<p>Like several other recent posters, I have been a long-time lurker here. In fact, I read BassDad’s “So You Want To Be Music Major - One Family’s Experience” well over a year ago and have recommended the thread to several friends since. What a wonderful piece! My son is also a double bass player and we are now nearing the end of the college admissions process. Last summer, we followed BassDad’s advice and visited all of my son’s prospective schools and arranged for him to take a lesson with the principal bass faculty member at each one. We devised a spreadsheet mapping out the audition repertoire requirements and narrowed down his list. Subsequently, he applied to a small group of schools and completed the auditions. And, as of today, he has been accepted as a bass performance major at CIM, Oberlin, DePaul, and Lawrence, with merit awards at each institution. Now he has to make a decision. . . . As someone with no musical background, the CC music board has been invaluable to me in learning about the music school admissions process. So, thank you everyone.</p>
<p>Welcome to CC posting status from one bass dad to another. Feel free to ask me anything you like concerning Oberlin. I will include his acceptances on our Master List, so please let us know once he decides among those schools.</p>
<p>Just saw this thread. I tend to just lurk about too!</p>
<p>My son, HS senior, is the last of four siblings - home-schooled all his life because of his music interests. He is a pianist (1st) and concertmaster of his youth orchestra, has sung in choirs for years and played in string quartets since picking up the violin at eight. He dabbled in composition - mainly self-taught - at the suggestion of his first violin teacher. His real advance in composition came with attending two summer festivals, one at the end of his sophmore year, the other at the end of his junior year. He has decided for the university option with a good music department, as opposed to conservatory alone, as he feels a well thought through liberal arts education is important for his own intellectual development and musicianship. </p>
<p>His parents are not musicians. We twang a guitar, but that’s about it.</p>
<p>Excellent forum. Learning a lot.
Twin Ds’ both French Horn players. Not a silent moment in the house! </p>
<p>Parent (mom) busy combing college forums for college info, admission policies, admission processes and scholarship information. Absolutely no musical background! Ready to offer free advice but no takers!</p>
<p>I’m really enjoying the forum and learning a lot! My d is a 9th grade Horn player (she won’t let me call it a FRENCH Horn, 'cause her teacher says it’s not the proper term anymore 
) who MAY be looking at a music major.</p>
<p>I’m an elementary school music teacher, but was a vocalist in college and that was a LONG time ago!</p>
<p>azcatz</p>
<p>I’ve enjoyed this forum for awhile now. D is HS junior, vocal soprano. Has trained classically for 6 yrs while also doing musical theatre (yes, it can be done at this age if you’re careful about roles/shows and don’t belt).</p>
<p>She always planned on a career in vocal performance, but in the past year has realized that the life of a professional singer (esp a soprano) is really not the lifestyle she wants. Very little stability or security, constantly auditioning, working lots of nights and weekends. She has a beautiful instrument and great natural musicality, but now feels she’ll keep music in her life as an avocation.</p>
<p>Sooo…she’s now looking at her other interests, all in the humanities, and thinking of perhaps a music double major. Looking at small LACs in the Midwest.</p>
<p>Sorry for the ramble…nicr to read all your interesting posts.</p>
<p>I found College Confidential a few years ago during my S’s college search for a Latin program (hence my user id). Now my D, a high school sophomore, is looking at a major in music performance on flute. This process will be more complicated and I appreciate reading about all of the experiences with college visits, sample lessons, and auditions. Her teacher has started having college talks with her, which is great- I’m not the only one telling her that it’s not too soon!</p>
<p>I’m not quite in college yet, am somewhat on my own with just about the whole process and plan on going to colege for mostly guitar and piano, if i can. I also want to go for music production-maybe, composition and theory in contemporary music, though I’m interested classical.</p>
<p>High school junior, played flute for four years, private lessons for <1, really want to major in flute-playing.
Parents: Dad-engineer, Mom doesnt work, firmly against future flute majoring.</p>
<p>
Both? Or just Mom?</p>
<p>of course both…
they have a point that flute playing is less of a stable occupation than say computer science, but to all in this section of CC: Can you imagine doing anything else?!?</p>
<p>Hi All. Enjoying reading all the helpful info on this forum. My daughter is a saxophonist finishing up her junior year of high school and has been in the process of searching for colleges for music education. We’ve made lots of campus visits and she’s done sample lessons at all of them and is forming a pretty strong list of schools she’s interested in.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the great insight.</p>
<p>I’m a student at a suburban public high school, 2011 grad. I’m a vocalist but I plan to major in composition/theory, got it narrowed down to five schools that I plan to apply to. I sing in my school’s top choir and three extra-curricular ensembles throughout the year (men’s ensemble, Madrigal Singers, vocal jazz). I’ve held a leadership position each year in choir - this year, I am bass section leader and choir vice president. I made District Senior Chorus for IMEA (Illinois) District IX this year, and I’ll be auditioning again in the fall. I also do the plays and musicals at my school, occasionally doing community theater as well. I’m in Tri-M Music Honor Society and the International Thespian Society.</p>
<p>Hey guys!</p>
<p>I’m a high school student, class of 2013, yay!
I love playing the piano and guitar, and want to major in composition and theory, just like composer1221! :D</p>
<p>Nice to meet you all!</p>
<p>I’ve lurked here a few time but just set up an account this afternoon. So much good info here I couldn’t resist!</p>
<p>My S is going to be a HS junior in the fall, and we’re starting to think about exploring college options. I’m an academic myself, I work with first year students, among other things, so I know how crazy this process can be. </p>
<p>S is a musician, he plays trumpet and is a good jazz player. He currently attends a conservatory-based arts high school music program. He is also part of the jazz program in an audition-based music school in the city. He’s also a nearly straight-A student in his academic classes. He is going to Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp this summer for band/orchestra, he doesn’t have a lot of experience with the classical trumpet repertoire and he will get some of that there. I think next year he will try and do NHSMI, though.</p>
<p>We’re trying to figure out where he should be thinking about applying for colleges. Students from his high school are typically accepted to and offered scholarship money to schools like Berklee, New England Conservatory, and Julliard. But S is pretty sure he isn’t interested in a conservatory college program. He wants to think about double-majoring, or doing a dual-degree program somewhere. He’s also interested in Math and French. I’m thinking we need to look at some LAC’s with good jazz programs. He’s also not crazy about the idea of going far way from home (Chicago), so we’re primarily looking at NWU, DePaul, and other schools close by. He’s intrigued by Oberlin, but I worry about my urban boy in the middle of a cornfield for 4 years. :)</p>
<p>It’s funny, because he could easily go (for free) to the college where I work, but it wouldn’t be our first choice because I don’t think it would be a good fit for him.</p>
<p>Anyway, looking forward to learning what we can on this journey!</p>
<p>Just my two cents, Trumpetguysmom, Oberlin doesn’t feel like its in the middle of cornfields–it is literally 20-30 minutes outside Cleveland. I would think, given your description of what your son may be interested in, it may be a very good fit.</p>
<p>My son just finished junior year at UMich Jazz studies (sax) and has really enjoyed the program, the university and Ann Arbor.</p>
<p>Hello, last year my daughter was torn between ‘going for it’ in music and doing the traditional college/university path. Her dad and I convinced her she should do the traditional path and minor in music. She just finished her freshman year at Boston U where she studied anthropology/pre-med and did a cappella on the side. She did receive some scholarship $'s from BU and thankfully did well enough to keep her scholarship, even though we could tell she was losing enthusiasm for pre-med in the 2nd semester. After coming home in May, she’s decided that she regretted her decision, and she misses being 100% immersed in music, so is starting the process to re-apply to music schools ASAP. She is a jazz vocalist and pianist and was accepted to Berklee the first go-round for 2009 admissions. Hopefully, after an intense summer w/ her old instructors she can get accepted again, and will be able to follow her real passion, music - all day and all night. She’s considering Berklee, New School, McGill, and U. of Vermont. Even though she has a busy summer ahead of her with working, doing gigs, and re-applying to schools, she is in a great mood and I’m confident she’s on the right path.</p>
<p>SJTH, we’re planning on visiting during the coming year so we can see for ourselves. I also suspect that the school itself would be a good fit–S is a product of Montessori education and Oberlin seems very Montessori in spirit. I may also have him apply to the summer Trumpet Workshop next year as well.</p>
<p>That’s great Trumpetguysmom–my son is a drummer, but his roommate (last year and next)–a trumpet player from San Francisco–has found it to be a good fit. If your son can meet the trumpet faculty and some students, he’ll have a good sense of whether it worls for him or not. My son went to a tiny public college-prep school, and found it to mesh very well with his experience. Look forward to hearing about your aon’s–and your–journey!</p>