<p>I am a junior in high school and have been on the hunt for my number one college. Currently, I have a list of colleges I'm interested in, but I wish to (a) narrow down which is the BEST, and (b) find any colleges I may have missed.</p>
<p>I would like to double major in vocal performance and music education, or get a bachelor's in education and a master's in performance. I have all As, am ranked 8th in my class currently, and I have not yet taken the SAT yet but I scored 209 on the PSAT. Frankly, I am looking for the BEST university for vocal music, especially of the non-conservatory type. If it offered a great music ed education AND vocal performance (opera) that would be most ideal. I've always considered Oberlin my dream school, however my mom is very hesistant for me to go there becase of its very socially liberal culture (i.e. gender neutral bathrooms) and conservatories in general because they don't give the "college experience." Location, weather, and price (presently) aren't issues. </p>
<p>Currently my "list" is:
University of Michigan
Oberlin
LSU
TCU
UNT
OCU
FSU
Rice</p>
<p>Oberlin may not fit your requirements for other reasons. You can get a BM in performance there and/or a Masters degree in music ed, but they no longer grant undergrad degrees in music ed and the Masters degrees in performance are only in a couple of very specialized fields. There is a five year (including two full summers) program that gets you a BM in performance and a Masters in Teaching. Also, the undergrad voice program there is very much opera oriented, so it may not be the best choice for those who are not interested in singing opera.</p>
<p>Quite often the advice is to get your music ed degree in the state where you would like to teach because that simplifies getting your teaching license there. You may want to think about this if you go the music ed route.</p>
<p>As far as which is the best school is concerned, that is often a very personal matter with the match between student and teacher being a critical factor. What may be the best for one student may not be anywhere near the best for another.</p>
<p>Rice does not offer music ed either. More exploration on your list is needed if indeed you want music ed. Make sure you check to see if the music ed students get the same studio assignments as performance majors. Some performance professors are not interested in music ed students since like BassDad says, they focus on opera preparation. If you want to do both, you would need to find those schools that encourage both, not just tolerate them.</p>
<p>Can I ask what you’re looking for in the “college experience” category? Music majors, and even more so double majors, have pretty intensive schedules. My friend’s daughter was chatting about people at her school, and when she was talking about one particular kid, her comment was “but he’s a music ed major, so he has no life”. On the other hand, when you’re in a conservatory type environment, EVERYBODY has the same crazy schedule. Watching the sense of camaraderie that grows out of that environment is pretty amazing.</p>