<p>Hey everyone, I know this might not be a music specific question but music plays into my overall situation here so I decided to put it in this section. I'm a bit confused as to what I should do with my college career coming up. I'm planning on majoring in music technology. For a while now my main goal was to get into the SUNY Fredonia program on guitar since that's my primary instrument, but I've been getting very serious about percussion as of late. I love guitar but it's more of either a solo outlet or small band type instrument for me whereas I absolutely love playing percussion in large ensembles. (Just made to regional Band on percussion tonight woopwoop).</p>
<p>Anyways, my question is would it be a smarter idea to not jump into a 4-year music program at a university if I'd rather major in music on percussion? I could go to community college and hone my skills as a percussionist, spend some of the money that I save on a summer camp and/or lessons and get general education out of the way with a hopefully better GPA than I have in High School (3.0 not bad but its meh, SAT score 1730).</p>
<p>It probably sounds like a simple decision on paper but if I do go to community college I feel like all the work I've put in to guitar lessons and practicing for SATs, etc. would be for nothing. I'm also worried it might be hard to transfer and whatnot and I'm not sure how life at a community college might compare to University.</p>
<p>As a final note, the main factor that plays into my situation is money as SUNY is an out of state for me so I'd be hoping for a scholarship. If anybody could give me an idea of some good but cheaper Pennsylvania schools for music, I'd greatly appreciate it. Deadlines and college itself is approaching fast and I'd like some advice. Thank you all.</p>
<p>[Boyer</a> College of Music and Dance | Temple University](<a href=“Temple University | Boyer College of Music and Dance”>Temple University | Boyer College of Music and Dance) main page for Temple’s Boyer School of Music</p>
<p>[Tuition</a> rate schedule 2012-2013](<a href=“http://www.temple.edu/bursar/about/tuitionrates.htm]Tuition”>Tuition and Fees | Bursar's Office) note in-state costsl, see also the financial aid page</p>
<p>[Boyer</a> College of Music and Dance | Temple University](<a href=“Temple University | Boyer College of Music and Dance”>Temple University | Boyer College of Music and Dance)
info on music tech. program which is supplemental, not a degree in itself</p>
<p>Community college is a great way to get some distribution requirements done, but if you do too many, you will be a transfer student at your next school, which may mean less financial aid, if that is relevant for you. If you do do classes at community college, you could study percussion privately, as you said, but it might be an issue finding a suitable band, ensemble, or orchestra to play with-? Is there a conservatory or music school nearby where you could take classes and participate in performances?</p>
<p>Even though SUNY Fredonia (other SUNYs included and private colleges) will probably accept most if not all of your transfer credits for the general eds and music courses from the community college, you will probably end up spending at least an extra semester or 2 to complete the bachelors degree. They may require you to test for placement in theory/aural skills and you may end up taking a Music Lit course over again because they don’t cover the same material. Also, for music ed majors, you need to squeeze in all the tech instrument courses into 3 semesters before student teaching so it’s not always possible. When weighing the costs of community college vs the 4yr school be sure to calculate an extra semester or two into your cost benefit analysis.</p>
<p>Thank you for the help. I didn’t even think about factoring in the extra semester or two for needed classes. I’m thinking I’ll see how my audition and interview go for Fredonia and decide from there whether I’d rather go to community college or not. I also got a 5,000 a year scholarship for Fredonia already and my FAFSA EFC is looking like I’m going to get a pretty good sum of financial aid money. I guess I’ll see when the time comes.</p>
<p>Fredonia might also offer you a music scholarship on top of the academic one. You could take percussion lessons while you are at Fred for Guitar. So you could audition for the studio teacher once you are there or just take private lessons. Good luck!</p>