My S is bass-baritone applying for a BM in vocal performance. His mom and I are not in the music world so learning about music schools and auditioning has been a journey. We did not get a ton of help from his voice teachers at his high school although they tried. We are about half way through his auditions and looking at some tough decisions ahead. He’s been accepted to three schools (TCU, CCM, and NEC) and likes things about each. He has auditions at Curtis, MSM, Oberlin, and Peabody still to do. We welcome any thoughts or advice for rookies. Thanks.
Good luck @basso_texas . Our family went through the audition process two years ago (BM vocal performance) and were on your same shoes by not being in the musical world at all. Congratulations to your S for those wonderful acceptances and wish him the best of luck on his remaining auditions. March madness will go very slow but after receiving all the decisions and the acceptances financial packages things will start clearing out and making sense. Please put major priority on the assigned studio teachers. This student/teacher relationship is very special and of major importance. Feel free to ask any questions. You can PM if you prefer.
Hi, I’m a high school senior who’s currently in the process of getting admissions decisions and deciding where to go. I’m a first generation musician, and I play lots of instruments, but I intend to major in oboe performance wherever I go and then go back to a community college and get a teaching license for cheaper if a performance career proves to be impossible. It’s nice to meet you all! 
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Hi! I’m the mom of a high school junior soprano. She’s been taking private voice lessons for two years with a university professor (flagship school, solid music program but not a big draw for UGs from OOS) and also plays French horn in the local youth symphony, plus has been singing with a large regional children’s choir since 4th grade – in addition to school choral and band programs. She did the Eastman summer program last year and had a great experience and was just accepted to Tanglewood for the six-week vocal program this summer. She is smart and has good grades and decent test scores, but really would prefer to study nothing but music and foreign language, so she leans toward the conservatory route. My husband and I have zero musical knowledge so this is a very new experience for us! While her voice teacher is fantastic and very supportive – she thinks my daughter not only has great natural gifts, but is also a hard worker who is easy to teach – but she often doesn’t tell us thing proactively – we kind of have to know which questions to ask… (So, for example, it was me who initiated the conversation last year about summer programs ple – not sure it would have come up otherwise!) As for colleges, we will need merit aid for sure – we are sort of in that in between situation where we can’t write out huge tuition checks, have no family help, and don’t want to saddle our D with big loans, but probably make a little too much to qualify for much aid. We’ve made the rounds to a handful of schools in the state and region for trial lessons and have identified the two safety schools she’ll apply to – both state schools where her tuition is likely to be covered by an academic scholarship, where there is a decent enough music program and a good professor to work with. None of the other local-ish LACs seemed like the right place. Starting to develop a medium list (not yet a short list) of schools. She liked Eastman well enough (NOTHING wrong with it, she was just not 100% sold, but will possibly apply). Last summer, on the way to Eastman, we visited Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) and Oberlin. CIM didn’t seem like a fit, but she LOVED Oberlin. Overall she really seems to like a school with walkable shops and cafes, so either urban or small-town. We also saw Juilliard on a fluke last year while in NYC, but it felt like a better place (again, for her) for grad school, rather than UG, but she did like NYC. I should note, however, that she did not have a lesson or meet any faculty at those schools – in fact, it was at Juilliard that we found out for the first time about sample lessons – something her voice teacher had not mentioned). Others that may or may not be on our list: UMiami Frost, NEC, Baldwin-Wallace, Peabody, Boston U, and we’re not sure where else. Smaller schools and supportive programs are definitely her bag. I’ve been lurking on several forums here, and would love it if anyone could direct me to threads about a couple of our big questions: Is there a thread where I can see what might be possible in terms of merit and academic aid at different schools? How about other tips around apps, EA, and prescreening that we might not hear from our voice teacher? What else should we be doing? Already love what I am reading here – this a great support network!
And I should add, D is interested in a VP major. She is focusing on classical repertoire right now, because that is what best suits her voice, but has an interest in MT, though not much experience with it and only experience with acting in ensemble roles, not leads. (Though she has had some lead solos musically). She basically loves every genre of music, from classical to pop to country to jazz, and has been exposed to a wide variety of music growing up. I’d love for her back-up plan to be music therapy, but figure that’s a bridge we can cross later. Main thing is a VP major to start.
Welcome @khill87 You’ve come to the right place for advice, insight and guidance as you navigate this process. I can’t tell you how helpful CC has been for me in the past year. I’m learning things I could not learn anywhere else and connecting with parents traveling down the same path as we try to keep one another sane! My husband is a musician but I’m just a music appreciator so I’ve been trying to learn this crazy college process quickly, from touring the right schools to prescreen requirements to auditions! My daughter is a senior interested in vocal performance but taking the pop/commercial music route with interest in music industry studies, recorded arts and songwriting. So I can’t help too much with program or college suggestions for classical voice but your initial list sounds excellent! Feel free to join this Journey thread to get to know other parents with kids pursuing classical performance studies. You are actually joining the discussions at a good time since your daughter is a junior and you have some time to prepare for the adventures ahead. Good luck!
PM’ing youkhill87
@khill87 —
I second this being the right place! A good thing to do would be to read from the start of this year’s (or last year’s) journey thread.
You might get a better idea of merit aid after determining your EFC (try the CollegeBoard EFC calculator), and then checking out NPC (Net Price Calculator) calculators on each school’s site. Of course this does not give you an idea of how music scholarships change the picture, and you’ll see in the threads that these can vary greatly (stacking onto, or replacing merit aid; $2000 to as much as tuition).
My D (VP and cello) applied to a mix of schools including a local mid-size in-state university to lac with big music department to lac/Conservatory to standalone conservatory. While sticker prices range wildly, as may the awards, it is the net price that counts, and of course how your D feels at each place and with each teacher (we did sample lessons). Good luck on your journey. I’ll look forward to reading your story next year!
Hi @khill87, here’s a thread on scholarships! http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/2106117-how-much-are-music-scholarships-really-p1.html Hope it helps. We’re just starting to get offers now and they are all over the map — as others have noted, it’s the COA (cost of attendance) that matters. Best of luck to you and your musician!
@akapiratequeen thanks for the link.
@khill87 , check your PM!
Hello! I have a D20 and S22. D plays clarinet, sax, trombone. S is a percussionist.
D is unsure of what her focus will be in college, so I’m pushing LAC with a strong music department. Then she can easily change majors if necessary. We live in a rural area and she’s excelled at everything given the somewhat limited resources we have for instruction. She’s interested to see what will happen in college when she gets regular weekly instruction and challenging music.
I’m just trying to get the S22 drummer to care about anything other than drumline and Fortnite. ? He is going to try again for jazz band next year and should make it, it was pretty near impossible to get a spot as a freshman. And if he could think about his grades a bit, that would be nice, too.
Hi @murray93 . Please come join us on the Class of 24 undergrad/22 grad thread: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/2135909-class-of-2024-undergrad-class-of-2022-grad-the-tours-the-auditions-the-journey.html#latest
Lately I am so sick and tired of hearing… “What your kid wants to study music? There is no money, no jobs, He will starve. Tell him to study engineering, computer science etc… If I hear it once more I think I will be so kind. Sorry I just wanted to blow off some steam.
What’s worse to hear is a parent who says “I won’t let him or her study music.”
I do try to educate people who say what you quoted above. Along with explaining more about careers in music, I also like to tell this type of person that statistically, music majors have the highest admit rate of any major to med school.
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@Doransa well, you came to the right place to vent! We have all been through that look of disapproval or cynical questioning or even an outright lecture, sometimes from strangers we barely know! I agree with @compmom to just be prepared to respond calmly and confidently with facts and the many reasons we support our musicians and the arts and why we have faith they will find the right path and be successful. I know a father who has a talented daughter who is a junior and wants to study musical theatre and he has already said no to that, telling her he refuses to spend money on college for a “wasted major.” Her mom is more open to it and is trying to convince her husband to allow a theatre major if she double majors or minors in business or something he deems more “marketable.” My own husband dealt with that. His dad refused to let him study art in college. He ended up getting a degree in marketing (which IS helpful in any career) and he worked the corporate world as long as he could tolerate for a creative person. But around the time we got married he expressed how much he wanted to do graphic design and start his own business and that’s exactly what he did with my 100% support. Was it easy? No. Did we struggle financially at first? Yes. But it was worth it to see him doing what he had a passion for and made him happy. But I agree that’s the saddest situation of all when parents aren’t supportive. In most cases, it’s just ignorance and clinging to the traditional view/path. As parents of music majors, we can confront it or ignore it, but in our hearts we know what is best for our kids and should feel confident in that.
@compmom I heard that too. I am usually a kind person and I do not let things worry me, but this is getting bothersome. It is very hard to reason with some people.
@AmyIzzy I know this is the right place to vent. My husband has double degree, one in science one in piano. His parents also asked him to get double degree so I totally get it. All we can do support our kids. This is their passion, and their life.
Thank you.
If someone questions my D’s decision to major in music, I make no excuses, and say she is blessed to be able to follow her passion: We are excited to see where it leads. Then I add how boring a world it would be if we all were accountants!
Of course I have some concerns how she will pay the rent. I would be equally concerned if she majored in Classics, English, Sociology, French, even some engineering fields, depending on the job market… Success is not guaranteed by the hand stamp you get from a particular college or by attaining a particular degree.The skill set she is gaining as a music major is well suited to any career path- finding gigs, networking, accepting rejection and criticism after auditions, working in teams and to deadlines, public performance, … It is a real world experience with very translatable skills. But it isn’t worth trying to convince some people.
@songbirdmama you are so correct. Some people think they know it all. Thank you.
Owww - one of my favorite things! People sticking their noses in my/my kid’s business!!
One of the responses that worked best for me (trust me I worked on many of them - live and in my head) was: “I have no idea what my kid is going to do. You’ll need to ask her.” Once I just wouldn’t be concerned about my kid’s future, it seemed to take all the gas out of their tanks. Usually I would add some sort of: “oh I believe in my kid, she’s smart, she’ll figure it out.” For persistent people (like family), you can add…“well I’ll just let you worry about that bc I’m not going to…I believe in my kid.” Going into long explanations about the fact that it is a bachelors degree, yada yada yada typically doesn’t work for nosy, fear-mongers (but it may for the few kind souls who are genuinely curious). And frankly I have no interest in educating a jerk (I’m not so kind). I would repeat the mantra: “I believe in my kid, he’s/she’s smart and he/she will figure it out.” And YOUR kid will…with you worrying about it or not. So don’t worry!
And this is a TEMPORARY situation. No one says anything to me now. My D teaches, performs, works and supports herself financially. So the early college fear-mongering has disappeared. Now people ask: when are you going to retire? To which I like to say…“oh you must have me mixed up with one of your rich friends. I’ll be working for awhile.” Life moves on.