Smart Music Major?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I am a prospective Jazz Studies major for a college’s class of 2020. I’m kind of stressed out about this stuff and I want to hear some ballpark ideas.

Went to a renown midwestern college prep school for grades 9-12. Received 70% tuition scholarships all four years.
ACT Composite: 33 (on a 36 point scale)
ACT Writing: 10 (on a 12 point scale)
Cumulative GPA: 93.117% (unweighted 100 point scale for my high school)

Schedule:
Freshman Year
Honors History and Honors Geometry. Everything else was basic English, theology (Catholic school requirement), Spanish, science, PE, and band courses. GPA that year was about a 92.4

Sophomore Year
AP Euro History (received a 3 on AP exam), Honor Biology, Honors Algebra 2, Honors American Literature, Honors Spanish 2, all other courses were basic levels of study. GPA that year was about a 94.5

Junior Year
AP Chemistry (received a 3 on AP exam), Honors Pre-Calculus, AP English Language (received a 5 on AP exam), AP US History (received a 3 on AP exam), AP Music Theory (received a 4 on exam), college credit Spanish 3 through local state university, then basic band, theology, and PE courses as well. GPA that year was about a 93

Senior Year
AP Biology, AP Statistics, AP Government & Politics, AP English Literature, dropped Spanish (sadly), basic PE, band, and theology as well.

I’m pretty involved and stuff like that. We use a house system for student body. I was voted one of the two captains for my house(biggest role of student leadership based on peer votes and teacher recommendations).

VERY involved in the band program. Also participate in local programs and all state jazz band. The catch with my college search is I’m applying to some high ranked colleges, but as a music major. I’m curious if this will help my chances of getting in and getting financial help as well as scholarships. I am a pretty good jazz guitarist, one of the best in my city based on district band auditions (I live in a mid-sized city, metro population of about 3 million). My family can’t afford to pay much more than $15k a year. Below is my college list. So I’m curious, will I get in, and do you think these colleges will offer me the kind of deal I’m looking for? Otherwise, I’m headed to some backups. Thanks in advanced!

New York University
Columbia University
Northwestern University
University of Southern California
University of Texas-Austin

2

I can’t offer a ton of advice since I am not “allowed” to be a Music Performance major as I wanted to be for years. I know UT has a very good program but I know they are stingy with merit aid (or so I have heard from many people). You might wanna check out University of North Texas. They have a fantastic music program, although I am not too sure about their jazz program. It’s significantly cheaper than your aforementioned colleges and they’ll give scholarships. It’s in Denton and they have a TON of concerts. I know many people that go there (I live in Dallas and know a fair amount of prospective and current music majors due to being in Band for many years and doing All-Region and Area. Never All-State, I was very close two times though). Hope I helped!

3

Yes, I’ve thought about U of North Texas. Only reason it’s not way up there in my considerations is that one of my personal priorities is being in an urban environment to play shows and make industry connections, though I’m sure UNT would be good for that too. Thanks!

4

To go about this process you need to know what your financial need is as calculated at each school. Your parents. might tell you they can only afford $15k, but that may or may not indicate their level of need. You need to know this to apply strategically. For example NYU will give merit money without need, but Northwestern will meet full need. So for us, NYU gave D $ and northwestern wouldn’t.

Good luck !