<p>I’ll just add another thing…
I advised a student who applied to college for Music Composition. It wasn’t for musical theater (well none of these undergrad composition programs are specific to MT!) but she was definitely into contemporary music…such as indie music. She had to have a portfolio of compositions for some schools. She had recorded a CD of her original songs as well. </p>
<p>You refer to “Ivies” in your post. If you are of Ivy caliber academically, have you looked into music composition at Oberlin, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, or Rice? My students is now at Rice’s Shepherd School of Music and in Music Composition. Example for you: Sarah Lawrence.</p>
<p>But BFA/BM in MT degrees or BM in Composition degrees are heavy duty admissions/audition/portfolio processes and not something you can start prepping for late in the game. In fact, trying for some of each is double the work as you’d be preparing compositions/portfolios and singing/acting auditions.</p>
<p>If you have no portfolio of compositions, you need to seek some BA Music programs or programs that have no such requirements to be admitted.</p>