non major music opps @ colleges

College Majors Music Major
1

<p>Tubaboy recently decided that he would like to major in something else besides music. However, he says that he would really like to continue to with music - he may still minor in it, but if not he would want to (at the very least) participate in lessons and ensembles. The ability to be involved with the music program, in some way, shape or form, will affect his decision as to where to apply. He and I recognize that some schools with excellent music programs may not have the room for a non major to participate. </p>

<p>Since there are so many experienced music parents and students in this forum, perhaps you could help us out here? The schools with great music programs being considered for their other offerings are Ithaca, Oberlin, and Vanderbilt. </p>

<p>Any info would be appreciated.</p>

2

<p>Rice University has courses for non-majors, has an orchestra non-majors can audition into, can take lessons. Has the MOB (non-marching band). Can't find the info on the web site right now but they talked about it when we were there and the non-majors classes are listed in their catalog.</p>

<p>Also found in their catalog music for non-majors includes Jazz courses, theory for non-majors, band in addtion to orchestra and band arranging.</p>

3

<p>Tubamom, welcome. We went through exactly that process last year with D. Ultimately she ended up as a music major, because one of the schools where she auditioned for a scholarship ended up contacting her and offering to give her a better scholarship if she would agree to major. So she had a last minute change of plans. Since she was going in "undecided" she agreed to try the music major path for atleast awhile, and would have the scholarship for at least that long!</p>

<p>However, her college search process was done with the idea that she wanted a school where she could participate and/or minor. (Or get a BA.) She didn't look at any of the schools tubason is considering, so I can't give you direct advice. In general, schools such as Vanderbilt and Oberlin, who have conservatories, are going to be harder to penetrate as a non-major.</p>

<p>Here are some things to try:
1. Email the music department. Ask them outright if non-majors are welcomed. Indiana U, for example, told us anybody was welcome "by audition." Since they have a respected conservatory, we figured this would mean D was sitting in the back of the second violins, if she even got in.</p>

<p>William & Mary, on the other hand, describes their orchestra as a combined college/community staffed organization, so we figured they're pretty desperate for musicians. Allegheny in PA was also very eager for non-majors. Furman in SC doesn't offer a minor, but their BA program is very easy to double with - D liked that option very much. They were also welcoming to non-majors.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Look through the webpages of the music program, and see if they mention anything. Some schools, such as St. Olaf, are proud of the fact that a large number of their student population participates in the music program while majoring in something else.</p></li>
<li><p>Look through the webpages of "student activities and organizations" for clues that music options are available for nonmajors.</p></li>
<li><p>Since your S plays tuba, my guess is that any school with a marching band would love to get their hands on him. Don't know if he's interested in that.</p></li>
<li><p>Be aware that at some schools, if he's interested in private lessons, he might have less access to a top teacher and/or pay a lot if he is not at least a music minor. </p></li>
<li><p>When you visit schools, plan as if your S is majoring. That is, meet the private teacher, visit the music building, check out the practice rooms, etc. You may get some inside info on whether scholarships are available (or likely) for non-majors, and what is involved. You will pick up on how warmly welcomed non-majors might be. In person visits definitely give more details and/or vibes than what admissions offices and websites might provide.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Good luck!</p>

4

<p>tubamom- I'm pretty sure you've seen this thread, but maybe a second look might be worth it.<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=6280&page=26%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=6280&page=26&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

5

<p>Almost any small liberal arts college that does not require an audition to be a music major and any university that does require audition either is going to opportunities for non majors. Just to choose a few: Vassar, Wesleyan, Williams, Amherst, UChicago, Dartmouth, Brown, Bard, Skidmore...you get the picture. Skidmore awards substantial music scholarships and you don't need to be a major to earn one. All allow minors (or concentrations, some schools don't have official minors), non-majors to audition for ensembles (at some they're literally beg him) and non-majors to take lessons.</p>

<p>Find the school you want for your other major. Doesn't need to be a "music school". Then peruse music web page. Make sure there's no audition, and then you're pretty much in.</p>

6

<p>University of Rochester has a music department within the University (as opposed to its Eastman Conservatory). Non-majors can take private lessons with Eastman graduate students. And there are more ensembles/orchestras/bands at UR (again, independent of Eastman) than you can shake a stick at. And most Eastman students are busy enough with the Eastman ensembles that UR students aren't competing with them.</p>

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<p>My son is a music minor at Denison University in Ohio and is very happy with it. It's a very nice liberal arts college - the usual small classes, great mentoring, beautiful campus, sweet town. He got a very nice academic scholarship with a small music scholarship + free lessons.</p>

<p>Lots of musically-inclined kids from around here go to Ithaca College. We looked at Skidmore, but at the time they only gave out about 4 music scholarships worth about $10,000/year, and very little, if any, merit scholarship on top of that. We also looked at Oberlin, and of course music is very strong there but son didn't like it. (Probably would have been too expensive anyway.)</p>

<p>In general, there are lots of nice music minor programs around. Follow Binx's excellent suggestions when checking them out.</p>

8

<p>If interested in LACs, look at St. Olaf. They have a fine music department and offer scholarships to any musician regardless of major. Scholarships do require auditions. Also Lawrence University has a conservatory but it is easy for non-majors to participate.</p>

9

<p>Thanks to all of you for the suggestions. </p>

<p>We did check out several music departments on our college visits. We were disappointed by how run down some of them seemed to be. It was obvious that some schools are not investing much in the department. I think S is hoping to find a happy medium - a healthy, if not internationally renowned, music department that is not one budget year away from being abolished, but not so exclusive that he can't get in. </p>

<p>Binx - he's a marching band guy - this is his 4th and final year. I think he'd enjoy continuing with it. We can surf to see which of his schools have marching bands and then email them.</p>

<p>Singersmom - We emailed Rice months back when he still wanted to major in tuba. They didn't have any openings for his year, but said he could audition and they'd take him as something akin to an apprentice until his sophomore year, when they'd have openings. It sounded like it would work out very well, giving him a year to mature, get his bearings in college, while still participating on a limited basis. But then he decided that he doesn't want to go to Houston. Nor does he want to go to the northern midwest, thereby eliminating St. Olaf and Lawrence.</p>

<p>Specific schools w/o conservatories he might be interested in: Georgetown (it has some music opportunities and we were told they're trying to build up their department, hoping to offer a music major in the next year or two - he still wouldn't major in it, but it was encouraging). Also, Emory - don't know what they might have other than what's on their website, and University of Chicago.</p>

10

<p>
[quote]
I think S is hoping to find a happy medium - a healthy, if not internationally renowned, music department that is not one budget year away from being abolished, but not so exclusive that he can't get in.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Has he looked at Wesleyan? Because if sounds like we really do fit the bill. We have one of the best ethnomusicology graduate programs in the country, so although our normal undergrad music department isn't exclusive or anything (there are LOTS of oppertunties for non majors), we have really nice music facilties (both for practice and performace).</p>

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<p>T-mom, also check out Otterbein if he still needs a "sure bet" school. From some of your previous posts, it appears he would qualify to apply for their highest merit award, they offer minors in music (as well as participation awards for non-majors), and their communications department (which includes journalism) is quite strong. There would be an additional charge for lessons, which is why they tend to be reasonably generous with music awards. Since my daughter is a vocalist, I don't know as much about the instrumental side of things, but the marching band, while small, is made up of a great mix of major/non-major kids. The website is <a href="http://www.otterbein.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.otterbein.edu&lt;/a> </p>

<p><em>end of trolling for my daughter's college ;)</em></p>

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<p>mezzomom - I actually tried to sell him on checking out Otterbein but no dice.<br>
You can't blame a mom for trying, though! thanks!</p>

<p>Weskid - I'll pass the info on to T-Boy. All I know about Wesleyan at the moment is that Bradley Whitford of West Wing fame went there (he wore an old Wesleyan t-shirt in one episode). We'll have to check out the website. I know it's tough to get in there - isn't it up there with Williams, Amherst, Haverford, etc., as one of those really competitive LACs? </p>

<p>thanks</p>

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<p>tubamom--Wes is definitely hard to get in to, but not quite as hard as Amherst or Williams (it’s kind of like the differeance between Brown vs. HPY, though perhaps the discrepancy is a little less). Anyway, check it out! It’s a lot like Oberlin in terms of student culture, so if he’s interested in Oberlin, Wes might spark his interest as well.</p>

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<p>if hes interested at all in the southwest, Arizona State (besides having a great school of Music and world reknowned tuba professor) has plenty of opportunities for non majors and even scholarships for marching band members.D's roommate was a pharmacy major but played her cello in peformance groups all years on campus.
same probably goes for most large campuses with marching bands all over the US.</p>

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<p>D's friend is majoring in Romance Languages and plays cello in orchestra. NYU is notoriously stingy with money, but we know several students who did get a fair amount of merit money ($100,000 over the four years in one case.)</p>

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<p>We've talked about Arizona State - they apparently give lots of bucks to NMSF, and S says that his tuba hero, Sam Pilafian teaches there. But he is kind of reluctant to go that far away.</p>

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<p>tubamom
if you can swing it at all, and he is a NMF I urge you to make a visit to ASU.Dont know where you are starting out from but once you are on the plane its a straight shot to Phoenix..lots of direct flights too unlike other places and campus at most 10 minutes from the airport.
Lots of east coast kids there.The music facilities are outstanding and the Honors College is top notch.Go visit in Feb like D and I did and your S will never want to come back.</p>

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<p>I'm always looking for an excuse to go somewhere sunnier than here, so maybe I'll talk him into checking out ASU when it starts getting really cold (also around mid September ha ha). But travel is an issue where we are - very expensive, few direct flights anywhere. And he doesn't know yet if he made SF, but it'll be close - if the cutoff doesn't go up at all, he's all set.
How big is the music program at ASU? It's a huge school compared to some of those he's looking at.</p>

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<p>its a regular School of Music with full complement of performance majors,singers,etc. Prob about 600 undergrads.Theres masters level grad students and performance PhD's as well. Very vibrant music scene. I assumed you were from NYmetro area with the TubaNY name and from here theres lots of direct flights,sorry about that assumption. The school is huge but made up of 4 campuses.If he is a NMF and in the Honors College,it makes the school very manageble in size (that was D's experience).NMF Scholarship equalled free tuition and dorm costs covered.Our costs amounted to food plan,books and transportation.An excellent deal for a first rate music/academic education.Try to think about the travel costs in that respect LOL.
Distance is another matter,you have to be able to deal with it.It did make the visiting lots of fun however.Got to see Sedona, Grand Canyon.
D made wonderful friends from all over the US, had great mentors,had a great graduation outcome.There are very committed,vibrant educators attached to the Honors College there.
Have your S look online at the facilities attached to the Music School...he'll be salivating for sure.Practice rooms with windows with palm trees and giant cactus outside of them.Bluest sky you ever saw,courtyards with fountains,performance space designed by Frank Lloyd Wright...D was in heaven.</p>