<p>Hello everyone,
It is my aspiration to go to a top ranked university such as Vanderbilt, U. Penn, etc. Eventually I want to go to med school, so for my undergrad it would probably be best to major in premed, but I also intend to minor in music. I am very good at and involved with the oboe; for the last 5 years I've been consistently ranked at the top of my state, and have attended internationally recognized music summer programs. Would my talent help my chances of getting into universities such as the ones I mentioned above? Also, do schools in general (both the elite and regular state schools) give music scholarships to non music majors/ to music minors? Do they even give a considerable amount of money in music scholarships? Any help is much appreciated...thank you! </p>
<p>The Ivies do not give merit awards for anything. </p>
<p>My daughter was a state ranked and talented oboe and English horn player. She also did not want to major in music. But she did want to continue to take private lessons, and play in the university orchestra. She looked for schools where this would be possible, and attended Santa Clara University. Her lessons were at no cost as long as she played in the orchestra, and she received. $750 a year in scholarship for being an orchestra member.</p>
<p>There are a couple of schools that have endowed music scholarships with an extensive application and audition process for non-majors. Davidson is one. And Skidmore is another. </p>
<p>Your talent and commitment to music will be an asset to your application. But you need to know, there are many excellent musicians applying to the Ivies. Your oboe playing will be a more significant asset if the college orchestra actually needs an oboe player. </p>
<p>You also need to check the availability of ensembles for non-majors. Some schools have them and others simply do not.</p>
<p>Here is what my daughter did…she contacted every music department chairperson, orchestra director, and private oboe teacher at the schools which were of interest to her. She asked about opportunities as well as whether this could help her in admissions. She also inquired about scholarships for non-majors. These folks were incredibly helpful. </p>
<p>Purdue also offered a small scholarship (I think $1000 per year) for my D by joining the orchestra in addition to the other merit scholarships. She is not a music major and she decided not to go there though.</p>
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<p>NO, because there is no such major. major in anything you want and include the pre-reqs that med schools require.</p>
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<p>Many top schools don’t give merit scholarships…Ivies don’t.</p>
<p>Some may give small amounts of money for that. Usually, for the considerable amounts you have to audition and major in music.</p>
<p>How much merit do you need? How much will your family pay? For instance, if your family can contribute $15k, then you would need a full tuition scholarship so that your family’s contribution can cover room, board, books, fees, etc. </p>
<p>Are you implying that you will not qualify for need based aid, even at the generous schools? Because as has been said, Penn doesn’t give merit aid. Vanderbilt does.</p>
<p>You might explore the Music Majors forum here even if you won’t be majoring in it, you might learn something about where to find colleges. You sure won’t be getting a BS in Premedical Studies because these colleges, or any I know of, don’t offer it! Premed means taking the classes (6?) required for medical school admissions. You pick your major separately based on what you are interested or what you think will help you for doing well on the mcat and your application.</p>
<p><a href=“Music Major - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/</a></p>
<p>Look at Duquense in Pittsburgh…they give out tons of $$ for their music programs.</p>
<p>You might have a shot at something with oboe (were it clarinet and I would not say that) since it is typically an “in demand” instrument. That said - unlikely to be significant and more than likely playing oboe is more likely to help you with admissions than with scholarship, particularly at top tier schools. Smaller schools, LACs and next tier universities are a better bet if you are looking for scholarship related to music. </p>
<p>The advice in post #1 is very good. Be aware, schools that do offer music scholarships to non-majors may have fairly high demands of the scholarship recipients. My son has a music scholarship and he is required to take private lessons and play in 3 ensembles. That’s a lot of repertoire to practice for a non-major. If you’re looking at a science track, you may need to consider possible conflicts between ensemble rehearsals and lab times.</p>
<p>Pre-med is not a major and those schools don’t offer scholarships for music as far as I know. I am an oboe/EH player who was an All-stater and I got two full tuition music scholarships. The one I turned down was contingent on a major, the one I accepted is contingent on a minor. However, these scholarships are not easy to get- they had live auditions. Scholarships are generally not given to students who wont at least minor and the scholarships are usually small unless you apply to a school that gives out full-tuition or named scholarships, which again you have to compete for.</p>
<p>I agree with guineagirl. The best music scholarships for non-majors are HIGHLY competitive and have an competitive application and audition process. The ones at Skidmore and Davidson both have this.</p>
<p>Re: oboe playing and getting accepted…this will only be an asset if the school has an oboe opening in an ensemble. Smaller schools with one performing ensemble might only need two oboe players. At some schools clearly the music major would get first dibs as they are required to play in ensembles as part of their degree program. At other schools, those seats might already be filled by returning oboe players. If that is the case…you won’t be a more desirable candidate because the college doesn’t NEED an oboe player.</p>
<p>My daughter loved playing her oboe and EH in college, and lived her contributed lessons and orchestra playing. And her school actually needed an oboe player, and didn’t own an EH (she owns a very nice one…the orchestra director was thrilled to be able to include pieces with EH for those four years). But…we were told point blank that this had absolutely no impact on her admission to the colleges.</p>