<p>A friend of mine is having to make this decision. My friend was accepted into a great music conservatory attached to an arbitrary and irritating university that has a terrible administration that seems to live to cause problems for the students and into a great university where the opera program has been cut but there is still a decent music department otherwise. My friend is a classical singer and school starts in two weeks. Any thoughts? I'll forward them to my friend.</p>
<p>Also, will my friend be aged out by taking a lesser music program instead of a conservatory program for her undergraduate work?</p>
<p>Your friend must have made the choice to go to this school for a reason. At this point…is the option of being a “music major in a great U” even still open to that student? Probably not.</p>
<p>Your friend needs to figure you why they CHOSE the option they chose…and then go for it. Transfering is a headache, but your friend wouldn’t be the first college student to do so, if that is the need.</p>
<p>I’m struggling with how to say this nicely so please pardon me if I don’t achieve that objective. I’m troubled that a newly admitted student would describe his/her new college this way two weeks before school even starts. It makes me question whether the school is really that difficult, or whether it is the student who is the difficult one… Which leads to think that perhaps the student won’t be happy in either place.</p>
<p>Like it or not, colleges and universities (including conservatories) have been teaching and training students for a long time and, for the most part, know what they are doing. This is not to say that the culture, administratively speaking, can’t be a pain in the you-know-what, but I do think that one should give the school the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. And, while this particular school might have already proven that otherwise, I remain skeptical. Thus, I wonder whether this student will be happy anywhere.</p>
<p>The period just as the semester is beginning is irritating at any school. There are forms to fill out, problems with student loans that haven’t come through, expensive book purchases, oldtimer bureaucrats who are snappy because they’ve dealt with the same naive question for the last 20 years, newtimer bureaucrats who are snappy because they don’t want to admit that they don’t know the answer, confused students, emotional parents, lost paperwork and unanticipated additional fees.</p>
<p>This is likely to be true anywhere. Why would you think the bureaucracy will be any less irritating at the other school?</p>
<p>Does this mean your friend has committed to attend two different schools? Conservatories and “great universities” had their commitments due 3 months ago.</p>
<p>If this were April and she were trying to decide, I would encourage her to consider how immersed in music she wants to be. It is easy to attend a conservatory within a bad university and never see anyone outside the conservatory! Many music students seldom leave the music buildings. On the other hand, if music is only one of many interests, then she would probably appreciate the better university. </p>
<p>But since this is not April, I’m very confused.</p>
<p>Something isn’t right here. Deadline was May 1st and I can’t see any possible way that a student has an open door at TWO schools in the middle of August! Neither a “great conservatory” nor a “great university” would have openings now, and if, by some reach of the imagination, the student had paid deposits at both schools, AND the student is a complete self-pay, the rest of the paperwork (room mate selection, meal plans, housing, studio acceptance,etc) has been in for weeks too. Heaven help any student who would be foolish enough to attempt to hold a place in two schools at the same time (which, now that I think of it, could be a very remote possibility if one submitted everything as I listed above to both places and has yet to write the check for the first semester), because, once found out, that person wouldn’t be welcome at any school worth it’s name, anywhere. Notice how it’s always the ever-helpful “friends” who post these conundrums? Methinks we are being led on…</p>
<p>According to other posts by the OP, he/she is a student at Chapman…and is offering advice to others with confidence. </p>
<p>The OP seems to have disappeared from THIS thread. Perhaps an explanation is possible about the OP…I completely misunderstood it. I thought the “friend” had already chosen a school…the first one…</p>
<p>So…OP…Does your “friend” have two choices to make NOW? And if so…how did that happen? Or is your friend having cold feet about the choice he/she DID make?</p>
<p>My friend is one of those student who was actually recruited by a number of top schools. After my friend chose the conservatory school, a top school has continued to try to recruit my friend. The bureaucratic problems at the conservatory school has my friend throwing hands in the air and reconsidering the decision. I think in the long run the friend would be better at the top university, which as a music program. But I don’t want to advise unwisely.</p>
<p>I think your friend should discuss this issue with their private music teacher. There must have been a good reason to have chosen that conservatory in the first place. Perhaps this is a bit of “buyers remorse” on the part of your friend…especially if he/she is still being “courted” by another school.</p>
<p>I will say…MOST schools have already filled their ranks with auditioned students. I find it odd that this excellent university program has openings.</p>
<p>Well said, thumper. OP, could you be a little more specific about what you mean when you say that the “top school has continued to recruit (your) friend”? Are they calling, sending personalized letters with references to things that took place (as opposed to the “wish you were here” type of thing). I still can’t see this happening at this point in time. Earlier this year, yes, until May 1st or even a few weeks later (but doubtful if the university is prestigous)- those programs fill up and spaces are not held on the off-chance that a student might change his/her mind. Money talks, and a space gone unfilled generates no revenue for the institution. I’d say your friend is “stuck” where he/she is for this school year and will have to ride it out. Classes haven’t begun yet, although orientation is going on at some schools with the fall semester beginning in a week or so, so your friend may well decide that she/he is in the right place after all. Tell your friend to get into the swing of things in the actual conservatory classes and see how it feels. If it doesn’t feel “right” he/she is can apply to the uni again, and go through the audition process as a transfer student. Truly, it’s too late now and as thumper states, something must have been very attractive at the conservatory or your friend wouldn’t have chosen it in the first place. Or, could it be that your friend is just going through some understandable anxiety about being at college for the first time?That would be understandable… If, without identifying anyone, you could tell us about these “bureaucratic problems”, perhaps you could get some specific advice as to how to deal with them.</p>
<p>Chap, it sounds like you know a high profile or really talented student. If the student is being constantly recruited because of celebrity status, he will get more privacy in a conservatory. This may not be as good for his career as having a top university behind him. If he is being courted because of talent, then he has to decide whether he is fully dedicated to that talent or whether he wants a full university experience. I know someone who had a similar decision a while back and she chose the better university. Some people may not be familiar with the constant recruitment efforts that keep pulling at the top students or the celebrity students.</p>