<p>I just found out a few days ago there is a new joint degree between Harvard and the new england conservatory of music. I mean, I guess this is maybe 1 or 2 years old, but there is little information on the degree--If anybody knows any info on it, continue reading. If not, you need not read further.</p>
<p>For one, can prospective freshman audition for the degree or program thing before entrance (B/c on the harvard website, it said the degree was eligible for sophomores/juniors of harvard, and i <strong>thought</strong> something about auditions for freshman (prospective). ) I need some clarity on this b/c this could mean applying or not for me at harvard lol>>>>>Thanks !!</p>
<p>um i know one thing .. you have to apply to both schools.. you may get inot one without the other and may get into both but not into the the joint program.. also only a little mroe than 5 get accepted each year...</p>
<p>Last year ~5 were accepted from 100 total applicants. It is for the cream of the crop musicians. Also, when applying to the joint degree program, you're also being considered for the bachelor of music degree (if you don't get into the masters of music degree). You can apply for this program if you are an entering freshman, sophomore, or junior.</p>
<p>how strong is harvard arts program? i checked out there website and there wasn't much there.. especially for oil painting where it just talked about the collection of art harvard hosts at its excellent museum. that's wonderful and all, but what about its students and the program? i'm not into the sculpting and ceramics too much, but rather oil painting and sketching.</p>
<p>b/c you can apply as an entering freshman, does that mean you can technically audition and apply if you are looking/applying to Harvard? I'm not sure if that makes sense lol.</p>
<p>Jeremy - My daughter, a soprano, will be starting at Harvard this fall. Had she not gotten into Harvard, her plan was a B.Mus. in Voice and Opera at a top tier university, so she was interested in the joint program as a replacement for that kind of experience. After visiting both Harvard and NEC, she opted against applying for the joint program as an entering freshman for these reasons:
- In return for collapsing a six-year AB/MM program into five years, it commits you to one particular place for your Masters;
- It eats into your senior year at Harvard, diluting what should be a pretty remarkable experience in itself;
- Many NEC faculty take on Harvard (and other non-NEC) students on the side for about $60-70 an hour, which is around $2000 for an hour a week x 30 weeks. The joint program tuition is $6000 on top of Harvard costs;
- No one at NEC could tell my daughter about the joint program students from Harvard. She got the impression that while they were "at" NEC for lessons, they weren't "of" NEC, and might not be getting much more value than had they arranged privately to work with one of the conservatory faculty.
So my daughter is putting off for a year the idea of looking into the joint program. Of course as a singer, time is not of the essence for her, since singers' voice mechanisms don't mature until their mid-20s. Though she may yet consider the NEC program, I would guess that she'll decide to throw herself completely into campus life at Harvard, perhaps majoring in music, and take applied music on the side for the next four years. Then, she'll either audition for a Masters program or take a year somewhere to fill in some missing Music pre-requisites before doing so. Not as steamlined as getting a bachelor's and masters in five years, but a plan that would allow her the flexibility to make different and better decisions as she bcomes more and more informed about options.</p>
<p>Take Gadad's advice. You will be crammed and stressed if you do the joint program, and you'll be missing out on all the great things Harvard and NEC have to offer separately.</p>