<p>riverrunner,
My sons have known many boys who sound like your son. These are boys who love Jazz and music and have spent their HS careers doing it as their primary extra curricular activity but they don’t want to go on and become musicians. Many are interested in science and engineering. So here is where they applied and were accepted to</p>
<p>U of Rochester (which has GENEROUS scholarships for kids like your son)
Columbia
Tufts
NYU
McGill
Carnegie Mellon
Tulane
U Michigan
U Mass (Amherst)
Oberlin</p>
<p>Hope that helps…U of Rochester and Tufts are the leaders for boys like your son from our town.</p>
<p>Cal Tech has a fairly accomplished pool of talented, amateur musicians and they have several ensembles available . [Caltech</a> Music](<a href=“http://bands.caltech.edu/]Caltech”>http://bands.caltech.edu/) I would also recommend USC and UCLA…with the caveat that since they both have strong music departments, most of the established ensembles within the SOM are full of music majors. As a non major at any school, I would imagine that the(non major) audition would be at the beginning of the school year.</p>
<p>Great ideas! I’m thinking he would do well to contact jazz directors at each school to see how he might fit in- if the jazz bass position is always filled by music majors, for example. I don’t have much idea if the world is full of good bass players, so he’s a dime a dozen! He’s putting together a DVD now to show what he can do. Any further thoughts about how to proceed with this?</p>
<p>@stacjap. At NEC we were made to feel like if she wasn’t worthy of be recorded this moment there was no point in her going music school at all. Luckily she has enough confidence in her playing and desire to not take that too hard. Every other school we have toured has been positive. So onward. Next school is CMU but still set in Boyer at Temple. And celebrating perfect scores on Guild auditions.</p>
<p>Hello all, I’ve been following the Music Major thread for some time with great interest. Today I became the parent of an aspiring music major! My S will be a HS Junior next year. I’ve known for sometime that nothing would please him more than to major in percussion (primarily drum set) in college. My husband and I are not musicians, and did not feel we could accurately judge how skilled S was. S spoke to his HS band director, who was very encouraging. I thought the deal breaker would come when he spoke to his private instructor, who is a professional musician and an instructor at the state U as well as a prestigious LAC down the road. This instructor is known as a stern taskmaster and straight shooter. To my surprise, his instructor told him it was a great idea! Everything I know about music majors I’ve learned from CC. My son is also involved with choir and theater including musicals. I envision him at an LAC because of the smaller size, but my S has not identified a preference. I’m very grateful to the posters on CC for sharing their knowledge and experience.</p>
<p>I have given up compdad to leave compmom in peace. Son will be a first year composition major at Oberlin Conservatory. I listen to a great deal of music of all genres and eras and firmly believe that pop music is not the only type of modern music. Classical is one era of music rather than a genre.</p>
<p>That’s why the little bio. I’m also the one who wishes he could write these wonderful pieces of instruction ala Spiritmanager, Compmom Mezzomomma, and all the others, but can’t.</p>
<p>Hi all. I’ve been lurking off and on for a bit and finally registered. Guess I can’t put off the inevitable fact that my oldest will be a senior this fall. We have always homeschooled and he is 17 and a guitarist. I almost let him graduate early 2 years ago, but he was becoming more interested (ok, obsessed) with music, so I decided to just devote his last 2 years to all things music/guitar. So, now we are looking into Berklee and Belmont and starting to add a few more, hopefully. So fair warning, I will probably ask lots of questions! ;P</p>
<p>Welcome Shellybean,
If your son is interested in Berklee then you might want to consider having him attend one of Berklee’s summer programs. It is probably too late to register for their 5 week program, but as a guitarist he could do their one week guitar workshop later in the summer. That would give him a very good feel for Berklee, the campus, Boston etc…He also could audition or a scholarship, and if he doesn’t feel good about that audition he can erudition in the winter to see if he can increase his scholarship.</p>
<p>I don’t think I ever introduced myself…so here we go.</p>
<p>I’m a senior from South Dakota, looking to double major in a science and music (probably BA in Bio & Music or similar). My end goal is to be a MD. I play horn (yes, the french kind), and I like to think I’m pretty good at it Some college considerations in no particular order: Case Western, CCM, U Minnesota- Twin cities(preferred), U of Iowa, Augustana College (SD), U Kansas, ASU, and maybe Eastman? The only thing I’m really careful about is costs, because music schools are expensive. And no conservatories for me. I can’t handle being in a culture bubble for four+ years.</p>
<p>Welcome Obstructions. I would add University of Missouri - Columbia to your list. Many SOM’s don’t see too many horn players, and you could be in a good position to write your own ticket. Also consider Oberlin, if not the Conservatory, then the BA in Musical Studies. Oberlin also gives good size merit and grant aid.</p>
<p>Hello posters and readers, I congratulate you all for such an outstanding and resourceful forum. I am a father of three daughters and I have been lurking through these pages for the last couple of weeks.</p>
<p>I just finished with the college process with D1 and had no idea how much the college landscape and admissions steps have changed since my time. D1 and I started late but lucked out by receiving a very generous need based grant by the University of Richmond. She is not a musician and will be pursuing a liberal arts degree in science. I am very proud of her.</p>
<p>The reason I am posting in this forum is D2. She “breathes” and lives music since her toddler years. D2 will be going to eighth grade next fall. I know it is still early but I sure don’t want to start late with this one. She has been on a very renowned local children’s choir for eight years. She spends nine hours weekly on this choir taking music theory, instruments (winds and strings), choir lessons and technique not to mention the amount of time spent on recital practices and concerts. In addition, she takes an hour of private piano lessons and an hour with a private teacher for soloist vocal technique.</p>
<p>As you might have guessed by my user name, her forte definitely is voice. She gets very high praises by both, her choral and soloist voice teachers (both locally well known sopranos) especially her range and ease on the very high notes. She is convinced she wants to pursue her career as a soloist singer and go to school for vocal performance.
Well, enough bragging :)……. My wife and I are not musicians and have no idea how to propel D2 into her desired pursuit. We understand that excelling locally with her peers does not translate into excelling nationally when applying to the fine colleges and conservatories for vocal performance. But, what can D2 do to get an edge? What summer festivals, camps, and competitions she should be looking into while going through her high school years that might give her good experience and exposure? We live in an island (Puerto Rico) and travelling can be expensive especially for our modest housing income. So which of these said festivals and/or camps provide merit scholarships? Which ones are a “can’t miss” if she gets accepted?</p>
<p>Reading through these forums I understand that not necessarily the conservatory or school is the important decision maker, but who are the teachers or mentors in the institution. Which mentors should D2 be looking into based on her skills? Feel free to PM if you do not want to mention names in public.</p>
<p>I appreciate any help, tips, info and support you can provide. Again, this is a wonderful forum especially for those (like me) who previously had no idea on how to start this trek. Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Welcome Coloraturadad! A good friend of mine’s son played baseball at Richmond. Such a nice school. As I am sure you have discovered, there are many members on this forum who know so very much about VP and will be great assets to you and your D. She seems to be very talented.</p>
We have always homeschooled and he is 17 and a guitarist. I almost let him graduate early 2 years ago, but he was becoming more interested (ok, obsessed) with music, so I decided to just devote his last 2 years to all things music/guitar. So, now we are looking into Berklee and Belmont and starting to add a few more, hopefully. So fair warning, I will probably ask lots of questions! ;P</p>