I understand that she is majoring in VP. But I imagine that she has a vision as to what sort of career she is looking at as a “performing musician”.(pop music,MT, opera,church music et al) This sort of career will more than likely dictate whether or not she needs to go to grad school,what skill sets she needs to develop, or where she will have to live and what sort of non music " support career " is feasible. It will help her focus on a secondary major and whether or not a secondary major is even possible. Each possible “secondary support career” is going to impose it’s own set of limitations. So much of the planning hinges on what sort of music performance career she wishes to pursue.
This being said, a music performance major does not exclude any student from the job market. Plenty of non music businesses value the skills attained with intense music study.
@musicamusica - Thank you. I totally understand. She is into opera and is part of the Chorus. She wants to start her own studio to teach aspiring singers. She loves contemporary music as well and is interested in creating a band/joining a band and do gigs, covers, etc. She just completed her 2nd semester at SJSU in B.M. Vocal performance.
My D had a thriving studio during and after grad school. She got most of her referrals through her MM school of music. People calling the U for teachers. And in grad school she worked as a VP teacher at a well known private drama school in LA. She got student referrals through them as well. Before she moved to Europe she had more students than she needed. So your D needs to start thinking about possibly going to a highly reputable grad school where VP teachers well taught and in a market where are sought after and where they make a decent hourly for private lessons. (for D that was between $85-$100 per lesson) Possibly focus on this rather than a double major?
I share your thoughts musicamusica. I’m not too keen in her doing a double major. If she ever wants to do it, I suggested that she picks something related to music as opposed to non-music, like Music Education or Music Composition. It’s just that people at her campus scared her out that she won’t be able to make living with a BM degree. She definitely is interested to do Masters right after under-graduate degree. Do you think she should try to transfer out to a reputable music school? Her GPA is ~3.4 and she didn’t apply to any of the reputable schools fearing rejection. If you see my initial comments in this thread, I’d described what we went through during her college admission process. Though she had many UCs accepting her, and finally committing to UC Davis, she decided to stick to SJSU in the last minute as she liked SJSU’s music department and staff better than UCD.
My advice? Getting into a good grad school just involves a really really good audition.Excellent language skills(French German and Italian), good technique and and a good healthy instrument. She should sing really really well. And when she gets in she should be the best student they have (in order to get rec’s) That’s up to her. Possibly not the best path for someone who fears rejection and is not dedicated to classical voice. That might sound harsh, but it’s very very competitive. Just like the music world.
Musicamusica and a few others know a lot about VP. From my own point of view, your daughter is getting bad advice. Does SJSU have many VP grads who do go on to grad school or performance or a life in music in general?
I think, and this is me (with a daughter in a PhD music program now) that she is fine focusing on what she loves, music and singing. I think she should stop worrying about career right now. Certainly build experience (and resume) in the field, and it’s fine to intern for a few hours a week, something like that, but I even think she should stop working, if your family can afford it.
Many of our kids tried for grad schools that offered funding and stipend. So if she focused on music and then later has the best possible audition, perhaps that will do more for her financially than her job. I mean, working at low wages might cost her a quality transcript and/or audition and mean less or no funding. Again, if she can afford to think long term like this…
I know a VP grad who is making a nice living for herself right now with lessons, and other gigs. I also know both music majors and dancers who are in med or law school. I mean, majoring in music should not be limiting. Employers are often impressed by it 
If she wants to transfer, then she can certainly look into that given the advice she is being given. Has she talked to a teacher, as opposed to a tutor, about all this? I suggest she have a serious talk with someone she really respects.
A lot of us have financial fears so I don’t want you to think I don’t understand. But I really do believe an undergrad education in music, for BM or BA, is a wonderful way to spend undergrad years and still opens the same doors as any other bachelor’s.
ps also sent you a message…and feel irresponsible for not saying that funding at the master’s level CAN be a problem!
Musicamusica & compmom - Thank you very much for your thoughts and suggestions - I truly appreciate it. I’ll add a little bit more info here.
My D is a very committed and hard working girl. She has been learning Indian classical music since she was 5 years old. Ever since she was in elementary school, she always spoke about becoming a performing musician as her dream and she never once changed that decision in the past 10 years. She has been into school chorus and choirs throughout her school years. However, due to our lack of knowledge on classical music (western), we didn’t realize the importance of enrolling her into private voice lessons early enough. By the time we asked her to take up private lessons, she was already a high school senior - so she took private voice lessons only for 3 months prior to applying for colleges (late 2014). We also were new to CA and didn’t have much knowledge about Conservatories or Universities, etc. She only applied for Berklee (MA is our home state) and Manhattan School of Music. She didn’t go for in person auditions; but quickly recorded something and submitted with her minimal private lessons experience. She applied to few UCs and Sonoma State/SJSU. She almost got all of the UCs she applied for and both CSUs. Finally after a lot of debates and discussions, she finally joined SJSU.
She practices every day for few hours; but she started her western classical singing pretty late. She is determined to continue focusing on classical singing and that’s why she didn’t go for a B.A. Music in UCD and decided to go for a B.M. degree with voice performance.
We are not too bad as far as our financial situation is concerned. I’m a sole bread winner for the family and I earn enough to pay her current SJSU tuitions without Financial Aid. I’m also building equity of our home in MA so even if we end up in a significant student loan debt, we should be able to pay it off in the next 5-8 years. Of course, I rely on my paycheck to make the ends meet and don’t have any savings.
It’s just that my wife is totally paranoid (she never worked and has been a home maker since we got married - no regrets - she is a great mom/ wife and home maker) and keeps thinking that our D may not make a good living just with her singing. My point of view is that - my D is very good at teaching younger kids and I’m recommending her to start teaching aspiring students in both indian and western classical music and also do gigs. I’m also suggesting that she can take up Music Education as a 2nd concentration and take up a full time job in any school/college as a VP teacher. I have no doubts in my mind about her future. She only needs a couple of more years to start singing better than she is now in Western Classical and I know she is working hard every day.
Thank you again.
A music education degree is not helpful if the goal is to teach at the college level. Generally music education is geared to teaching in public schools, and it can be preferable to study music ed in the state where you want to practice.
I know VP majors who teach privately after graduating.
I do hope your daughter can really focus on performance for these 4 years. It sounds like she deserves it!
Did she consider UMass Amherst’s BM in voice?