<p>I have been lurking on here for quite a while, and finally got up my courage to post....here goes! </p>
<p>I am a high school junior looking for schools to major in music performance or ed, I'm not quite sure which. I have pretty good grades (mostly As), so I'm not really worried about the academic side of things.
What I am looking for are schools that are not conservatory-level but have a good music department (for violin) and are willing to give some pretty significant financial aid. While I would love to go to a conservatory, it quite simply is not financially/musically feasible.
Several reliable sources have told me that I have the potential to be a very strong player, and I am willing to work as hard as necessary to achieve that. The drawback is that I started rather "late", and so am not at a level that most music majors are/should be to get admitted. However I love what I do, and can't really imagine doing anything else with my life. And hey, why not? :)
I guess what my point is, is my list feasible, and are there any other schools or options I could be looking at? </p>
<p>University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory
Vanderbilt
Michigan (total reach/dream/near impossibility :))
James Madison
U of North Carolina</p>
<p>Your list seems a bit all over the place. Can you tell us why you chose these particular schools? Teacher? Program? Location? Size? Cost?</p>
<p>What state are you in? For music ed, if you go that route, you might want to look at schools in your home state and/or the state you’d like to teach in. If finances are a concern, staying in your home state if there are good options might be worthwhile.</p>
<p>Also, if you are not in-state in NC, admission to U of NC is tough.</p>
<p>U of NC, Michigan, and Vanderbilt are all tough academic admits, and are going to care very much about your grades and test scores.</p>
<p>In Georgia, UGA has a very strong strings program, as does Mercer (if you don’t mind the religious overtones there). </p>
<p>Violinists, as you know, are plentiful, and therefore don’t always attract the most scholarship money. To get money, you have to generally be among the better violin applicants. But paradoxically, that means the program level may be beneath you. It will require some research on your part to find that perfect balance - a great teacher plus an appropriate program that is in “building” phase trying to attract strong players.</p>
<p>Have a look at Susquehanna and Gettysburg, both in Pennsylvania. Both offered D3 wonderful aid and have decent music departments. The folks at Susquehanna were far and away the nicest we ran across in our search.</p>
<p>Michigan is really not the best place for violin. Despite the great reputation of the school and some very good departments, the violin faculty is not particularly strong right now, and the students show it.</p>
<p>Some places (and teachers) to think about:
Baylor University (Bruce Berg)
St. Olaf
Lawrence
University of Wisconsin (Felicia Moye)
NYU
CUNY-Queens College
Brooklyn College
Arizona State (Katie McLin)</p>
<p>Most of the schools that you mention will be almost as expensive as most conservatories and some may offer less financial aid making attendance at them more expensive than a conservatory. </p>
<p>Baylor offers automatic academic scholarships (around $15 000 per year) for those with good grades and test scores. The music department also offers large awards to good auditions on top of the university’s money. If you get both, then you are close to a free ride there. Baylor has both performance and music ed.</p>
<p>All admits to Mercer’s Robert Macduffie Center for Strings get full-scholarship, but admission is competitive. While the school has an official association with Southern Baptists, that tie has loosened considerably and there aren’t any religious overtones to be minded–just southern ones which are immensely appealing to some and appalling to others! If you don’t get admitted to the MacDuffie Center, then Mercer has a music ed program, as well, and the university is quite generous with financial aid.</p>
<p>Another idea to add to the mix-- Esther Boyer School at Temple U. Some of the teachers there also teach at Curtis, or are members of the Philadelphia Orchestra.</p>
<p>@binx
I’m looking at Vanderbilt because they have a new financial policy that they will meet 100% of demonstrated financial need, WITHOUT loans. That is extremely important to me because I do not want to graduate college with debt to pay off. Missouri-Kansas City is the location factor to appease the parents, and I would get in-state tuition. I picked the others because I liked the look of their programs and I really love the South. </p>
<p>This is not by any means a final list; I am still trying to gather info–the main problem I have when researching is I don’t really have a way to determine if a school is good or not. Most of my research is done online, and probably will stay that way since it is not possible for me to go visit any schools. Is there a way to determine whether a school is worth my while? </p>
<p>Thanks so much everyone for your input. I really appreciate it!</p>
<p>What state are you from? Is UMKC in-state for you?
As for whether a school is good or not, I would recommend focusing your research at this stage on alumni outcomes from the violin teachers at each school. Try google searches with phrases like “studied with john doe” or “student of jane buck;” also, you might email teachers and ask about their former students’ activities. Really good teachers will have at least a couple of students who have found employment and done graduate study at top-tier schools.</p>
<p>Violingirl16: Binx offered really good advice. </p>
<p>Vanderbilt’s No Loan policy has made it even more difficult to be accepted. You would need top academic stats and a very good audition.</p>
<p>Check with your parents and find out what your EFC is likely to be AND even more importantly EXACTLY how much they can afford to spend on your college costs. Even if a school has a no loan policy, they will expect your parents to pay your full EFC.</p>
<p>On the music side of things, make sure that you research the audition requirements for each school carefully. You should be picking your repertoire NOW. It would be awful to find out shortly before an audition that the school requires 2 solo Bach mvts and you might only have 1 ready to go. Or find out Paganini is required and you have a Kreutzer prepared.</p>
<p>Do you have a private teacher? He/she should be able to help narrow your selections. Once your list is set, you should try to learn as much as possible about the faculty. You need to be able to work with and learn from your studio teacher. If it isn’t feasible to visit any of the schools prior to auditions, you should visit those where you are accepted before you make a final decision.</p>
<p>I am a parent, and wondering if anyone has a student who applied to a college for Organ Performance and Sacred Music. If so, wondering where and how the experience was. My
D’s SAT and ACT scores are not what we had hoped. So her talents will have to far outweigh the drawback of low standardized test scores.</p>
<p>There are a couple of organ majors on the Master List of Final Decisions '10, and I believe oat least one in the '09 (maybe '08) thread of similar title.</p>
<p>Thank You. D is a Senior in HS, and already finished with applications. Still has auditions to get to. I just think that with her grades, these schools may be a bit of a reach. I was hoping to hear how important grades are when going in for Music and specifically something as unique as Organ. There can’t be too many of them out there.</p>
<p>My mistake. In a nutshell, at straight conservatories, it’s virtually all in the audition. At programs attached to universities/colleges, there typically is a minimum academic bar that must be met. Some are flexible, and can and do stretch the bar for an exceptional audition. Others insist the academic requirement is met, even for a weak academic candidate with a stellar audition</p>
<p>Knowing the schools she applied to would enable those who respond to be more specific.</p>
<p>OP–your violin teacher should be your best resource for finding schools and preparing audition pieces.</p>
<p>If you admit your playing isn’t quite first tier, what do you plan to do after college? I hope you seriously consider music ed, as even fine violin players encounter tough competition for full-time paid positions.</p>
<p>I would suggest only considering music ed if you would be happy teaching in a K-12 environment. I have known teachers who washed out of performance and went to music ed as a backup plan. Their heart was not in teaching and it showed. The situation was not fair to their students.</p>
<p>Being realistic is generally a good thing, but if one is going to be realistic about their ambitions as a performer then they should also be realistic about their performance as a teacher. For those who consider it to be plan A or at least a big part of plan A, teaching can be a rewarding career. Using music education as plan B often does much more harm than good. It takes a special kind of person to retain their sanity (let alone their effectiveness as a teacher) after spending year after year conducting a middle school orchestra or training third graders to play recorder.</p>
<p>Viola Dad, She was rejected from University of Michigan, due to the fact that you have to be accepted to the Univ. even before you can audition. Next stop is Univ. of Denver Conserv., Oberlin Conserv, Westminster Choir College, then colleges such as Catholic University, Duquesne, Samford, Furman, and William and Mary. Surprised the Mich won’t at least hear an audition before deciding.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone for your advice. I really appreciate the trouble you have gone to to respond to my little thread. :)</p>
<p>Right now I am still weighing my options. I love the whole idea of teaching, but I don’t want it to be my whole life. I want to still be able to learn and perform difficult pieces, learn from good teachers, play with my peers. Music ed is by no means a Plan B for me, it just isn’t quite making Plan A. There is still so much out there that I want to learn and discover, that I haven’t quite made up my mind yet. </p>
<p>I understand that there is a LOT of competition out there, and especially since I am at a bit of a disadvantage I may not get very far. But the way I look at it, I’ve at least got to try. I’d rather be doing something I love, and subsisting on ramen noodles, than being successful at something completely boring.</p>