<p>These days a lot of music students get both a bachelors and a MM, so it is a common path. My thought for you turns to the socratic method (aka teachers who love to drive their students up the wall:), asking questions. Do you feel like your training at this point gives you solid skills enough to be able to audition? Have you already been able to get performing gigs, or are you coming out of ug still not having really gotten your feet wet other then student performances? More importantly, do you see that path you want/need to take and know how to go about doing it? If the answer to all three of these in your mind is a strong yes, then you may not need to get a grad degree (again, this is just my take on it, don’t take this as gospel, just what I would tell me own child when their time for grad school came).</p>
<p>In terms of where to go, it is a tough quandary. NEC is not known for great financial aid and conventional wisdom is that you are better off, even from grad school, coming out with as little debt as possible, because grad school doesn’t guarantee anything in terms of actually making a living, either. 30k versus 60k is a big difference, I don’t know the terms of student loans, but obviously 60k is a lot to drag around (and if you were fortunate enough to have relatives who might be willing to lend you the money to pay these off, or had perhaps the ability to get a loan at a more favorable rate, lot easier to ask for 30k then 60k).</p>
<p>Outside the money, again questions come in. All three schools have faculty who know the ‘real world’ and can help with that, MSM has the advantage of being in the middle of the NYC music scene with some top end teachers like Glenn Dictorow (CM NY Phil), among others, NEC has great faculty and is in Boston, and while I don’t know how big or small the performing scene is in the area surrounding peabody (Baltimore, DC), they have some talented faculty as well who are out there. My take (which is not based in concrete facts) is that MSM or NEC might be better, simply because they are in areas where you might get a lot of chances to start getting your feet wet, gigging and so forth, whereas at least to me Peabody is an unknown in that regards.</p>
<p>The other question is, have you met with any faculty at the schools? Have you talked to potential teachers, and gotten a feel for them? Have you looked at the schools and the environment to see if you like it? and as others have asked, have you looked into the potential of being an RA or TA, which hold advantages (TA getting a teaching stipend and scholarship, RA getting to live in housing in return for being a floor advisor)? All these might help influence your decision making. In the end, I think going to any of the three would end up being beneficial if you feel you need grad school to get on your feet, and from there the decision is a combinatorial decision based on how well you feel the school would prepare you weighed against the cost.</p>
probably not though…I thought of him before I thought of the obvious</p>
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