Help finding schools for a kid interested in percussion and CS

[parentologist]

That national orchestra run by Carnegie Hall. Was it NYO? NYO2? If yes, those are much more than “pretty competitive”. Those are INCREDIBLY competitive, NYO>NYO2. If it was one of those, “Congratulations, pay us some money and your child can play at Carnegie Hall!” programs, then much less so. He was selected to perform on From The Top? That’s a big deal, too.

You are dealing with the “Double Degree Dilemma”. If he is at that level, he will find it easiest to continue his music education at a combined conservatory/university or college program, or at a university with an excellent school of music and a comp sci department. He can do comp sci in a lot of places, and it will be good enough. Music? That limits him. For the list you have, look at Bard, BU, Carnegie Mellon, Indiana, Oberlin, Rochester (IF he can do both Eastman and comp sci), St Olaf, Tufts but only with NEC combined program, Michigan. I don’t know enough about some of the others, but I do know that he should strike off the LACs that don’t have conservatories. Amherst and Wesleyan will not have what he needs for music. All the other LACs, unless they have a conservatory (like Bard and Oberlin and St. Olaf) will not, either.

Consider all of the combined conservatory/double major with college type programs. For my son, Yale/Yale school of music, and Columbia/Juilliard were on the list. They are easier on the combined major kids than is Harvard/NEC, which is also a consideration for your son, along with Tufts/NEC. Harvard loves its musical ensembles. If you can get your son to the attention of the conductor for the Harvard Radcliffe Symphony, and he wants your son, which it sounds as if he would, especially if his best percussionist is graduating in 2022, that would give him a big boost. A LOT of the kids with whom my son played got into Harvard.

What my kid, who was probably top 5% GPA good public high, 36 ACT, played in prestigious pre-college programs and had won a couple of big competitions, did was make a list of every school in the country that had a conservatory or a school of music. He eliminated the ones that did not have respected academic programs (like U North Texas, a powerhouse for his instrument, but not academically competitive). He eliminated the ones that he just would not go to (Baylor). Then he looked at the teacher(s) for his instrument. Did people like working with them? (Found that out through networking with all the older players he’d met, and talking with his teachers.) He listened to their recordings. Did he want to wind up sounding like them? Was the teacher teaching in four different schools all across the country, meaning spread too thin? Was the teacher sick, on a prolonged leave of absence and being covered for by rotating subs?Then he looked at how easy would it be for him to actually get to the classes at both the school of music and the academic school. All of these things really helped him to narrow down his list. He wound up with about 7 schools - BU, Maryland, McGill, UConn (in-state safety with fabulous teacher), Yale/YSM, Columbia/Juilliard, Harvard early action. He got into Harvard EA, took it, withdrew his other applications. He will probably continue studying privately, maybe try out for Boston Youth Philharmonic, and of course will play with Harvard ensembles.

So I would suggest that you show this to your son, have him start making a spreadsheet with all the things that are important to him. His interests may lean more one way or the other before November, too. For my son, it quickly became obvious which schools were the right ones for him, once he’d made that spreadsheet and done his networking research.

[Lendlees]

CMU has a great CompSci program…

My kid is strictly a percussion performance major at Boyer (Temple). He is taking a few classes in the Sports and Hospitality Mgt for Esports (his other passion).

I totally forgot about McGill - great school and their percussion professor is awesome. It was #2 on kid’s list. Not sure how much time for double majoring is possible.

[compmom]

I just came back to this thread and have some other thoughts. I have one kid who did CS and one who did music, and both are pretty intensive, as you know. It seems that many CS students do a BS, not a BA, which is even more intensive. Both music and CS are sequential curricula with foundational courses that lead to the next level. In other words, they are relatively rigid.

So I would think your son could consider doing a double degree (BS/BM or BA/BM or BS/MM or BA/MM), but a double major would be tough. If he wants a double degree, school choices would depend on the program including both excellent CS and excellent music, so that means either a campus with both, like, say, Oberlin, Bard or Lawrence, or a double degree program at two different campuses, like Harvard or Tufts with NEC. I would add Yale’s relatively new BA/MM.

The other option, and it is a good one too, is to study CS for a BS, take some music classes (or minor), continue lessons and perform in extracurriculars. Adding summer programs might also work (So Percussion for instance.) CS summer internships usually start after junior year, sometimes sophomore, so there is time to do music in the summer.

In that case, he might want to avoid some schools with BM programs unless non-music majors can participate fully and equally along with BM students. But he would want a school with excellent music for BA and BS students regardless of major. (Sorry if I am repeating myself.)

I also want to mention the different areas of percussion and how those play into choice of program. I don’t know enough to go into detail so am just raising the issue. Do some programs emphasize orchestral work versus contemporary solo work, for instance? I really don’t know.

He does have some prestigious accomplishments and a music supplement will enhance chances at top schools for CS. He can decide whether he wants a top school that has or is affiliated with a BM program, or he can do CS and pursue music outside of a major.

[momclassof26]

Lots of information here. Thanks! Yes, if my son wanted to do only music, things would be much, much easier. But he wants CS too. And although he is equally good at CS, his GPA will not reflect that. He is trying to make up for it by taking CS classes at the university (major research university where we live). He started with the first class all CS majors take and so far all is great.

I believe the reason there were so many LAC in the list was because I said at some point that we wanted a liberal arts education. But by now I figured out that he doesn’t need to attend a LAC to get a liberal arts education and most music departments at LACs are not very strong. Most LACs have been deleted. Oberlin is still on the list. And so is Bard. Although we will probably take Bard off the list. One thing I appreciate about it is that they don’t just allow musicians to get a double degree, they value that second degree (at least based on this article: Home | Chamber Music America).

We will not add Harvard or Columbia because of his GPA. We have been collecting information by going through the websites of each school. And actually, several people here at CC have been enormously helpful. So, we are getting there. Thanks again for your help.

[parentologist]

McGill brass prof told my kid that they’re very good about double majoring music/academic at McGill. But of course you’d have to look at percussion and comp sci.

BTW, my kid’s GPA was lower than all the people who’d been rejected over the years for Harvard from his high school. When we totaled it up, we realized that kid had spent probably 40 hrs/week on music all through high school. I think that made “holistic” review type schools look more closely, and discount that his GPA didn’t put him at the very top of his class.

[compmom]

Bard doesn’t just support double degrees. It requires a double degree for every student in the Conservatory. For that reason, my kid would not apply there because she felt the study of music is more than worthwhile on its own.

Many LAC’s have strong music departments. Are you comparing LAC’s to schools with BM programs?

If he has decided to look at universities with schools of music/conservatories, then I hope he does a double degree to best access the music resources, except at those schools where access is less of an issue.

To echo @parentologist, his percussion/music will enhance his chances at schools where he feels his GPA is not competitive (similar to an athlete). With a supplement (video/recording, resume and LOC’s) and even a note with transcript describing his 40 hour/week commitment, he can aim higher than he might with GPA alone.

[momclassof26]

Thanks @compmom @parentologist and @Lendlees for the info and your encouragement. We are “processing” all the options @compmon listed. We will also look into McGill.
Regarding the LACs music departments, my son is the one that judged that. He even said no to St Olaf. But he liked Williams. Maybe he was looking only at percussion?

[compmom]

I was going to re-iterate Williams!