Finding Schools for Viola

College Search & Selection
1

<p>My best friend wants to be a symphony violist, but she is discouraged by her perception that she has only two options: conservatory or local college.</p>

<p>She's convinced that the two schools she wants to audition for, NEC and CIM, are too much of a reach and that her <em>only</em> other option is her local university. I would like to show her that there are places she could go to study music that might not be as competitive, but will still be much better than the school next door. Part of the issue is that she cannot really ask her teacher, since she works at the local college and is sort of pushing in that direction. It wouldn't be bad for her, necessarily, but I think she should atleast explore more options.
Note** the "X State University" and "University of X" schools are both kind of eh (she's met the professors at both), so while they would offer in state tuition, they aren't great options.</p>

<p>She has pretty good grades so most schools shouldn't be a problem in terms of academic admissions and she's done some of the big summer music programs. She should be at least competitive for a lot of schools, though I can't pretend to evaluate her ability. Her orchestra director (who is also a violist) recommended Cincinnati Conservatory (she herself graduated from there and knows the faculty), so more knowledgeable people should be able to use this information.</p>

<p>The only other thing to consider is that she doesn't like heat all that much? She outright banned Texas when I mentioned Rice...</p>

<p>State-wise it would be nice to aim for California, Massachusetts, and New York...but any recommendations would be great.</p>

<p>Thanks in advanced for your help, I've been trying to help her look and she's sort of given up on me. Hopefully someone has some recommendations we haven't seen yet.</p>

2

<p>Please post this on the Music Major forum. There are a number of wise parents of violists who post there regularly who could give you great advice. She’s running out of time, though. Most prescreens, and many applications, are due by Dec. 1 for music admissions - although there are still some which will have later application dates but her options decrease with time. There are many fine choices out there - but, besides heat, what other things matter to her - size, undergrads only, level of her peers, particular viola professor, academics or little to no academics, merit aid, financial aid, etc?</p>

3

<p>Will do.</p>

<p>She doesn’t care about size, or grad students, I think she might prefer peers her level…but that can be hard to evaluate, she wants a good teacher more than anything. She doesn’t care about the academics and financial aid is never bad, but she doesn’t think she can get enough in merit.</p>