Hi!
I’m a future Music Education major, and hopeful choral director specifically.
After all that’s been done with auditioning, these are my realistic three choices to go to school for music education. Has anyone who’s attended the College of Fine Arts with a Music Education major, or has attended Steinhardt with the major have any outstanding experiences? Right now, I truly feel that my top is at Steinhardt, and during my audition for Hofstra, they said that there was only “one other school in NYC that was better for music education”, and I assumed it was NYU since I don’t think there are any other schools that have music education programs.
The reason I feel Steinhardt is the best right now is because of that sentiment, and also because of its environment and proximity to the city; people go to New York City for all things music, and having the chance to student teach at NYC public schools would be great. However, because decisions haven’t come out yet, I’m not counting my chickens before they hatch.
Hofstra has an excellent music education program, and the chance to work with Dave Fryling is always brilliant; furthermore, if I were to go to BU, I would have to transfer into CFA second semester because I originally did not apply for a Music Ed major.
Is there anyone that’s willing to give their experiences with each program? Thank you in advance!
I am not an expert on music ed, but my one hesitation with Steinhardt would be the cost of going there, if you got significant aid from NYU to be able to afford it without a ton of loans then it likely would be a great experience, but if you will have to put a strain on the finances to go there, you may want to look at a more affordable solution. From what I know of music ed (and I am no expert on it), what has been said on here by those with kids in the program is it may be better to go to a school in the target state you want to teach in, so NYU or Hofstra might be a better choice than BU if you follow that. Keep in mind, too, that getting a job as a music teacher, in either the NYC public schools or in other districts in NYC, may not be that easy, and it may be a while before you make significant money, and especially in the NYC region with how expensive it is to live, you don’t want to have the burden of student loans…
My gut reaction is to direct you towards NYU, assuming affordability is not an issue. Hofstra is not particularly well-known for music and in the experience I’ve had in the music ed world, you can close or open a lot of doors without doing anything based on the labels that are attached to you. BU, like NYU, has a very fine music ed program but transferring schools within a university when you didn’t initially apply to the one you want is a hassle and can lead to taking longer to graduate. (Bear in mind that many undergraduate music education degrees take 4.5-5 years without a late start.) All that said, I’d much rather live in Boston than New York, but that’s just me.