<p>I'm interested in going to college as a double major, for corporate finance and music performance on the baritone saxophone. Does anyone know if colleges have instruments, or do they require that the student have his or her own? Does anyone know anything about the instrument policies of any of these schools in particular?</p>
<p>Penn State University
Rutgers University
Case Western Reserve University
University of Pennsylvania
Boston College
Boston University
University of Rochester (yes, I'm applying to Eastman; yes, it is fairly ridiculous)
Lehigh University
Emory University
New York University
Brandeis University
Tufts University</p>
<p>No one studies corporate finance, especially not as undergrads. Do you mean business? You need a pre-professional school. Places like Tufts, BU, BC are not pre-business, but you could study Econ and Entrepreunerial Studies and the like.</p>
<p>If you plan to major in music in college you should plan to own your own instrument. The only things colleges own are pianos, and some instruments that they might need in some pieces but students might not own. One school we know owns some English Horns, for example, but even with that, many oboe majors now own their own.</p>
<p>I guess it varies by instrument. Several of the schools that we visited owned at least a few instruments in the string family that could be borrowed by students who could not afford a decent instrument of their own.</p>
<p>Most music majors do own their own instrument by the time they get to college, though. How will you keep in shape over the summer if you don't have your own horn?</p>
<p>Most schools do have instrument collections, but they aren't typically extensive or very good. The basic collection would be percussion instruments, a contrabassoon, an english horn, an e-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, possibly an alto flute, and maybe a piccolo trumpet or alto trombone. Other than that every school will have different instruments, and they'll tend to focus on the more expensive instruments (i.e. contrabassoon). Relatively speaking, saxes aren't that expensive so the chances of a school owning one aren't so great. Even if the school does own one, you'd be forced to share it with anyone else who needs to use the instruments. My school has 2 contrabassoons for about 16 bassoon majors, spread out over 3 orchestras, a chamber orchestra, and 2 wind ensembles. The students also borrow them for outside gigs. You'd think 2 contras would be enough, but they are in almost constant use making it difficult for a student to practice on them.</p>
<p>I have to agree with Mahler about the condition of school owned instruments. DD used three different borrowed English Horns before we finally bought her one. Two belonged to the university where she did her precollege orchestra playing. To say that the English Horn was "substandard" is an understatement. In fact, it didn't work. We had signed a contract saying we would not alter this precious piece of junk, so we couldn't take it for adjustment either. She was playing in a side by side concert with the Hartford Symphony, and the instrument was so poor and played so few notes that the English Horn player with the symphony actually had to let DD use HER horn. If you are a serious musician, you would want your own instrument. You can then have control over its maintenance, and care. And you will always have it for your practice and use. If you want to major in music performance, my advice is you would want to own your own instrument(s).</p>