<p>DD is interested in Music Education. She's always wanted to be a teacher and has no desire to perform professionally. She's currently a Junior and we're just starting the college search process and would appreciate any advise for schools in the NY/NJ/PA/DE/CT area. I've been thru this before w/ daughter #1 - but she's in Engineering which is entirely different. So much information for schools w/ Music is geared toward performance, how can we evaluate a school's ability to train good Music teachers? She plays the clarinet and considers this her main instrument but is also a good vocalist.</p>
<p>Hello SL Mom: The schools that come mind, meeting your criteria (music education located in NY, NJ, PA, DE, and CT include NYU, SUNY/Fredonia, Syracuse University, Rowan University, Rutgers, Eastman School of Music - University of Rochester, University of Delaware, Hartt School of Music, Westminster Choir College (Rider University) Temple University, and Ithica University. I’m sure there are others. </p>
<p>In terms of evaluating schools – we looked at the curricula offered and evaluated the credentials of the faculty. We also asked questions about the emphasis placed on professonal organizations, such as MENC. We also looked at the student teaching programs. Graduate placement is another important criteria, but almost all schools say that they place 100% of their grads. In this regard, we could have pushed for greater precision in the answers (i.e. within what timeframe are 100% of the students placed) but didn’t. Depending on your daughter’s real interest in music education you might want to look at the areas of specialization reflected in faculty background and areas of research. Another great way to evaluate music education programs is to have your daughter meet with the faculty. Still another great way is for your daughter to sit in on a bunch of music education classes. This will allow her to learn a lot about the faculty, teaching styles, resources, and the types of students would be her classmates. Actually my daughter’s experience sitting in on music education classes provided her valuable information when it came down to making her final selection of schools. In some cases she found the classes too rudimentary; in other instances she was surprised at the intellect of both the students and the faculty. In other instances, we learned how brainy and academic faculty really was. I am a big fan of practice lessons for performance majors – I guess sitting in on music education classes is equally important to “trying out” a school and its students.</p>
<p>You may want to consider adding Montclair to the list. I wouldn’t have thought to consider it earlier, but I’ve heard that they are really trying to raise the bar at the music school. We did a drive by this summer to see the new building construction, and will be making a more serious visit there soon. Montclair has always been an excellent teacher’s college, and with the new changes might be a more serious contender in the music world (or at least some of the local music folks are thinking).<br>
Westminster has a long history of turning out teachers, but more of the choral variety.<br>
PA has a number of smaller LAC’s with music Ed programs - Lycoming, Lebanon Valley, and the like. Then there’s Penn State.
My D isn’t going the Music Ed route, but many kids from our HS have followed that path - quite a tribute to our music dept in my opinion.<br>
I appreciate your situation with 2 different daughters. My first was/is a scholar/athlete and the second is an intense musician. Aren’t genetic combinations amazing?</p>
<p>Duquesne, Towson, UMd College Park, SUNY Potsdam, Susquehenna. Don’t ignore your own state’s flagship or dedicated teacher’s college. Often these are the most cost effective option. </p>
<p>Do a title search within this forum on “music ed” and “music education”. Three to four pages of general and specific threads will pop up.</p>
<p>Looks like I did it again with a college spelling error and mis-naming all in one – it’s Ithaca College not Ithica University.</p>
<p>My D applied to 11 schools for Music Ed voice. We could do this because living in the ny area many schools come here for auditions. We liked many schools but you have to consider variables and do research. My D did not want a conservatory and did not want a small school location was not a factor,money was a factor,her grades were excellent so she had her choice academically. She also was focused on the voice departments she knew many of them from previous concerts she was in (all state all eastern summer programs etc…)
U of Delaware was her choice based on all her factors above.
Syracuse has a great Music Ed program but like Ithaca it was too expensive and she liked Delaware better.
Fredonia and potsdam were too small for her.
Miami also had a music ed program we liked but once she got into Delaware she would not consider Miami which gives lots of money away if you have good grades.
She also liked ECU but was concerned about the demographics.
What she also loved at U DEL. was that music ed kids were not second class the lead in the Opera was a music ed student. Watch out for this. Also the grad school was small so you get lots of opportunities. And lastly her private study was with a prof not student and is an hour.
Hope this helps</p>
<p>SLMOM-
Your geography leads to many fine schools.
Our son graduated last Jan from Mason Gross at Rutgers U with music ed degree.
He also spent his first two years at TCNJ in Ewing, NJ. Much to be said for both of these schools for music ed.</p>
<p>He is now in a graduate music performance program at the Hartt school in Connecticut, another good choice.</p>
<p>As many have said, it is often a good idea to look at instate schools for teaching as state certification requirements may be more easily met there.
Best of luck.</p>
<p>Thanks for everyone’s input, there’s quite a list here!! We’ll be visiting Montclair, UDel and WestChester in the next month ( D visited Duquesne this summer and loved it) So the marathon of college visits begins! </p>
<p>How can we get an idea of the competitiveness of a school? Do they only take enough of each instrument to complete an ensemble? In otherwords, if they need 10 clarinets for an ensemble and only 1 is a senior then they’ll only take 1 clarinet next year? Or do they accept those that are good enough and then put the ensembles together? We heard a rumor that a MAJOR in-state University only took 2 clarinets one year.</p>
<p>This is one of those “you do have to ask questions”. It will be school specific. Ask and you should get an idea of how many spots they are anticipating to fill.</p>
<p>In general, a number of factors will control the size of instrument specific admits in any given year:</p>
<ul>
<li>the number of instrumental instructors for that instrument, typically a function of program<br>
size<br></li>
<li>are there dedicated instructors for music ed majors versus performance (or even grad)<br>
candidates? Some programs do, some don’t differentiate between instruction, lesson
times, type of instruction betwixt ed and performance</li>
<li>is there some flexibility in studio size?</li>
</ul>