Suggestions of Colleges with Music Majors

<p>Tanglewood is a great program. My daughter attended last year and reports that there are indeed a bunch of kids between senior year and college. The program pretty much solidified her desire to be a performance major. She would have gone back herself this year but had the opportunity to perform in Italy for a couple of weeks instead. She will be continuing with some bass lessons over the summer and hanging out with friends - her first summer "off" in several years.</p>

<p>She received 8 credit hours from BU for the Tanglewood program (two week workshop plus six weeks with the orchestra). I imagine that there would be some restrictions on how these would transfer to other colleges, but they could probably be used for a limited amount of elective credits.</p>

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<p>My son also went to Tanglewood but for two summers. He received a total of 10 credits over the two years. They cannot be transferred to other colleges for college credit. They can only be applied for music elective credit at Boston University. However, having a summer at BUTI on one's high school resume is a very good thing for those pursuing music in college.</p>

<p>Sorry to butt in here, but I just wanted to say congrats to BassDad on daughter's choice. Seemed to me like she would wind up there, in the end. Maybe I'll see you up there..</p>

<p>To insert some relevance to this thread, some people, above and elsewhere on CC, have asserted (in effect) that the dual major at Oberlin is virtually impossible, has no coordination or coordinator, the colleges are hostile to each other, etc. I asked my daughter, who actually attends the college, about this and this is not her impression. She reported that she knows many students who take courses in the conservatory, and also some who are dual majoring. There are actually a fair number of students who are dual majoring, and this is in fact why some have selected Oberlin. As one specific point, my daughter said in in fact there is somebody responsible for coordinating for dual majors.</p>

<p>She thinks it is tough to dual major, but not because of institutional impediments; more because the two schools, and particularly the Conservatory, are each very demanding in and of themselves. Nonetheless, a good number of students who are committed to this path are doing it each year.</p>

<p>I would think that math and physics would be particularly challenging for a dual major, since these subjects are no cakewalk in and of themselves. But I guess you'll find out.</p>

<p>My daughter is not in the conservatory, and is not dual majoring, so her impressions may be wrong. On the other hand, the impressions of other people following a cursory investigation may likewise be wrong. I suggest interested parties accept each of these data points and then do their own investigation before reaching a conclusion about this.</p>

<p>And maybe BassDad can report back in a couple years.</p>

<p>Monydad,</p>

<p>Thanks. I was fairly certain she would wind up at Oberlin, too, once she was turned down by Curtis. Her current teacher thought one of the Oberlin teachers would not be a good match for her, but we straightened that out when she visited a couple of weeks back.</p>

<p>The stats I've seen say that about a quarter of all Oberlin conservatory students are involved in the double degree program at some point in their careers. The number who complete it is smaller than that, of course, but the institutional support is there. My somewhat more than cursory investigation suggests that some departments exhibit more flexibility than others when it comes to double majors. So far, they have shown my daughter nothing but support, but we shall see what happens once classes start.</p>

<p>This whole double major thing really came out of left field. I knew she was enjoying Calculus and Physice this year, but she never expressed much interest in pursuing those subjects at a college level until a couple of months ago. I've been trying to warn her that she has picked two very time-consuming majors in musical performance and either math or physics, but she wants to give it a shot. I'm pretty sure that she could handle either of them in four years, but it remains to be seen if she can do both in five. She also wants to join a housing co-op, but I think she should wait a year to see if she really has the extra five hours per week in her schedule. As you can probably tell, when she decides to do something she jumps in with both feet.</p>

<p>I'll let y'all know how things go for her, in case anyone else has similar intentions.</p>

<p>Sorry to be topping this very long post, but...</p>

<p>I'm looking for suggestions for my niece (via my sister) who is a wonderful violinist, has studied since she was 7 yrs old, has extensive background in music theory, keyboard, etc., and is now looking to go to college with for music education. She is looking for schools within 5 hours of Syracuse, NY. (More or less.) Conservatory is a possibility, but is also interested in a college or a univeristy with a solid music department. She has already looked at the SUNY schools, Ithaca College, Oberlin, and Eastman. She really can not do a $40,000/yr school - so it has to be someplace that offers merit scholarship (family not eligible for aid) or state school. She is not getting good help from her guidance office. She is a top notch student with advanced courses from a good public school. Any suggestions or personal experiences greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>The music conservatory at Bard College. Merit scholarships are offered to some students especially if they are also interested in the sciences or mathematics as well as music.</p>

<p>Peacenik: You might have her look at Mason-Gross at Rutgers. They are building undergraduate string program, and graduate program has always been very strong. The string faculty is excellent. She would get many performance opportunities. There is merit money for good string players. They are particularly proud of their placement record for music education graduates, at 100%. It sounds like it is out of state for your niece, but it is not a $40,000 conservatory situation. Good luck. Lorelei</p>

<p>Just a note regarding Bard. I have reviewed their website and did not see music education listed as a major within the conservatory. They are still bringing instruments into the mix and have a timeline through 2010 or so but I didn't see music education in the list -- please correct me if I'm wrong.</p>

<p>Eastman offers merit scholarships at some level for most incoming students. They have an excellent education department, so she shouldn't rule it out.</p>

<p>Peacenik- look at Indiana.</p>

<p>Just a note on Indiana--if you want merit aid, apply as soon as applications open and apply for Honors College scholarships. My son did neither, and we will really be straining to meet his expenses, as they did not even meet demonstrated need. (He did get a small music grant, but only after he asked.)</p>

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<p>Just thought I would respond to this posting as one who has come through (some time ago) the BUTI program. As far as college credit goes: a student is given one "elective" credit hour per week of his/her program. Boston University automatically accepts these credits (a tool for recruitment, I would imagine). I did not attend Boston University as an undergraduate (or graduate) but I did use all 6 of my elective credits at the University I did attend (took the place of one general elective and one arts & humanities elective class). Whether or not these credits are accepted is at the discretion of the institution you attend. Simply put: some schools will accept this credit (may require you to call Tanglewood to get official course descriptions) and some schools may not. Doesn't hurt to ask/try.</p>

<p>TubaSlug,</p>

<p>Thanks for clarifying that issue. Are you willing to share the University and major department that accepted the BUTI credits?</p>

<p>I'm glad to hear that some schools will accept the BUTI college credits from BU. DS applied to 6 other music performance programs. ALL said the same thing....they would not award him college credit for his BU credits from BUTI (this was in 2003). AND they also did NOT give credit for the music theory AP exam, and they were very up front about that also...ALL music majors were required to take the full requirements of music theory. RE: even BU....these 10 credits are applied as music electives. My son says he doesn't even HAVE the option of 10 credits of music electives at BU...He has a very full schedule of REQUIRED courses for four years. The only "electives" he has are chamber music classes and as a performance major HE feels these are required, and I agree.</p>

<p>The reason I asked TubaSlug to share his college and major is that I think that BUTI and AP Music Theory exam credits are far less likely to be accepted for performing arts majors than for others. Kind of ironic, isn't it? Part of it is that music performance majors have few electives that these credits could fill. I also think college major departments are in general more cautious about accepting transfer credits within their own discipline than those from unrelated disciplines.</p>

<p>When D was looking at colleges (music performance major) 4 years ago she was told not to bother taking AP Music Theory (except for "fun") nobody gives them credit for it.......they all have their sequences of theory,ear training, etc that they require for the major and there is no getting out of it.She looked at programs ranging from conservatories to large state U's with Music Schools (not music departments)</p>

<p>Here's a challenge for all you vocal performance-savvy thread participants. What would be the "Ivy League" of non-conservatory undergraduate voice programs? I've heard a number of names over and over (Indiana, BU, NWern, Oberlin - okay, a conservatory, but it's on a real college campus, etc.), but it's hard to know where to draw the line between a top-level voice program that offers the highest level of university School of Music-based preparation, and other prominent schools of music that offer vocal performance degrees but are less renowned for voice.</p>

<p>I believe I can answer that- Indiana, Rice, Oberlin. These are, essentially, conservatories on college campuses. BU has some excellent faculty, and don't overlook Case/Cleveland Institute. D was not impressed with the voice dept. at Northwestern- it is stronger in music theater. D just finished soph year at Rice, was an ARTS finalist, and we went through this entire process a couple of years ago. She chose Rice over a number of other schools- she thought Indiana was too big of a voice program for an undergrad. Oberlin was "in the middle of a cornfield".</p>

<p>And you'd have to add Cincinnati C-CM and perhaps Michigan and Southern Cal? Carnegie Mellon? I wouldn't count Eastman and Peabody or other conservatories that are affiliated with a university but not physically located there,</p>

<p>D did not even apply to Cincy. She was not impressed with either the university or the conservatory. Not to say it would not be a good fit for someone else....</p>