<p>Is anyone else looking into the growing, <em>fascinating</em> field of music therapy? If so, where are you applying?</p>
<p>Look into the program at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. It is well established and good.</p>
<p>I'm really not looking for schools to apply to so much as some others with the same career goals. I applied to three schools in the Midwest - University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, and Augsburg College - and I'm quite thrilled with all of them. :) I really have it down to Augsburg and UWEC, as the program at UMN isn't very established at the moment...unfortunate, really.</p>
<p>BUT, if you know of any good programs, please list anyway! Just in case there are any juniors out there looking to go into this field.</p>
<p>Loyola N.O. has an excellent program</p>
<p>A friend of ours is at Berklee in Boston. But she also liked the Music Therapy professor she met at Montclair State in NJ. SHe also liked Temple University in Philadelphia.</p>
<p>And read, if you haven't already, Oliver Sacks' Musicophila. It is amazing how music can be key to unlocking memory, physical ability, and happiness in people who have had neurological damage. A great book.</p>
<p>Michigan State has the oldest Music Therapy program in the country and boasts that they've placed 100% of their grads over the past 5 years.</p>
<p>Appalachian State also has a wonderful music therapy program with a 100% placement rate. Dr, Cathy McKinney is the director.</p>
<p>I would recommend looking into Slippery Rock University’s Music Therapy Program. This program was established in 1977 and has a long history of excellent clinical training to prepare students for work as music therapists. I teach in this program and would be happy to answer any questions you might have. [SRU</a> Music Therapy Program](<a href=“http://www.sru.edu/academics/colleges/chfpa/music/Pages/MusicTherapyProgram.aspx]SRU”>http://www.sru.edu/academics/colleges/chfpa/music/Pages/MusicTherapyProgram.aspx)</p>
<p>I am new to this site, so I hope this works. I am a senior in HS right now applying to colleges. In my junior year I was looking solely at conservatories. Since then my focus/list has shifted significantly. I am now looking at schools that solely offer Music Therapy. I have been using the AMTA Approved School Directory that lists the 70 approved schools in the nation.
Unfortunately for me, there are only 4 along the west coast: Seattle Pacific U (WA), Marylhurst (OR), Cal-Northridge (CA), and U of the Pacific (CA). Because of the limited choices along the west, I decided to just go for it and consider looking and researching all 70 schools.
The schools I have decided to apply to and audition at are: U of the Pacific, Berklee College of Music (Boston, Mass), Baldwin-Wallace (Berea, OH), and Seattle Pacific University. I have done a ridiculous amount of research on schools, yet am still having problems. I haven’t visited anywhere yet because of money and time constraints.
Other schools that seem appealing: Montclair State U, Nazareth, Slippery Rock, Augsburg
My criteria is this: size: 3,000-12,000ish, coed, music dept = less than or equal to 300, green, lovely campus, not a commuter school, not too cloistered (I know, Seattle Pacific kind of breaks that one). I have good grades, good SAT/ACT scores. </p>
<p>If there is any information you could lend me on MT programs, the schools I listed as the ones I’m applying to (I’ve heard some things about Stockton, California that aren’t appealing. I’m also put off a little by SPU’s highly Christian focus, not saying I’m against that, it just seems a little too narrow and lacking diversity, and reading the audition process for Berklee terrifies me). Any information on MT programs, recommended schools, or just subjective information that I wouldn’t be able to find on a school website or college book would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your thoughts and your time.</p>
<p>We visited Baldwin Wallace in November. The school is in a lovely suburb of Cleveland about 12 minutes from the airport. One of the music therapy majors gave a talk and was very enthusiastic about the program. They appear to have strong ties to the Cleveland community and a great placement rate. The conservatory building was old but they are renovating and adding on to it. The new building should be ready in Fall 2011. All music students have similar playing opportunities as the performance majors and since it is an undergrad only school there should be many playing opportuinities. A bonus to BW music students is $10 tickets to hear the Cleveland Symphony and a free shuttle bus to take them to the concerts. BW is a small school and very welcoming. Also, they did say that you can get many “gigs” playing around the city and have the opportunity to make some money doing what you love on the side. They offer generous academic scholarships as well as talent scholarships. Good luck with your search!</p>
<p>Forgot to mention the audition process at BW. It was very low key. You arrive and go to a group meeting then the students are escorted by your student host to your piano test, interview and audition. The parents stay in the auditorium and hear a student and faculty panel. My son’s audition had a panel of 3 including the conservatory director. He said it was very low key with a lot of give and take and seemed more like a lesson than an audition. BW also scheduled him to take a lesson after the audition which took about an hour and 1/2. After the lesson, they offered a nice lunch with the music department, some of the professoors and music students. You are invited to stay and watch several workshops and take a campus tour after lunch.</p>
<p>Sorry that this sort of sounds like a dumb question, but do you have to play piano to be a music therapist? I play violin, viola, and piano, but my main focus is on viola. I was just wondering if piano not being my main instrument would be a disadvantage to me going into a music therapy major.</p>
<p>kmp2011,
Check out Capilano University in North Vancouver, British Columbia.
[About</a> Music Therapy](<a href=“http://www2.capilanou.ca/programs/music-therapy.html]About”>http://www2.capilanou.ca/programs/music-therapy.html)
It’s on the west coast, in a great city. I don’t know if it would be an issue for you to train in Canada.</p>
<p>kmp2011,</p>
<p>It’s great to hear about your interest in the field of music therapy. Using the AMTA resources and the university websites are a great place to start to find out information about the MT schools are interested. I would say that the best information about a program would come from the students that are either attending the program or who are graduates of that program, especially if you are looking for subjective information as you indicated in your post. If you’re not able to visit schools, you might want to see if the universities you are interested in have blogs about their programs that contain student posts and/or student guest bloggers to get a better feel for the student perspective. Slippery Rock University has a blog about it’s Music Therapy Program ([SRU</a> Music Therapy Program](<a href=“http://srumusictherapy.blogspot.com/]SRU”>http://srumusictherapy.blogspot.com/)) that contains posts from both students in the program as well as from faculty teaching in the program. Two student blog posts you may wish to read, for a subjective perspective of our program, would be “Advocating Our Gift” ([SRU</a> Music Therapy Program: Advocating Our Gift](<a href=“http://srumusictherapy.blogspot.com/2011/01/advocating-our-gift.html]SRU”>SRU Music Therapy Program: Advocating Our Gift)) and “Our Students’ Perspectives” ([SRU</a> Music Therapy Program: Our Students’ Perspectives](<a href=“http://srumusictherapy.blogspot.com/2010/11/our-students-perspective.html]SRU”>SRU Music Therapy Program: Our Students' Perspectives)). The first blog post describes the experiences of two SRU Music Therapy Majors that conducted an advocacy project in an area-High School. The second blog post describes how our students at SRU understand Music Therapy and what they’ve learned about Music Therapy as a result of studying in our program. </p>
<p>Best of luck with your search!</p>
<p>I’m also a senior in HS applying to colleges, interested in music therapy. I have good SAT/ACT scores, lots of extra curricular activities on my resume and am also looking for a small to medium size school (like you said – 3,000-12,000). But from what I’ve found, the schools on the west coast are not very good academic schools when it comes to everything else BUT music therapy, and getting a generally well-rounded education is very important to me. </p>
<p>SO, I’ve visited CSU Northridge. Hated it! It was in the middle of nowhere (I hope you have a car if you go there) and it was obviously a commuter school. Lots of people everywhere and that certainly intimidated me – I just got a terrible vibe. I didn’t even bother staying for the tour we scheduled because I hated it so much.</p>
<p>I went to a one week music camp at UOP. Loved the campus! It was beautiful. Stockton, not so much. There’s a mall across the street and Delta College down the street (nice music hall) but that’s about it. I’ve heard that the music therapy program there is quite good, but I’ve also heard that the music program is so small (small school) that the students get tired of each other quickly. But that is just what I heard from a music student, so take that last part with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>I was also turned away from Seattle Pacific because of the same reasons you were. My only hope at this point is Arizona State (and be in the honors college) or to somehow double major in psychology and music at Chapman (my DREAM college – and I’m already in with scholarship, but they don’t have a music therapy program anymore) and get my MT degree in grad school. I know ASU has a program that you can get your masters without having a bachelor degree in MT, so I will look into it when I go in February for my audition.</p>
<p>If anyone else has pursued music therapy as a grad student with a psych or music background, please let me know how it worked out.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.musictherapy.org%5B/url%5D”>www.musictherapy.org</a>. :)</p>