Oh I forgot about the educator discount.
I am not a spreadsheet kind of person but It seems appropriate once the list is down a bit.
You know a lot about schools! Impressive! Some good ones on there that I have not heard of.
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Okay, you’ve done a lot of research and have a good list going. (By the way, Lake Pontchartrain by New Orleans is a huge lake and people do go boating/sailing on it…don’t see as much water skiing, but I’ve seen people with jet skis, so there may be folks water skiing on it, too.)
Anyway, have you tried building the list from the bottom up? Meaning, which of these schools would be his safeties? Then likelies, matches, and reaches? If there are a whole bunch of reaches, then I think it’s easy to cut it down to 1 or 2 favorites (whether these are reaches due to academics/musical talent/finances). Again, if there are certain categories where there are WAY more schools than other categories, those are the ones I’d focus on cutting from (unless, of course, it’s safeties/likelies).
Does your son have any preferences as to climate? Does your son have any idea in which part of the country he’d like to live after graduation? Those factors might help eliminate some options as well. (Climate being an obvious way to eliminate, but colleges frequently have the strongest recruiting/job placement at regional employers…even places like Northwestern and U. Chicago have more midwest employers and not as many from the coasts.) Also, does your son have any sentiments for or against Greek life? That might be another factor to consider for making some cuts.
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He would prefer “not the midwest” as he would like to try something new. But money may talk. He loves mountains and snow skiing. He loves the ocean. He loves boating and jetskiing. Greek life he could take or leave, no super strong opinions on it right now. He thinks he would like the west coast but hasn’t spent any time on the east coast. As you can see from the list, he likely will avoid the Bible belt but he may leave a few on the list. Texas right now is a no.
If he does choose music ed, I do know that licensure for teaching can vary by state so that may factor in as well. As you music major folks know, college lists get even more complicated.
If I had to rank the list, I would put it as below. Again, GPA 3.4, lets say strong audition for music ed and 50/50 for performance for male bass. Guessing ACT will end up around 29/30. Am I totally off base?
Likely?
Xavier
LoyNo
Jacksonville U
Roanoke
Salve
Lawrence
College of Wooster
Western Carolina U
NAU
Target?
Stetson
Shenandoah
U of Pacific
Gustavus Adolphus
Western Colorado U
Pacific Lutheran
Augustana
DePaul
Reach?
Gonzaga
U of North Florida
U of Redlands
U of Puget Sound
U of St. Thomas
Baldwin Wallace
Syracuse
U of Arizona
U of Minn-Twin Cities
I know the point was to reduce the list, but Ithaca sounds like a place that would check a lot of lifestyle boxes, especially the outdoorsy stuff!
Lawrence, Wooster, (Loyola)
U. of Pacific, De Paul, (Shenandoah)
U.of Puget Sound, Baldwin Wallace
(U. of Denver or Vermont for outdoors?)
(editing to add Hartt, wasn’t on your last list)
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Ithaca was on the original list as Ive heard its great. Sadly it likely wouldnt be affordable.
Im open to suggestions for new schools or hiddem gems!
For the colleges in Florida, I would look to see whether the values of the areas around those universities are what you think they are, or whether you think they have the values of the bible belt. I do not know any particulars about those universities and their respective areas, but I do know that Florida is a mixed bag and very location dependent.
USNWR listed Gonzaga as an A+ school for B students, so I suspect that might make Gonzaga a likely. But looking at the Common Data Sets for all of these colleges is probably going to be your best bet to see what your son’s chances are. Looking at Gonzaga’s Common Data Set, 75% of men were accepted. 18% of students submitted an ACT score with a 25/75 range of 27-31, so your son’s scores would fit right in there. 16% had a GPA of 3.25-3.49 (and only 6% below 3.25), so the GPA is on the lower side, but definitely possible. Since a talent is considered an “important” factor, that would also help for admissions. So on a strictly academic basis, I’d say that Gonzaga is probably a high target, low reach.
But I guess part of the question is, which of these universities require an audition to enter the music ed program vs. letting students in academically and then letting them choose (so perhaps BA programs vs BM…but this is so not my area of expertise. And is your categorization based on finances, or music, or academics? That’s the part that outsiders have a hard time judging if there’s a combination of factors at play.
If your categories are correct, however, I think you could lop off at least 6-7 from the reach cateogory, leaving only your son’s true favorites in that group.
And I suspect that LoyNO is a likely for admission.
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I forgot to mention that my daughter is very talented musically and artistically but she was an average student (mostly due to being so busy with her theatre and music activities.) 90 GPA, 26 ACT. But Loyola still gave her academic scholarships on top of music ones so they are pretty generous.
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In Arizona, NAU has a good reputation for music Ed. My son (in-state for AZ). applied to NAU and ASU but not UA so I don’t know much about their music programs. I’ve been told by another parent that UA is great for orchestra.
My son ended up attending UNT for choral music Ed (baritone). He’s been able to continue lessons on a secondary instrument and we’ve been impressed with the music Ed program there, especially for voice students. It’s Texas but the student body isn’t especially conservative. But it’s not on your list and maybe you aren’t looking for adds. But it’s very possible to get the cost under your limit at UNT. My son had about a 3.6gpa/1390 SAT and has an academic and a music scholarship that together bring our costs to about $15k per year.
We visited U Puget Sound with one of our other kids. I was impressed with the music program there and we really liked the school. Nice location, pretty campus. Our kid was accepted but they didn’t come close to our budget, which was similar to yours.
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But how committed is he to music ed? Is he considering that mainly for financial reasons, what he considers a steady job? Does he have a strong interest in teaching?
Is St. Olaf affordable?
Depending on what he leans towards with a major, we really liked College of Saint Rose in Albany. I heard they may have suffered some program cuts recently, so do some research but they brought our price down to $19K which was pretty amazing.
One hidden gem you may want to look at is Columbia College Chicago if they end up having the major he is interested in. Super cool, artsy school and pretty generous with merit. Great location and best housing we saw, hands-down! Those views! Wow. As I said, my daughter was an average student but they invited her to their honors program (it’s portfolio-based, so probably more about talent and involvement, but she was very flattered.)
Both College of St. Rose and CCC were in her top 3, but she went with the warmer climate and loved the jazzy city of New Orleans.
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And I’m a little biased being from Buffalo (and an alum) but check out SUNY Buffalo State College (w/ the orange Bengals mascot, not UB.) They have excellent music education programs, music/theatre programs and probably every major he might consider. My son loved our tour and it checks lots of boxes of what he wants. Our tour guide was a music ed major and really talked up the program to another family whose son was looking into music ed. The Elmwood area near the college is very hip and there is lots for students to do.
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Look more closely into Hartt at U Hartford. It seems to fit the bill for him. First of all, his academics will probably get him quite a bit of merit money. Hartt school is lovely. Warm, collegiate atmosphere. Great music ed program and located in an area where the surrounding suburban public school districts value music. Good internship placements for that reason. And because it’s a full U, there are many other course offerings, if he wants them. They have a basketball team, but not football.
U Hartford is in the same position as any 3rd tier private college - they’re all struggling for money. But it’s in no danger whatsoever of closing, as far as I know. There’s some guy with an axe to grind (I think he was faculty that they got rid of) who comes on here annually to scream that the sky is falling, that U Hartford is in imminent danger of closing, but it’s just not true, much as he seems to believe that by saying it, it will happen.
Some club type city life in Hartford (not much). Definitely opportunities to work in adjacent West Hartford, which has a trendy downtown area with lots of shops and restaurants, also a music store.
Excellent skiing is two hours away (well, 2.5 hrs if you don’t speed) in Vermont, pretty easy access straight up 91. Smaller areas closer by, in the Berkshires.
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In looking more at music and music education, Lawrence and University of Hartford from your list made multiple appearances. Some other places that you might want to consider include:
Rider University (NJ)
SUNY Potsdam
SUNY Fredonia
University of Northern Colorado
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I second SUNY Fredonia. Great school for musicians!
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Nice small ski area in New Hartford which is about 45 minutes from the Hartt School.
I agree…worth checking out.
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Lots of good info here. I know nothing about music/BM programs, but our list strategy was to first concentrate on safeties. They are the hardest to identify, and they really need to be a place your kid would want to attend, they will almost certainly get in and where you can absolutely afford. Most people turn to their state schools, but if that isn’t something your son is willing to consider your search is going to be even more difficult. So instead of getting overwhelmed with the entire list, concentrate on safeties.
Also, I live about an hour from UOP and have seen the charming campus. However, Stockton itself is not charming and will likely not provide that west coast, outdoorsy vibe he is looking for.
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He will definitely get in to UPS. With merit and talent scholarship. They were going after my son hard (same GPA) but he refused to apply.
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For audition based acceptances, there really isn’t a true “safety”. Acceptance is based on the strength of the audition group, and the needs of the school.
For example, the year my kid got accepted, his school yield on one instrument was very much higher than anticipated. This on an instrument where there are many in each ensemble. So…for the next year, no one was accepted on that instrument and the year after only a very small number…because the school just didn’t need any more of that instrument.
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Good point. Perhaps there needs to be one non-audition safety so there really is a safety.
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