<p>Sound advice from those before me, but I’m going to paint a fairly broad picture and try and point out some background reading to try and help you make sense of this process.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/258796-so-you-want-music-major-one-familys-experience.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/258796-so-you-want-music-major-one-familys-experience.html</a> while written from the viewpoint of a classical instrumentalist is an excellent overview of the music admissions process.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/460187-how-many-music-voice-performance-majors-find-jobs.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/460187-how-many-music-voice-performance-majors-find-jobs.html</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/1019718-sure-being-music-major-truly-you-your-child.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/1019718-sure-being-music-major-truly-you-your-child.html</a></p>
<p>These are food for thought threads, and it is important that you have an idea of the competition, the potential of success, the ability to assess and formulate options and a strategy that you can live with.</p>
<p>From the standpoint of musical background within the folks that interact here, you appear to be behind the curve in terms of formal training and experiences. From a songwriting/composition aspect, you may not be, but again the lack of training and professional guidance will most probably be a major disadvantage.</p>
<p>Looking through your past posts, the initial list of schools you’ve posted is all over the board. A couple are high level conservatories, rooted in the classical tradition. A few are solid music programs with audition centric admissions, a couple are non-audition BA music options. One or two are not known for their music departments. Berklee seems an obvious choice for what you seek, but the overview of your background suggests that you may not be competitive within an extremely talented audition pool.</p>
<p>Your use of contemporary/modern as a descriptive can be misleading. My guess is that you are a seeking a program that focuses on what many might call popular or commercial music. There are few programs with this focus, the major one’s being USC/Thornton, Berklee, Belmont, New School’s J&C, UDenver/Lamont, Miami/Frost, CalArts, UArts, Roosevelt/CCPA. Most of these are audition based, with extremely competitive audition pools. A couple are far less competitive.</p>
<p>The other issue is your broad scope of interests… music production, songwriting, performance tend to be separate processes in audition based admissions, and the ease of moving within and across disciplines can be hard to glean from an overview reading of a program’s website.</p>
<p>The BA non-audition option was mentioned by one of the earlier posters, and it should not be ruled out. Many fine music departments exist within the liberal arts colleges, and The Colleges That Change Lives is often a good place to start.</p>
<p>Some more general reading </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/938087-songwriting-colleges.html?highlight=songwriting[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/938087-songwriting-colleges.html?highlight=songwriting</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/752896-music-schools-embrace-contemporary-musicians-suggestions-requested.html?highlight=contemporary[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/752896-music-schools-embrace-contemporary-musicians-suggestions-requested.html?highlight=contemporary</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/729957-does-any-school-teach-contemporary-music-music-performance-major.html?highlight=contemporary[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/729957-does-any-school-teach-contemporary-music-music-performance-major.html?highlight=contemporary</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/448421-late-bloomer-contemporary-music-advice.html?highlight=contemporary[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/448421-late-bloomer-contemporary-music-advice.html?highlight=contemporary</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/1001544-looking-popular-music-related-major-relatively-big-city.html?highlight=popular[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/1001544-looking-popular-music-related-major-relatively-big-city.html?highlight=popular</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/749881-best-liberal-arts-college-music-program-composition.html?highlight=composition[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/749881-best-liberal-arts-college-music-program-composition.html?highlight=composition</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/957443-music-business-industry-management-technology-production.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/957443-music-business-industry-management-technology-production.html</a></p>
<p>Those are just a sampling. Learn how to best use this forum to your advantage. This may help:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/892168-search-tips-other-insights.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/892168-search-tips-other-insights.html</a></p>
<p>Also look for some past posts by raddad, SteveM, PamelaMaeSnap, Smithanan, henrob as background for the popular options and insights.</p>
<p>Ther may be useful info here as well:
[Musician</a> Wages.com - The Website for the Working Musician](<a href=“http://www.musicianwages.com/]Musician”>http://www.musicianwages.com/)</p>
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<p>As a junior, now is the time to seriously start an in depth examination of music options, if that is what you want to do. Be realistic, and if you do intend to focus and attempt an audition based admissions, I would seriously rethink the lacrosse and the clubs. As others have mentioned, professional assessments as to your current talents AND potential are the keys here, but spreading too thin by adding EC’s may be at cross purposes.</p>
<p>One more thought: I would suggest not starting many multiple threads, but continue to add your basic questions to one primary. It makes it a bit easier for those responding to quickly review past info.</p>