My son is a rising senior in a NY High School. He has wanted to be a music teacher since he was very young and is determined on that path. He is an excellent student (4.0 unweighted), with lots of leadership and extracurriculars. He is equally as good in French Horn and Voice (Bass) and will likely qualify for All State for both. He has spent time at both Fredonia and Crane and worked with both teachers at both schools. He is leaning towards Crane at this point, but he would rather be closer to home (both schools are about 5.5 hours away from us downstate). There seems to be other music education schools cheaper, but he wants to spend the least amount possible and both Crane and Fred will be very low cost as we qualify for Excelsior and he should get academic scholarships. Are there any other schools that offer close to full scholarships for Music Education that might be closer?
The Curtiss Institute in Philly is tuition free…which accounts for their 4% acceptance rate.
Curtiss may be more performance than Ed (i.e. teaching), but I can’t imagine anyone with a degree from there would struggle to find a teaching job.
Would he be interested in Temple? Much closer to NYC but is he willing to travel out of state? My understanding of music ed is that the state is important for working after graduation. I don’t know if it would be possible to find a lower cost than SUNY with the merit that it seems he would qualify for but I dont know much about this.
As a school teacher, they would unless somehow they fulfilled the requirements to get teacher certification, student taught, passed the praxis, etc. OR somehow got a job at a private school.
SUNY Potsdam as noted is an excellent instate option where certification as a NY educator will be woven into the program.
Yes, he would love Temple, it is only about 3 hours away from us, he doesn’t mind PA and two of his current high school teachers both went to college in PA and NJ so they have advised him how to apply for cross certification if he wants to work in NY. My only concern is we would be paying out of state tuition and I can’t imagine the cost could come close.
He may get a merit scholarship with his grade, run the NPC, I think that it includes merit. They may also have merit scholarships for music that he could qualify for.
Merit scholarships for music education majors and the awarding of such varies from college to college. At most schools, these music ed majors still need to audition…and an interview is required often. These two components are weighted highly when considering music education merit money. The GPA etc will get the kid accepted to the college but might not get them accepted into the music ed program.
This student needs to reach out to any college where he is interested in studying to see how merit aid is awarded to music education majors…this varies a lot.
Also, at some schools…you either get music merit or college merit but not both.
But certainly sounds like a good choice for OPs son and he should certainly run the numbers, although I have never met a music teacher in a public school who went to anything but a local state school. In general the cheapest option is the best for this. (and we live in a very competitive HCOL town where music is a leading EC for all ages).
My kid is at Boyer now (percussion performance major) and received an excellent merit scholarship (so-so grades, but outstanding ACTs) and we are out of state. Total cost is close to our in-state flagship school. They also stack scholarships so he might be eligible for music ed scholarship as well. They are an excellent music ed with close to 100% placement. So don’t let the out of state tuition scare you off.
SUNY Potsdam and Fredonia are amazing options for music ed, especially with an in-state price. Frankly, I think you’d have a really hard time topping those selections. But, if you’re interested in some other schools that might be closer and are likely to give generous merit aid to bring the price closer to the SUNYs, then you might want to look into these which seem to have higher percentages of music ed and music majors than other colleges in the area:
- College of Saint Rose
- Rider (NJ)
- Westminster (PA )
- Messiah (PA )
- Nazareth (NY)
- Roberts Wesleyan (NY)
And yes, I do feel as though I need to be pulling out rereading the gospels…
I didn’t realize Purchase didn’t offer music ed. I also looked up Binghamton (no music ed) and Stony Brook:
If you feel certain that you want to teach music on the pre-college level, you may want to consider an institution that offers a Bachelor of Music Education degree. However, Stony Brook prides itself on offering a rigorous music program that will prepare students for any graduate degree in music. Many of our students obtain the Bachelor of Arts in Music degree at Stony Brook and enter a master’s degree program to receive the Master of Music Education degree. Many are now teaching successfully in New York state.
Are you in the city? Aaron Copland in Queens has music ed:
Aaron Copland School of Music (cuny.edu)
as does Brooklyn College Music Education, B.Mus. | Brooklyn College (cuny.edu)
It seems that SUNY’s are the best option: Fredonia, Potsdam/Crane. It looks like Buffalo as well but that is farther away.
Mason Gross at Rutgers BM | Music at Mason Gross School of the Arts (rutgers.edu)
Temple Boyer, Hartt School in Hartford, Ithaca??
The College of New Jersey has music education…but I can’t believe you will get the price to be equal to or less than your instate options.
I wanted to update this topic with where we ended up!
He ended up applying to:
SUNY Potsdam (Crane)
West Chester University
Temple University
University of Hartford
Boston University
He was comfortable teaching in any of those 4 states and they were the schools he liked the best. He got into all the schools!
Final COA for each school including Room and Board and billed fees:
Suny Potsdam $12k/year (We are in-state)
West Chester $10k/year (that said, this was a combination of a LOT of little scholarships, including Honors Program)
Temple $40k/year
U Hart $22k/year
Boston $8k/year and guaranteed to never go up.
He chose Boston as his main goal was the cheapest option!
Congratulations to your son and thanks so much for the update!