Hello All. I have been researching these forums and all the information has been outstanding. So we are outside of Buffalo, NY and our daughter wants to attend a college for Music Education. Her instrument is Piano. Our hit list is Fredonia (45-mins from here), Crane (Potsdam-5 hours from here), Nazareth, University of Akron and Ohio State. We have visited the first 2 and we got back today from our long trip to Potsdam. So although we have not visited the last 3 on the list we were leaning toward Fredonia at this point. However, Crane seemed like a nice place as well and we enjoyed our visit today. Our daughter likes the fact that Crane is an all steinway school and there seem to be more piano concentrated students in the Music Ed program at Crane than Fredonia. From what we recall there were very few piano music ed students at Fredonia and our daughter was not keen on that. Both schools seem very similar as far as campus life (isolated but tight knit).
One key thing that is appealing to both Fredonia and Crane is the ability to get a masters in 5 years. That is a big benefit. Cost is about the same. Her GPA is mid 90s so we believe she would be able to get into the honors program at Fredonia. It does not seem like Crane has an honors program but I might be wrong on that one.
Anyway, I have read some older posts on Fredonia vs Crane. Does anyone have any opinions on those schools now in November 2019? I would love to hear opinions of each school from Piano concentrated music ed students.
We are hitting Naz monday and Ohio state Tuesday but unless we get some significant merit aid via scholorships, etc those schools will be near the end of the list. We do like th fact that Fredonia is so much closer to us but that is a “parent thing”.
Hi Dave,
Not much to add on the Crane vs Fredonia- we know more people who went to Crane than Fredonia and they all loved it- none were piano though. Has she considered Ithaca? The people we know who went there for music had really great packages which made it cheaper than the state schools. Naz is a nice campus in a safe location and less isolated than the two state schools. Will you stop at Eastman while in the Rochester area?
Your post gave me a smile today. My daughter keeps a list of quotes overheard at music schools and one of her and her friends favorites is “Sure, they have all Steinways, but what KIND of Steinways??!?!” I am glad they are able to laugh at themselves, even though they are being dead serious.
Thank you all for your responses. We have considered Eastman and Ithaca but we were scared away by the cost. We believe our daughter would be able to get some Merit aid but being a parent I really do not want her to get stuck in a ton of student loan debt. Naz is up there as well and we visited there today. Nice school. But it seems like Fredonia and Crane are highly respected and in some cases more so which makes me wonder why we would consider anything other. I have to say begrudgingly (because it is so far away) that Crane seemed to be a little more impressive than Fredonia’s music school.
Fredonia claims that 50% of the teachers in the area went to Fredonia. However, I am curious as to what school districts these teachers are working in. I do not want this to sound bad but we would really not like to see her end up in a lower end city school district.
Anyway thanks for the advice. We obviously want the best for her and do not want to over think it
Thanks again!!
Dave
I think it is worth applying to those programs, even with the cost, if you daughter likes them- with the understanding that if the aid isn’t what it needs to be then it isn’t possible. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard from parents that they didn’t think they could afford XYZ College that their child dreamed of and then the aid offer made it cheaper than the state school the parent was pushing. We are not letting cost hold our daughter back from applying (attending, yes) because you just never know.
Yup, this happened for us with Eastman…with merit aid, it came in less than any of the SUNY schools (keeping in mind we are out of state) and Ithaca, and about the same as our NJ state flagship. My son is doing music ed together with jazz performance and LOVES it.
One NY program to check out is the Setnor School of Music at Syracuse U. They have a streamlined, highly regarded music ed program and offered an enormous amount of merit aid, enough to make the school practically free. Seriously, worth a look.
Thank you all for your comments…I spoke to my daughter and she is all for applying to Ithaca and Eastman. It can not hurt to see where the financial part lands. We do not want her to have any regrets. We think we put too much emphasis on the ability to do the 5 year masters programs offered at Fredonia and Crane and although it would be good to get the masters in 5 years it does not seem to be a deciding factor for most people.
Glad to hear it @dhayes! I wanted to add that many masters’ programs in music ed are only one year, so you end up with five years either way. Syracuse, Eastman, and our state schools all function that way.
My son loved both Ithaca and Eastman, hope your daughter likes them as well! He’s a double major in music ed and performance (4.5 year program with the last term fully funded/in the classroom), so if she has any questions I would be happy to connect them.
Hello All…I just wanted to post back and possibly get some feed back based on our situation. So as much as we tied to persuade her to look at other schools (to broaden her exposure) she focused on (5) schools. Again she is Music Education with Piano primary. So she applied to Potsdam, Fredonia, Nazareth, University of Akon and Ohio State. She has finished her auditions and has already been accepted at Potsdam and Fredonia into their honors program as well (which is a big bonus). We auditioned at NAZ today but she feels very comfortable she did well. She was accepted at University of Akron but ruled that out before she even auditioned. We do not know if she would have been accepted into Ohio State but after our visit there she did not like the large school feel so she decided not to audition. So at this point she is leaning toward Potsdam. She had a better vibe there and the “all Steinway school” thing is pulling her. But she genuinely felt more at home at Crane. She was going to go to Fred since she thought she messed up her Crane audition but she got her acceptance letter a few days after her audition.
So here we are with (3) schools to choose from. I really feel that she sold herself short in that she could have likely been accepted at other schools like Ithaca, etc. But we live in NY and the pull of SUNY schools like Fred and Crane being so well regarded at a lower tuition is appealing to her (and us). Personally I was slightly more impressed with Crane than Fred basically because there seems to be many more piano majors at Crane and they really do have a nice facility. Fred is a 1.5 hour drive for us and Potsdam is 4 hours so Fred is appealing from that point of view.
She seems very set in her ways and I want to provide guidance without tainting her opinion of the schools. I do not want her to regret it later.
My input is pretty simple- if her brain has all the important information and her gut is telling her something, she should listen to her gut, and go where she felt “more at home.”
@dhayes no real advice
except to say congratulations! If
she liked Crane, it’s affordable, she’s in the honors program. , and it’s more prestigious, I’m not seeing the problem. Re: distance my daughter went to school 40 minutes away and we never saw her, while my son is 5 hours away and we see him a lot. So there’s that.
@akapiratequeen Thanks very much. Since this is our first child going to college everything is new for us so we want her to make the right decision. But she seems confident in her decision and that is the best we can hope for. The kids at Crane seem to really enjoy it. One of our main concerns is her existing friend group in high school is rather toxic and loaded with drama (typical teenage girl). We are hoping to she will get with a group of kids with similar interests (music) who will support each other. Thanks again
She should go with her gut. As far as the social scene - my older D truly found her people at college. She felt that many of the kids at High School were just not her people for various reasons. She keeps in touch with 2 or 3 but truly has found her niche at college. It’s been wonderful to see her with her friendS.
Like @Musicmom2two my kid truly found his ‘tribe’ at college. High school was totally not his scene. Trust your D’s gut feeling. They shockingly know a lot of what they want even if they don’t articulate it…
Also, the music programs are so tight and it does seem like the kids are lovely. My kid had a very tight group in high school and worried he’d never find like minded souls in college, but in fact, the opposite seems to be the case. There are toxic people everywhere, unfortunately, but music schools seem warmer and fuzzier than other places. Maybe because they share a passion? Anyway, it sounds like a great fit so let the celebrations begin!