all marks good except one really bad: what to do?

violindad
Sun, 27 Jun 2010 18:29:06 +0000

To add to kmccrindle’s suggestions of Canadian schools: the Glenn Gould School in Toronto has faculty that are as distinguished as those at many of the best US schools. While GG tuition is very expensive by Canadian standards (and dirt cheap by US standards), it has an automatic merit award to all accepted Canadian students (and possibly to others, as well) which makes it as cheap or cheaper than Canadian public universities.

Glenn Gould is definitely of the conservatory mold (i.e. like Juilliard and Curtis in its singleminded focus on music), whereas places like U of T, UBC, and McGill would be more like Northwestern, U of Mich, and Rice with strong non-music academics.

Of U of T, UBC, and McGill, McGill has by far the largest music school and generally has the best reputation (but, of course, “the best” will vary from instrument to instrument and from student to student: you may find a better teacher fit elsewhere etc.). McGill has some excellent piano pedagogues. It would be worth your while to try to set up a trip to Montreal to take sample lessons with a couple of the teachers that your teacher thinks would be good fits for you.

Don’t assume that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence! My son auditioned at 5 US schools and was admitted to all 5 with $22 000 to $42 000 merit aid per year at 4 of them (including Juilliard) and $12 000 at the 5th. His McGill application was a last minute decision at my prodding (about two days before applications were due: thank goodness for electronic submission and cheap couriers). Son took sample lessons at most schools including McGill, and he felt that teacher fit/quality was as good as or better at McGill. He ended up at McGill. There are excellent teachers (and less than excellent teachers) at many many schools including a few in Canada.

If you are serious about performance, your chances of doing a graduate degree are very high. Funding for grad students is usually considerably better, so if finances are an issue, you may want to delay US education until your master’s.