<p>I'm looking for information from those in music conservatories that are part of a larger university about the extent to which you are able to socialize with students other than music majors. So far my son and I have visited Peabody and Eastman. In both cases, the music majors have their own campus and own dorms. Are there conservatories where music majors are not sequestered? In particular, I am interested in the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor).</p>
<p>I can’t speak to the college program, but my DD was there for a high school summer program and what I can tell you is that the SOM is on North Campus. But, there are other programs there (Architecture and Engineering comes to mind off the top of my head). So, they are definitely not isolated from the other kids. It’s also just a short ride to Central Campus via a very good campus bus system.</p>
<p>Oberlin, Lawrence, U of In - Bloomington, etc. Most colleges do not separate their conservatory like Eastman.</p>
<p>I remember visiting Ann Arbor. The campus is spread out, and the music buildings were located in one area. But I do not recall it being any different from their other buildings. It is not like they had dorms there for music students.</p>
<p>Looking at a campus map should tell you how separate the music buildings are from the rest of campus.</p>
<p>Rice completely integrates their music students into the entire university. Not only are they NOT separated, they are distributed throughout all of the residential colleges (dorm areas) to make sure they experience students with other majors and other students experience contact with them. This was one thing that really attracted DD and she has made life long non-music friends in the process.</p>
<p>The beauty of the University of Michigan is that you can make it whatever you want it to be. Yes, the music school is on North Campus which is a 2 mile (10-15 minute) shuttle ride away from Central Campus, but the students don’t seem to mind this and are on the shuttles back and forth all day. In fact, in winter they welcome a chance to be inside for a few minutes between classes! North campus includes the music building, Engineering and Arts and Architecture plus a few others. Most of the music majors live in Bursley Hall which is a 4 minute walk from the music building. But since there are only about 150 freshmen music majors, odds are that your roommate and most of your dorm mates will NOT be music majors. Now if you choose to hang with only music majors, that is up to you, but there are plenty of opportunities to meet other people too. Also, you will have one class per semester that is a non-music class. Almost all of those classes will be on central campus so you will meet people there. If you are into sports, this is the place for you. If you are not into sports you are also in good company. If you are into clubs, there are over 1,000 on campus. If you are not, no worries. There is a very positive energy on this campus and an attitude of mutual respect. Cross-pollination of ideas is encouraged but it is perfectly acceptable to do as much or as little outside of music as you want. I highly recommend a visit.</p>
<p>You may find CCM at The University of Cincinnati to your liking. CCM students choose for themselves how much or how little they socialize outside of the conservatory. You can choose whether or not to live on a CCM floor of the residence hall, whether or not you want to get season football tickets, etc. The core course requirements outside of CCM, while not extensive, also naturally lend themselves to meeting students outside the conservatory, and the Student Center and Rec Center are just steps away from the music facilities.</p>
<p>Hartt students can choose how much they want to be integrated into campus life also. There is no special conservatory housing, although many upperclass students do choose to room together in apartments or suites. First year students can choose to live in themed community housing (environmental awareness, community service, team spirit etc.) or in the regular dorm complexes (or off campus, of course, although few do). </p>
<p>I believe Ithaca’s music students also mix with those of other majors in the dorms.</p>
<p>CIM students take classes at Case Western, and although they have their own dorm, the dining hall is used by all students on that side of the campus. The physical plant there makes it easy since the conservatory building sits on a corner of the CWRU campus and no building is more than a 15 minute walk from there.</p>
<p>Capital in Columbus’ conservatory students can choose a themed hall (music majors) or not, completely up to them. S has many friends outside the conservatory though honestly the amount of time music majors have to put in on practice, ensembles, etc limits the time available to hang out, period, but definitely with kids who you don’t share classes and all that out of class music time. I suspect this is true at any conservatory.</p>
<p>Oberlin Conservatory students are fully integrarated into the college. They share the same dorms, dining halls etc. My son’s roommate is a creative writing major in the college.</p>
<p>Trumpet, you asked about University of Michigan in particular – my son attends the School of Music there and is in his senior year. His friends absolutely hail from just about every discipline offered at UM, and by no means are music students “isolated” unless they WANT to be. That said, it’s a great peer environment too. He really feels he’s had the best of both.</p>
<p>If you end up attending, I’d actually recommend avoiding housing on North campus, however, because you will “automatically” have access to a wider community if you instead participate in one of the themed housing programs that net you a different location, such as the Hill – which is right between north and central campuses. (For example, if you join the Lloyd Hall Scholars program for your freshman year, you are then a resident of that hall, and participate in a few arts-themed events each month.)</p>
<p>Housing is by lottery at UMich, so the only way you can control your assignment is by submitting to participate in one of the residential programs, btw. If you end up being admitted and choose UMich, please feel free to contact me for more info about that aspect.</p>
<p>In the mean time, best wishes in your search.</p>
<p>It was important to my D to be able to socialize with non-music majors and participate in extracurricular activities outside the conservatory. She is now at McGill SoM. She is the only music major in her dorm (1 of 36), is in an a cappella group (again, a couple of music majors but also kids from all over the university), and also has her tight music student community.</p>
<p>Just to add some food for thought, my son attends a conservatory (specifically NEC). My son has never had any problem making friends or meeting people. He was a bit worried about what his social life would be like at NEC and figured he would have to make an effort to connect with other college students in the Boston area. But as it turned out he has hardly had to make any effort. It has just happened. He did start off with an advantage in that we are from the Boston area so he knows kids at other schools. But also upperclassmen are connected to people outside of NEC and since NEC is small everyone gets to know everybody else. And since people are friendly it is easy to just tag along and soon your social circle has expanded. It helps that the density of colleges in the Fenway area of Boston is so high. My son has already been to parties across the river at MIT and seems to be getting to know a wide variety of other students in the area.</p>
<p>My daughter goes to Juilliard and one of the disappointments (although not surprising) to her is the insularity of the experience. When she lived on campus she could spend days in the Juilliard bubble, not leaving Lincoln Center. Now she lives off campus and takes a class at Columbia, but she has felt that she misses out on the opportunity to convene with other kinds of students. I think if she’d had to do it all over she would still have chosen Juilliard, but would have looked more closed at Rice, which she ruled out for its location, and other schools where the conservatory was not as isolate.</p>
<p>TrumpetsRule,
Just wanted to chime in with Clrn8mom and kmcmom13 about U of Mich. My impression is since it is not uncommon there for music students to double major you would meet people from other disciplines on a day-to-day basis. My older son, now 24, was an engineering student but played tuba four years in their tuba and euphonium ensemble which was mostly music majors; additionally he spoke frequently of friends of his who were double majoring in music and something else. Their band and orchestra ensembles are open to all students by audition so your son would possibly meet non-music majors there too.<br>
Clrn8mom mentioned “cross-pollination” and I believe that it is definitely encouraged at UofM. I remember at audition weekend (for my younger son) during the parent and student info session with the jazz faculty, a question posed about whether there was separate music major housing and the jazz dept head reacted with mild distaste, like no, we don’t do that here :-). Also another jazz professor mentioned a new graduate level music class where they purposely sought students from cross disciplines, e.g…, science, art, engineering to explore connections between them, it was all above my head, ha! Anyway I think your son would find U of M a stimulating intellectual experience, if the music fit is good for him.</p>
<p>One other thing I wanted to point out as others have done is it varies as to what sort of experience the student wants. Younger son ended up going to UNT and staying in a jazz music community themed dorm wing last year, how specialized that is! He loved it though, wanting to be thoroughly immersed in his discipline and was able to find people to jam with easily.</p>
<p>Schools that haven’t been mentioned yet: Bard where conservatory students are required to be integrated with the liberal arts college, Boston U (although the school of music is in a separate building, the students are integrated on campus); then there are the colleges and universities with music schools, like Northwestern, Vanderbilt, McGill, etc.</p>
<p>JazzTromboneMom, congrats to your older son! The tuba/euph ensemble at UMich is one of the absolute best in the world. </p>
<p>My other thought was that it might be easier to point out the schools that do actually sequester the music students. It seems like Eastman, Peabody, CIM, Westminster Choir College all do, with their separate facilities. Do any other schools have a separate music campus? It seems very much the norm that music students are at least given the option to live with the rest of the college or university as a whole.</p>
<p>Although Eastman students have separate housing and campus from the University of Rochester, Eastman students and Rochester students can and do use facilities of each campus. My d was a music major at University of Rochester campus and had several Eastman students she knew from BUTI that took music history electives on the River Campus. She knew a music major at University of Rochester who switched to Eastman who also played varsity football for University of Rochester. She knew Eastman students who decided to switch to University of Rochester and the reverse. While not as integrated as other schools such as CIM/Case Western or Oberlin… it is not totally isolating. She performed in Select Chorus at Rochester in joint program with Eastman chorus.</p>