Anyone who can share a current experience with jazz performance at Steinhardt? My jazz performer got into conservatories and universities and chose NYU for the location and roster of great teachers, however the academic “Core” courses look intense. My student was not keen on having a big academic component to the degree, but these courses seem well beyond basic cores. Lab science. Quantitative reasoning (non calculus math like stats). English classes reading Arrian and Plato and Thucydides… Beyond basic. Anyone out there who can share personal experience?
I can’t answer specifically to the NYU experience…so hopefully someone else will respond on that.
Still, most (if not all) universities DO check grades and test scores for an academic acceptance in addition to the music acceptance. In other words, if he did not “look” like the other scared Freshmen showing up in the fall, he would not have been accepted. Universities have a track record of success in this.
And yes, university class descriptions do not look like high school ones. Expectations are higher, class descriptions “fancier”…and all Freshmen will need to adjust. I think your S will be in good company that first semester.
And…music students are allowed to have a lower GPA and/or test scores…which may or may not be fueling your concern. As most music parents of college-aged students know, music kids do fine in college courses despite lower stats on entry for some (usually a result of spending time on music as opposed to ACT/SAT test prep). So regardless if statically they look a step lower…it does not mean that they will not perform well in one general ed class a semester (regardless its fancy description). Most music kids know how to work hard and manage their time (skills learned in high school) and those skills are really important in college…and often translate into good grades.
If he was accepted by NYU, trust that they know what they are doing. So no worries in my opinion.
Thanks. My other kid is majoring in music (BA) at a different school and that program requires more in liberal arts core. We did know about cores required here but in prelim research we never saw anything this heavy in the writeups. This is a far deeper academic dive than my student was interested in ever taking. Might have opted for one of the conservatories (also accepted there) instead if this was known in advance. Fingers crossed the first semester works out.
Please keep us posted, @musicfirst! NYU is on my kid’s preliminary list. A dream school, actually. I can imagine a similar response to these course requirements, however, and will be very interested to hear how this plays out. We have been leaning a bit away from conservatories with a desire for more breadth and depth in course offerings and students interactions, but what you describe almost sounds like a deal breaker. Thankful to hear @bridgenail’s take on it. Definitely a voice I have come to trust!
Hi all, we are huge NYU fans – my daughter graduated from Gallatin in 2017 and had an amazing experience. That said, my S auditioned and was accepted to the jazz program but decided against it. A few reasons, money being a big one, but also size and impersonal feel. He wasn’t able to meet the person who would be his studio head until after he was accepted, by which point – even though they seemed excellent – he was focused in a different direction. He also felt (completely anecdotally, take with a huge grain of salt!) that the better players he knew ended up at MSM or Juilliard or New School if they chose New York. Happy to chat via PM if you have further questions.