<p>Hi ! This is my first post ever and I might be on the wrong forum but... please answer some of my questions ! </p>
<p>So, to start off, I'm a junior in high school and I'm looking at schools in California for fine arts / music major. My counselor told me to apply to UC Berkley for fine arts. But i honestly have no idea about the difference between music major and fine arts.
If i'm going into music, i will be doing composition. But then I don't compose classical music.. I do stuff that's more like pop songs. I play piano but I don't want to go into performance unless it's my only option. I want to major in music but I'm so confused lol..
I tried to look up some fine arts major requirements of UCs but I found nothing. Maybe i'm just too dumb to find them. My counselor is no help.. I didn't even take AP music theory yet and everyone told me that it's the requirement. oh god..</p>
<p>For ECs (i guess? )I post my compositions & other music stuff on YouTube and make money. i want that to be my hook since I didn't win any major awards or anything... I heard that majors related to music in UCs are less competitive so I really hope that I can get in!</p>
<p>so.. my questions are
1. What's the difference between fine arts major and music major?
2. What are the UCs requirement for majoring in fine art/ music? ( please give me the link T-T)
3. Would making money on YouTube help ? or it's not a hook..?
4. How competitive is it? for applying into music/fine arts major.</p>
<p>I have a daughter who is a fine arts (glass) major, who used to be very involved in music. Another daughter is in a music conservatory. Both programs are extremely intense, calling for more hours than a liberal arts major. I don’t think there is any way one could major in both. However, it is possible to major in one or the other and keep up the second as an extracurricular.</p>
<p>As for competitive, I don’t know if you are only speaking of UC Berkely or other schools, but it’s really a case-by-case basis, as schools go. Maybe someone with experience in the UC system will chime in.</p>
<p>Thank you! I meant to say I’m either going to be majoring in music or fine arts. Not both haha that would be crazy. And yes, I am speaking of the whole UCs. Thank you so much :D</p>
<p>At UC Berkeley you would apply and specify a particular college there, which you can switch from later. You wouldn’t be choosing a major. So you’d choose the college that has most of the courses which interest you. At UC Berkeley your interests would lead you to the College of Letters and Science. Before your Junior year you would choose your major. [Office</a> of Undergraduate Advising: Arts & Humanities Majors](<a href=“http://ls-advise.berkeley.edu/major/artshuman.html]Office”>http://ls-advise.berkeley.edu/major/artshuman.html) Except for applying for music composition at UCLA or Santa Barbara’s College of Creative Studies - applications would be general. I think your counselor may have just meant fine arts in general - encompassing the study of many different areas in the arts. It’s not a major in itself.</p>
<p>Fine arts usually refers to visual art, performing arts usually includes music. I am not sure what your counselor is after. Are you an artist? What are your interests besides music?</p>
<p>AP Music Theory is not a requirement, but musical literacy is. There are no auditions at Berkeley. It is a general music major focusing on music history, theory, musicology, psychology, composition, jazz improv, and other subjects that you can see on the link above. You would not major in or graduate in composition per se, but could do a lot of it.</p>
<p>I guess I would add that a music major is pretty rigorous and intense, as someone else said. If you want to do more contemporary/popular composition, there are other schools to look at like Berklee, Belmont, USC Thornton, other schools that folks can chime in about. Or you could go to any school you like and continue what you are doing with songs online, outside of schoolwork :)</p>
<p>I’ve only done a little research on fine art major and I only find information for arts unfortunately. Not music.
I’m interested in music in general and my counselor told me that fine art will be perfect for me. She told me that it includes arts and music. So i thought i would go for it lol.</p>
<p>I want to put some music related major in my application because I honestly don’t want to go to college if I’m not going to do any music-related activities. Yet i don’t want to limit myself into ‘only music’. Ugh it’s so confusing!</p>
<p>I’m sorry but your goals are just not clear to me at all. I have never heard of anyone majoring in a general category of “fine arts” that includes music, but maybe someone else has.</p>
<p>Most music majors for a BM degree are very focused on music. Those who are doing a BA in music take about 1/4-1/2 classes in music, and you can also do a minor.</p>
<p>If you go to a school without distribution requirements, it might be possible to combine music and art in some way. Like Bennington, Sarah Lawrence, also Amherst, Brown. I don’t know much about West Coast schools.</p>
<p>Music is a very rigorous major, as I have said. Some people compare the difficulty of theory classes with premed science.</p>
<p>You don’t have to declare a major to apply. Just put undecided. You can usually be at a college for a couple of years before you have to declare a major, unless you are doing something like engineering or nursing. So just go to a school you like, take classes in areas you are interested in, and decide later.</p>
<p>I would think that music majors at UC’s are very competitive. </p>
<p>If you are not sure, then put undecided. </p>
<p>You can’t put “fine arts” when you don’t know what it is, because that isn’t really honest, and also I don’t see any such major at Berkeley. If you are an artist, and want to study that, then put “applied art.”</p>
<p>As for music, check out those courses. There is a good deal of classical study.</p>