Hello,
I have been playing the cello for 14 years and I finally decided that I want to study music in college. I have studied with several private teachers and attended music camps every summer for the past eight years. The degree I am thinking about getting is either a BA or BMA in cello performance. Here’s the problem: I’m afraid to tell my parents and also my current private teacher that I want to study music in college. I don’t know how to bring it up to my parents because at one point in my life they said that music wasn’t going to be my life. I’m also second-guessing myself as to whether I’m that good of a cellist that I can get into the colleges I want to go to.
Ok. These are the colleges I can probably get into:
The School of Music @DePaul University
Baldwin Wallace Conservatory
The Department of Music @Miami University
Here’s where I really want to go to college because I would absolutely love to study with a specific cello teacher here (but I’m probably not going to get in because the acceptance rate is only 26% (last I checked):
The School of Music, Theatre, and Dance @University of Michigan
What does anyone know about the competitiveness of these schools and my chances of getting in them?
The first hurdle really is going to be discussing this with your parents and your private teacher. Your private teacher will likely be your first resource for information on your competitiveness for various schools/ programs etc.
If you have been playing the cello for 14 years and have gone to music camp for 8 your parents have presumably already mustered up a lot of support for your musical education. As the parent of a cellist who just recently graduated from his masters program in cello performance and is just launching his professional career I understand why your parents might hesitate to support you in pursuing a professional career in music, it does take a leap of faith or two but at this point I’m hoping that you can at least start to have this conversation with them. If you decide to go down this road you are going to need their support for things like getting to auditions etc. as there are a few more hoops to jump through than applying to college in general.
I’m going to recommend that you not get too tied into the dream school/dream teacher idea just yet. There are a lot of things that go into choosing and getting into a music school. Finding the right fit teacher is important but other things like affordability, getting accepted, how many openings a particular school has for a particular instrument in any given year, geography, etc. also come into play.
I’m also going to recommend you read the following article about music degrees called the double degree dilemma, not because you expressed any interest in a double degree but because it describes the difference between a BA and a BM in music.
What year of school are you in? What types of summer programs/ camps have you been to? Have you met any college cello professors at these? That can be a helpful resource to determining competitiveness and evaluating where you might fit into college programs. If you can answer some of these questions we can be of more help to you through this process. As to your specific competitiveness for particular programs that is very hard to judge on an internet forum, the people who have first hand knowledge such as your private teacher and other teachers at camps and any programs you may be involved in will be more helpful in that regard. Are you involved with any regional orchestras or other groups? Also, once you talk to your parents and get the ball rolling you may be able to visit some schools and take a private lesson with some prospective teachers and they can give you an idea if you are competitive and a good fit for their studio. Good luck and let us know how things go.
@cellomom2 Thank you! I am currently taking a gap year right now because I have been trying to figure out where i want to go to college/what I want to study. I have gone to a music camp in Chicago for the past eight summers and this summer I went to a music camp in Alaska for the first time. I have met some college cello professors at these camps but never talked to them about anything related to studying music in college because at the time I still had no idea what I wanted to do. Currently I am involved in a community orchestra as I cannot play in the youth orchestra anymore that i was in last year. Thank you for the information and I will take some time to think it over and then make a plan from there.
When we visited DePaul we were quoted that the school of music there had an acceptance rate of 12% as the lowest acceptance rate of any program there. I think all these music schools are competitive. I do think music numbers can be misleading because it definitely depends on the instrument and/or program you are applying to as well.
The other thing is having visited DePaul and Michigan and a variety of other music programs, I often don’t think a less competitive program necessarily means a less high quality program. More students apply for urban programs like DePaul because of location, location, location. Some of those out of the lime light, more rural programs have extremely high quality faculty and some fantastic students. They just don’t get as much attention and the numbers don’t tell the full story. Despite the fact that the acceptance rate is theoretically twice as high at Michigan than DePaul, my kid was much more impressed and excited about Michigan. And he probably won’t apply to DePaul.
I definitely think your teacher is your best ally in this in terms of safer vs. reachier options for your musical skill level right now. My only thought is that if you are applying to schools of music within a large university setting, be sure to pick some where your academic profile is at least in the top half of applicants and possibly higher if you’re shooting for merit aid. You need to do homework on merit aid too if that is of interest.
Tell your parents to look into the idea that a bachelor’s in music is the same as a bachelor’s in anything else in terms of access to jobs requiring a bachelor’s, to grad school (in music or in something else), and to professional schools like business, medicine, law and nursing. In fact a few years ago I read that music majors have the highest admit rate to med school of any group (sorry cannot cite anymore but you get the point.)
@celloplayer99, you sound just like my son except that we totally support his decision to pursue a cello performance major since cello is really the only thing left for him in his mind. He’s been playing for 15 years, he took a gap year, but then withdrew from his college (was pursuing other majors) and finally, at age 21, has decided to pursue cello. We’ll see if it really happens.
One thing you could do is reach out to the cello professors at the schools that you really want to attend, send them a solo performance, and get feedback from them as far as 1) if they will have openings in their studios next fall, and 2) if they think you might be competitive for an audition.
My son did this with a number of schools and got some very positive feedback which helped shape his list.
Keep us posted and let us know what your teacher and parents think.
@compmom I remember reading somewhere that music and biology is the most common double major. One of D’s friends was music and bio and is currently in vet school. Music kids are willing to put in the work and it’s a benefit to the group to have someone wired a bit differently, which is why grad. schools like them. Even a major with a minor or double minor can be practical.
Something like music business might appease parents, because you can use your business training for an office job if you need to. In the best case scenario, you’d use your business skills to run your own studio when you have a performance career. Not a bad thing. Performance is risky, and even if you’re willing to take the leap, you need a plan B if things go south. Not to scare you, but you never know what might happen, like injuries, that could prevent a performance career. You need some sort of side skills to parlay into another potential career field.
It is not difficult to acquire transferable skills during an education in music. Music schools and colleges alike provide opportunities to do outreach. There are many volunteer and internship opportunities at music organizations as well. Some skills to pick up might include fundraising, donor management, grant prospecting and writing, budgeting, public speaking, website design, writing newsletters, teaching…all of which are transferable to jobs outside of music (or non-profits, agencies, other organizations within music.)
I know musicians who also run festivals or are the creative directors of a chamber orchestra. And musicians who work in other fields- one I know works for Sesame Street, another went into linguistics, and a third did grad work in Medieval Studies and is in academia. And I know several doctors who majored in music.
If young person loves music, it seems to me that it is worthwhile to spend undergrad years studying it. The options after that are many and varied. An orchestra chair is no longer the only goal. The Internet, technology, the gig economy (freelancing) and increased entrepreneurialism have all changed the picture quite a bit.
At a tour at UMich, the jazz director said that one jazz studies student (performance) got a job as brand manager for Clorox, saying in the interview that he could read a crowd and give them what they want. Its not like the performance degree was nothing. The director brought this up when a parent asked about job placement for the jazz majors, and how this was kind of a placement of sorts, depending on how you want to measure it.