Is the music program at Northeastern worthwhile for a music major?

Hi, I was admitted as a music major for this fall, and I was wondering if anyone who is currently a music major would recommend/not recommend going to NEU for music. I mainly applied because of co-op and because I’m a guitarist who doesn’t want to exclusively study jazz/classical music, and I liked that many classes don’t seem to pigeon-hole hole you into those two genres.

But lately, I’ve been hearing some bad things about the music program, as far as co-ops being hard to get and the music facilities not being great. Is a lot of that true?

Also, does anyone have any experience with the joint certificate program at the New England Conservatory? I thought that it would be a good idea to focus more on contemporary music and business/technology at Northeastern and focus more on jazz/classical music and composition at NEC.

I can’t say I know the specifics of the program (and especially the NEC connection stuff) but I think what you’ve heard is fair critiques from what I know. The facilities are smaller given the limited size of the major and sufficient but not state of the art. Co-op’s in music will be hard to get because co-op demand mirrors industry generally. I would say that co-op is still an advantage of getting to know how to find music jobs before postgrad though, even if it may be difficult or not pay on the high side.

I think the best way to probably know for sure is to visit and make sure to see the facilities and talk to a professor or two. Your logic makes sense to me though in terms of balancing your music with business/technology.

@compmom may know more about the NEC connection details than I do

My son is attending admitted students day and has an appointment to meet with one of Music professors to talk about non majors music options. If you can swing a visit, it might address your concerns.