My unbalanced daughter...what next?

<p>Thumper, thanks for weighing in. My daughter doesn't want me to post her actual numbers on CC, but I can say (without getting into too much trouble) that her scores were similar to your son's scores. The biggest problem I see is that she has decided to pursue a BA, so the conservatories are out...I'm not sure how much weight her auditions will hold with admissions when she is "only" going for a BA. Time will tell...</p>

<p>After Lorelei's initial observation about math/theory, I did ask my daughter if she anticipated huge problems. Her take on theory is that she'll do OK to start and once she gets into totally new territory, she'll have to work just like everyone else. She has found theory at school to be manageable...so far. And, as with your son, she's been an instrumentalist; 7 years of playing French horn until her arthritis made her put it aside this winter, plus several years of formal piano training. She doesn't love theory, but she won't consider a BA program that doesn't have a strong theory component. As she puts it, "I want my BA to be as close to a BMus as possible; no Music Lite for me."</p>

<p>A quick coment from D who just finished a BA Music after dropping from a BM Performance: Math (and physics too) isnt really an issue until you get to Musical Acoustics..and not all schools require that class. By that time, however, you will be attending classes with a small group of students (all music majors) who you know well, have study groups with, and will be familiar with and be able to get help from the departments TA's.</p>

<p>My son is enrolled to pursue a BMus in composition. His math scores have always been low [really abominable on the CC scale], although his other scores [ACT before the writing was added] were not bad. </p>

<p>When he auditioned [trumpet] and interviewed with the head of composition program at his first choice college, no mention was ever made of his terrible math scores. </p>

<p>He did well on the theory placement tests at every school where he auditioned, and came very close to testing out of his first semester of college theory entirely. </p>

<p>The dean of the college of arts and sciences [a music prof] told me that in her experience, musicians all seem to be either very good at math or no good at all--they just don't seem to fall in the middle. She didn't think poor math skills was a problem as far as music is concerned.</p>