I don’t think the music industry cares about college, grades, your 33 ACT score or any of that stuff. They care about talent and stage presence. If you want to be a singer, build your talent, put your 10,000 hours of practice into that and front a band. Perform. Audition for everything.
Would you consider going into something like music production or sound editing or something technical like that? Then you could work in the music industry even though you aren’t the best musician yet…
I’m already planning on building my skills in performing; I am currently learning from a singing technique program and I’ve performed a fair amount before, mostly just for school, church, recitals etc. I was hoping to get more performance opportunities in college. I have done a cappella and show choir and would probably do the same sorts of things at college, as well as solo performances. I suppose I could consider something more technical, but I wanted to study something that would give me a better understanding of music itself, and more opportunities to perform, and I’m not sure music production would be sufficient. That’s why I want to study voice and music theory at a good college. I’d learn vocal technique, do performances, learn theory (which will be useful in understanding and writing music), and probably take lessons for other instruments as well (namely guitar and piano/keyboard).
Since the CC near you is mostly a vocational college, you need to find another CC. Can you move some place and work while taking part time classes at a community college, rather than stay in Missouri?
St Paul’s community college (in Minnesota) has excellent classes and if you work at least part time, supporting yourself, and going part time only (NOT FULL TIME) for at least one year, you’d be considered a Minnesota resident for all public universities. The transfer process from St Paul’s CC to U Minnesota Twin Cities is fairly smooth and instate tuition can even come with scholarships for transfers if you maintain a high GPA. The Twin Cities are thriving economically and they’re rather lower cost than other big cities. Finally, the area has a strong tradition in music due to the many Scandinavian immigrants (St Olaf, Concordia Moorhead, Luther all have strong choirs, with St Olaf being the gold standard - look the the PBS special) and the Twin Cities have LOTS of stages for you to perform, bands to listen to or join, etc, etc.
You can do the same thing in Florida - less of a musical tradition but warmer winters and a lot of strong public universities if you do well at community college.
Same thing in the State of New York but some areas aren’t quite thriving and where there’s an economic boom cost of life is too high for a part time low-skilled employee. :s
Are there any other CCs within driving distance? If not, then you may have to just focus mostly on Gen Ed classes while there, to get those out of the way, but also to “prove” yourself to any univ that you’d be later transferring to.
Are you close to Whiteman AFB? Would any of the Kansas City MO community colleges be within commuting distance?
would you say that you’re closer to State Fair CC or UCM? Are you too far from UMKC?
My dad works at Whiteman, so yeah. And UCM is literally just down the road while State Fair is in another town. KC is over an hour away.
And State Fair is the only one nearby. I’d be willing to move to another state if it meant I would get a chance to study what I want to, I’m just not sure where would be the best place.
Moving to another state is probably not an option since you’d pay out of state rates. There are some schools with discounts for Midwest Students. http://msep.mhec.org/institutions?field_state_term_tid=6&field_program_type_term_tid=12&field_sector_term_tid=All
Actually, as I explained, in Minnesota, residency is tied to the student moving and working to support himself and not enrolling more than part time at community college for a year; after a year of work and part time CC, the student would be an in-state applicant, AND would be eligible (if excellent grades) for scholarships. With its combination of thriving economy, low-cost of living, and musical tradition, the Twin Cities seem like a perfect OOS situation for OP.
An easy solution is to take a couple classes à UCM:
First semester for someone interested in Music is:
Freshman Composition 1, Music 1000 Recital Attendance, Music 1100 Fundamentals of Music, Music 1610 Voice, a major vocal ensemble and 2 gen eds. OP could take Freshman composition and the music classes/experiential learning, plus just 1 gen ed.
Then, second semeser, Freshman Composition 2, 2 gen eds, plus Music 1111 Music Theory and Music 1121 Aural Training and recital attendance + vocal group participation.
After that, you should have “repaired” your previous GPA sufficiently that, if you wished to move to another state that has easy residency requirements, such as MN, and low in state tuition,* and do the part time college/work thing, you could do your year there, and transfer to the public flagship. You’d be 23 when you’d graduate: I can assure you that adults see ZERO difference between 23, 24, and 22…
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I’d be willing to move to another state if it meant I would get a chance to study what I want to, I’m just not sure where would be the best place.
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You don’t have the income to support yourself to live outside your parents home AND pay for college.
YOU can only borrow $5500. If you’re going to school full-time, particularly anything performance related, your ability to work (for pay) will likely be limited and your likely annual income would probably not be more than $6k-8k per year.
Who is currently paying for:
your car
your car insurance
gas
cell phone
health insurance
food
clothing
You need to work on your GPA with GenEd courses at State Fair…enough to get into UCM (since it sounds like UCM wouldn’t accept you at this point, but visit there and find out.)
Eh, I wouldn’t rule out UCM entirely. They have a high acceptance rate, I could at least ask them about it. But I wasn’t planning on doing college at all until next fall.
Right now I’m just working, making $2000+ a month, and was planning on working up until I go. I’m living with a friend paying $200 rent every month, my health insurance is free from the military until I’m 21 (26 if I’m in school which is why I want to go back next year). My cell plan is with my mom. The one thing I pay for completely right now is my car insurance and gas.
The thing about UCM is I don’t really want to go there. UCM is okay I suppose, but even if I could get in with my current GPA, I’d still have to go to State Fair for financial reasons. Plus, I just don’t like this town or the school. I’d rather go somewhere that I’d have more opportunities to audition for bands and do performances/competitions etc.
I’ve liked the idea of going to California or New York, but of course the living costs are ridiculous. So the Twin Cities idea is certainly something I could consider.
@MYOS1634 are you sure about MN residency? That’s not the way I read the requirements:
Yes - residency is based on the student, not the parents. The student has to move to MN and work to support himself/herself and can’t take more than part time classes (over that the student is classified as “moved for educational purpose”) for more than a year - in this student’s case, 3 semesters would be likely to repair the GPA.
I agree that it’s based on the student but the statement is “resided in the state for one calendar year prior to applying for admission”. Taking part time classes implies admission.
Yes, prior to applying for admission at UMN-TC. The student can be taking one or two classes at a CC (I recommended St Paul’s) as long as s/he is supporting himself/herself with work.
Did you get that interpretation from an financial aid officer or the school?
Yes. This applies to the student, not the parent; “application” means “to UMN TC”.
The student must have moved to MN and be self supporting for one year until application time. 1 or 2 classes at CC don’t “count” since the primary occupation is seen as the job (ie., 6 credits + 30 hour job = person who works and takes a couple classes, vs. 15 credits + 12 hour job = full time student.) The person needs to prove the existence of the job. I wasn’t told about about changing driver’s license and voting registration to MN but I assume OP could do it just in case.
The example I was given is this: if a transfer student applies for Fall 2017, they need to have moved to Minnesota by March 1 2016, and be self supporting for a year in order to be considered “in state”.
I don’t expect droves of students will move to work for 18 months until they can start college, sharing an apartment somewhere in the Twin Cities. But such a policy is nice. It’s a bit similar to New York State’s but the low cost of living areas in NYS aren’t very conducive to finding jobs for self-supporting young people; Utah and Missouri actually have even more lenient policies. California has one of the strictest.
Obviously, this only applies to citizens and permanent residents.