A student from Vassar is now in Dawn Upshaw’s Vocal Arts Program at Bard so Vassar must have provided the opportunities he needed to excel. Not sure I’d call Vassar a safety, though! I actually might suggest Bard College for undergrad, Voice is through the college’s very strong music department, not the conservatory. However, Bard is probably not near enough to a big city for your daughter.
As for the double degree schools on her list, do know that Rice is not known to be generally supportive of double degrees. No idea about Boston…
To look for safeties, look for schools she’d like to attend which either have strong music departments, or are in areas with great resources where she could supplement her musical education on her own.
@musicmusica I’m looking for both non-audition options and less competitive audition (is there even such a thing?) options. Right now her list is too top-heavy: She has Tufts/NEC, Northwestern, Rice, Vanderbilt, and Boston U on her list but she could easily not make it into any of those. (We have to be realistic, right?) Are there any that are “easier” (don’t like that word, but you know what I mean) that are in a city? Or, if she doesn’t get into a VP program, I’m wondering what liberal arts schools would have a relatively strong vocal music major. I’ll look at Vassar and Bard, but the city location is important to her. We eliminated Emory earlier as there are very few vocal major students. Thanks for taking time to respond, too, @SpiritManager.
Thanks, @musicamusica, I checked out the consortium. While the colleges share performance groups, only Scripps seems to have a music major. We’ll keep it in mind. Oh well, it’s a process…
@momzhood - one can major in music at any of the five Claremont Colleges. The major is not specific to one college. I’ve known music majors at Pomona, Pitzer, and Claremont McKenna. My older son went to CMC and took music lessons through Pomona, which does have a department of music - which is open to students in all 5C’s. http://www.pomona.edu/academics/departments/music/
And here’s the Pomona faculty list, which includes members of the LA Phil: http://www.pomona.edu/academics/departments/music/people/faculty/
And then there is the Joint Music Program for CMC, Harvey Mudd, Scripps & Pitzer: http://www.jointmusicprogram.org
Okay, @SpiritManager and @musicamusica, thank you for your input. After discussion with DD and GC this week, we’re focusing her “secondary” list on liberal arts colleges in a city, with a music major and vocal opportunities.
@momzhood don’t know if you’re still looking for these types of schools, but if you are, you might want to check out Sarah Lawrence. I’ve heard really great things about their voice programs, and it’s literally just outside New York City. Judging from your daughter’s scores, it could probably be considered and academic safety as well (but still a very good school).
How is SUNY Stony Brook for undergrad, particularly for flute? I’d love to work with Carol Wincenc but it’s a little nerve wracking to go into a school without a differentiation betweeen Music Ed and Music Performance
Stonybrook uses Wincenc’s assistant as a teacher for undergrads. If you are NY state and have great stats your financial package will pretty much cover all your costs though. If you are willing to step out of state, please PM me and I can offer some insights…
“if you’re interested in looking out of the country… U of Toronto and McGill University both have good music programs”
I would say “excellent music programs”. However, you also have to be academically VERY strong for either university. Some of the music facilities at McGill are amazing, as is the music library (we toured the school of music there a few years back).
There are a number of other universities in Canada with very strong music programs. Big ones include UBC and Waterloo. A small “primarily undergraduate” university in Canada with a very strong music program is Acadia in Nova Scotia. Generally you need to be academically strong for any of these.
The Berklee College of Music in Boston is a very strong music program that is not as academically challenging as any of the programs in Canada.
I am a high school senior in Japan and particularly interested in music history, theory, and business. I belong to one of the most competitive private high schools in Japan and my GPA is around 3.7. While I have never had any SAT, my estimated score is 1400-1500. I have over ten years experiences of playing piano but no training as a professional musician. As a result, conservatories are not in my consideration. I am thinking of Oberlin, NYU, and Miami as my “first choice”. My knowledge about schools is scarce and I would really appreciate it if you can provide me with more schools I can apply to.
@japanesemusic Why schools in the USA? Can your folks afford on the order of $250,000 or slightly more for four years here? There are some very good universities with very good music programs in other countries which would be more affordable, although personally I only know about schools in the US and Canada.
Thank you for your replying. Financially, there would not be so many problems for me. First, many institutions are funding students who are studying in the U.S. and Canada. There are no more than 200 studying-abroad students and the competition for the scholarship is not so harsh. In addition to this, companies pay incredibly high salaries for people who have studied in America. Furthermore, for my family, $250,000 is still affordable because I am the only child of my parents. To sum up, going to the U.S. is very attractive for me.
What kind of campus are you interested in? NYU is a huge university in a very urban and Oberlin is a small liberal arts college in a rural area in the midwest. The three you mention are all very different.
Hi, My son is a jazz sax player (dime a dozen I know), primarily tenor, looking at a wide range of schools at this point. He saw and really liked Ithaca; did the Berklee five-week and loved it but would like to have a campus experience. Not interested in NYC at this point. Possible: Oberlin, Eastman, Northwestern – all possible but stretches – will look at Temple as well. He’d like to stay north (hates the heat, loves snow). Where else would you recommend? Does Bard have Jazz? Other thoughts? GPA is 3.7, boards not exceptional. He’s a junior this year. We’re from NJ.
@drummergirl and @akapiratequeen - Bard’s jazz program is not part of the conservatory - it’s in the College’s music program, and it’s a four year BA degree.
So you have Ithaca, Oberlin, Eastman, Northwestern, Temple, Hartt, for BM and Bard for BA. These are all relatively north geographically. Is he going to cut the list down? This seems like a pretty good list to me. SUNY Purchase and other SUNY’s might be affordable relatively speaking.