<p>I plan on majoring in music education and would love to go to a well-known school. Nothing Ivy or anything, just a decent school that is basically a household name. I play tuba for my school's symphonic band, we were the Honor Band last year. What schools would you recommend based on my stats?</p>
<p>17 year old white Male from West Virginia
3.38 UW GPA
3.63 (approx.) W
SAT 1870 Cr/Ma: 640/620
ACT 27 (English: 26 Mathematics: 25 Reading: 28 Science: 27 Writing: 25)
Top 15% of a 280 student class
Taken almost all honors and AP (3 CP total, two this year because of scheduling conflicts)
5 on AP US History Exam (Will take AP Physics and AP GoPo in May)
I plan on majoring in Music Teacher Education</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
4 Years of Marching Band
3 Years of Jazz Band
3 Years of Key Club
3 Years of JV Baseball
2 Years of National Honor Society
Religious Education (Became a Catholic last year by taking classes every Monday Night)</p>
<p>Leadership:
2 Year section leader for sousaphones in Marching Band
1 Year Tutoring Committee Chair
Led Activities at Vacation Bible School</p>
<p>Academics:
5 on AP US History Exam
3rd place at county science fair and Honorable Mention at Regional fair
Taking AP GoPo online because of scheduling conflicts</p>
<p>I’ll respond with conventional wisdom: attend your instate flagship school for music ed or a school in a state that you wish to teach. I’m sure one of music posters will recommend a great West Virginia school for you! It is unwise to take on large amounts of undergrad debt to become a music teacher since most teacher certification programs will require a masters.
If you want to be the best that you can be and still pursue a music ed degree, Eastman and Oberlin have music ed options. You can start Oberlin’s ed program as a junior and I believe it will lead to a masters. Check out Hartt in Ct :they have a well regarded music ed program and a good tuba teacher. Charles Guy who teaches at Crane School of Music, Potsdam, NY has a very competitive studio and Crane is well regarded as a music ed school.
Think about how much improving on your instrument means to you versus becoming a good music teacher versus cost that will help you make your ultimate decision.</p>
<p>Thanks so much! I may just stay in-state and go to WVU. It’s not too bad of a school, I was just looking to get away from the structure and people I know.</p>
<p>Momofbassist gave you some good advice on the state flagship college.</p>
<p>Your academics are good enough to get into almost any State U, and most any major State U is going to meet your needs as being “well known”. Most of the time people hiring teachers are not going to be experts in music schools, if you told them that you went to a famous music school it would likely mean nothing to them - they don’t know the difference between “Bobs College of Music” or Crane School of Music. But if you tell them that you went to your states main state university, they immediately understand that there are some reasonably substantial minimum requirements and standards that you had to meet to get accepted, and to matriculate.</p>
<p>My son is a music ed major, and in our school district the starting salary for a new teacher with just a bachelors is $32,500/year, you can add $4k for a masters to that, and about an additional $1k for every year of experiance teaching, plus a “coaches bonus” if you work in an after school program like marching band. Many people have suggested that you shouldn’t borrow more than the entry level salary for you career, so a state college would probably fit your $$$ needs much better than an expensive private college. He will owe at the most $25k in Stafford loans when he graduates, that fits into the guidline, and we (his “rents”) are roughly splitting the cost of college with him 50/50 after all financial aid - his 50% basically being his debt obligation. Seems reasonable to me.</p>
<p>Now one thing that I do disagree with Momofbassist is that most of the music ed programs we looked into allowed one to get teacher certified imediately after completing a BM degree. Thats the point of a BM/ed degree. But look at each college individually as every program is a little different. My son’s “saftey” college only offered a BA in music, but they had a joint BA/MaT “5 year plus a summer” program that lead to a teachers certification in music ed. Another college awarded two degrees upon the completion of their program, you got a general Bachelors of Music plus a Bachelors of Science in Education - their program was basically 4 years plus one or two summer schools. </p>
<p>Regardless, you should seriously consider going to grad school anyway. Not only does someone with a master’s tend to get paid more, they also will typically be the first pick over someone with just a bachelors. Plus, a lot of schools have a “10 year rule” in hiring - meaning that they will only hire a teacher that is at least 10 years older than the students they will be teacher. It’s probably a good policy as it is intended reducing the likelyhood of teachers “dating” the students. So in districts that have that policy, someone who graduates at age 22 with a bachelors could only teach up to the 6th grade or so. But if you graduated at age 24 (allowing time for a masters) you could teach at least up through middle school, and with just a few years experiance as a middle school teacher you would be qualified (old enough) to teach at the high school level.</p>
<p>Referring to my recommendation that you attend a music ed program in a state that you would like to teach in, every state will have slightly different requirements for teaching certification and the music ed schools in each state obviously prepare their students to meet the requirements for their particular state. So, in NYS, you would receive provisional certification with your bachelors in music ed. You then would have 5 years to earn a masters and to teach for 3yrs so that you can be permanently certified as a teacher. So, all teachers in NYS will need their masters to be permanently certified. Just check the requirements for the states in which you are interested in being a teacher.
Son decided to stay instate for music ed because he was more interested in teaching in NY at the time. Though he wouldn’t mind moving south if the opportunity arises. (Also, starting teachers in our local districts start around $45000 with step increases each year and extra pay for master’s etc. A good gig if you can get it! However, most of the local districts are cutting their music programs and letting teachers go. Hopefully, things will be brighter in 4-5 years when son graduates.)</p>
<p>Ya, thats a concern of ours also. I am an optimist so I do believe that things will be brighter by the time our kids (yours and mine) graduate. I believe this to be a better time to be in college than entering the workforce. Which of course also is an added reason to continue into grad school these days.</p>
<p>I’m fortunate to live in a state where few districts had to cut back on teachers - most of our educational cuts have been from college budgets, and much of that was waste and fluff. The $50 million dollar swim center is nice, as is the $10 million dollar marching band facility, but neither are neccesary. Never have been.</p>
<p>I’ll second (third?) the advice to attend school in state you would like to teach in.</p>
<p>DS attended undergrad instate for music ed. Went directly into masters (out of state) and now is teaching back in home state.</p>
<p>I’ll second the suggestion to look at Hartt in CT if you decide to look further …great tuba teacher. They also have generous merit awards for students who audition well.</p>
<p>In addition to your instate flagship, look at neighboring states. Some states have a consortium of sorts that offer instate tuition to neighbors. Others allow schools from neighboring states to share credits reciprocally, so that if you attend out of state, but want to take a couple courses at home in the summer, those credits transfer readily. I don’t know what schools/states WVA might share with, but you might want to look at schools like Pitt.</p>
<p>University of Delaware and Westchester in Pennsylvania are have well known Music Ed programs. One of my D’s HS friends is currently at Westchester for Music Ed/Percussion Emphasis. I’d look at a school that has a good marching band - if you are going to teach instrumental music at a High School level, marching will be in your future!! Good luck.</p>