<p>After looking at the course requirement for music ed programs (and performance programs) at different schools, I can see they are all over the board with how many credits are required for each semester. There are some schools that have 1 credit per semester for lessons and some that have 4 credits per semester. Is there a rule of thumb that 1 credit = 1/2 hour lesson, 2 credits = 1 hour etc...or does that vary by school too?</p>
<p>It varies by school.</p>
<p>It varies somewhat, but many schools use either 4 credits = hour lesson and 2 credits = half hour lesson OR 2 credits = hour lesson, 1 credit = half hour lesson. Of course the number of credits required/recommended/allowed per semester as well as the number of credits required for graduation also varies.</p>
<p>Well then it is pretty safe to assume that 1 credit is 1/2 hour and 4 credits is 1 hour…but 2 credits can either be 1/2 hour or 1 hour depending on the school. That helps a little…</p>
<p>I would not make that assumption without checking. There are a lot of schools with oddball ways of calculating credits and some have trimesters instead of semesters. Carnegie Mellon, for example, grants 9 “units” for a Major Lesson and 6 for a Minor Lesson, with a grand total of 378 in classes of all kinds required for graduation. It used to be possible at Oberlin (and maybe still is - they’ve gone and changed the website on me again) to take a Principal Applied Lesson for 3, 4, 5 or 6 credits with the expectations set accordingly for what the student was going to do outside of lessons. That was done to give students some flexibility with their schedules, and in case they had to lighten up a little to fit everything into 16 or 17 credit hours, beyond which there is a pretty hefty tuition surcharge. 32 total applied lesson credits are required for graduation and most students simply did four per semester for eight semesters.</p>
<p>For my undergrad, your first two years of lessons were 2 credits and a 1 hour lesson. </p>
<p>Your third year, 3 credits - 1 hour lesson. </p>
<p>Your fourth year, 4 credits - 1 hour lesson. </p>
<p>You just paid more each year for the same exact thing.</p>
<p>Thanks for your replies…</p>
<p>I am learning, all be it slowly, almost everything is up to the discretion of the school. Ask all questions - don’t take anything for granted. Interesting…</p>
<p>While the schools have discretion in some areas, they have to meet a lot of the same requirements in order to gain accreditation. That comes from the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) for many but not all music schools. NASM sets the minimum standards that schools must meet to be accredited and they run periodic reviews to make sure the school has not slipped. Of course, the schools are free to exceed those standards and to use different terminology from one another to mean pretty much the same thing. You have to do your homework if you are trying to compare apples with apples. Still, ask all questions and take nothing for granted is indeed the way to go for something this important and this expensive.</p>
<p>At one of the colleges my son is applying at, 2 credits is half hour private lesson and one 50 minute master class, or 4 credits for hour private lesson and one 50 minute master class.</p>
<p>My son attended a conservatory where he got 4 credits - hour long weekly lesson and 2 hour studio class each week as well.</p>