Help cut the list. Poss Music major

College Majors Music Major
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HS junior. Not going to lie, it’s been a rough first semester for my kid mentally but he’s clearer now and considering post grad options. Gap year to work (out of country or AmeriCorp or even start with a trade) is not off the table. GPA is 3.4.

Music makes him most happy but he is worried about financially supporting himself. He’s considering music ed as a major. Vocally, he is a male bass. He plays flute quite well and has some beginner piano and guitar skills. His voice teacher says he could get some scholarships for voice talent (and she doesn’t tell that to everyone) but he knows he is not the best. He is realistic with his talents.

I would likely need overall cost to stay under 25k a year. He has 1-2 instate public options that he could academically be accepted to and we are aware of the cultures there so I’m not listing them. (We are on IL/WI border).

Due to some possible tuition remission and other options, below is the long list of possible schools for him to look at that might be financially possible. (again looking to stay under 25k and gpa is only 3.4 so must consider academic admission). I would expect his ACT to be around 29/30 per practice tests.

What he would like: Positive student vibe, good school spirit (football team a plus but not likely required, he plays on a high level football team now), decent town area for part time work prospects, outdoor activities (he skis and loves lakes/oceans). Solid opportunities for “singing with fun people” (he will have done musicals for 8 yrs but doesnt want MT major). Esports would be a plus as thats a high interest of his as well. Good major selection beyond music ed if he changes his mind.

What he would not like: Academically cutthroat environment. Snobby music majors. Overly conservative student body. He is unsure if he would be okay with urban, does like more suburban, but would likely not like too rural.

Now the list: Does anyone have any opinions of colleges on the list and how they may fit into his preferences? What’s the vibe check?
(These are not in any particular order of preference-just cut and pasted from my files which auto numbered them).

  1. Gonzaga (WA)
  2. Xavier (OH)
  3. Loyola-New Orleans
  4. Stetson (FL)
  5. Jacksonville U (FL)
  6. U of North Florida
  7. U of Redlands (CA)
  8. U of Puget Sound (WA)
  9. Roanoke (VA)
  10. Salve Regina (RI)
  11. Lawrence (WI)
  12. Shenandoah (VA)
  13. U of Pacific (CA)
  14. University of Hartford (CT)
  15. Gustavus Adolphus (MN)
  16. U of St. Thomas (MN)
  17. Baldwin Wallace (OH)
  18. Western Colorado (CO)
  19. Pacific Lutheran (WA)
  20. Augustana (SD)
  21. Oklahoma City U.
  22. College of Wooster (OH)
  23. DePaul (IL)
  24. Syracuse (NY)
  25. Western Carolina U
  26. U of Minn-Twin Cities
  27. Northern Arizona U
  28. U of Arizona
  29. Western Michigan
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I can speak towards Stetson. The campus is beautiful. The students have a requirement that has them need to go and watch each other in shows or sports or whatever. Has a funny name but it means they support each other. The quad area always has students hanging in hammocks. Music school has an amazing program and all different options. The town supports the school. The students are friendly. It’s not far from the theme parks and orlando so lots to do and has access to the beach too. Other university are within an hour of it so there is that too. Both of my college-age/college bound students loved it. Neither chose to go there but both really loved the vibe and feel. There a lots of opportunities for scholarships and not all are academic. Has sports of course - go Hatters as they say. As an fyi my son is a psych/music major with theatre minor and Emory and my daughter is planning to be mech engineering with a secondary major in theatre heading to CWRU. So Stetson had similar appeal to them as both of those schools. We live in florida so Stetson and Rollins (a different price point but does give money) are two that get applied to a lot.

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The only one I know much about in terms of the campus is Loyola New Orleans. Yes, it has a great music program but there are options for non-majors, and there are several community options for musical theater (Le Petit Theatre, Jefferson Performing Arts Society, Kenner Rivertown Theatre, and Tulane…every summer they have a well-reputed Summer Lyric Theater that’s generally all MT). And I’ve never gotten any sense of snobbishness from Loyola, in their music program or not.

Loyola is located in the Uptown section of New Orleans which is primarily residential, but it’s directly across from a major park (Audubon Park) and there are little restaurants and such around. This is not a downtown campus surrounded by skyscrapers. There’s no football for Loyola, but Tulane is literally right next door and it does have football (and Loyola students can take some classes at Tulane, too). Plus, the whole area is pretty wild for the New Orleans Saints, so there is that football spirit option as well.

As a Jesuit institution it’s an intellectually curious environment, but has a focus on social justice, so not a very conservative campus. I definitely think your son would be accepted, but it’s iffy as to whether or not the $25k number will be hit (might not be far from that number, but might be a little stretch to get there).

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Hey @2plustrio. I considered Hartt for my son, but I would look carefully at where this institution is financially. It does not look or sound good for them right now.

A friend’s son is studying at a small private in CA (not Redlands, but similar to Redlands). He complained that many of the students were very image-oriented and it was filled with rich kids who didn’t get in to the CA publics. But please do your own research, that is n=1 obviously, and I encourage someone who has first hand experience to contradict his observations.

Across the country, I think we lost a ton of musicians with COVID and they are therefore very much in demand at colleges right now. I think you’ll be surprised how well he’s going to do with admissions.

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Shenandoah has a nice music program. So does Lawrence. Both actually make it easy for students to double major IIRC.

@MaineLonghorn does Susquehanna have opportunities for music outside of majoring in it?

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Yes, Susquehanna does have opportunities for kids who want to keep playing instruments but don’t want to major in music. My daughter attended the University from 2016-2020. She received a non-music major scholarship, which included a $1,000/year stipend and free jazz piano lessons. Her obligation was to perform with the jazz band. She found the playing ability of the other kids wasn’t up to what she was used to (her high school won the state contest when she was a senior), but the scholarship allowed her to improve her playing skills. She also made a couple of good friends who are musicians and happen to live near her here in Maine. They occasionally do paid gigs together. :slight_smile:

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Syracuse is around $70,000, my son with a 3.7 received $10,000 in merit (I have no idea why he applied, it was never going to be affordable).

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Of the ones on your list, my son has applied to Baldwin Wallace and Lawrence (as a clarinet performance major). We visited Baldwin Wallace last summer and had a sample lesson online last year, and he really liked what he saw and heard. Very close to Cleveland (and the airport, which I love)–tour guide talked about lots of opportunities to play for different churches in the area and other job opportunities. Seems like a pretty laid back, non-pretentious place (with the caveat that we saw it in summer without many students around). My son likes the big MT program because he’d love the chance to play in pit orchestras. He’s auditioning in a couple of weeks so we don’t know anything about FA and scholarships yet. He applied EA to Lawrence and was admitted with a very nice music scholarship. He also got some need based aid, but without that the music scholarship plus federal loans and a work study would get him in the $25,000/yr neighborhood. He hasn’t visited the campus yet, though, so we don’t know a ton about it other than what we’ve read online.

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@AmyIzzy has a student at Loyola right now, so can probably shed more light for you.

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That’s quite a nice list! Yes, my daughter attends Loyola New Orleans (she is currently on a one year leave of absence due to some music opportunities in Atlanta.) It’s a great college! My daughter wanted an artsy vibe and a very diverse, progressive campus and felt Loyola was perfect. They also gave her great merit and “showed her the love” as far as making her feel welcome and wanted.

I recommend he attend accepted student weekends at his top 3 schools when he’s ready to decide. That’s what did it for my daughter-she knew then and there that Loyola was the school for her.

They brought the price down to $26K but her #2 choice was $19K so she wrote an appeal in early April, hoping they could bring it closer to that COA. They gave her an extra $3K per year so it ended up at $23K and right in our target range. So that won us over as parents.

Her major is Popular/Commercial music (she’s a vocalist) but she feels their overall music programs/professors are excellent. A very supportive/collaborative music environment, not cut-throat at all. Students don’t have to be theatre majors to be in the musical productions and I think anyone can audition for ensembles so lots of diverse music involvement/opportunities.

The area is very nice, about 20 minutes from the French Quarter. Pretty safe with some isolated safety concerns (as with any major city) so I recommend staying in groups when walking around off campus. They are literally next door to Tulane and can share some services like the cafeteria, so they often hang out with Tulane students.

We went to family weekend before Covid hit and the school president was so warm and friendly, chatted with us for awhile. We are from Buffalo, NY so we weren’t thrilled with her going to a college that was 19 hours away by car! But she is very independent and loved it so much so how could we not give our blessing? We were worried it would lean too conservative for my daughter, but New Orleans is actually very progressive compared to many parts of Louisiana so she quickly found “her people.”

I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions. Good luck!

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I work for a college and get potential free or reduced tuition at many of these thus making it more affordable. Thing is, many of these reduced tuition rewards are very competitive and his grades just aren’t going to get him there. However, I have done my research and some of them are more holistic or not as sought after with these rewards thus less competition for them.
Some of the schools offer music scholarships as well.

Again, not all of these on the list will be affordable based on academic merit or need based aid. He needs to roll many dice to try to get that reduced tuition. But 30 dice is too many dice thus trying to narrow the list down a bit based on vibe check. If theres places that don’t fit him as a person, not worth it to apply and try to make them financially affordable.

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Has he or have you read the double degree dilemma essay in the Read Me thread on this music forum? It can be helpful. It is really about the different ways to study music, using hypothetical individuals, and can be clarifying.

Would he prefer performance versus music ed if he wasn’t worried about supporting himself? I really think, based on those I know and anecdotal evidence, that it is still okay to major in performance and have access to a variety of career options, in and out of music, as well as access to grad and professional schools, including law, business, medicine, nursing and others.

I looked up schools on the list that I did not know, sort of randomly (I am familiar with several and they would be great choices). It looks like he wants a BM type degree. One school had a BAS for music ed, which I have never seen.

Does he have other academic or career interests? It is always a possible path to get a BA in music, or a BA in some other academic area, and do extracurricular music with lessons and performance.

If he doesn’t do a BM at a school that offers one, he needs to make sure that non-BM students have access to good teachers and opportunities. Ditto if he is a non-music major at a BA program. (Not relevant if he does BM.)

That is a long list! If he clarifies whether he wants a BM in performance, BM or other degree in music ed, BA in music, BA in something else, minor in music, double major or even double degree, he might be able to whittle down some of that list.

I always hope kids can do what they love in undergrad years but the worries about money are understandable!

Schools on your list I am somewhat familiar with: Loyola New Orleans, Puget Sound, Salve Regina, Lawrence, U of Pacific, Hartt, Baldwin Wallace, Wooster, Depaul, Syracuse. I enjoyed looking some of the other ones up!

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There are a couple where he could possibly do a music and finance degree for example. However, my son would see double major as double work. And this kid is super chill and doesn’t enjoy working hard academically even though he has the intelligence to do so (thus the 3.4 gpa).

Hoping to at least do some self guided walking tours this spring which may narrow campus size or pros and cons of “esthetic” that my son may prefer.

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Maybe he could major in business/finance and do music lessons and performance as extracurriculars, with some music electives.

In that case though, some of these schools would not be good choices, and there would be others not on the list that would be good choices.

ps for auditioning that is a huge list of course…if he applied for a BA in music or something else like finance, there would usually be no auditions but he could submit a music supplement

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This!

Our kid did seven auditions…and that was even tough.

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Thus the title, help cut the list.

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Thus the “of course”! But getting it down for auditions will require ruthlessness. My music kid did 4 auditions for BM programs and then applied to two BA programs at colleges. It was a lot!

It seems to be that the first step would be to clarify what path he wants (can be more than one). BM, BA,music, finance etc.

Then maybe visit different types of schools, to determine size, location, and “vibe.” We visited a large state U, a rigorous liberal arts college, and an alternative type college, all in the same area, with my son (not the music kid). He didn’t apply to any of them but that one day trip helped clarify what kind of school he liked.

Sympathies!

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If he is applying to auditioned BM programs, some either do not require academic admission (admission is based on the strength of the audition)….OR the schools are a bit more lenient with the academic admission bar for those applying for a BM.

@compmom this was our experience…yours?

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Just want to add that among the schools I am familiar with, on your list, I really like U. of Puget Sound, Lawrence (people seem to love Lawrence), College of Wooster (ditto), maybe U. of Pacific. Also Hartt, DePaul, Baldwin Wallace, Loyola. Is Syracuse a reach? Is U of Minn. in-state?

I am writing that just because this is what you seemed to be asking but when I looked up schools I do not know much about, on your list, in a random fashion, several others looked good. And I did not consider the financial end of things just now- hope he can make it work someplace he really likes!

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Trust me, I know its a mess of a list. If he does choose music ed, some do require an actual audition it seems while others just request a music supplement versus music performance which is much more cutthroat and audition intense. He loves to sing and perform but doesn’t love constant competition (and he likely isn’t good enough).

Add in if they require a strong academic admission and some are a reach at best.

Syracuse is expensive but tuition could be cut in half perhaps. He has a higher chance of getting free tuition at Lawrence, Salve, or College of Wooster but all are smaller schools so not sure if he will be on board with that. LoyNo may be a good chance off free tuition but could be too small a school yet havingTulane next door may make it more appealing.

U of Minn is not instate but theres some reciprocity options making it more affordable but again, an academic reach likely. Western Carolina U tuition promise makes it more affordable. NAU and U of A have some tuition repayment for educators that I would have to look into.

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