<p>I’m currently a student at Interlochen Arts Academy, so I’m basically surrounded by conversations about music schools all the time. In general, some good music schools that aren’t quite on the level of Juilliard or Curtis (Curtis is actually better than Juilliard, and harder to get into. If somebody really wants a great education I would highly recommend applying there) are schools such as: Indiana University Bloomington, Northwestern, the University of Michigan, New England Conservatory, Eastman, the University of Kansas (this one isn’t as well known to people that aren’t heavily involved in the music world, but it’s actually a really good school) Oberlin, CIM, CCM, Mannes, North Texas, Manhattan School of Music, and Peabody. However, the most important thing to consider when applying for music is the teacher. Your specific teacher is going to be working with you closely for the next 4 years. They might be one of the best musicians on their instrument/voice, but if you don’t get along with them then don’t bother.</p>
<p>There’s a lot more to consider when choosing schools than just because of an individual teacher, especially as an undergraduate. What happens if the reason you choose a school is to study with a particular teacher and you don’t get assigned to that teacher? Or suppose the leaves the school? I know people who have “followed” a teacher to another school, usually more on the grad level than undergrad, but there are so many other factors about training and study and lifestyle, it seems to me that a student should take them all into account.</p>
<p>The question of the particular teacher is a really good one. I’d love more info/wisdom here. My son’s girlfriend is a very talented flautist who got into a top ranked music program, but had a really awful year because she intensely disliked her teacher. Not only was the teacher’s teaching style really bad for her (a strict, do-what-I-say-and-don’t-question-it style), but she felt like she learned nothing. She has taken a leave of absence and now is seriously rethinking even majoring in the instrument. The added problem is that when you are young it is much harder to not internalize this and think, “Something must be wrong with ME. EVeryone says x teacher is this amazing musician, yet in my experience she’s horrible. Maybe I shouldn’t be in music at all if it’s always going to be like this.” </p>
<p>Of course maybe this young woman really shouldn’t major in her instrument, but having a really bad teacher for you doesn’t help.</p>
<p>But others are raising valid points too-there’s no guarantee that the person who is slated to work with you will actually work with you for all four years. Plus, it’s awfully hard to tell if a particular teacher will turn out to be good or bad for you from shallow interactions. </p>
<p>So how do you measure these things? My younger son is thinking of majoring in voice and I think would be sensitive to bad chemistry. Thanks for any suggestions.</p>
<p>I can share some insights from my son’s experience, he is a HS Senior in FL who plans on majoring in Music. Without too many details, he plays Bass Trombone, and made both All-County and the All-State symphony this year. FL has some excellent colleges for music, FSU being at the top of the list but Stetson and some others are also strong. My son has received his general acceptance from UCF, USF, FSU, Stetson, App State and U of South Carolina…only pending college is UF where I am an alumni. After visits, music school tours, and financial analysis, his #1 choice is USCarolina - except it happens to be OOS for us. He has all of his auditions this month and next, so it should be another journey to see where it all nets out. If you want insights as to the good, bad and ugly with schools like UCF, FSU and SCarolina, or have questions, please post and I’m happy to answer.</p>
<p>Some Quick High-Level Tips for HS student planning to major in music:
- What type of music is their passion? Some schools are better at Jazz while others are better in symphonic, etc.
- Do the campus visit, but also set up a tour of the school of music
- Set up an appointment with the Professor of the instrument your child will major in; come prepared with quesitons about how many students they keep in their studio, who does the actual teaching, financials, and what major they recommend
- Strongly consider a Music Education major with Peformance certificate for Undergrad
- Know what you’re up against…how many students in your child’s instrument are there? Is it hard to get in? Do undergrads get in the top ensembles? Is there a Learning Community for Music?
- What scholarships are available for Music Students?
And Many More…!</p>
<p>Music Ed is fine for those who want to teach but shouldn’t be planned as a fall back. If teaching is the plan, then paying OOS tuition is a waste of money. I guess if parents are full pay, that’s their choice, but if debt is involved, then the in state option is the best.</p>
<p>I don’t think that becoming a teacher someday in the future should be seen as a “fallback plan.” It might just mean that at a later time a person can see themselves as a teacher, but not now.</p>
<p>I myself started off as an English major–and worked for years in travel marketing. When I was young and single I wanted to see the world and have an “exciting” job with lots of travel. But after 10 years of the business world and at the point of planning a family, I was ready for a change and really wanted to become a teacher. It was not a fall back for me, but rather part 2 of my career. I have now been teaching for over a dozen years (actually more years than when I was in marketing) and I love it!</p>
<p>With that in mind, I am happy my daughter will be getting a BM degree in vocal performance with a concentration in musical theatre. I encouraged that instead of a theatre degree, knowing that in the future she could pursue Music Ed if she wants. She doesn’t want to teach now, but may someday. Right now she wants to pursue business options or performing. </p>
<p>I know a lot of people who entered teaching right out of school and then left having been burned out or dissillusioned. I also know a lot of people who have entered teaching as a second career and love it.</p>
<p>The term “fall back” connotes that people might enter the teaching field reluctantly after not achieving success in other areas. I dont’ think that is the case for many people who change career paths throughout their lives.</p>
<p>Very well said @uskoolfish. When it comes to Music, it’s almost impossible to have a career and not teach in some capacity - show me a great symphony musician who doesn’t share their passion with young people via special performances, clinics, master classes and lessons. They know that sharing their passion and inspiring the next generations is the only way Music will live on. So teaching will be a part of your Music career one way or the other.</p>
<p>That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pursue your dream if you want to perform, just remember the full time gigs in a symphony come around once every 30 years, and there are at least 100 great musicians trying for that spot. As uskoolfish so eloquintly stated, remember that the average person changes careers AT LEAST 3-5 times in their life. The best thing you can do is have OPTIONS, and there is nothing more noble than teaching others…good luck in your journey!</p>
<p>StoneMagic, USCarolina was very generous in scholarships when DD applied. How is your S academically? Once you have a certain level of scholarships there, they used to give you instate tuition. It was cheaper for DD to go there than to instate schools. Check out the scholarship info and make sure he has applied for everything. It took a couple of extra steps and essays.</p>
<p>Guys, please do NOT encourage your children to major in Music Ed or regard that in ANY way as a ‘fallback plan.’ It’s shameful that colleges still act as though this were a good plan.</p>
<p>Teaching in general and teaching in music in particular is a disappearing sustainable job. I speak as a teacher. Across the country, whole music departments are being decimated. It is VERY hard to find a job. Sure it’s possible. But it’s VERY hard. And in this day of infinite standardized testing, it’s also not valued in the least; a music teacher will be on the bottom of most schools’ lists of priorities. Then there’s the added factor that teaching music is absolutely NOT the same as being an artist. You can be terrific at teaching and be only a mediocre musician and vice versa. In order to teach, you have to LOVE teaching and be good at it. Merely loving music doesn’t cut it at all and indeed can be very very frustrating as we increasingly deal with top down mandates from the state, tons of bureaucracy, etc etc–that’s if you’re lucky to get a job. You can teach at privates, but with few exceptions, the pay is about the same as working at Starbucks. </p>
<p>You can teach privately, as in give lessons. Of course, that too is not sustainable for most (you can’t support a family on that and often you can’t live on that). The lessons can boost your income though if, say, you play in an orchestra. You can adjunct teach at a college but the pay is terrible, often about $1500/class/semester, which often works out to less than McDonalds. </p>
<p>Ultimately it’s up to you, of course, but I feel that too often, colleges don’t give clear info as to what options are realistic, and what other decisions mean.</p>
<p>Folks - get your Music Ed degree. If teaching jobs have dried up, trust me when I say performance gigs and fullt-time careers in music have been hit even harder. If you want to perform, go on and get your masters. Audition for the ensembles in college, they don’t care what your major is.</p>
<p>ALWAYS have a fall back plan in life, it will serve you well. Talk to your potential schools about reality vs. fantasy.</p>
<p>@Singersmom07, thanks for the info. USCarolina does indeed have music scholarships that lower you to in-state tuition or close to it, and hopefully he will get some others. However, even at in-state Florida is half the cost due to being a resident, Bright Futures, etc. so the goal is get down to as close to that as possible.</p>
<p>He is decent academically with a 28 on ACT, but he’s not in the Honors category. We are applying for some others, but it’s really a wait & see until March and April when it call comes in…</p>
<p>Hey I am currently in the search for good music schools. I am a junior in high school that plays trombone. I am looking for a school that will let me major in music performance but also let me take the premed requisite classes. I do not a double degree or a 5 year program. I already have some schools that I like and would really appreciate your input on if I could do my major and the pre med requisites at these schools. My favorite schools are Eastman/Rochester, oberlin, Indiana university Bloomington,nyu,Peabody/jhu, northwestern, and Vanderbilt. Also if u know any other great schools that u think I might like it would be very appreciated if u tell me. Thank you for any input!!</p>
<p>I assume you are in the very top of your class, with all A’s, lots of AP/Honors, and strong SAT scores…because you have certainly picked the top tier. You cannot go wrong with any of them, what matters is the type of environment you think you will do best in. For example, my son loves music but also wants the public university experience. Our short list includes Florida State and U of South Carolina.</p>
<p>Personally, I see a lot of advantages in music ed programs, even for someone who does not want to teach in public schools. It’s a more rounded curriculum for music. Music ed majors take courses in percussion, conducting, pediology, voice, piano, and either wind or string (or both) instruments. That in addition to applied music classes for their primary instrument, and the standard music theory/ear training/history sequence.</p>
<p>I know that if one ever wanted to be in a leadership position in music (such as a conductor, or college music teacher, or music director), there would be some advantage to having a music ed degree over a performance degree, even if the music ed degree is not required.</p>
<p>As far as not letting music ed be a backup, thats rediculous. I agree that one shouldn’t be a TEACHER if they don’t like teaching, but being a teacher is not neccesarally the only thing that a music ed major can do. It’s just an option. It’s an option that I don’t think should be ruled out, even if teaching is not one’s primary goal. </p>
<p>A musician getting a music ed degree is really no different than someone who’s goal is to become a CEO of a major company, getting a degree in accounting. </p>
<p>First, you don’t even have to have a goal of being a teacher to be a music ed student. Second, the education part of the curriculum is a wonderful background for many non musical jobs, and even grad school. Many professional musicians give private lessons for pay. You don’t think that having a music ed background is valuable for that?</p>
<p>In my son’s situation, he is fine with the idea of being a band director, he loves music, in high school he loved learning music and helping others and he loved the competitive aspects of marching band. Being a music teacher may be his his second/third/fourth choice in careers, but “alternate choice” DOES NOT mean “last choice undesirable backup that I don’t really want to do and would be horrible at”. </p>
<p>The reason he is majoring in music ed is because music ed doesn’t eleminate performance or conducting, or composing, but not getting a teacher certificate certainly eleminates teaching. Honestly, the only job that he can’t see himself doing is one that is not in the music field.</p>
<p>And just a personal observation, but in my son’s studio, several music ed students, including my son, are ranked by chair in concert bands, higher than several performance majors. Also, some colleges allow non-performance majors the same opportunities as performance majors in terms of private lessons with the best professors and the same exact performance opportunities. Some even offer non-performance majors the opportunity to earn some sort of distinction in performance which is more or less equivilent to having a performance degree. My music ed major son, who is also in his colleges “performance certificate” track is taking private lessons from Allen Vizzutti and James Ackley, in the trumpet world there are really no colleges, not even at the best conservatories, that offer a better team of trumpet instructors!</p>
<p>If one wants to be a performer, then all that really matters is that they learn to perform well, and it doesn’t neccesarally take a performance degree to do that. For those that develop that performance skill, regardless of what their major is, anything else that they get out of a college music program (conducting, teaching, etc) is a bonus.</p>
<p>imagep: Thanks you for some very good useful insightful observations. Too many students who love music and who don’t know what to do career-wise with it but who would make terrible teachers, end up choosing music ed and becoming terrible teachers. Hence, some overreact when they hear about students that aren’t certain they want to become music teachers. </p>
<p>Your response is a balanced and reasonable one–certainly many people who do not have music ed as their first or second or third career choice could make excellent school music teachers and certainly there is much to be learned in a music ed degree (like most degrees) that is transferable to a wide range of future careers.</p>
<p>There are very successful performers who were music ed majors. If you want to keep performing as an option, you do need to research the departments to make sure the music ed majors are not treated differently from the performance majors.</p>
<p>Really the best thing for someone who just wants to use their instrument/voice/musical abilities in some facet of their job but isn’t exactly sure how or isn’t convinced that they’re best-set for one thing or another would be to double major in performance and education. I realize it’s not possible everywhere, but CCM and a few other major schools allow it. That way you’re allowed all the performance opportunities of a performance major (assuming there’s any difference, just for the sake of the argument) and you can learn all the skills necessary to teach if you want, or as imagep pointed out, learn some all-around musical skills such as conducting and multi-instrumentalism (to a certain extent, that is) or even gain access to and time for the core curricular classes that music education majors take that would certainly help prepare you for graduate school in other subjects if you so choose. Interestingly enough, though, law schools love performance majors. It may take five years, but it certainly can’t hurt your education.</p>
<p>Thank you for the rational explanation of music ed. Can I ask what school your child attends?</p>
<p>@PianoMan12, very well said. I would just tag on to your comments by adding that some schools also offer a “Performance Certifiticate” which when combined with a Music Education major, places increased emphasis on performance and you get the best of both worlds without the increased coursework and costs associated with a double major.</p>