<p>Hello, I'm a future college freshmen who, as of right now, will be attending UT Austin to major in electrical engineering, However, I discovered throughout my senior year that my true passions lie in music. I was violist in the top orchestra of my high school, and I also helped my directors with leading the lower orchestras in sectionals. And I enjoyed every second of it. My desire is to become an orchestra director at a middle or high school, and continue doing what I loved.</p>
<p>After much long debate and discussion with my parents, they agreed to allow me to switch to music education, provided I find a suitable school in terms of how prestigious it is, and its pricing, and that the school is still within Texas.</p>
<p>I was wondering if anyone could provide me their opinion of what colleges in Texas have the best music education program for strings. I'm referring primarily to getting a Bachelor of Music Education with teaching certification. My goal is to become a teacher, not a high-level performer. While it is definitely a plus if a college has good faculty and programs for performance, my main emphasis is on music education, and specifically for string orchestra. My initial plan was to simply make an internal transfer, but I was wondering if I would be better off, both in education and financially, if I actually switched to a different college for music education. Does anyone think they could provide me with just a few suggestions of possible colleges?</p>
<p>I know kids at Tech and UTSA who are studying music education and are very satisfied. They were high stats kids who could have gone to any number of schools, but made their choices based on the programs and the merit aid. </p>
<p>I suspect an internal transfer is possible, but it may take awhile during which time you have to take general classes and get good grades. </p>
<p>I second Lizardly, regarding Tech’s merit aid. I’ve been very blessed with their merit aid, enough to be starting there this fall. You might also want to look at Rice’s music program, but of course it’s more costly & difficult to get in.</p>
<p>I’ve heard good things about Tech and its program and faculty, so I’ve been considering it strongly. My primary concern is whether Tech give merit aid to transfer students? And would they base it purely off of how well I do while in college before transferring? I did fairly well academically in high school (top 5% of class, SAT score over 2100), but I fear none of that would matter anymore. To put it bluntly, my family is fairly financially well-off, so I doubt I would get little if any need-based.</p>
<p>Still open to suggestions for other schools. If these questions could be answered for others as well, that’d be great!</p>
<p>Tech has VERY generous transfer scholarships based on merit. I received $9K over 2 years ($4500 per year). I would have received $13K, but they counted classes I took 10+ years ago. In either case, they are extremely generous with financial aid. If you have above a 3.2 GPA go for it!!! Anyways, it doesn’t hurt to try. </p>
<p>Forgot to add, my aid was a transfer scholarship, so there you go.</p>
<p>Tech is an amazing campus and school for music ed. In DFW, Baylor is a relatively good one, and UNT is considered to be very great as well. SFA down in East Texas produces good band directors, not sure about orchestra there. University of Houston and TCU are other good schools, TCU may be considered a bigger name. </p>