Nicholas

Hi guys

Next year I'm planning on doing the last year of my course in the US, spending either all of that time at Berkeley or a semester at Haverford and Pennsylvania. At first glance Berkeley seemed the best for me, given its strength in German and Classics. But apparently it's more a place for postgraduates? is that really the case?
I'd be interested in hearing your opinions on which combination would offer the best experience, mostly in terms of academics, ie interaction with professors, motivation of students etc. I'd also like to hear about the culture and lifestyle there as that's not so easy to find out on websites.
Lastly I'd like to know how piano study works in the US-is the focus more on theory than performance? My gf studies piano, and also wants to come to the states. Has anyone studied piano performance at these schools? Or is piano performance not taught at universities?

Cheers

anonamous

are you by any chance from australia?

BerkeleySenior

When you study music in the US you take theory classes and you specialize in a certain instrument. Piano is focused on theory and performance. You have to give recitals and take performance classes. Most of these people have already had years of prior training.

As for the schools you listed, I'd choose Berkeley OR Penn. I'm not too familiar with the Penn environment, but it is a good school. Berkeley students are very motivated and depending on your major, very competitive. In general class sizes are a bit large but for Classics they will probably be quite small. I don't think competition will be too tough in German or Classics since the courses are not curved. I have no idea what Haverford is...

Nicholas

Yeah I'm living in Melbourne. Was it the "cheers" that gave it away?

Thanks for the advice so far, it's a tough decision to make.

anonamous

I assume you are from University of Melbourne, because this is the only university that I know of in Melbourne that has all those universities as exchange partner.
Anyway, I am from University of Melbourne too, and I am about to go on exchange to the US this coming semester (Fall 08) to Berkeley. I think the main difference between berkeley and penn are big vs small, and state vs ivy. I too was considering Berkeley, Penn, Carnegie Mellon and Haverford. I ended up applying to Berkeley as my 1st choice because I wanted the "typical" american college experience, and Berkeley is also big on sports, so it seems like the right choice to me.
Penn seems to generally have smaller classes, and is ivy league. However, I believe that exchange to Penn is only limited to one semester whereas at Berkeley or Haverford you could go for a year. However, if you only want to go for a semester anyway then this does not apply to you.