suzukimom

Right now we are preparing for fall and winter trips to college organ programs. My dd will be a junior in high school, and her piano and organ teachers are giving us lists of schools to visit. (Both teachers have a good success rate getting their students into top programs, thankfully).

However, perhaps due to this, both teachers have given us lists of schools that are NOT safety schools. Right now I need a few safety schools to visit so we can find an affordable organ program that dd can know she likely will be admitted to and that we can afford should scholarship money dry up.

As well, dd wants to attend at the largest a medium size city, so places in Boston, Baltimore, NY and Philadelphia are off our list. She wants a conservatory program with as little general education requirements outside of music as she can get. (Our local state university, for example, requires 50 general ed. credits outside of music, so dd really isn't interested in the program. In contrast, a place like UW Madison's music program requires something like 15 general ed credits.)

Help?? Organ safeties anyone???

CLRN8MOM

Hi Suzukimom, I noticed you are on the master list of acceptances for Organ at Duquesne. This must be another child? Anyway, sorry I have no knowledge of organ, but one way I am attempting to generate a list of safeties is to contact places with grad schools and to find out where their grad students are coming from. It has been helpful.

stradmom

No idea if it's a safety, but we know a fine musician who majored in organ performance at Syracuse some time ago.

fiddlefrog

I'm no expert on the organ world, but schools a close friend applied to when in need of great financial assistance (and lacking the means to take many auditions, so he focused primarily on safety-type applications) were Hope College and East Carolina University. Of course, ECU just lost its entire organ department to Indiana, so perhaps that's off the list.
Safety programs with minimal academic requirements are tough to come by.
Two young programs with less than elite admissions are Shenandoah Conservatory and the Sunderman Conservatory at Gettysburg. No idea of the academic components of either, nor the organ situation, but perhaps they merit a look.

BassDad

Not knowing her level of playing, "safety" is somewhat hard to judge. Have a look at Susquehanna University. They accept a pretty wide range of students to their BM program, from some who would be competitive at top conservatories to others who are not quite so talented, but nonetheless have a love for music and are willing to work hard. They do have an extensive core curriculum, but it appears that over half of the distribution requirements can be filled by taking specific music classes - see Susquehanna University - Academics: Central Curriculum Courses for the complete list of requirements and courses that can be taken to fill them.

Although it is not a safety unless she is a phenomenal organist already, I assume that Oberlin is on her list. It sounds like exactly what she is looking for. They have a great organ department, the town is very small (but there are many activities at the school to make up for it, e.g. about 500 concerts and recitals during the eight months school is in session), and the requirements outside of music are fairly minimal and very flexible. She will have to take one course per semester from Oberlin College. One of those has to be a freshman writing course, but she can be exempted from that requirement with a decent SAT or ACT score. The rest of the courses can be pretty much anything she chooses, including courses that are partially or entirely about music, so long as they are offered through the College or the Experimental College (ExCo) rather than the Conservatory, there is room in the class and she has taken the prerequisites. Check out the website at Friday Night Organ Pump and the article at Oberlin Alumni Magazine :: Winter 2005-06 to get a feel for the organ department there.

sopranomom92

Is Westminster Choir College in Princeton on your list? I don't know if it's a safety for organ, but it's a strong program. They have at least four organ professors, so the program is fairly large. It's definitely a conservatory style program with few general ed requirements.

violadad

One of the best set-up lines ever presented, yet decorum and TOS prevent exploitation.

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