<p>Hey guys, so I'm just entering my senior year in high school, and I'm looking into several colleges for vocal performance (opera) and possibly music education. Unfortunately, I'm having some issues getting good information off of colleges' official websites. It all just seems like advertising. Here's the list of schools I'm looking into (feel free to discuss others if you think it beneficial).</p>
<p>Boston Conservatory
Carnegie Mellon
Chapman
College-Conservatory of Music
Columbia
Cornish College
CSU Long Beach
Juilliard
Manhattan School of Music in New York, NY
The New School for Music - NYC
Northwestern
Oberlin
Univ of Pacific
Univ of Rochester-Eastman School
San Francisco Conservatory
Syracuse
Temple University
USC
Vanderbilt</p>
<p>I want good and bad reviews. I probably won't get to do many college tours, so anything helps. Thanks!</p>
<p>@DaughterOfIllien - there is a forum here specifically for music majors. There is a wealth of information there. I suggest posting your question on that forum. Good luck!</p>
<p>I’d add Indiana to that list.</p>
<p>Boston university!!!</p>
<p>I total agree, the college website are almost confusing to understand what programs they really offer at the school! Try emailing them!! I did and found all about boston! I’m looking into exactly what you are, vocal and education, but not opera, jazz. And I heard back from Boston and the person told me they only offer opera courses, take a look!</p>
<p>I would add hartt, SUNY Potsdam, and plymouth state (as a really good safety option). All have opera performance and music education programs. Plymouth is a hidden jewel in the New Hampshire mountains, but it is extremely affordable and has very good instructors who are invested in their students. They also boast a 100% grad school placement. Not sure where their grads are going…but that’s a question you could ask. For my d, she was not interested in music education and wanted a school closer to a city. Plymouth is far removed from the city, but the professors said that they regularly visit and compete in boston. SUNY Potsdam (Renee Flemings alma mater) is a ny state school which makes it also extremely affordable even to out of state applicants. It is also far removed from the city (at the audition they joked that many students fly into Canada and than drive to Potsdam). Hartt has a conservatory within a liberal arts college approach and also offers both opera and music education programs. This is where my d will be attending as a freshmen. She liked the location, the instructors and the quality of the students. Ultimately her decision was based on location, reputation and total cost of attendance.
Like you we did not “tour”. Any of the schools on the list. We are from Southern California and my d insisted that schools be on the east coast. We did a 12 day 10 school, 5 state audition marathon in late February. During this time, we “visited” each campus. This also happened to be during one of the giant storms last year which is why i use the term visit loosely.<br>
A couple of other schools that were on my d list that you may not have looked at include:
SUNY purchase
Otterbein
Baldwin wallace
Peabody
Don’t know their music education inclinations but again, something u can look into.
Good luck and best wishes.</p>
<p>SUNY Purchase does not have music ed but is a good school with faculty it shares with some bigger name NYC schools. Baldwin Wallace is a delightful school and a nice choice if you want a small LAC with a BM.</p>
<p>s</p>
<p>Are you looking at degree, major and/or program info? Curriculum and course descriptions? Music department? Faculty bios? Sometimes it helps to get into the nitty gritty of a website if it is at all possible, to get beyond the glitz :)</p>
<p>A number of the schools on your list don’t have education programs and there is a very wide spread in quality of the schools too. There are a few that I would suggest for graduate students but not for undergrads. Can you narrow things down a bit for us: location, size, type of school, career goals?</p>
<p>Maybe you could clarify about “possibly music ed?” As Mezzo’s Mama said, that requirement might limit some choices, but you have a long list at the moment that could use some cutting :)</p>
<p>And if you do (even “possibly”) want to study music ed, maybe go back to websites, then come back on here with a new list including only schools that do have music ed in addition to vocal performance. However, you may want to focus on vocal performance and do music ed in a grad program, just as a thought.</p>
<p>Look at course requirements for both majors at each school and see if that double major is doable. </p>
<p>Your 4th line in the list is “College-Conservatory of Music.” What is left out?</p>
<p>State schools usually have music ed, and BM programs, as do a number of others, of course. Oberlin, I believe, has a grad program for music ed, as does Columbia.</p>
<p>Do you want a conservatory or a college? For the most part it seems you want a conservatory. (Do you mean Columbia University?) Here is a link frequently posted for music applicants and their families, about different ways to study music:
<a href=“http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/conservatory/admissions/tips/doubledegree.htm”>http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/conservatory/admissions/tips/doubledegree.htm</a></p>
<p>Other possibilities for vocal: NEC, McGill, Westminster Choir. Don’t know if they have music education.</p>
<p>Is your interest in music ed a backup plan? for parents? or do you really want to teach children K-12? If it is not the latter please focus on vocal performance. If you really want to teach K-12, then the best advice is to go to a school in the state where you want to teach. That is where you will make the most connections. There are some schools where you can add an educaton masters degree to a performance major and finish in 5 years. Again, if we know where you want to teach we can provide better advice. </p>
<p>We may be able to let this one go, folks. The OP hasn’t returned to respond in over 3 weeks and her list is so
broad that it looks like it came off of the page of a Peterson’s Guide!</p>
<p>Sorry for the broad list, I don’t know much about colleges and the resources I have at my school know very little about the musical world. I also posted this list when I had done very little research. Also, I’m just kind of overwhelmed, and put everything that had been suggested to me on the list in the hopes that someone could tell me if I was wrong to be looking at any of them. I’m thinking I want to do undergrad in vocal performance and masters in education. I’m really sorry that I was vague, I’m just confused and not really getting a whole ton of help to narrow stuff down.</p>
<p>Conservatory is fine with me, but somewhat upsets my parents. I’m fine with going most places in the country, but my parents want me to stay west coast if I can (I live in California, in the Bay Area). </p>
<p>I love kids and teaching has always been on the list of things that I want to do, so I am serious about that. I understand the commitment required to be a teacher and the drawbacks of teaching as my parents are teachers. Teaching (at least good teaching) is passion driven and I wouldn’t do it just to please my parents. Frankly, I don’t think that they even want me to be a teacher.</p>
<p>Also, I know my list is long, and its only gotten longer since I posted this. I just keep finding more schools that people say would be good for me or that I find interesting, and I cant seem to find out enough to cut others off of the list. I’m sorry it took me so long to check this again. I thought it had gone dead and that no one would reply, so I stopped checking for a while. </p>
<p>@DaughterOfIllien - Here’s an excellent link I found today that you may find useful, which explains the different types of settings (conservatory, university, liberal arts college) at which you can pursue vocal performance, and includes comments from students that have gotten their degrees in each of these settings. Plus at the end there is a great resource regarding how to research teachers at schools and questions to ask alumni and/or current students.
<a href=“http://musicalexchange.carnegiehall.org/group/voice/forum/topics/undergraduate-and-graduate-degree-programs”>http://musicalexchange.carnegiehall.org/group/voice/forum/topics/undergraduate-and-graduate-degree-programs</a></p>
<p>All the colleges on your list in California are well worth considering, and visiting, and having sample lessons. Some might be better than others for music education (for instance, lots of music teachers come out of the UOP program and some of the other CSU’s not on your list, as well.) Do you have a private teacher right now? Are you in Southern or Northern California? Do you need a lot of financial aid? Do you have any idea how competitive you are vocally for admission to these programs? Some are very selective.</p>
<p>Thank you RKopera! </p>
<p>Mezzo’sMama, I’m not quite sure of career goals at the moment. While I would love to teach and I think that it might be the most responsible choice, I also keep holding onto the slightly childish hope that I could perform professionally. I’m thinking I want a smaller school, but I don’t know much about location, as I’ve visited very little of the country, and have not gone further east than New Mexico. </p>
<p>SpiritManager, I do have a private voice teacher. I have been taking lessons since I was in middle school, but I have been influenced (more like bombarded, haha) with technique (bel canto) for my entire life, as my mother is a choral conductor, teaches private voice, and vocal/music directs musical theatre.<br>
I live in Northern California (Bay Area). I do need lots of financial aid (both of my parents are teachers, and I have two younger sisters, so money is kind of tight on the college front). I think I’m pretty good, although I’m not very good at assessing my own talent. I’ve gotten into the CA regional and all state honor choirs (and gotten solos in pieces we performed there), have received awards from my school choir, and have played major leads in musicals at youth theatre companies in the bay area. I say this not to brag, but to try to answer your question, as you’ve never heard me sing. I know that many of the schools are incredibly competitive, but a few of them are of there not because I think I have a good chance of getting in, but because I think it would be a good idea to try, on the off chance that I do.</p>