-Allmusic-

Jazzzmomm, you know my son is all off and happily ensconsed in his school! It is so funny to read all my questions and ruminations of years ago. But your advice is very good for Nocozo, so I hope she/he reads it!

violadad

If he's seriously interested in music ed and not performance, take a good long hard look at your state flagship and your other instate publics. These are often the most cost effective choices for music ed. He does however have to mesh with the instructor. If he is more performance focused, you might want to reconsider choices, looking beyond a lot of state programs. Some are excellent, but many are not hotbeds of performance.

Any of the schools listed will be very good for music ed, and Oberlin has a five year double perf/ed five year program, and a performance/MMEd option as well.

For music ed, look at Ball State, Duquesne, U/Neb Lincoln as well. I can't speak to the specific brass faculty.

jazzzmomm

I am sorry-I don't know what happened--it's like my computer hit a time warp. I was reading something old and Allmusic was talking about a junior son, and I figured you had another son. Obviously, I was reading the beginning of the thread which was so long ago-- I cannot explain the lack of attention. I apologize!

socomom

Mommab--What instrument does your son play?

musicmom26

Hi, everyone. I'm new to post, and my daughter is also a music performance major. We have applied to eight schools, but there are a couple of safeties like Columbus State whose faculty has a couple of Julliard-trained professors and are very interested in her. Their music school is in a totally different location from main campus with an all Steinway and state of the art facilities and great dorms right across street from School of Music. She's already been accepted into the school, but has an audition coming up this month. She contacted one of the professors to see if she could maybe come before audition, and they were thrilled for her to come. Immediately sent her dates and times. I have found that several of the smaller schools will do this, and it shows that your student is serious about their craft.
But she's also applied to Florida State, Vanderbilt, and University of Minnesota and Belmont.
Does anybody know anything University of Memphis or Florida Southern's music programs? They've also been hounding her. This is a very stressful procedure

henrob

My daughter is a sophomore at CSU in Ga. My son finished Belmont four years ago, and was accepted at Vanderbilt when going thru the application process. So I have some experience with some of the schools that you show interest. Sorry I don't know about U of Memphis or Florida Southern.

D is a vocal major and theatre education major at CSU. She is extremely pleased with the school and her fellow students. The downtown campus is wonderful and the facilities are fantastic. If you are GA residents, the cost is very reasonable. And I am told that some out of state students are allowed to receive in state benefits as incentives.

My son went to Belmont because of its commercial music program. He studied classical violin, but in addition wanted the training in jazz and other non-classical areas. He got good training for that. But overall I am not nearly impressed with the classical program at Belmont as I am with CSU.

What is your daughter's instrument? I can be more specific with what I know of those two schools.

musicmom26

She's voice. She's been in chorus since middle school and has been in District Honor Chorus every year, All State, Spivey Hall (your chorus teacher chooses four students), has one numerous talent shows, an AMTC scholarship, major parts in school plays, etc. She is a mezzo-soprano and can sing classical very well, but I think she's leaning toward commercial music. She was going to try out for American Idol and decided against it because she wants to get her degree first and study abroad to figure out what type music she wants to do.
But we were very impressed with Columbus State's facilities and the caliber of music faculty. It's almost like getting a Julliard education at a public school price. And we are in Georgia, so she'd only be a couple of hours away from home.
Thank you so much for replying. Seems like most of the posts were related to the Julliard and that caliber schools. Those are definitely "reach" schools for her because of her grades. She's a high B, so she would qualify for GA's HOPE scholarship, and she's more comfortable at a small to medium size campus which is why I think Belmont appealed to her and Nashville with all of its music environment.
How many schools did your kids apply to? It seems like every day we find out about another "good" school, but I think we're going to stop at eight. Her last two are Rice and U of Miami, which are both great schools if she can get in, but Columbus I can see her being the big fish little pond scenario because the school is smaller.
What did you think or know about Vanderbilt's or Florida State's music programs?

violindad

musicmom26:

Rice is very selective academically. Music students there will take many of Rice's rigorous academic courses. If you have excluded Juilliard for academic reasons, then Rice would probably be a tough admit. I believe that it is fair to say that Rice will place more emphasis on music applicants' academics than Juilliard would.

Juilliard will place most of the admissions emphasis on the quality of the audition. To get into Rice's Shepherd School of Music, one also needs an excellent audition. If a student is an excellent musician and meets an academic threshhold, then their chances of admission are good.

cartera45

Musicmom, when your D takes sample lessons, encourage her not to be too swayed by where a teacher went to school. Attending a particular school, no matter how well known the school, has very correlation with being a good teacher and even less to do with being a good fit for an individual student.

I'm also curious - how do these schools target students?

musicmom26

My D went on Princeton Review and FastWeb, College Board, and GACollege411 and put in her profile, and the schools that she was a good match with have been sending brochures, letters, fee waivers, invitation for overnight visits, special days for prospective students, countless e-mails from admission counselors, etc.

Her chorus teacher's alma mater is Florida State, and she's been to their chorus camp for the past three years, so she likes a couple of the professors there. But she also likes Belmont, but the last couple of days we have been checking out U of Miami. She's already been admitted to Columbus State, and her audition is on the 21st. That is her safety school. After what violindad posted, I went back and looked at Rice. I think that would be a high reach for her, and I don't think she wants to go that far from home. Florida is only four and half hours from us as well as Belmont and Vanderbilt, which may be a high reach also, but she's already applied.

Should she set up sample lessons at all the schools she's applied to before audition (if there's time) or just the ones she's really serious about?

henrob

I sent you a private message.

KeyofH

musicmom26 -- UNiversity of Miami (Florida) is not as difficult to get into as Rice, but it is selective and posted a 4.0 GPA average for freshman last year when my daughter was applying. The school is very expensive but offers significant scholarships to music students. Frost has undergone some turmoil, but is definitely worth looking into. I'm a great proponent of practice lessons as a way of identifying the right teacher, identifying the wrong teacher, as a way of learning more about the department, and as a general marketing tool. Vanderbilt is also very selective academically and musically. I don't have any experience there however. Have you given some thought to the University of Florida in Gainsville? It has fairly high academic standards, but it also seemed to have a very nice program. The campus is beautiful. As I think other people have said on this thread, regardless of the academic standards at the school, the audition is the major factor for acceptance into the music school; however academics frequently play into the generosity of the scholarship offered.