Anyone care to weigh in? Have experience or knowledge you’d like to share as we navigate this difficult choice?
Is cost a factor ?
All great, obviously. I’d think the teacher option/mesh at each would figure prominently in the decision.
Wouldn’t the option to double major at Northwestern University be a consideration ?
Received just about the same merit from all three with Eastman doing a bit better but not enough to make that the deciding factor.
And yes, double major is a nice option, he can do it at eastman as well, as well as a certificate at NEC.He loves all 3 teachers. It is a tough choice. He definitely has his favorite though decision isn’t made yet.
NYCMusicDad, do you have a student there & are you in the NYC area? If so, how has the travel been? Definitely a consideration and the source of my hesitation.
Hah, my D just committed last night, (class of ‘22) but we have traveled out there from NYC multiple times for audition etc. in the last year. My wife’s default airline for work trips is American, which has one of its main hubs in Chicago. Flights depart from LGA almost every hour on the half hour. When we’ve looked for frequent flyer tickets, we have always found a doable option at the lowest mileage cost level. The flight is like 2.5 hours in the air going out, 2 hours in the air coming back.
So, not exactly local, but not hard to get to. We did have some snowstorm adjustments we had to make in February, but they waive the change fees for that.
I have heard the horn teacher at Bienen is amazing. Maybe we’ll run into each other next year!
Thanks! Maybe our kids can travel together. We are a few miles outside of NYC. Visited during a blizzard for audition so didn’t really see much. Got back last night from a quick one day visit & saw it all. It was a perfect day with sun & blue skies - definitely not the norm there. He is leaning in that direction but really does love all three.
Congratulations!!! Wow three wonderful options! 
I feel the need to weigh in regarding Chicago weather. (Sun and blue skies are actually closer to the norm in spring). I am originally an East Coast girl and have lived in Chicago for 33 years now. The biggest issue with winter in this area is that it is long. It begins in December and “wintery” weather usually lasts through March. The 3 coldest weeks (and we’re talking potentially sub-zero before windchill) are the last 2 weeks of January and beginning of February. This April has been an anomaly in that the first 2 weeks of April were the second coldest April weeks since 1890. So April 2018 is not representative of what we usually experience. With regard to snow: It always surprises me but my sister gets more snow in NJ than I do out here. This trend has been going on for 10 years or so. Chicago has short springs (50’s beginning in mid-April), beautiful summers (which can get humid) and beautiful falls. This past Family Weekend was rainy and raw; 2016’s was upper 60s and sunny. With regard to sunshine: Last winter '16/'17 was among the grayest recorded and my student noticed it, I noticed it. It was demoralizing. This winter had more sunny days and that helps so much. In short, the winters are long but not necessarily too snowy and because we have prevailing winds from the plains to the west, weather can change. For example, it’s supposed to be 46 on Sat. and 67 on Mon. Students need to be prepared with boots, shoes, several types of coats, layers. There is a great mall with LLBean in Skokie, next town west of Evanston. I’m happy to help if anyone has any other questions.
@laurasti and @NYCMusicDad My son is a freshman at Northwestern. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions.
As to travel (we are in Dallas area) it’s so easy getting in and out of Chicago. LIke NYCMusicDad says, the flights are frequent and quick. The students also connect with one another to share Ubers to and from the airport during peak times. They get really good at it really fast.
S adapted to the weather pretty quickly, even though we live in TX. In fact, during February D and I were there for a week for her college auditions and it was hovering around 8 degrees all week. We met him for dinner one evening and were running late. He waited outside in the snow instead of inside the warm restaurant. He said it was too beautiful to go inside! That said, he was a little bummed when he went back after spring break in TX to more cold. But it got cold here, too, so you just never know.
My son had four amazing wonderful happy years at NEC. You can PM me if you have more specific questions.
Is NU slightly inferior to the other two for horn? I ask because if they are on the same level musically, it’d seem to me Northwestern would be the obvious choice given that you can double major within an elite research university.
Many parents focus on the double majoring as being this nice “back-up” plan as though it is some insurance if the music path does not work out. But your student should be aware that double majoring on paper is just that. What matters is how you apply yourself to the things you are interested in and if you are in the right place and have the right mentors and peers and you are motivated it is not always necessary to “double major” because there are only so many hours in the day. You need to remember your student will have a post-undergraduate life as well. And how the next four years play out will help shape that post-undergraduate life. You do not want your student to burn out, nor do you want your student to exit without confidence and excitement and energy.
When our son started at NEC, I was secretly hoping this child who is quite academically smart would find his way to Tufts and start taking science classes and eventually transfer. He didn’t. He talked about taking classes at Northeastern, Harvard and MIT (also an option at NEC) but never did. He found inspiration and enjoyed his liberal arts teachers that were at NEC and immersed himself in the intellectual and music world that was there so much so that he just never found time to go outside the conservatory for classes.
Our son has his Master’s and is living in NYC. To pay the bills he teaches music and gigs. In his free time he works on his creative projects which are inspired by all the reading he does. He is writing grants going to Banff this summer to work on his project and moving forward with his career. Which is exactly what we hoped for as his parent. But most importantly this boy READS. He READS for pleasure. He reads more than his housemates who went to prestigious Universities. He is intellectually still very curious and most importantly he is NOT BURNT OUT!!! We spent last weekend with him and he has been exploring and is interested in quantum physics. He often said to us that one thing music has taught him is that he can teach himself anything. And so he is still learning and he might not have a double degree, but if he told us he wanted to get a graduate degree in physics in the future I am sure he would figure out how to do it.
My advice is to let your son choose based on where he seems he would be happiest. Weather, peers, city etc…and the rest will follow
^^Interesting point about reading and intellectual curiosity. My daughter who went into music did not consider double-majoring, and most of her friends didn’t either. A few of them have left music for medicine, law, or other professions but most are still musicians. For those who left music, the BM degree did not seem to be an impediment at all, although for med school (like classics and English majors) they did need to take some post-bac courses.
Two years out of grad school she is so busy in NYC with her performance and touring career that she now needs to find strategies for cutting back and making room for some leisure time (we were literally having this conversation last night.) One worries, when they are younger, that there will be a dearth of opportunities, particularly for those who eschew the orchestral path, but the opposite has been true. She also teaches, and is getting more selective and cutting back on teaching.
During her conservatory years she often longed to take academic courses–her conservatory has an exchange with a local Ivy, but in reality it is always close to impossible to work out the schedule because the conservatory rostering is irregular. However, she reads a lot, mostly in humanities–literature and social sciences. I could see her getting a grad degree, perhaps a low-res writing MFA, sometime in the future if she wants to.
Anyway, part of my point is that in many cases, for those who are determined to become pro musicians, the double-major likely does not add enough value to the degree to justify the reduction in the music courses that will make for a solid career. For students who are more likely to go into other professions but would like to continue to play music at as high a level as possible, the double major makes more sense (my niece, who loves music but wants a different profession, did this.)
The other part of my point is that I agree with StacJip that learning is not necessarily contained in the boundaries of a university program.
Not to disagree with anything above, but I think it’s different for every student. My D is a vocalist, which means she simply cannot physically practice the same number of hours a violinist can in a conservatory setting. And her art will ultimately involve the analysis and interpretation of literature and language more directly than an instrumentalist’s will. I wholeheartedly agree that engagement with ideas isn’t and shouldn’t be confined to classroom settings, however, universities do offer unique opportunities to engage with great minds who have devoted themselves to those areas, and the way that can open a young mind shouldn’t be minimized.
I haven’t encouraged her to continue her non-music interests as a “backup,” but as a way of developing a breadth of perspective that will hopefully make her a more thoughtful and engaged member of society, and as a bonus will provide her with important resources that will help her do her job as a performer.
Momzhood - Thanks for the forecast :)!!! It is actually really helpful. The weather was a bit of a concern but you’ve squashed that. We are in northern NJ and ski in VT frequently so I don’t think it will impact him much. I thought it was much worse than you are making it out to be. It is probably worse in Rochester.
Thank you all for the thoughtful replies. I will be sharing this with him as he struggles with his decision. To answer an earlier question, NU has a very strong horn program with one of the best horn teachers / musicians in the industry. It is highly sought after and hard to get into her studio. He had a lesson with her and likes her. NU is far and I have a concern that the rigor of the academic component may be too much for him. He is a smart, honors student, but has always gotten by with very little work and a smile. His primary focus is music and NU will combine that with academics differently than the other two choices. For example, he will be in academic classes with everyone - not just musicians. Smart kids studying physics, medicine, etc. He can do it but will he thrive? His experience at Eastman & NEC were similar. He loved both teachers, orchestras, horn studio. NEC has the location advantage of Boston. Eastman has the advantage of offering a bit more diversity and flexibility when it comes to class choices. I can really see him doing well at either of these. He is currently (changes daily) leaning toward NU. He is amazed that he was selected and is drawn in by the prestigious horn studio and teacher popularity.
@laurasti - all great options!! Will be so interested to see which he selects. As they say - go for the teacher chemistry.