<p>My daughter (M) visited W&M this weekend and loved it; she said it felt like the perfect fit for her. M loved the vibe and W&M was exactly as she imagined college should be, a high caliber academic program with serious students that are nice and also enjoy having fun (but not a party school). She also wants to be in a sorority. M is a strong student who also excels in music and will likely be participating in a pre-college music program at MSM, Juilliard or Mannes next year (we live in the NYC suburbs). M will not qualify for financial aid. </p>
<p>Any suggestions on schools similar to W&M with great music programs? While M will probably not major in music, she would love to combine business with music. Adding in a potential merit scholarship would also be a huge plus since she won't qualify for financial aid.</p>
<p>I suggest you ask this on the music forum, where similar questions come up a lot. She might be interested in programs for music industry or music business (or production), if that is where her interests lie. Some state universities offer these kinds of majors (UMass Lowell in my area), Other schools range from Syracuse to Northeastern to Belmont to Berklee to NYU.The music major forum will offer a list of schools like this.</p>
<p>Are there academic subjects she is interested in, besides business, or are her goals mainly vocationa/preprofessionall, such as business?</p>
<p>Participating in a conservatory prep program will allow her to see how she likes studying music, especially if she takes some theory and solfege and/or music history. It sounds like she still has some time left to clarify her goals.</p>
<p>I personally think that doing internships and volunteering with music organizations while studying whatever interests her will do just as much to head her in the direction of working for music organizations, as a music business degree, which is pretty specialized for undergraduate study.</p>
<p>Are you looking for merit based scholarships based on stats? If so, what are her stats? We need to know that because that will determine which schools would be suggested. </p>
<p>How much merit do you want?</p>
<p>Merit is usually given to the students whose stats are well-within the top 25% of the school. The deeper the penetration, the higher the award. This is for schools that give merit. </p>
<p>I would look at Skidmore, Vanderbilt and Gettysburg. They all have strong music programs, Skidmore does have music scholarship funding. Carnegie Mellon has strong academic as well as well as music along with Northwestern but neither are known for being generous with merit money. BU has strong music as well as merit.</p>
<p>What instrument does your daughter play? We’re from MA and looked for private universities or liberal arts colleges with challenging academics, a good orchestra and merit aid but there aren’t many schools in the NE that fit that criteria.</p>
<p>Emory University has an excellent business school and is not a party school; about 30% rush. Vanderbilt has incredible merit aid: Blair Music School is renowned and like a lot of southern schools, they have a high sorority rate (50%?) If you’re looking at W&M, you could also check out UNC-Chapel Hill (strong music program) with similar academics; they offer some merit aid. UNC’s acceptance rate is lower than W&M for out of state though (limited to 17-18%.)</p>
<p>Emory has some merit aid: half tuition music scholarships for entering freshmen, and Dean’s Scholarships for entering freshmen, freshmen or sophomores ($10K year) which are renewable. The orchestra is primarily music majors but they allow some non-music majors to join (not the case with universities with conservatory programs such as Rice and Eastman.) Emory’s concertmaster and principal second violin get to play two incredible violins on loan for those chairs. Emory has many double majors (my daughter is one) and some faculty are Atlanta Symphony members; my D studies with the ASO Asst. principal cellist. My D also has a work study job in concert production and is learning to work a soundboard.</p>
<p>The music administrators I know tend to have bachelor’s degrees in music (BA or BM, either’s fine) combined with a master’s in arts administration or business. We host interns in our marketing, development, accounting and concert production departments each semester. BU has a good arts administration master’s program with a successful placement rate. </p>
<p>Miami University Ohio has a very good business program, and I just looked and it seems like they have a music major. I am currenltly visiting there with my son, and I’m quite impressed. It is tied with W&M for undergrad teaching quality, ranked just below 2 Ivies. I think it has a student body of about 15k. It’s a beautiful campus, and it feels very safe. They are very generous with merit awards for OOS relatively high stats kids. They give ranges for merit awards on their website. It’s worth a look. </p>
<p>U Rochester w Eastman school of music. Gives decent merit, especially for national merit finalists. Hopkins has Peabody school but isn’t known for much merit. It only gives merit to a few students.</p>
<p>Look at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Known for merit awards, has a strong business program and students can participate in music classes at Cleveland Institute of Music on campus. Smart academic students, not known as a party school. My daughter is very happy in her sorority there.</p>
<p>If your daughter attends a school like Vanderbilt, Eastman, or BU, the presence of a conservatory on campus can be a plus or, often, a minus, for a student who wants to participate in music. The best opportunities may go to conservatory students. It is good to check this out thoroughly as you can: each campus is different.</p>
<p>Is merit aid a “must have” or “would be nice”? Williams is a smaller school, but shares a similar culture with Williams & Mary. Excellent music, excellent business connections, but no merit. For merit I would also look at Smith.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the great comments! Very helpful. In response to some of the questions, M play flute and is probably just slightly below the top 10% of her class (maybe closer to 15%?). UNC-Chapel Hill sounds great, but it would likely be too much of a reach for M as an OOS applicant. We will add Vandy and Emory to the list of schools to check out (good to know about the potential scholarship money). We are also looking at U. of Rochester, but that’s interesting to know about Eastman’s policy regarding participation in the orchestra. </p>
<p>As to the question about how much merit, I would love to get around $10k/year (or more); not sure how realistic, especially since M is taking the SATs for the first time on March 8. She is well prepared with tutoring, etc. but we’ll have to see how the actual test goes.</p>
<p>My D was accepted to U Rochester and it was made very clear that non-music majors have virtually no chance of being accepted into the orchestras because of priority for the Eastman students. However, you can audition for free lessons with a grad student and I believe you can take chamber music as well.</p>
<p>Merit at Emory and Vandy is a long shot for a top 15% student. Might still be worth applying if she loves the schools.</p>
<p>I’d consider Washington & Lee, Davidson, and Tulane for a music student who loves W&M, wants Greek life, and needs merit aid. Centre College in Kentucky might be a good safety.</p>
<p>"just slightly below the top 10% of her class (maybe closer to 15%?). UNC-Chapel Hill sounds great, but it would likely be too much of a reach for M as an OOS applicant. We will add Vandy and Emory to the list of schools to check out (good to know about the potential scholarship money). "</p>
<p>Very unlikely that a non-top-10% would get merit at those schools. Those schools target their merit to grab a few kids who’d likely choose top ivies over them. They’re more likely going to be Vals and Sals…or hooked URMs. No need to offer merit to those who are lucky to get accepted to their schools…and not being top 10% means those schools would be a reach.</p>
<p>Wasnt’ there a thread listing schools that will allow non-majors to play in orchestras and ensembles? </p>
<p>My d graduated from University of Rochester. She was a music major, a singer. The U of R music department is quite strong in itself and does have their own orchestra. Music majors can receive private lessons usually from an Eastman DMA grad student and receive credit. There is an audition to receive lessons and you must pass an annual jury to continue. There is the issue of going back and forth between the Eastman campus downtown and the river campus. It is about a 20 minute ride on the bus and sometimes the lessons are given on the U of R campus. One year D’s University of Rochester chorus performed jointly with Eastman chorus but no opportunity to just sing in an Eastman chorus or audition for opera performances, same with instrumental performers. She did know several people who were double degree at Eastman/Rochester but you must be accepted at both schools to do so. Same holds true for Hopkins/Peabody.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what you consider to be a party school. My H’s niece is at W&M (a tri-Delt), and it is a party school. Sure it’s got serious students. but it is very Greek and partying/drinking is all part of the weekend social structure. </p>
<p>To be honest, nearly all schools are party schools. Exceptions are Bible Colleges and highly religious ones ( BYU, etc). Whenever you get a bunch of 18-22 year olds together, you’re going to get partying, drinking, and sex. Being a “strongly academic” school does not mean it’s not a party school. MIT students have famous parties. My highly-academic nephew at WashU has Facebook pics with lots of red cups.</p>
<p>You might want to look into Lawrence U in Appleton Wisconsin. It is a small LAC with a conservatory. They are very open to having non music majors participate in the Orchestra and other ensembles. My daughter is going at the end of this week to audition for an ensemble award which would pay for her to take lessons. LU is strong academically and has some good merit awards. I don’t know what they have in the way of business, but they have a program called Conservatory 2 that helps students get summer internships in music related fields.
One previous poster said that if you go to Case Western you can pursue music at CIM. That is not really true, music students at CWRU take lessons and perform in groups through CW. Music majors can take some non performance classes such as music theory and music history at CIM. It’s still worth a look though. LU does have a greek life system.</p>
<h2>I’m not sure what you consider to be a party school. My H’s niece is at W&M (a tri-Delt), and it is a party school. Sure it’s got serious students. but it is very Greek and partying/drinking is all part of the weekend social structure.</h2>
<p>I would disagree strongly with your description of W&M as “a party school” and “very greek”. W&M greek life is very tame compared to many schools. Obviously there are parties… there are parties everywhere. W&M parties are also pretty tame when compared to many schools. W&M gets blasted all the time for not having a big enough social scene (read: parties and greek life) for some people.</p>
<p>You also might be getting a one sided view of life at W&M… all it takes is a bit of googling to see some interesting tri-delt stories from the last few years. Their reputation is what it is.</p>
<p>If you are using these descriptors for W&M, I’m not sure what you are using for countless other schools throughout the country…</p>
<p>My D, who applied to W&M, also liked: Davidson, University of Richmond, American, & Wake Forest. All these schools have competitive music scholarships available and some only require music participation rather than a major/minor. She had good success submitting a professionally recorded arts supplement to these and other schools. </p>