My son is currently a junior in public school, suburb of Boston, loves math and science, but doesn’t yet know what major he will choose, and is looking for a small to mid-sized college with great extra-curricular/minor music opportunities. He’s currently in the high school jazz band. Can anyone comment on opportunities for non-music majors at Gettysburg, Lafayette, Hamilton, University of Rochester, Oberlin? Other schools that we haven’t yet considered?
Would prefer not to go more than an 8-10 hour drive from Boston. Also would be great to have an active outing club for hiking. Likely not interested in Greek life. Thanks for your advice!
Wesleyan. Live music scene is unparalled for such a small university. And, not every band member is necessarily a music major.
I would add Lehigh to your list. They do have a strong Greek presence but still not the majority of students (43% are Greek). My engineering student was invited to apply for a music scholarship there and they seem to encourage music involvement for non majors.
I would not add Lehigh to the list if he doesn’t want Greek Life.
But I would look into Franklin & Marshall & Vassar (in addition to Wesleyan suggested above).
Hamilton appears in a Princeton Review sampling, “Great Schools for Mathematics Majors,” and offers enhanced outing club opportunities due to its proximity to the Adirondacks. Its music ensembles “are open to all students regardless of their major.”
https://academics.hamilton.edu/music/ensembles/ensembles-overview
Case Western Reserve offers a joint music program with the Cleveland Institute of Music https://music.case.edu/about/joint-program-with-cim/ and comes in just under your maximum driving radius (half an hour closer than Oberlin). Within your radius southward, U of Richmond is worth a look - there are music-specific merit scholarships - recipients need not be music majors but I believe they are required to do the minor.
Schools potentially worth looking beyond that radius for: St. Olaf in MN and Lawrence U in WI. St. Olaf is particularly strong in Math/CS as well as sciences, and Lawrence is especially strong in physics. Music pervades the culture at both schools and opportunities for non-majors are excellent.
On the reachier end, JHU/Peabody has a strong jazz studies program if that is his focus.
The editors of Choosing the Right College devoted extra space in describing the University of Rochester’s music opportunities:
My D looked at Lafayette and Hamilton as well as Franklin & Marshall, applied to all. She was looking for the ability to continue playing violin without being a music major. She was happy with the opportunities at all 3 schools. I would also suggest Muhlenberg, Skidmore, and maybe Bard.
This U.S. News article lists colleges with high or relatively high fraternity participation: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/most-frats.
Have you ruled out STEM Universities?
Math, science and music interest abound in Universities with a high concentration of STEM majors and they do get to participate in musical organizations without electing a music major.
By way of example, see music activity at WPI @ https://www.wpi.edu/news/infusing-stem-music and courses at @ https://web.wpi.edu/academics/catalogs/ugrad/mucourses.html. These are music minors which also can offer tutorial performance minors.
See “Musical kids at WPI” thread.
Thanks for all the super helpful feedback. Loving this forum. It seems we have a good list. The question then becomes how best to visit and evaluate, and - super important - how to minimize the stress. We’re planning a tour for April vacation week.
This Inside Higher Ed article should offer you perspective on the changing relationship between Oberlin’s arts and sciences college and its music conservatory:
Have you checked these colleges for special visit days? Hamilton offers a Junior Preview Day on April 25. This would offer an ideal opportunity for your son to get a sense for the school and to evaluate how well it might match his personality and interests.
https://www.hamilton.edu/admission/visiting/junior-preview-saturdays
To try and answer some of your additional questions…
How best to visit - We always visited when school was in session (otherwise we felt like we’d just be seeing buildings). We scheduled in advance – we generally did an information session/tour but would do an open house day if that was the option available. After each visit we had our child jot down some notes on things they particularly liked which proved to be helpful for school specific essays down the road.
How best to evaluate - One thing we learned is not to give our opinion until we asked our kid’s opinion so we wouldn’t influence their thinking. We found that the LACs all had a vibe – our D was clear about which schools she could see herself at and which she could not.
How to minimize stress -
1)Be realistic in terms of where your child can get in. It is easy to get caught up in the reach schools but also take the time to find match/safety schools that your child could be happy at.
2)We found that applying to some schools the student likes rolling/EA and getting that early acceptance relieved a ton of stress.
3) Our D wanted a LAC and wanted to apply ED. We started the process pretty early, she had her two two schools picked out by the fall of senior year – we revisited them both in Sept. and her top choice became clear. She applied to Laf ED and got in so that made the rest of senior year a breeze. FWIW she did interview with her top 4 schools in the fall of senior year to be prepared in case her ED application was not accepted. She also applied to two non-binding EA schools and one rolling admissions school so we could be pretty sure she would have an acceptance or two by December.
We did a long road trip last February through PA and NY, aiming for 7 schools in 5 days but only hitting 6 because of weather. We live in Upstate NY so Skidmore, Bard, Vassar and Hamilton were all day trips. The big road trip was Lafayette, Lehigh, Muhlenberg, F&M, Dickinson, Bucknell and Rochester in that order (Dickinson was the one we couldn’t work out - 3 tries to reschedule over 2 days but we had to keep moving). A few of those probably won’t work for you (Bucknell has a huge Greek scene) but the general route may and you can try to hit Hamilton and maybe Skidmore or Bard on your way back to I-90.
If I remember correctly from the Oberlin tour, there are a lot of opportunities for non conservatory students to participate. If he likes Oberlin, I would second looking at Lawrence University (WI).
CMU is a great Math/Science school with a great A school (Fine Arts has a lower acceptance rate than science or engineering), which creates a strong music scene and many opportunities for non-music majors to participate.
I second what @retiredfarmer mentioned above - WPI has a very active music program. In fact, on parents weekend, we attended a student production of the musical Mamma Mia - a huge ensemble cast and pit musician accompaniment. On the outdoors front, in the fall our freshman daughter went on a school sponsored (the outing club) hike to Mt. Monadnock.
@parent8762 - It’s on the edge of your geographic range and on the larger side, but James Madison University (Virginia) has a solid music program (including a top notch jazz ensemble and solid performance facilities), math and science concentrations galore, and the outdoor playground of the Shenandoah Valley. It boasts a healthy contingent of students from New England.
https://www.jmu.edu/music/areas/jazz.shtml
https://www.jmu.edu/music/admissions/_files/jmu-music-brochure.pdf
https://www.jmu.edu/csm/majors-and-minors.shtml
https://www.jmu.edu/admissions/visit/great-outdoors.shtml
Who knew what was up in “the Who” - first minor league baseball and now a Jazz Festival
https://www.discovercentralma.org/sp/jazzweekworcester—worcester-jazz-festival-2019/