<p>I am not personally interested in the music program, however one of my friends is planning on majoring in music and is looking at some all music schools, and regular schools with good music programs. She seems to think that Uchicago has an outstanding music program, as to one of the best in the country. However, I do not know is this is necessarilly true. I have visted the campus a few weeks ago, and there was never any mention of a strong music program. I told my friend that UChicago is not really regarded for music, as it is highly regarded in other areas, such as economics. My friend doesn't seem to get that Uchicago only has a music major, NOT a music school. Is there any truth to what my friend is saying? Is Uchicago really that regarded for its music program?</p>
<p>UChicago is very strong in the theoretical aspects of music. It has one of the best musicology programs in the country. I believe composition is also quite strong. There are no performance majors though.</p>
<p>Okay, but this is something that applicants need to apply through the regular “college”, and go through the same criteria as any other applicants for the college right? I know that for some colleges if you are going into music, they may not be as strict with GPA’s, SAT’s and transcripts. This is not true for UChicago right? You still need to be as strong in all areas to be considered right?</p>
<p>In terms of applications, it’s exactly the same as for any other major. </p>
<p>And, yes, the University of Chicago music dept is one of the best in the world.</p>
<p>If your seriously considering being a professional musician with no other career path that comes close, I do not feel like Uchicago is the best place to go for that. Most of our classes our theory/ composition based, performance really just is not there. </p>
<p>That said, if you want music as an extra part of a solid liberal arts education, you can’t go wrong at chicago.</p>
<p>One school of the same caliber as Chicago and in the same area is Northwestern. It actually has a really strong music school for everything, so your friend might want to look there.</p>
<p>It depends on what your friend wants to study. If your friend wants to study composition, theory, or history, our music department is one of the best in the world for these areas. If your friend wants to study performance, we do not have a degree program for that. </p>
<p>It is 100% incorrect to say that our music department is not well-regarded.</p>
<p>Composition dept is one of the finest non-conservatory programs in the US. No preformance degree though…</p>
<p>To echo what everybody has said, it depends on what you mean by “studying music.” If your friend wants to study theory, history, or composition, it’s a great choice. But if s/he is more performance oriented, it’s not so great. Even if s/he wants to do a mix of both, I would recommend somewhere else, as I believe the classical music scene here is seriously lacking compared to some other schools that I know of.</p>