guitarist's mom

Hi, first post. Thanks so much to all you great posters, what a great site for info as we begin the college search process. I am also happy to see that I am not the only parent who is involved in at least trying to narrow down the options. It would be pretty overwhelming if it were just my son trying to do it alone.

I've read many, many of the threads here and have definitely been able to help my son at least begin to narrow down the search (those Peabody articles were especially helpful as a starting place regarding the types of degrees).

A little background (bear with me): My son is unfortunate to have been born into a completely non-musical family, but very fortunate in that he has found his passion in life and knows he wants to pursue music as a career of some sort. He is a junior at a public high school. He is (apparently, according to all of his instructors, I wouldn't know!) very talented at guitar. He plays all styles, probably favors rock, but plays in his school's jazz band and percussion group, in a band he has formed, with several ensembles formed by his music school, and jams with an older blues group several times a month. But also he just really loves music and studying all the variations that come with that (music theory, composition, musicianship, etc).

He attended a Berklee one-week guitar session 2 summers ago and the 5-week performance program last summer, which was amazing and gave him some real insight into the study of music as a career.

He is a very good student, will likely finish top 7-8% of his class with all honors and at least 4 AP classes, SATs too soon to tell, but he will do very well on the English portion and okay on the math.

So as we begin the college search, he feels like he is in the position of trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life, at 17! He definitely DOES want to pursue a BM degree, but is concerned that that alone will not be enough to support himself in a job he loves (ie., aside from playing in bars and clubs for the rest of his life -- assuming he will not be "discovered" anytime soon because surely there are many amazingly talented guitarists out there). He thinks long term that he might like to open a music store offering lessons and equipment on a smaller scale than the large chain guitar store. He is not particularly interested in teaching for his whole life but is more inclined to pursue the small business aspect of the industry. At least this is what he is saying at 17.... (I am trying to tell him that things can change......)

Given all this, he is contemplating a dual major in business and music. Frankly, I do not think he has a head for business (his very strong subjects are English and French) so I do not think he would be happy taking business classes. But this is where his thinking is right now (today....). The first of many times we will disagree, I am sure! At the end of the day, however, he will choose a school much more for the music program than anything else.

So as he prepares to take his SATs and we are thinking about where to send scores, it has all of a sudden hit us that he needs to start narrowing down his options. Which is how I found this site!

Clearly Berklee is probably the best option for him. However, he is struggling with spending his college years in a city environment, especially one that is relatively close to home (he wants to explore a little). He is a country mouse by nature and loves the outdoors and the mountains - the only easy part of this search is that he probably wants to be somewhere cold. He has this idea in his head about a "campus" environment for 4 years. But he understands that to accomplish what you want, you need to be at the right place for your interests and strength of the music program, and that might (probably) mean the city if the program is right for him .... especially given the opportunites to play his music that a city environment will afford. But maybe another city? Or is he crazy to bypass Berklee?

So we are trying to look around and figure out what is right for him. I am concerned about the relatively low Berklee graduation rate (on the other hand, what good is the diploma if he isn't going to be able to do anything with it.... ??) I'm going crazy.

It's very difficult because so many of the colleges mentioned on this forum seem to be geared towards the classical musicians -- I see the word "conservatory" and I don't think of guitarists, even classical guitarists. But some of the schools mentioned (Oberlin, for eg.) seem to have such great music departments and he would love the challenge of the intensity of programs like this, or Eastman. Maybe he could also do a dual degree in places like this. But will he also have opportunities to play his music? (He has some piano experience, but not a lot, and although he is working on voice, he is most definitely not a natural.... but he is more than willing to put himself out there and give it a go).

Is he better off at a liberal arts school majoring in music? I'm thinking the really strong schools like Middlebury or Dartmouth, or the tier below like Ithaca. The concern is that the strength of the music departments will not be equivalent to the really intense music education he would get elsewhere. But some of the schools we've stumbled across on our search (Univ. of Colorado at Denver is a good example, not one discussion about that school on this board, that I could find) while seemingly strong in guitar performance and probably music education, don't seem to have a whole lot more going on (the mom in me STILL wants him to have somewhat of a well-rounded education...."he's so smart, he could do anything... "etc. -- do I need to let that go)?

There have been lots of great schools mentioned in this thread as well as in others about colleges connected to conservatories, colleges with great music teachers, but what about my guitarist (slash potential businessman?) Is a place like Oberlin right for him? Sorry this was so long-winded, I'll be shorter next time. I'd love to hear your thoughts. thanks!