<p>I am a high school senior who has been involved with music my whole life (piano, guitar, viola, etc.). I'm looking for a college with a strong academic reputation - specifically in neuroscience or english - that also has a strong music program and/or opportunities to participate in music. I don't intend to be a music major, but I would like it to be a part of my college experience. Any suggestions? I've looked at schools like Lawrence, St. Olaf, Knox, and Illinois Wesleyan. (I'm from the Midwest.)</p>
<p>Not knowing your academic stats, maybe Rice, Johns Hopkins and Carnegie Mellon, Oberlin. Great academics, and great music opportunities including non-majors.</p>
<p>There are tons of schools out there! My D was also interested in schools where she could be involved with music without majoring. She and I spent a lot of time scanning websites to see which music departments were pretty friendly to non-majors. Her final list included Emory, Furman, Allegheny, Denison, Miami of Ohio, and St. Olaf. (Her longer list, before trimming, included Davidson, William & Mary, Rhodes, College of Wooster....) She ended up at Miami of Ohio, currently double majoring in music and German.</p>
<p>Depending upon your stats, Davidson and Allegheny might be two that especially hold potential for you. Davidson is very strong in sciences. I remember Allegheny showing off their new science building. (It seems like maybe Denison also had one?) Allegheny requires you to get a minor (at least) in a field unrelated to your major. Music and English are in the same department (Humanities), but science is not - so not only could you study two opposing things - they require it!</p>
<p>You are in the Midwest. I would visit a few of the programs you are researching. My son is at Lawrence and I highly recommend it for your areas of interest. He was also interested in Wooster College at the end. There are many great schools out there for what you want.</p>
<p>You need to ask...and I would suggest speaking directly to the head of the music department and the orchestra director. DD had the same criteria as you...strong sciences, but she wanted to continue to take lessons AND play in an orchestra. I have to tell you, it was harder finding a school for her to continue her music than for son who is a music major. Some schools have music departments/majors and are so small that they do not allow non-majors to play in the ensembles (Elon and College of Charleston were two we saw). Others charge a fee for lessons. Some give preference to music majors. Others don't. You need to ask. DD found several schools where she was able to continue taking lessons (either free or for a nominal fee) and where she was able to play in an orchestra. </p>
<p>So...ask. As some have mentioned, schools like Lawrence welcome students from all academic disciplines into their ensembles. Ditto for Susquehanna in PA. And both have fine music departments also.</p>
<p>DD is at Santa Clara University. Their music department is not a large or strong one in her opinion, (we agree) but she is able to take lessons and play in their ensembles as a non-major...no cost. And she loves it.</p>
<p>Sometimes it seems that parents and students are reluctant to go straight to the source, and call admissions departments or music departments to ask questions. We did it even though it caused a twinge of anxiety(what if a mistake is made, and the admissions person takes notes and puts a black mark by my child's name for asking a dumb question??) That is not at all the case. Music departments have admissions directors who love to talk to you and we never had a bad experience talking to any general admissions counselor. They usually give you more information than you were looking for. In fact, the nicest people usually have those jobs--at least that was our experience. So, agreeing with Thumper here, and adding emphasis based on experience!</p>
<p>Absolutely contact the MUSIC admissions folks. The college admissions office will probably not be well informed about opportunities in the music department. Plus it's good to make that connection with the music folks. The music departments we contacted were very eager to share their information with a perspective student OR tell us that what DD wanted to do was not possible. Good luck to you.</p>
<p>As far as your suggestions - I think my stats should be fine (36 ACT and 4.0) but I was looking small, which trims down the list a bit. Do Davidson and Allegheny really have strong music programs? The faculty bios didn't impress me all that much but you can only tell so much from that :)
I will definitely get in touch with the music departments - thanks again for the advice.</p>
<p>Your stats are outstanding; if your music involvement and perhaps other ECs are as strong as your academics, you could certainly look at top LACs in the Northeast as well as the gold-standard Midwest ones such as Grinnell and Carleton and Macalester. Davidson is analogous to these, perhaps the premier LAC in the South and oen of the best in the country; it has at least once prominent neuroscientist among its faculty members. Among schools in the Northeast you might consider are Bowdoin (lovely performance venue) and Bates; the latter has a great theater buiding and fairly extensive neuroscience offerings. The University of Rochester comes to mind as well--though proximity to Eastman School of Music may mot mean anything if you are not actually attending it. </p>
<p>I am not quite sure to what extent or how you define a strong music program; certainly and others will have student orchestras, chamber music, and students who give very impressive recitals. I've attended them. There is probably a bright line between conservatory-level programs like Oberlin and good performance programs at general-purpose LACs, however. One idea: you might look at the event calendars at various schools to see how often and in what venues student performances take place. Davidson for example has a beautiful auditorium in its music building where music-department recitals take place--but most of the students are not music majors, just gifted musician who are now concentrating in other fields and, at most, minoring in music or simply continuing their instrumental or voice study with one of the faulty members.</p>
<p>Swarthmore has a strong music dept. while most students are not music majors. It is possible at Oberlin to take lessons (I believe for free) from the world-class music faculty even though you aren't in the conservatory. I think Rochester/Eastman or Peabody/JHU are much more complicated - plus they are not small LAC's, but large universities and they are not midwestern. Have you considered U. Chicago? Perhaps Cosmos can weigh in as she is a student there.</p>
<p>Actually, no, Davidson and Allegheny don't have what I would consider "strong" music programs. What we learned when we were searching for schools was that schools with strong programs don't want us so much. My D did not expect to be majoring in music (she is, but that was after the fact), just as you don't. Many of the schools that she looked at - Indiana, for instance - were not willing to make us any kind of guarantee that she would find a place in their music program. She plays violin - of which there are myriad - and we suspected that in the stronger programs, she would be lucky to be sitting in the back of the seconds, if at all. She's pretty good, but those who are actually majoring in music really need to be getting the good parts.</p>
<p>So that's why we visited schools, had her take sample lessons, and talk with the teachers. We wanted a "good enough" music program that had room for non-majors, along with a teacher she felt she could get something out of for the next four years.</p>
<p>It's a give and take process. The exceptional music programs have students flocking to them who want to major in music, so non-majors, if allowed at all, are second in line. So your task is to find a level you can stand, who can also stand you. </p>
<p>In our situation, not only did D want to continue playing and studying music, but we were also hoping she'd wrangle some music merit somewhere. That also adjusted the level of the orchestra she was looking at. (She got music merit from everywhere except Emory and Allegheny. Emory said they "had no need" to give merit for violin, and Allegheny doesn't do music merit at all.)</p>
<p>I wonder if anybody mentioned Swarthmore? [Edit - just noticed Swarthmore mentioned two posts above this one!] They are a non-merit school, so we did not consider them too long. But they have a good orchestra and welcome non-majors. And they are close enough to Philly to take advantage of some really strong teaching. No clue about their science and English departments, but they have a reputation for being just generally strong in academics.</p>
<p>I know a singer who will go in the fall. She could have competed at the best music schools, but has chosen academics over music - she's also a brilliant student. Her mother told me that Swarthmore has a generous allowance for private music study. She plans to minor in music and this may be a contingency, but as I understand it, if she is not happy with their on-campus voice teachers, they will provide a stipend for her to study with someone outside the school (including a travel allowance). She is looking at teachers throughout Philadelphia and perhaps eventually New York. I was impressed with what sounds like a very serious commitment by the school to its music program.</p>