Thank you for the info. We’re new to this. Stony Brook was on the list because she took a class with Carol Wincec this past summer. Does a BA prevent you from getting into a good grad program? I will need to learn the difference between a BA and BM. We will definitely look a Potsdam and Fredonia. SUNY schools are a bit more affordable option as my husband works in NY and we own a house there so she would qualify for in state tuition. Not as affordable as Alabama but less expensive than many others on her list.
sunnysar, read the Double Degree Dilemma essay that is posted near the top of the music forum. It explains different ways to study music. A BM is 2/3-3/4 courses in music and a BA is usually1/4-1/3 courses in music. Some BA programs have a performance component and some don’t. Students can often take lessons (for credit) and then do extracurricular performance in a BA program, and audition in the fall of freshman year for those.
For BM, many schools want a prescreen and of course audition. For BA an applicant can submit a supplement with recording, music resume and a couple of extra letters of recommendation from music teachers or diretors.
A BA covers academic music: music history, theory, composition, ethnomusicology, technology and so on, and conservatories and schools of music also have those but in a more “applied” way.
A BA degree with a major in music will be about 1/3 music classes to 2/3 liberal arts classes, whereas a BMus will be 2/3-3/4 music classes and around 30 hours liberal arts core in the SUNY system. (And much of the liberal arts core is fulfilled with music history etc. requiring just a class each in writing, math, science and social science.) So the BM is a lot more musically intensive. I really can’t answer about getting into a good grad program with a BA. I imagine as with undergrad, it depends on the school and the audition is key!
I was able to get into a really great music librarianship program with a BA in Music, so I believe that it is possible to get into grad school with a BA.
I know several musicians and composers who got into grad school with a BA. It is about the audition, once again. Keeping up with lessons, practice and performance is important of course.
^^Yes, I know many students who were accepted to conservatories such as Juilliard, NEC, Rice, Curtis, etc. with BA degrees. It’s about the audition.
I’ve been lurking for awhile, and I did ask one question already, but here’s my introduction post, and also a request for help.
My D is a soprano who is applying to vocal performance programs. Her primary voice teacher has been waffling between mezzo and soprano, but we think she’s settled with the soprano range. She’s well-rounded musically and academically- she plays the French horn, mellophone, and trumpet but really her passion is singing. She’s been studying privately throughout high school, and we just started with a second voice teacher for help polishing and honing her audition pieces. She would like to stay within the Northeast for her undergraduate studies.
We started this process with a pretty big list of schools, which I am eternally grateful to this board for the information. There were some schools on it which I considered reaches for her, but as we’ve been reaching out to colleges and doing sample lessons with professors, she has been getting such positive feedback that I feel like it makes sense to expand the list and include more reaches for her and possibly remove some of the others. She had a lesson with a professor last week which was really encouraging, and his advice to my daughter was to seek out the best professors at the schools where she is considering applying.
So- I was hoping for help in two ways:
Here is her current list, and I would really love any suggestions of schools to add or personal experiences we should know about and therefore to possibly avoid those schools. She is not interested in musical theater or contemporary music- her dream is to study classical at the undergrad and graduate level and then move on to performance. Therefore, we are trying to avoid schools that do not have a strong classical program.
Her current list includes:
-NEC
-Eastman
-Schulich School of Music
-SUNY Fredonia
-SUNY Purchase
-MSM
She’s also considering:
-Mannes
-Boston University
-Syracuse University
Are there any schools I should add or any that don’t seem to fit what she is looking for?
Secondly, I am desperate for advice about how to find out which professors are the ones she should be requesting sample lessons from. I know a lot of it has to do with personal fit, but it is just so hard to get a feel for professors from their brief bios. I would greatly appreciate personal recommendations or any other ideas about how to narrow down the list of potential professors to contact. I welcome any information, and feel free to PM me.
Thank you!
Welcome @TiredVocalMom ! I’ll just start by suggesting that you ask any (particularly young and currently working) singers you may know to give you their opinions on programs and especially teachers! If you can narrow down to a few VP Profs at each school, your connections may be willing to reach out to their colleagues to help you get some insider info on particular teachers. Also, try good old Google…look for students of said teachers getting good work in Opera (I assume your D is thinking Opera?). RateMyProfessor is also worth a try. When you make it to campus, either for audition weekend or a visit, have your D set up a tour or visit with at least one current VP major and pick their brain! Current students have a lot to say; just make sure you get more than one viewpoint! Some schools will gladly connect you with a current student or two by phone before your visit; be sure to ask to connect with a VP major!
Oops…probably should have sent a PM! Sorry, thread!
PM’ed you TiredVocalMom.
Thanks @dramasopranomom! I appreciate all of these suggestions.
Unfortunately, we don’t really know any singers- her teacher teaches at a small school and doesn’t seem to have any current connections. But I love the idea of looking up current singers and trying to determine who their teachers were, and also making connections on college visits, or by asking for a phone connection. I wouldn’t have thought of that.
Thanks also @compmom for the tips!
I’m going to make a separate post because I have a couple of specific questions that probably merit their own post.
Thanks again, and I’m excited to follow along on everyone’s journey!
What happens when applicants take trial lessons pre-audition? Do the teachers give any information like “Yes i would love to have you in my studio?” Or is it usually “Nice to meet you, bye,” because they just want to leave things non-comittal? What has eveyone’s experience been?
Hi Everyone! I am new the forum and am the parent of a Class of 2019 bassoonist. My D desires to play for a professional orchestra and will major in Bassoon Performance. Currently, she is interested in, and have applied to, the following schools: Juilliard, MSM, UT Austin, Rice, SMU, Baylor, and NYU. I’m looking forward to see how all goes for everyone! This process is definitely stressing me out, lol… The waiting is the worst, but it’s all very exciting nonetheless 
Hi @Music2023!
My daughter has had about 5 sample lessons and it’s just like an actual lesson with the exception of having the opportunity to ask questions about the program. Each time, she’s used the lessons as an opportunity to receive assistance with audition pieces. She has found the tips provided to be very helpful and the overall experience with sample lessons has been positive and worth it. Some lessons have been complimentary, a few not (UT and Rice).
The lesson also allows the instructor the opportunity to see their skills and talents outside of the 10-15 minute audition and to see how teachable they are as well as how well they are able to integrate their feedback into their practice. Thus far, no comments about having her, or not having her, in their studio has been made.
Hi @BassoonMom2019 and @music2023! If your child is going through the audition process this season, please join us to share your experience here: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/2070752-class-of-2023-undergrad-class-of-2021-grad-the-tours-the-auditions-the-journey.html#latest
@“Mezzo’sMama” also welcomes news about upcoming auditions, once scheduled, here: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/2108045-2019-pre-screen-thread.html#latest
My S is also Class of 19 and is applying for a double major in jazz saxophone (tenor) and music ed. at Berklee, Eastman, Ithaca, Syracuse, Rutgers and NYU, so maybe we will see you along the way! 
Thanks for the welcome @akapiratequeen ! I will post in the suggested links as well. We were excited to be offered a live audition for U. T.! We’re just waiting to hear from Rice and Juilliard now. The others didn’t require a prescreen for Bassoon.
@BassoonMom2019 - I too am a bassoon mom. DS didn’t pass prescreen at UT but did for USC (his first choice). What a process! He’s also applied to Miami/Frost, Boston Conservatory, Indiana/Jacobs, Oberlin and CIM.
@leejay22 Those are all great schools! Congrats on the invite for his #1 pick! I wish him the best! This semester is just so crazy with navigating all of the auditions and other senior activities. Plus, my D decided to enter into 2 non-school related Concerto competitions and is in the Youth Orchestra as well. It’s all exciting, but I’m ready to know where she’s going to end up so that we can plan. Also, she did not pass the prescreen for Rice, but we sort of already knew that was a major reach program and that the program is graduate student heavy.
@TiredVocalMom: I ended up using the College Navigator web site to find the number of graduates in vocal performance or music performance at particular schools. This helped us determine if my D would be one of the few or in a good-size group of students considering making a career in performance. I used the programs and majors tab to find these. It also lists numbers of grad program grads. If there were, for example, 8 or so graduates in a year, that number times about 4 might give you a (relative) population of majors.
I’ve only recently started posting on this thread, and trying to help with our experience where I can. My S is currently a freshman in violin performance. I wish I’d known of the music major threads on CC last year when he was applying and we were stressing out.
We are a STEM family, so the whole music school thing is new to us. First thing that struck us is how hard and how long-drawn the process is compared to a “normal” application - which is in itself quite stressful, but is generally over by the end of December, or maybe in early January. Second thing is how different the process is for music applications, esp., with the auditions. College applications ask if the student is a 1st generation college applicant - meaning the parents have not been to college. We felt like everything was so different that we may as well have never been in college.
My S, applied to about a dozen colleges and was accepted at about 9, withdrew at 2 (because of other acceptances, and the auditions were too draining), and was rejected at 1. Our experience parallels a lot of other people that went through the process before us.
Good luck class of 2023 ! May your wishes come true, and may you stay forever young.
My DS applied and got in for double major in Trombone performance and Engineering at University of Maryland (IS), only school he applied to. He was thinking of applying to Eastman/Univ of Rochester, but with the price difference and UMD Engg being pretty good, he decided to go in-state even though he had attended summer programs at Eastman the last few years.