a gap year, is extremely out of the question. </p>

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<p>@listenmissy Thank you for that. Reassuring me that I am on the right track, is great advice as well. I now realize that i do only get a “micro-perspective” of colleges through CC. I’m glad you made that point. Thank you for your help, it is sincerely appreciated. </p>

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<p>You sound very determined and hard-working, and I admire your accomplishments, especially with so much done on your own. Your visits should be helpful. Let us know what happens in the end for you!</p>

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<p>@compmom thank you! I will definitely get back to you in April. Thank you for your support, kind words, and advice. </p>

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<p>jkviolin, thanks for explaining. You are sounding grounded now. Keep the gap year idea in your back pocket–it is always something you can go to at the last minute if you are not happy with your audition results (or the financial aid). Are you completely wedded to California/West Coast or would you consider other places?</p>

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<p>@glassharmonica I will most definitely keep it in mind if things go very bad. Yes, for undergrad I want to stay in CA. Unless I get full 100% scholarship all 4 years at an out of state. I don’t think I can afford to live out of state, and I dont think my parents, im their first child, are ready to let me go out and live in the real world all by myself just yet. And plus, I like CA, the weather and the people.</p>

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<p>Well, you can’t argue with the weather (except every time I go to CA it’s freezing.)</p>

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<p>By the way, @jkviolin‌ – “working musician” is a perfectly reasonable post-college goal, at least to the folks on this board :)</p>

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<p>@‌ jkviolin-
Being a working musician is a perfectly reasonable post college goal, in fact it is the goal of most music students in performance, there are those who think only being a top level soloist, or getting into the LA Phil, etc, is the way to go, but most of the students my son is with, for example, don’t really think that way, even those who have won tough international competitions. </p>

<p>I wasn’t trying to be negative with you, I was as I think you figured out, trying to be realistic about what music schools are and aren’t, and the teacher is going to be the most important thing. It sounds like you understand that there is a difference between a solid violinist who goes to a tier II school because of finances and such where the school has a great teacher and a student who gets in there who is somewhat mediocre, is paying full tuition and studying with just any teacher.</p>

<p>One note, and this is important, you mentioned the essays, SAT scores and so forth. For the music schools, those mean little or nothing,you get into the music school based on the audition (so, for example, Colburn would be the audition, period, the grades and SAT’s and such would only apply, maybe, in the case of ties and such). For a music school inside a university like USC, the grades and SAT’s are important, because you need to get admitted to the college as well as the music school, and for the college side academics matter. However, for the BM in the music school, the admission is again going to be your audition, a 4.0 gpa, 2300 SAT will not get you into the music school if your audition is not good. </p>

<p>One other question, I couldn’t tell from your last paragraph, but are you planning to live at home while attending school (you said something about not living on your own, hence my question). If so, that may cause a conflict, every school is different, but there are schools that require you live on Campus, at least for freshman year, so if that is a goal of yours you need to check school policy. For example, a friend of my son’s lived literally across the street from Juilliard with his family, but when he entered Juilliard he had to stay in the dorms freshman year,he couldn’t live at home (he could after that, if he wanted to I believe). Whatever you plan to do, one thing I highly recommend is calling the school and asking questions, that is what the admissions offices and such are there for.</p>

<p>I apologize if it sounds like i was being negative or criticizing you, I wasn’t, from the initial posts it was hard to see where you were coming from, and we get s lot of kids on here who haven’t done the work, suddenly decide they want to do music and quite honestly, are really in a bind. It sounds like you have researched the schools and have an idea of where you stand, so the only thing I can do is wish you luck. UCLA has a good music school, and I suspect you may have heard wrong information about it. The key to any of the schools is the violin teacher, if they seem strong, if you think you can work with them, then that is a big plus for that program. Since you sound like you are a go getter and doing this mostly on your own, I suspect you will find a good program. One advantage to a program like UCLA or USC is you get in there is you may be propelled forward by having a relatively large percentage of high level players around you, one of the big differences between let’s say a USC and a good state program will be the average level at USC is going to be higher, where a state school will have strong students, then probably a lot more of leser abilities, and having a lot of talented kids around helps push kids forward, so it is a consideration.</p>

<p>I wish you luck, hope you find the schools you would want to attend and get in:)</p>

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<p>About commuting and music school–it’s true that Juilliard requires freshmen to live in their dorms, but many kids whose parents live in Manhattan, the other boroughs, and even farther away like Long Island or New Jersey, immediately start commuting after freshmen year to save money. It’s just so darn expensive in New York. It’s usually good to live on campus as a Freshman if you can, but in this economy it’s easy to understand why the advantages of money saved might be greater than the convenience of living on campus. </p>

<p>From personal experience, one of my own kids transferred back to a school in our city from her original college about 400 miles away. She was in art school, which is even more place-intensive than music school–they are often on campus until the wee hours. She commuted back and forth, about a 35 minute drive, from home. It would have been more convenient to stay on campus, but the savings to us was huge and she was able to keep her loans much lower as a result. If she had transferred to a different school, too far to commute we would have had to pay for housing, but the savings, about $25K, by my estimation, was too good to pass up. </p>

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<p>By the way. Don’t believe anything anyone from USC says about UCLA. Or for that matter anything anyone from UCLA says about USC. I kid you not… that competitive thing is real and colors everyone’s point of view. The upside is that they keep each other on their toes. The downside? (rumors abound that UCLA doesn’t have an orchestra or that you can’t cross USC’s campus without having your instrument stolen) So do most of your own research. Good luck! Work hard!</p>

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<p>@musicprnt thank you for that note. I feel as though many of the commentors on this post had misinterpretations of this post, and it is partially my fault for being vague. However, you have provided some excellent insights to things that I may not have considered, and I am very grateful for that. I actually went on a UCLA tour yesterday, and our guide told us that art majors at UCLA just need a 3.0 GPA and (im not sure if I heard this correctly) no minimum SAT or ACT??? So, I am glad that academics (at least for UCLA) won’t be a huge factor. (My academics aren’t that great…) </p>

<p>Oh no no, I am definitely planning on dorming/living near campus all 4 years, regardless of how close I live to school. I think I might have meant to say that I’m not mentally prepared to live by myself, away from my family and such. But, yes, since I am staying in CA, I want to try to at least gain some college experience and “independence” or learn to be independent, through dorming. </p>

<p>Anyways, thank you for everything. There was a lot of misunderstanding in the beginning, but I’m glad we cleared that up! Thank you for your help!!! </p>

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<p>@glassharmonica I actually don’t live too far from LA. So if I do get into an LA school, maybe I will consider commuting… If the cost is just too much. However, I want to stay away from that, as it prohibits me from experiencing the true college life. My tour guide for UCLA yesterday told us that part of the college experience was sitting in the hallway with some friends at 12 AM and eating pizza! hahaha!!
But yes, it is definitely an option that I will consider if it is too expensive!</p>

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<p>@musicamusica thats absolutely true! Funny thing is, my private teacher is a USC grad, but doesn’t recommend that I go there!! I personally, after attending a UCLA tour, like the “campus vibe” better than that of USC. The neighborhood seems more “live” and safe. But yes, definitely doing my own research for those things! </p>

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<p>“sitting in the hallway with some friends at 12 AM and eating pizza!” I guess life hasn’t changed much since the 70’s.</p>

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<p>@gh-</p>

<p>There probably will be some changes I bet, one would be there would be someone “is that gluten free?”, and in the 1970’s you would eat pizza after the (illegal) pot, now they probably have pot on the pizza, legally <em>lol</em> (and this is said totally in jest, not making fun of those who have problems with glute, only with the fad around it, and I am not promoting pot use:)</p>

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<p>Lol, musicprnt!</p>

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<p>@musicprnt‌ – and then there will be the vegan pizza eaters as well. Mmmm… soy cheese. </p>

<p>@jkviolin‌ – your tour guide is right. If you end up being able to afford it, living in the dorms, in addition to the midnight pizza parties (which are an important bonding experience, truly), the independence that comes from making ALL your own scheduling decisions, dealing with laundry and a busy school schedule, remembering to eat well (or not), and even dealing with a bit of homesickness, are important facets of the college and maturing experiences. Best of luck to you in your search and do keep us all posted.</p>

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<p>@listenmissy YES!! that seems to be the most frightening thing of all for me!! Living alone (as in, without my parents). I think it’s going to be a great learning experience for me!!
I will definitely keep all of you posted throughout the year!!</p>