im an indian male seeking to study MUSIC/ETHNIC Studies along w/ PRE MED. I have a few questions regarding pursuing music at an ivy.
How good do you have to be performance wise to get in as a music major? I’m good, but not fantastic. I’m more interested in the role of music in our culture rather than performence itself.
2.) Should I send in a music supplement because I’m applying as this major? Once again, i’m good, but not conservatory level as others may be.
3.) As an Indian male, would this be an advantage? Forgive my honesty, but Indians pretty much only do Bio (pre-med), Comp Sci, or Engineering? Is music a popular major among the Ivies? Will it be reasonably more likely for me to get in if I applied under this major?
Thanks for your help, any light that could be shed on this would be amazing.
@skieurope ok thanks for the response, but would my intent/passion to explore something indians don’t normally pursue differentiate myself from the pack? Of course, i still intend on doing pre med, but I thought showing my humanities side would be 10x better than showing my STEM side.
I’m not an expert on music or Ivy admissions, but here are my guesses:
(1) The Ivies are about the academic study of music. They are not trying to train professional musicians, like conservatories do. You don’t need to be a great musician to major in music, just as you don’t need to be a great writer to major in English.
(2) The Ivies will be interested in your extracurricular activities. If a music supplement helps to document your interests and talents, then send it in. Consider picking music that relates to the role of music in culture (since that seems to be your particular interest), and including an explanation of the relationship. Lots of Ivy applicants can perform music well, but the ability to analyze music in a cultural context might be more unusual, and perhaps more interesting.
(3) My guess is that the Ivies don’t get very many prospective Indian (or Indian-American) music majors, so you might stand out to some extent. My guess is that music is probably not a very popular major at Ivies.
@me29034 perhaps my main question is, how do the ivies look upon an average-good musician who loves the subject and wants to explore it for academic purposes (rather than just performance)? Do you need to be stellar/send in supplement to be considered as a music major? These questions apply to the ivies/other top schools in general.
Look up the requirements to be a music major at each school you are interested in. Go to their website and find the music department page. Look to see if there are audition requirements for admittance to the major.
@skieaurope You aren’t supposed to do this even If you have the same question about multiple schools? I thought this would be the best way to target the question to those who might know the answer. I’m surprised that this isnt allowed. How do you suggest the student ask the question? He isn’t getting the info he wants on this forum.
There are generally two types of undergraduate music degrees in the US: the BM (Bachelor of Music) and the BA (Bachelor of Arts). The BM is the professional degree: admissions will typically require high-level performance skills, as demonstrated in auditions. The BA is the academic degree: admissions will typically require high-level academic skills, as demonstrated by grades and test scores.
Some top-ranked schools, like Oberlin or Rochester, offer both degrees. If you check them out, you will see the differences in admissions requirements between a BM and a BA. The Oberlin BM, for example, has extensive audition requirements. The Oberlin BA, on the other hand, has no requirements for musical ability (although it does require some musical participation):
As far as I know, all Ivy undergraduate music degrees are BAs (not BMs). Their requirements should be generally similar to the BA requirements at Oberlin or Rochester.
Incidentally, Oberlin explicitly recognizes “Music & Culture” as a category of potential interest on the BA track:
The music major at Ivy schools is more about musicology (theoretical stuffs), and far less about performance. As a result, these departments have very few performance faculty members, and some of them do not even offer regular classes on instruments for the majority of their music concentrators.
Many music majors are not strong performers; of course, many of them are good performers.
There have been numerous extremely high level performers in Ivy schools, but most of them are not music major; e.g., Emanuel Ax, James Buswell, George Li. The list goes on. The reason is often that they had devoted almost their entire life to music and performance before entering college. They want to explore a different dimension of their lives to be a more complete being.
There are 2 schools of thoughts on whether one should submit supplements. One is that it should be good enough to give you an edge. To have an edge at Ivy schools often means that the performance level is about conservatory level. The other is that the supplement gives you an additional opportunity to show who you are and how serious you are. In your case, if you are interested in music and your culture, I think it will be very interesting if you include a recording of your performance of a rarely performed piece composed by your countryman or a piece that reflects your culture.
Let me jump in here. Ivy League schools take pride in their major ensembles like orchestra which perform in front of the students, faculty, community, and donors.
Very talented and accomplished musicians that play oboe, french horn, etc. can potentially leverage that talent for admissions purposes if there is a need say in the orchestra in the coming year. It would seem indicating an interest in Music academically would not hurt either for those kids.
My friend had to an audition months ago to be considered for the music program at Princeton. She is an excellent performer, apart of a prestigious children’s orchestra. She said her best performance ever was her audition and she was still deferred. So, at least Princeton has a serious music program and it’s not just a major you can casually sign up for.