My daughter has been accepted to Ithaca, Potsdam and Fredonia. Still waiting to hear from Boston University. She will be studying piano performance. Originally thought she would do double major of piano performance and music ed but has changed her mind because thinks it may be too hard and really her love is for performing not teaching. Can anyone give me some insight as to which school is better for performance? I know Potsdam and Fredonia are well regarded for their music ed program, what about performance? Ithaca, which she loves, is significantly more expensive than Crane and Fredonia, as those are state schools for us. However, if Ithaca is a significantly better school for performance major, the money may be worth it? Any insight or thoughts are appreciated. Thank you!
Hi, @scarywine - congrats on your D’s acceptances!
Has she had a sample lesson with each of the piano professors with whom she would be studying? Does she like them, are they a good personality/teaching style fit? Professor fit (and the professor’s recent students’ post-graduation outcomes) should probably be an important consideration in this decision rather than just a school’s overall reputation in performance, which may be much stronger on some instruments than others. Finances matter, too, of course - most parents here would recommend not taking on much debt for a music degree, but if you can comfortably afford all three schools then fit factors can be weighted more heavily.
If she hasn’t yet had sample lessons, it might be worth another visit before a decision needs to be made, particularly since those 3 are in state and should be relatively easy to get to.
@classicalsaxmom thanks for your reply! She attended the Ithaca summer piano institute this past summer so she worked with a teacher there that she really liked. We are scheduled to go to Potsdam and Fredonia to do sample lessons at those schools. I guess we will just wait and see how those lessons go and hopefully we can make a decision soon.
third year My daughter is voice and violin major undergraduate in a small university in Canada. Our experience is: what is important is that the instructors or professors really care for student individual no the name or size of college. Ithaca College I lived there before, very immoral college, I saw with my eyes: drunk students. and very expensive. Potsman has a better community environment. My daughter hope to go there as a Graduate student please see what students have to say in this web site about Ithaca College.