<p>I am going to be a senior in high school and looking into schools to study voice performance. I live in the suburbs of Chicago, but location is not an issue as long as financial aid is available. My three choices as of now are University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Indiana, and Northwestern. I am also considering Oberlin and Michigan, but I feel like I need more options and I am not sure what other schools are out there. I would like to attend a liberal arts college. Any information on any of the schools mentioned, as well as other schools that you know of would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!</p>
<p>Where do you want to be for a career, how much training have you had and what kind, what are your grades, etc? UI U-C is a great buy and has some very good faculty, Indiana is a huge school and female VP majors are not going to get any performance opportunities, while Northwestern is known more for the excellence of it’s graduate VP program, and grades are a major factor for admission there. Michigan is also a big school-finding the right teacher there is a process you should start now!, and Oberlin can be as much a “life-style” choice as a learning experience. You can see that there is a lot that goes into this process!
Have you visited campuses yet? Looked at faculty web sites and asked for advice from current teachers,etc? De Paul might go on your list as should CCPA (Roosevelt), and if your looking at Oberlin, make the 45 minute drive north to CIM.
You said that you’d like a liberal arts college, so where does VP fit in there and do you expect to go to grad school for VP or an academic subject? At CIM, you have Case Western on the same campus, and you’re expected to take classes there, and you take classes at Oberlin too, in addition to those at the conservatory, but not so much at CCPA. I will leave others to chime in about the other schools on your list. Know that if you are a straight VP major, you will take more and (some) different classes than instrumental majors do, because you have languages (French, Italian and German) and diction as well as music history and theory sequences. You may not spend as much time in the actual practice room as your string, brass or wind playing friends, but you’ll have opera workshop and be expected to crew performances and attend many recitals.
Give us a little more background info and we can continue to provide suggestions for you.</p>
<p>Thank you for your detailed response, Mezzo’sMama! </p>
<p>I want to try my hand at performing opera/oratorio, but I can definitely see myself doing arts administration or education as well (but I’ll leave that for grad school if need be). I’ve taken private lessons for 2.5 years now and was a semifinalist at the Classical Singer Competition last May. I have a 4.1 GPA and 2020 SAT score. I have visited and had lessons at both Northwestern and Indiana (the professor there waived my prescreening). I am looking for liberal arts because I want to take plenty of academics as well, to be a good educated citizen. My parents will not be paying for college, so I would need good financial aid. All the schools that I mentioned have good financial aid, I believe, except for perhaps Michigan (I think Michigan’s out of the picture now). I also added Rice to the list!</p>
<p>You might want to check out more in state publics since OOS at Michigan and LAC’s will be expensive, even with merit aid. Financial aid will probably include loans So be sure and include a few “financial safety” schools.Try and stay out of debt if you can. You might add some large OOS publics that offer discounted tuition for great students. At ASU (Arizona State) you can look at Barret Honors College where you can study at Herberger—they have produced some great singers. Also UNT in Texas, where you will probably qualify for in state tuition (with your great grades and a good audition).
Again…you really might consider saving the debt for grad school.
Know that CC tends to skew towards the East and Mid West. I would not worry about WHERE you want to pursue a career at this point. My D had most of her undergrad and grad in the West, but already has already acquired plenty of connections and work opportunities in the East and in Europe. That all comes later.</p>
<p>There is a big difference between parents that won’t contribute and those that can’t contribute to cost of attendance. It will make a big difference in the type of aid you will receive. Just because they won’t does not mean the aid offices will accept that answer unless they can’t, by the school’s formulas. Go out to the FAFSA web sites now and start to figure out where you and your parents stand. If you don’t qualify for a lot of need based aid it will change the ones you should target because merit aid alone will not meet the cost for many of these schools and you need the lowest amount of loans possible. .</p>
<p>By the way…UI Urbana-Champaign is a great choice for voice. (Just the outside chance of running into Nathan Gunn in the hallway makes it worthwhile )</p>
<p>@Singersmom07, my parents cannot contribute to the cost of attendance. I know that Northwestern and Rice have no loan programs for family incomes under a certain amount. I’d assume most of my aid would be need-based.</p>
<p>Rice is an excellent choice. They have wonderful financial aid and are attracting many of the best singers around. Northwestern is not that great when it comes to money. D had many friends who applied to Northwestern and then regretted it because the school gave them next to nothing.</p>
<p>Well, judging by the information you gave you are the in the exact same situation that I was last year. The schools I would recommend for you would be Rice and University of Maryland. Rice is…well…quite possibly one of two or three most selective voice programs in the nation. Their entering class this year for undergraduate voice has 4 members. They keep it this small so they can really give a lot of individual to attention to all of their students. grad or undergrad. Maryland would be great as well. It is a strong academic school that offers great scholarships for academics AND voice. It is also a premier music school for voice.</p>
<p>Thank you! I have definitely added Rice to the list. :)</p>
<p>This is off-topic, but as I am trying to figure out my audition repertoire, I wonder if schools’ aria/art song requirements are set in stone. Northwestern only wants two out of the four audition pieces to be arias, but I would like to sing three arias and one art song. However, one of the arias is an oratorio aria, and the other two are light Mozart opera arias. I can’t imagine that any school would reject someone for the sole reason that he/she did not have the acceptable number of arias vs. art songs. Does anyone know anything about this?</p>
<p>Actually, a school will pay attention to whether or not you can follow the rules when it comes to audition rep so do consider them set in stone! First, you need to discuss your rep with your current voice teacher and make sure that you prepare the proper pieces as specified on each school’s web site. There is no way on earth that you should be taking two pieces by the same composer in to an audition, and and if you are asked for an Art Song, sing one, don’t try to get something past the committee because they set the rules to level the playing ground. And just because you “Can” sing something doesn’t mean that you “Should”! The voice changes as you age and progress and when things get into “muscle memory” it becomes very difficult to unlearn and correct problems when the the appropriate time comes for you to actually be performing the piece.
I would not think that a prof at a school could “waive” pre-screening for an application for undergrad/grad admission for anyone, because typically those are heard by a committee so the decision isn’t up to just one person. If you think that you have been told otherwise, please get it in writing, and I would still include a disc if you apply there since you’ll be making them for the other schools anyway. An exception to the “pre-screening” rule sometimes happens with major conservatory pre-college programs, but that’s not the case for you and IU.
Rice is a great school, but they will be “down” a teacher while they search for a replacement for one who is leaving. Undergrads are quite often taught by adjuncts- nothing wrong with that , but don’t go into it expecting to study with one of the “big names”. As discussed on here often, undergrads do not get performance opps at Rice or Indiana as both schools have large and important graduate departments. Keep that in mind.
Funding- please don’t count on getting 100% of need-based funding, it just does not happen any more. What you will receive is a combination of scholarships and loans, so be prepared to assume responsibly for some of your own payments. Even with an EFC of -0- you will still be expected to come up with money and even if it is not in the form of actual monthly payments now, you’ll have to sign loan papers and pay later. An offshoot of an already bad economy is that loans are not being paid back in a lot of cases (many students stay in grad and post-grad schooling and loans are held in abeyance during that time) so there may not be as much available to pass out to new students.
Your grades are good but it’s clear that you don’t envision the only place for you as being on an opera stage, which is good as it gives you more options. I’m a little confused at your mention of administration and education though. Are you thinking of perhaps becoming a teacher? If so, then you should also look for a school which has an excellent music education program so that you complete your student teaching and certification requirements (yes, you can do those in grad school, but if money is a serious concern, you could teach while you are attending grad school so getting ducks in a row early is a good thing!). If you are thinking of Arts Management, please look at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, OH ( about 30 minutes from Cleveland). The school has that major, one of the few in the country, and also has a credible VP major. They will be opening brand-new conservatory facilities this August and they are state-of-the-art wonderful, which, when combined with an affordable cost and a reputation for good financial aid should make this a school to consider.</p>
<p>@Mezzo’sMama, thank you for that information. I will definitely look into my repertoire list again. Maybe it would be helpful to email my current list to schools that I may have a conflict with and see what they say?</p>
<p>I understand that undergrads do not get as many performance opps at larger schools, but I suppose that is something I would have to sacrifice for a liberal arts education and also possibly more financial aid, as larger schools have larger endowments. And of course, I know that college will not be free. I just need to find the school that is most-free, and I think that’s ok because I plan on continuing to grad school. </p>
<p>I know that I will become a teacher/arts administrator at some point in my life. But for now, I would like to focus on voice performance. My ideal future would be performing for 10 years, and then settling down as a university professor-ish position with a family.</p>
<p>That certainly would be a fantastic career! And that would be wonderful to get into schools like Rice or Indiana, but I too am dubious about the waived prescreening for IU. I have been around for a while and have never heard of a waived prescreening. Besides, you will be making prescreening tapes for all of your other schools, why not just send one in anyway? It’s not as though they are saving you a lot of work; I would do it just to be sure. </p>
<p>In regards to the financial aid at Northwestern as was mentioned above, I can confirm that they often fall far short. I have had a number of students who were thoroughly disappointed with the small or non-existent aid package. </p>
<p>If I could recommend three schools for you they would be Rice, USC, and IU. Rice and USC have highly regarded academics and IU has wonderful scholarships for students with your grades. And although Professor Kaun is leaving Rice, they are very close to finding her a wonderful replacement; not to mention that the other professors there now are other-worldly. For a young soprano it will be extremely difficult to make yourself known at a place like IU but the quality of your education would be fantastic!</p>
<p>I wish you the best of luck in your search and auditions!</p>
<p>Can anyone elaborate on the programs at Depaul and CCPA Roosevelt, in particular as they compare to the other programs listed by the young lady. My son is a rising hs senior as well, with similar music credentials but academic credentials that are not nearly as strong and the “luxury” of a greater financial contribution from his family. I am asking as part of this thread because these two schools were mentioned and are of interest to him. </p>
<p>@wildwinds23, I don’t really know what to say about the waived prescreening - I will not reveal the professor who did it but I am pretty sure that I heard right. But yes, I will be making prescreening tapes for all my other schools, so I think I will send one anyway haha. </p>
<p>I have heard that USC has a good voice program, but I am not sure that I want to go all the way to California. I also have very limited audition weekends available in January and February… Assuming that I am invited to audition at every college, I have five weekends booked, one booked for All-State choir, and one booked for a concert. I don’t know if I have any weekends left to audition at any other school! Didn’t think that would even be an issue haha. So I think I have to keep it to 5 schools, maybe 6. So right now, I’m going for U of I, Northwestern, Oberlin, Rice, and Indiana. Still open to suggestions, though!</p>
<p>My suggestion would be Rice and Juilliard. That probably doesn’t help much based on what I’ve read above. But if you want top notch vocal programs they are both great! Also I read above someone mentioned University of Maryland. Could not have enough good to say about the students that come out of there. They are also fantastic about scholarship money. </p>
<p>Question: How many of these places have you actually visited?</p>
<p>I’ve visited Northwestern, UIUC, and Indiana. I am hoping to visit Oberlin before auditions and visiting Rice may be a far stretch with my schedule and budget.</p>
<p>Getting aid at any of the big New York schools (MSM, Mannes, Juilliard) is very difficult. They might not be the best choices if your parents are not able to contribute much to your tuition.</p>
<p>I am a little bit surprised by this because my son’s pal received full funding (less $3,000 from summer earnings) from NU – tuition, living, expenses, the works. While he is indeed talented, he actually did not get into his first choice (Michigan). I had assumed it was entirely need-based, since I had understood NU to be a “100% Need-Met school” although I am not especially familiar with his family’s circumstances. I am now wondering if it’s academic merit (he has very very tippy top stats…) but didn’t think NU operated on merit.</p>
<p>So, to the original poster: Do you know your family’s approximate EFC? If it is low, and you like Northwestern, I would not necessarily rule it out. If it is high, I’m not sure what the other schools will actually do for you. You might want to expand your list a little and not rule out any valid program, since you might be playing a bit of a fiscal lottery in terms of actual offers. Best wishes!</p>
<p>@soprano93 - just be aware that all your auditions may not be on weekends.</p>
<p>@kiki - D auditioned at CCPA this year and was accepted for jazz voice. However she chose another school to work with a particular voice teacher in a more selective program. Personally I really liked CCPA…the location, the dorms, the structure of the program. It has some nice features but not the reputation as a top program.</p>
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I just need to find the school that is most-free, and I think that’s ok because I plan on continuing to grad school. </p>