<p>My daughter is a high school senior and has changed her intended major from musical theater to vocal performance. She has been working on her audition material and feels she is ready, but we don't know what good schools are out there.(other than the strict conservatories) FSU and Frost (University of Miami) are on her list, but she needs more....Any suggestions?</p>
<p>What area of the country are you looking at? I would also suggest that your daughter discuss program choices with her private voice teacher who may know programs that are suited to her level of performance.</p>
<p>East coast. Her teacher suggested that she pick a wide range of schools from conservatories to liberal arts colleges with solid voice/opera departments. Talent should not be a problem although finances might. I have been told that there is not much money available for undergraduates. She has filled out the unified application and plans on having her pre-audition CD at the conservatories by Dec. 1, But she still needs to audition for some liberal arts colleges. The only ones that we are aware of are FSU and UM. She is willing to go anywhere for excellent training.</p>
<p>My daughter has done the same thing, changed from MT to VP. Her original choices for VP were Shenandoah, OK City University, U of N Texas, LSU, Birmingham Southern and Columbus State in Columbus, GA. Some of these choices were influenced by her MT search. We live in GA.</p>
<p>She has been accepted to OKCU, B'ham Southern and Columbus State. She has chosen not to pursue the other three. </p>
<p>The facilities of BSC are not very good, even though they have produced fine singers. OKCU is a great place, but far away. She is strongly considering CSU. She can go there for about a third of the cost of the others, before scholarships. </p>
<p>I think the training will be fine at CSU, and the facilities rival OKCU, better in some respects. We can save money there for graduate school, then consider schools like LSU, UNT, and others at that time. </p>
<p>CSU waives out of state tuition for talented kids, and they have many good scholarships. And I can't say enough about the facilities, both the School of Music and the Performance Halls. The housing for music, art and theatre kids is equally impressive. I think it is an up and coming program.</p>
<p>thumper's suggestion to discuss potential choices with your d's provate voice teacher is sound advice. </p>
<p>My experience with my son is in instrumental performance, and I'm not well versed in a broad range of vocal programs. Without knowing where she is actually applying, I'll throw out a couple of names: Shenandoah Conservatory does have a strong vocal program, as does Hartt (Univ of Hartford). My son is a May '07 BM graduate in viola performance; the school was a perfect choice for him, and from our experience can be quite generous with talent scholarships (at least for instrumentalists). </p>
<p>Both of these may be worth investigating.</p>
<p>I didn't know there was a unified audition for vocal performance. If she will consider any part of the country, I would put Rice on the list. I have heard wonderful things and they seem to have a great faculty and facilities. Other colleges that have good reps for music are Stetson in Florida and Boston University. Another you should definitely consider is Lawrence. My daughter knows two people there who love it - one got a full or nearly a full scholarship.</p>
<p>My S goes to OCU and loves it, started in MT and switched to VP. Lots of academic and talent money is awarded. Lots of opportunity to perform. A lot of working performers come out of there. But I understand about the distance thing, more money to be spent on travel, etc. And of course there is the most important factor, fit.</p>
<p>My DD is a HS sophomore. She's in a similar boat -- she wants to pursue MT, but her father and I feel it is smarter for her longterm interests to pursue VP and let the performance/genre chips fall where they may. Also, we want her to pursue a music ed degree at the same time, and that seems a more likely scenario as a VP major rather than MT. We will also be leaning toward the possibility of jazz voice in there, or extra-curricular jazz vocal ensembles, so that will color our choice list a bit.</p>
<p>We will be looking at:</p>
<p>Ithaca College
Lawrence University
Baldwin-Wallace College
Western Michigan
Indiana University (more as a music ed safety than VP)
Oklahoma City University
UNT
FSU
Appalachian State University
Shendandoah Conservatory
Temple University
University of the Arts</p>
<p>But there are many others; these are the ones we are zeroing in on for our DD's particular needs.</p>
<p>It's great that your D's teacher is advising several different layers of applications (regarding selectivity.) Knowing which schools fit in the different layers is another question altogether!</p>
<p>In my opinion, the best schools to apply to are the ones your teacher has personal knowledge of and points you towards. That is, that the teacher knows both your D and the school, and thinks they fit together. But often a teacher only knows one or two schools, perhaps the ones they went to years ago, or the ones where they have recently sent a student. To fill out your list will take a bit of research.</p>
<p>We used a book called the Performing Arts Majors College Guide by Carole Everett. The book we used was a little old, but I think she's come out with a more recent edition:
College</a> Guide for Performing Arts ... - Google Book Search</p>
<p>We used this book as a "jumping off point" - they rate schools for individual instruments, which is really helpful. S2 made a long list, then began researching the schools, researching the teachers, and talking with his own teachers about what he was finding. After a little while, it became obvious which schools were going to meet his specific requirements.</p>
<p>I don't know anything about voice - but based on the admissions info stuck to the top of this music forum, here are some CCers who might know a bit more - listed with the school they ultimately chose. These are only the voice majors who entered college this year - of course there are others!</p>
<p><em>simplywicked - Berklee College of Music (vocal performance)
coloratura</em>as - Oberlin Conservatory of Music (vocal performance)
foglikely's D - Illinois Wesleyan University (vocal performance)
musikchik - Carnegie Mellon University (vocal performance)
Singersmom07's D - Rice University (vocal performance)
voicestudent - University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music (vocal performance)</p>
<p>There is also another thread called "best music liberal arts college program?" - asking about voice/opera programs:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/search.php?searchid=8610996%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/search.php?searchid=8610996</a></p>
<p>And of course, if you haven't read through Bassdad's treatise on begin a music major, you will definitely want to examine it. Among his excellent advice is guidelines for choosing schools - see post #8:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/258796-so-you-want-music-major-one-familys-experience.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/258796-so-you-want-music-major-one-familys-experience.html</a></p>
<p>My D and I went to Carnegie Mellon on Saturday - we loved the campus and the urban feel and the fine arts building is spectacular. I was not aware, however, that the vocal performance program is a BFA program - we had not looked at any others that were. They require 8 semesters of dance and 4 of acting so it would seem to be a great choice for a strong singer who isn't confident of getting into MT programs. I think it is best known for acting and MT anyway but thought I'd share what I learned about VP program.</p>