Not sure it’s going to happen, but my 21 year old son is going to try to pursue a cello performance major after trying lots of other things that didn’t pan out. He’s been playing for 15 years, but has had a litany of health problems, and he’s not been in school much for the past three years.
$$ is a huge issue (as in, we have none, and he would get a Pell Grant of about $1400).
Not sure he’ll have enough units to transfer to a UC, but will probably have 60 that will transfer to CSU’s.
Looking for a couple WUE schools that have good cello teachers/music programs/school most likely. Conservatory probably wouldn’t work. He doesn’t want LA, but wouldn’t be good enough for Colburn right now.
Only two schools on the list are SDSU and NAU right now. His teacher says UCSD cello teacher isn’t the right fit.
He might do the Kodaly; he’s done Haydn and can revive it; maybe Saint Sans.
Any suggestions that are closer to home in So Cal?
I don’t have any recommendations for specific teachers on the West Coast as that is pretty far out of our area but just a couple thoughts to explore that might be worthwhile.
In our area, many Detroit Symphony Orchestra members teach at Wayne State U. I have seen ambitious hardworking music students (often who have limited funds and need to live at home or for whatever reason are more budget conscious) take advantage of the mentorship offered by the DSO musicians as well as the rich musical outlets of the Motor City to make a career in music and/or launch to more prestigious programs for graduate work. So you may want to look if musicians from the LAPhil are teaching at area colleges besides the most obvious such as USC or Colburn and see if any of those programs offer what your son is looking for.
Again I don’t know about the specific teachers but University of Utah is very strong in the performing arts and is sometimes mentioned as a lower cost alternative for students wishing to study OOS so that may be worth exploring.
I took a quick look at their website and they have 3 cello professors. As a comparison, U of Michigan has 2. So it looks like their is some depth to their program and worth a look.
Best of luck!
U Utah is a great suggestion, thanks! I totally forgot about Utah universities in the WUE. I have a good list already of about 8 schools in CA and AZ, so I’ll check out Utah schools.
Oh, I just saw that they don’t offer WUE rate for transfer students. Darn!
If you need substantial financial aid, often the private college option is cheaper. Have you run the Net Price Calculators at schools like University of Redlands or University of the Pacific? Certainly the CSU’s are an option - Humboldt, Chico State, San Francisco State, San Jose State all have good music programs - to name a few in Northern California. Northridge, Fullerton, CSU Pomona among some in Southern California. Not sure there is even an admission audition at all of these - possibly only one after a few years into the major.
Try Pt. Loma Nazarene. They often support string performances. I don’t know much about Cello, but my children used to participate in their Strings by the Sea camps and concerts.
I’ll check out CSU Pomona. My son’s teacher has taught at Pt. Loma for many years, so I think he wants to expand, but it might be a good fall back school if it was affordable.
My eldest son did Strings by the Sea, too! Looong time ago. Maybe they knew each other. 
I’ll run numbers on some of the schools like U Pacific, but I assumed it would be unaffordable since it’s not 100% meets need. Those schools are the most affordable for us.
Thanks for the suggestions!
Just curious (in case anyone is still reading this thread), what cello pieces did your kids play for their auditions?
I’m sorry to be late in answering but I believe ASU in Tempe, AZ is a WUE school if I’m understanding what that is correctly. The cello teacher there, Thomas Landschoot, is wonderful! You should definitely consider it.
ASU is WUE, but the music major isn’t, unfortunately. http://wue.wiche.edu/profile.jsp?id=203
Unaffordable without WUE or scholarships…
Quite a few years ago my S attended a festival and the Fry Street String Quartet was in residence and did coachings and taught lessons. He really liked the cellist in the quartet at the time. They are in residence at Utah State U. Maybe that would be worth a look.
My S played 3rd mvt. of the Elgar Concerto and 3rd Bach Suite for his undergrad auditions.
Thank you for the suggestion and information, @cellomom2! We’ll check it out.
We found ASU to be fairly generous with scholarships. It was enough to bring it down to be competitive with UC tuition.
The crazy thing is that because of our income, we qualify for the blue/gold program at a UC, Cal Grant and Pell Grant, so the cost to attend UCSD (at least 3 years ago when my son was originally admitted as a freshman) was about $7400 (tuition, room and board). I’m not sure ASU can match that…I love to idea of ASU for many reasons, not the least of which my eldest son and his wife live there.