Has she had any sample lessons with teachers yet, and how many schools are under consideration? It would be worthwhile to revisit campuses for (additional) sample lessons (though this can be time consuming and costly, it is definitely helpful). No one can guarantee a teacher will stay for 4 years, but you can get an ideal of the stability of the department. Are teachers on the tenure track or employed as adjuncts? An adjunct may not have as strong ties to the school as one who is tenured (or hopes to be). That said, if there is an assistant prof of interest, how much longer before the tenure decision is made? Has there been recent turnover with the chairman and is it common for faculty to stay a few years then leave? It is a difficult process, and people on this forum are happy to share our experiences and insights, although each student is different, each department is different, and what works for one might not be applicable to others.
@bridgenail and @songbirdmama. Thanks so much for your advice. She does know one person at one of the schools and has been in touch with her, but I don’t think she has asked all of the right questions – and also she is a MT student not VP. Her voice teacher has added a few thoughts on one of her choices too.
There are nine schools in all. In terms of travel, 3 are within 4 hours and one is 8 hours away. It would be the 3rd visit for the 8-hour trip and I don’t think there is money or time. I advised her to eliminate 5 right off the bat just by gut feeling. Have you ever heard of students skyping lessons?
@Razzyreb- You can plan and plan and things still happen, so she needs to find a school where she is happy and work from there. Teachers don’t usually leave (IF they are FT and tenured, but nowadays a lot are not) but they can become ill or their family members can or, well, it was like this: In late October of my daughter’s junior year of undergrad, her voice teacher announced without warning that she would be leaving at the end of the school year! She wasn’t taking another job, she was quitting the field altogether and stranding her students (she had no seniors at that time). Although the school allowed my D and a couple of other students to have a hand in helping to pick out the replacement, it was a major disruption for her. Each grad school interview asked “why” she had a different teacher listed for her senior year so things were rehashed at every audition but she got through it just fine. To give the story another twist, her undergrad conservatory was the one she had pretty much decided upon in 11th grade but after auditioning and enrolling, the teacher she had wanted all that time had departed-again, without prior announcement- for another school- and had been replaced by the teacher…well, you get the rest.
Moral of this story is: plan all you want but know that some of it us not within your control!
First of all, students do do Skype lessons so you can definitely ask. And it could certainly be helpful.
And a few other comments:
As said above, you have little control over what happens over a 4 year period. A teacher may leave…and you and your D need to acknowledge that and feel like the school offers a solid program, faculty and environment to overcome that blow. As important as the teacher is, there are other elements that are important too. If the rest of the program is solid, a good replacement teacher would be found. Look at the teacher sure. It’s very important. But have a holistic look too. My D had some other elements that were important…so honestly the teacher was only part of the package. As I have said earlier, voice is late to develop. I’m sure there are a handful of teachers that could help her grow. If you do research on the “program” and view their shows, I think you can have some confidence that students are growing and the program will continue to be stable and strong despite the loss of one teacher.
I think you have done a good job to narrow it down to 4. As a parent, I would have a list of a few things that I absolutely need from a school to pay tuition. If all schools accomplish that, I would put it in your D’s hands to make the choice…and just be a sounding board. You have a month in which to be reaching out and asking questions. But again I would not solely emphasis the voice teacher for MT (as the one and only golden nugget out there). She will need to learn to work with many different people and a good, stable faculty will do replacements. My D actually felt she benefited from the one semester hiatus of her teacher. A different teacher with a different perspective was fine.
Hope this helps.
Can a teacher leave? It does happen, a young teacher at a program who has become known can move to another program, sometimes established teachers get a better deal from another school (Paul Kantor moving from CIM to Rice several years ago), sometimes teachers retire or die, it happens. This can be an especially difficult when the school has limited faculty in your area, while they will replace the faculty member, who knows who it will be? Your teacher goes over the wall at Juilliard on violin, they have like 20 violin faculty, and you likely will be able to find someone to work with who can do well with you…top faculty usually don’t move that often, but it can happen. My S’s teacher ended up taking 1/2 of each semester this year as sabbatical and my S ended up with substitute teachers, he liked both of them, learned some things from them about how to go forward in the future, but it could have been a negative if they didn’t work well with my son, but that is something you can’t really plan for. The problem with the ‘rest of the program’ is that it won’t necessarily make up for the teacher, in instrumental music having a strong orchestra or chamber group might feed the kid, or having good academics, but if the teacher that replaces their original one isn’t very good, it is going to hurt their growth, so having as backup solid overall program/solid academics is likely not going to be enough. Having a school where there are other decent faculty is not a bad hedge, though, and it is something to think about IMO.
@musicprnt @Mezzo’sMama @bridgenail Thank you all for your thoughtful insights. Skyping has to be an option because logistically, it’s just impossible to be all of these places in one month. I guess another thing to consider is summer job opportunities as well. @macdeutsche Please let me know how your S is deciding.
To all: Does anyone know anything about the program for VP at the stronger MT schools – Carnegie Mellon and University of Michigan? If not, can you direct me to a thread on how to measure the success of a school’s VP program?
@Razzyreb - Sending you a PM
Only my opinion but it’s based on years of hanging around VP and MT teachers/students.
Michigan and CMU are both big dogs (highly selective) for MT.
For VP, Michigan is again a big dog. CMU to my knowledge is not.
That does not mean CMU would not be a good choice. It most likely has a very good program and with the right teacher a student could really grow. Also CMU may have some qualities that match your D’s educational desires. Still it is not known in general as one of the big dog VP programs - although for UG that’s not always important.
One other comment: for classical VP the voice teacher is important. But for MT the program as a whole would be more important imho. Have you found the musical theater forum yet? You will see a very different emphasis there. There will be little discussion of the teacher. Feel free to ask questions about VP here. For MT you should ask that group. My D auditioned for both 6 years ago so I’m a little rusty on MT. And if you have questions on a particular VP program you can ask here and see if anyone can reply.
Edit: was going to suggest you PM Mezzo’smama but it looks like she has contacted you.