<p>My son is a HS Jr. & wants to major in English and minor in Music. Any feelings on the best colleges to look at? Thanks</p>
<p>Well, that depends on quite a number of things. What voice or instrument are we talking about? What level of accomplishment? What kind of music interests him? Is he looking to be near the top of the talent pool so he has a shot at solos, or would he rather have to be pushed to keep up with players at a somewhat higher level? How much of a commitment does he envision when he speaks of “minoring in music”? What are examples of schools where his academic stats in high school would make him competitive for admissions? How important is scholarship money in the decision?</p>
<p>Many schools do not have a formal “minor” in music, but it is possible to achieve the same result (minus mention of said minor on degree and transcripts) even where a formal program does not exist. Would that be an acceptable solution?</p>
<p>He plays clarinet. Has been selected for NYSSMA All-County every yr. since 8th grade, lasy yr he was principle 1st in division IV, this yr he was principle 2nd div. V. He is 2nd chair 1st clarinet in the wind ensemble & in the orchestra of his HS. He really wants to keep music in his life, but is not sure about making it a career, hence the idea of a music minor. </p>
<p>Accademically he’s in great shape 98.56% GPA, 3AP AP’s this yr., in the humanities/honors program…etc. Also has excellent extracurriculars.</p>
<p>libeach, I am no expert but it seems to me that you would want to check out schools with the English major first, then see which ones of those have music offerings. It makes it easier if you can first decide what size of school you want and geographic location.
If having a great clarinet teacher on campus is important, you could PM me later once you have a list and I will be happy to share my research.</p>
<p>Libeach, We were in the exact same position as you last year. My D is a flute player, loves playing and everything music but feels that she needs to major in something academic to give her more opportunities. We started out considering a music minor but what we found were many great schools that she can double major at. We were surpised at how common this is do. She will now probably be a music major and something else, maybe American Studies or English.</p>
<p>Now our big problem is which school will it be - she was accepted at: Columbia (the only school she cannot double major at but great playing opportunities, Duke, Barnard, Brandeis, WashU, Pomona, and UNC Chapel Hill. UNC has a strong music department with the ability to get a BA in music or a BM and another major as well.</p>
<p>Another major lesson learned - we think she was admitted to all these great schools because of her music. She has been very focused on music throughout HS with an excellent music resume and she submitted a CD of her playing to every school.</p>
<p>NJ Mom of 2, as you’ve listed a number of acceptances not on our master, we will gladly include any or all if your d is pursuing music as a major (BA/BM, doesn’t matter). Just let one of us “dads” know.</p>
<p>I apologize for the hijack.</p>
<p>lilbeach, there a host of options here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/6280-suggestions-colleges-music-majors.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/6280-suggestions-colleges-music-majors.html</a></p>
<p>As I mentioned in your other thread, the key points in looking for a minor were outlined there. </p>
<p>As for a major or combined pursuit, you are best to start here <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/258796-so-you-want-music-major-one-familys-experience.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/258796-so-you-want-music-major-one-familys-experience.html</a> if you know little or nothing (or even a lot) of the music admissions process. </p>
<p>We’re here to help.</p>
<p>Ok Violadad here goes:</p>
<p>Accepted and pursuing music at:
Columbia
Duke
UNC Chapel Hill
Pomona
Scripps
Rutgers/Mason Gross (you already have this one)
Brandeis
Wash U
Barnard</p>
<p>So proud :)</p>
<p>libeach:</p>
<p>One interesting school we are looking at is Lawrence University (aka one of the “colleges that changes lives”). They seem to do a pretty good job on both the music and non-music sides. The Dean of the Conservatory is a walking advertisement for their dual major degree. He graduated with a BA in English and a BM in trombone performance (I think). While at Lawrence he became interested in indigenous music, and received a fellowship to Australia and Tibet to study aboriginal music and religious chanting. He then got an MA in ethnomusicology (Wesleyan) and while enrolled in the PhD program at U of Washington (again, ethnomusicology) in the early 1990’s he received a phone call from Microsoft. They initially wanted him to play a didjeridu sound clip for their brand new product, Encarta Encylopedia. He was able to parlay his English major skills and his interest in ethnomusicology into a full-time job with Microsoft cataloging world indigenous musical instruments. He then went on to spend 10+ years at Microsoft before moving to Lawrence about two years ago to become Dean of the Conservatory of Music. Anyway, I like the arc of his career and I believe him when he says that his well-rounded UG education helped make it possible. I have no idea whether or not my S will end up going to Lawrence (he has concerns about its small size), but it seems to have a lot going for it.</p>
<p>Hi there. Don’t know if University of Michigan is on OPs list, but the stats are a fit, the lit program at LSA strong, and you can minor in music at either the RC program or regular LSA. Many of the profs are the same as available at the School of Music, and many performance opportunities exist due to the size of the school in general, as well as the SOM.</p>
<p>Hey NJ Mom…you obviously had a successful trip to Claremont! Congrats on that!</p>
<p>Every school has an English department and these days most are quite good because there are far more PhDs than jobs - top grad students wind up just about everywhere. On the other hand, schools with music minors in performance are far less common if for no other reason than that most music departments are academic and have performance only as a component of the major, or as almost exclusively extracurricular (e.g. Harvard). Since Columbia was mentioned in this thread, there, for example, a music major there would study theory, history, and ethno, maybe some courses in composition; there is no performance faculty per se for classical music, though you can get free lessons, there is a chamber music program, and there is an orchestra; it has a good English department (and a core curriculum, which might make it tough to double major). If you want to find a place where you can minor in music, I’d start looking around for that first, rather than selecting first for English department.</p>
<p>One thing the OP may want to watch out for, if his son does not do a double major: I have heard that some schools with strong BM programs have trouble finding enough large ensemble seats for their clarinet performance majors, let alone interested others. If the son is specifically interested in orchestral playing, this is even more important to check out, since there are only 2-4 clarinet seats in a typical orchestra.</p>
<p>Wow! Thank you all for the ideas, info, & advice. This is definately the place to go for answers. Congrats to NJ Mom of 2 & TY for the double major idea. Tenor Dad…great story, you never know where life will take you. Thanks for the links violadad. Mamenyu that’s kinda what we’ve been doing. </p>
<p>I’m sure I’ll be back. Thanks again!</p>
<p>libeach, my S, also clarinet, is pursuing the double major route; so we did a lot of research this year to find the best schools to apply to that would allow him to do both fields, as well as have great clarinet teachers and music departments. Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions. I agree with NJ Mom of 2 regarding the CD’s–my S sent a CD to all the schools that did not require an audition, and I think this may have factored into his acceptances as well.</p>
<p>Our daughter is an oboe/English horn player…most schools NEED those (and NO it didn’t help her in college acceptances AT ALL…not AT ALL). She contacted every school that she was interested in applying to. She spoke to the music department chairperson, orchestra conductor AND oboe teacher. She wanted to be sure that non-music majors were able to be in ensembles. She got a variety of answers. At some places, ONLY music majors would be in the ensembles. There were no ensembles for non-majors (Elon, College of Charleston…they were very clear…only one orchestra…Elon said NO to non-majors an C of C said that majors got first preference…didn’t take a genius to figure out an oboe major would get the nod). Some places had separate ensembles for student who were not music majors (Boston University for example) and non-majors were NOT permitted to audition for the ensembles for music majors…at all. Some places allowed anyone to audition for any ensemble.</p>
<p>Then there was the question of lessons. Some schools allowed anyone to take lessons for a fee…but non-majors had grad students as teachers and/or had shorter lessons than the majors who studied witht he applied faculty and had longer lessons. Some schools didn’t offer lessons at ALL to non-majors…told DD they could help her find a teacher within the community. AND some schools gave lessons to non-majors in the same way as majors…no cost, same amount of time.</p>
<p>Oh…and our kid was very specific…she wanted to play in an orchestra, not a band/wind ensemble.</p>
<p>YMMV depending on the school. </p>
<p>Our kiddo chose a school where she gets free, hour long lessons every week. She has played principal oboe in their orchestra since freshman year. The school welcomes students of any major to audition for seats in their orchestra. And she also received a small scholarship $750 a year for her orchestra work.</p>
<p>I’m sure Binx will pipe in too…her daughter went a similar route thinking she would major in something and minor in music or something like that. Her tale is different from mine and I’ll let her tell it. </p>
<p>Oh…DD is graduating this year with degrees in bioengineering and biology. She ditched the music minor idea at the beginning of her sophomore year because she just couldn’t fit the courses in to do two majors…and a minor. But her school still welcomes her to partake in the music programs.</p>
<p>Answering Thumper1’s page… 
Here is my D’s experience, with hopes that it will give you some ideas of how to proceed.</p>
<p>Yes, my D applied to schools wanting to continue with music, either as a minor, a double major, or at least with private lessons and orchestra as a non-major. Her interest was along the lines of linguistics (or language related - such as ESOL, or Writing.)</p>
<p>This was our process: We first asked for suggestions here (and on another, now defunct, college-themed board). I think we came away with a list of about 60 schools to look at. At the time we lived overseas, so we did not have prelim test scores, nor traditional GPA. But we took a guess, and looked at the student profile for each school, to note where we thought D would fit academically.</p>
<p>We (I use the term loosely ) first started a Word doc, listing the schools that were recommended, and why. A quick look at school websites allowed us to eliminate a few right away for one reason or another. I started a summary page for each of the others, noting basic info, and things that added or detracted from the appeal of each. </p>
<p>At that point, we ended up with about 12 or so schools that appealed for one reason or another. My D and I BOTH poured over their websites, looking for things that added or detracted. She sent off emails asking for specific information.</p>
<p>Then we created a spread sheet with things we were looking for. Those things included:
Academic profile (which I - I mean “we” - then marked reach, match, safe)
Price
Scholarship opportunities for musicians
Majors of interest
Options for music study: minor? double major? degree options? non-majors welcome in ensemble?
My D did not have any chances to vist anywhere ahead of time, so our list was broad in terms of size, region, etc. We did include a few items important to her, in terms of campus feel, ECs offered, etc.</p>
<p>One thing we looked for, since money mattered, was any mention of her certain strengths (which happened to be music and German) on their front page, their newsletter, their new initiatives, their building projects, their guest faculty, etc. Schools that seemed to be throwing money at these things were better bets for scholarships.</p>
<p>We prioritized the list as best we could. When we moved back to the states, just before senior year, we began organizing visits and lessons. We could not hit all the schools, but she did visit 7. She removed 2 from that list, still had one on her list that we didn’t visit. She applied to 6, was admitted to 5 and waitlisted at one.</p>
<p>Her final list was, in order of preference:
- Emory. Easy to double major. Pretigious. Quality school with many offerings. Close to home. (That was actually a negative. ) This was the school she was waitlisted at. Our best guess was that they saw her as one more “Georgia violinist” and didn’t understand her German transcript.</p>
<ol>
<li> Furman. Nice distance from home. Beautiful campus. Great music program. Easy to participate as non-major. They gave her a very nice music scholarship, and tried very hard to woo her. The violin teacher even made an attempt to get her more money. But the school itself did not give her any academic money - Again, we think they didn’t understand her transcript. After our appeal, they came back with more 1-year grants, but could not promise anything for the future.</li>
</ol>
<p>The next 3 schools were all about equal in preference:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Miami University (Ohio). Larger school with many offerings and strong programs. Very nice campus. Close to relatives. Options for music minor, BM, BA, and double degrees. Since it is a state school, base cost was lower than others - even for us as out of staters. She received both a nice academic merit scholarship and a nice music scholarship. She liked the violin teacher really well. This is ultimately where she matriculated.</p></li>
<li><p>Denison (Ohio). Small but strong school. Fewer academic offerings. Great violin teacher. Academic and music scholarships, but not enough to balance what MU gave her.</p></li>
<li><p>St. Olaf. (MN) She loved this school on paper, and regrets never getting to visit. She was awarded a music scholarship based on a DVD, as a non-major. She also received some academic money. She thinks she would have loved it here, but it was still too expensive.</p></li>
<li><p>Allegheny. ¶ Allegheny made the list because they were having a special guest teacher with a big German focus. We suspected they would appreciate D’s experience and fluency. She was accepted early admit here. They do not give music scholarships, but gave her a nice merit scholarship. However, they do not allow double majors within depts. and music and language majors are within the same dept. As soon as she began receiving other acceptances, she turned down their offer.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Other schools that almost made the list, but were eliminated for various reasons, were Davidson, Rhodes, Wooster, and William & Mary.</p>
<p>As I said, she is a junior now at MU. The music teacher encouraged her to switch to a BM in order to qualify for better scholarships and private teaching ops, etc. She agreed. She expected to double degree, but earning the core reqs for two different schools took up more of her schedule than she was willing to give. Instead, she is settling for minors in German and Chinese, and will probably pursue language in some way in grad school.</p>
<p>I have a few gripes with Miami, no school is perfect - but she has been very happy there, and still likes her teacher, and enjoys the “permission” to spend her time on music.</p>