<p>I have been accepted to Chapman Conservatory in voice with a large scholarship. I looked at their program and it seems wonderful. I had been set on Chapman for a good amount of time. I was also accepted to Eastman School of Music with a fairly large scholarship, but I kind of dismissed it because I live on the west coast and it is still expensive.</p>
<p>The deadline is May 1, but I suddenly had a slight change of heart after speaking with my voice teacher about decisions. Why am I not considering Eastman more? It's reputation is incredible, despite the distance and price. Even with a scholarship, it would still be $20,000 more than Chapman.</p>
<p>Chapman has no Grad students--only undergrads, but about 60 of them. Eastman has 60-70 undergrads and around 30 grads, but it's still renowned for the singers. Chapman's program is new, but has a lot of talent.</p>
<p>Any advice?</p>
<p>Eastman has many excellent voice teachers, and a very supportive environment for singers. They stress languages for voice, you will study a year of each language-French, German, Italian, plus a year of each diction class-English plus the other three. One of the Met winners this year is from Eastman. My D had the same choice as you two years ago (we are also from soCal) and she chose Eastman. She is happy as can be. She loves the talent and dedication of her fellow musicians. But realize that the focus on music is total and intense. If that is what you would like, you will love Eastman. Our observation of the Chapman students left us with the impression that some students are not particularly disciplined. That bothered my D, so the decision for her was easy. At Eastman, without discipline a student won’t survive. Still, there are some good voice teachers at Chapman, and plenty of talented singers. If the $ differential would result in debt, that’s a problem. Debt will hamper your career, most singers go on to grad school and pay to sings, that can cost plenty of $.</p>
<p>Did you audition in person at Eastman? If so, hopefully you got some kind of gut feeling about it. Good luck with your decision.</p>
<p>Just an observation on some recent Chapman grads. We know two male singers out of Chapman who are brilliant and professionally, they are doing very well indeed . Do your best not to incur debt, and if you see yourself fitting into Chapman and you know you will get a good teacher, do consider it to be an excellent option.</p>
<p>Save your debt for grad school with music … if you don’t have $20K to throw away, Chapman will be a great place to develop your voice and music skills.</p>
<p>I agree. For undergrad, you need to go to a place with a good education and less debt.</p>