<p>Hi, I'm a senior at Interlochen this year. I'm a violin major and I would love to make this my college focus, but I'd like a better idea of where the best VIOLIN programs are, not just the best MUSIC programs. My interests also include Jewish life, political science, and journalism (especially broadcast). I'd love to have a school where all these things are available.</p>
<p>I'm currently looking at BU, Vandy, and Rice. At the moment, there are only two schools I've written off completely -- USC and U of Michigan. Where else would you suggest I look for the best in violin instruction? Thanks!</p>
<p>Seriously look at Oberlin. Anton Miller (and others) are at Hartt(U/Hartford). IU/Jacobs is extremely strong, and there are some good options at Rutgers/Mason Gross.</p>
<p>I'm assuming you're not interested in the strict conservatory programs.</p>
<p>You're right, I'm definitely not. I'm too passionate about too many other things to throw all of them out the window! :)</p>
<p>I've heard Oberlin is VERY liberal, and I'm kind of a die-hard Republican. Would this make it hard for me to fit in there?</p>
<p>I'm interested in IU, but I don't know that I could get in. That's probably going to be my "reach" school. </p>
<p>I talked with a rep from Hartt at a college fair this year. She seemed awesome, and I got interested, but I heard so many negative things about the city of Hartford that I'm a little wary of applying. Do you know much about the city? I'll check some other places to find info on Hartford.</p>
<p>Thanks for suggesting Mason Gross. I'll check that out. The only thing I don't like about that is the HUGE size of the school, but that's not a major dealbreaker for me.</p>
<p>Search for Hartt using the search function on both this and the Music Theater forum. My son is an '07 Hartt grad, and I've posted numerous times on the campus (which is in West Hartford, a suburban, bedroom community, not Hartford proper). thumper1 and a few other posters have commented as well.</p>
<p>Like any city, Hartford has its less than perfect areas, and you have to be sensible in being aware of your surroundings in ANY college. Hartford proper has a vibrant music scene, both classical and otherwise, and is close to Springfield, Worcester and Boston. Boston is in a class by itself musically, rivalling NYC, but both Springfield and Worcester offer numerous venues for international classical performances. My son lived off campus, in a studio apartment his last year, as did many of his classmates. There were no issues. Being aware and being "smart" is the caveat.</p>
<p>For really first-class violin training, any of the studios at Rice, Bayla Keyes's studio at BU, Connie Heard at Vanderbilt, and Kevork Mardirossian at IU are all excellent choices. Northwestern is another obvious possibility, journalism and violin both being very strong there. I would not really recommend NYU, despite its journalism offerings and NYC location; the performance program is weak.</p>
<p>My son's girlfriend is going to Lawrence University for violin performance. It is located in Appleton, Wisconsin. It is small and located about 2 hours North of Milwaukee abou 3-3.5 from Chicago. Nice small community and the school has a great reputation -at least within the state.</p>
<p>S's violin teacher send one of his friends to the University of Akron where she is thrilled with the performance program. With your caveats about being liberal I don't even want to say "Purchase" or "Bard."</p>
<p>Someone else is doing well at U of Maryland in performance.</p>
<p>Make sure you have taken at least 2 SATII tests; you'll need them to be able to apply to Rice, and I think some other strong academic schools. My son's academically-oriented school had the kids take them as a matter of course. My daughter's music school did not. Many SATIIs are not offered every test time. You should look into this NOW if you still need to take them. My D was too late for Rice. Would be a shame if this happened to you or anyone else...</p>
<p>Rice is extremely hard to get into both for violin and for academics - you have to be very strong in both. IU has a lot of very good teacher and is much less difficult to get into academically. U. Maryland has James Stern who is supposed to be a wonderful teacher. It is medium hard academically and musically - perhaps a good safety? There are some good violin teachers at U. Wisconsin. Oberlin is terrific, but very liberal.</p>
<p>At Oberlin, the people who talk politics talk towards the left, but many students, especially musicians, have no interest in politics whatsoever, and that's just fine, too. </p>
<p>Recently, within the past l0 years, the Oberlin Republican club was revived on campus after a long hiatus.</p>
<p>Try reading through CC's Oberlin forum, and pose your question there on that thread.</p>
<p>As in my response to your other post, I can't specifically speak to strings, but Syracuse University has a nice music school. Because of your other interests, I suggest you at least take a (web) look. They have the Newhouse School, one of the top journalism/communication schools in the country. Poly Sci. is also a specialty. Jewish life is very strong there and there is a beautiful (at least on the outside, I haven't been in) new Hillel (hope I spelled that right) center. They have some great merit scholarships and the music school has it's own pot of money for some very nice scholarships (as long as one is not a soprano!). While not in music (he's an engineer), my son had a great experience there. One has to be accepted both by the music school and the regular admissions office.</p>
<p>Thanks, Operahorn, I'll get on the SAT II's right away! I have only taken the ACT, and I scored a 33 composite. </p>
<p>Stringfollies, I'm not <em>too</em> worried about my academics... I have gotten perfect As throughout high school with the exception of one B+ this past year. The problem is... my school assigns a 4.0 to an A grade and a 3.6 to an A- grade. Very annoying, as it's brought my GPA down a hair... currently a 3.96.</p>
<p>musmom2: thanks very much for suggesting Syracuse! Are the winters in upstate New York as bad as they are in Michigan? I really can't put up with that for another four or six years, lol. Too depressing! If only it was in Florida... if only. :P</p>
<p>fiddlefrog: you seem like the PERFECT person to talk to about this stuff. Do you mind if I PM you?</p>
<p>Can't lie about the weather in Syracuse! It's probably no worse than in Michigan, but, warm in winter it's not! However, I think it helps create a sense of community and shared adversity; and with a nice warm jacket, hat, gloves and boots everyone manages! The nice months are really great. My D auditioned and was accepted for Vocal Performance (although chose not to go there). The people we met in the Music School were extremely nice, but also very serious about what they do!</p>
<p>macaroni - academically you will be fine for any program you want to apply for. The audition will be what gets you in or keeps you out. Rice is very difficult to get into musically because they have so few spaces for undergrads. Good luck!</p>
<p>My s auditioned for K. Winkler's studio at Rice last year. There were 80-100 violinists (undergrad and grad) auditioning for about 4+ spaces with her. He didn't make the academic bar, but also perhaps wouldn't have made the musical one either. He was admitted to several top programs. Rice is as hard as it gets, but you should go for it if you like it because some do get accepted. If you aren't specifically going for Winkler, you could ask the admissions people which violin studio is less competitive (there are 4 altogether) and go for that one. One of the oddities at Rice is that you are forced to pick only one teacher there and you audition for only that teacher.</p>