Not him. Amir Eldan.
Aaron is at SF conservatory.
Bienen, Peabody, and Michigan SMTD all support dual degree. The “vibes” felt different though. It’s personal and must be experienced by the applicants themselves.
Thanks for all the insights. I was looking at some other schools that are maybe not the strongest musically but still have a decent program, such as Emory, WashU, Vanderbilt… any comments on those?
My understanding is also that the orchestras at Ivys such as Harvard and Yale - if I could get in - are quite high level, and students get to take private lessons. So I guess for me (someone who’s not likely to do pure music as a profession) would either of these two be a better choice?
As of now Michigan, Rice, Indiana and Oberlin are at the top of my list - I have friends who are or know double majors at all these schools and they seem to be enjoying that life. But I also know a lot of people who are happier with the options I mentioned at the beginning of this message.
P.S. Apologies if this is deviating from the Northwestern topic, I’ll start a new thread if necessary!
Rice double major is apparently not an option.
Vanderbilt is a tiny program. Absolutely you can double major there. I also think they draw heavily on kids they know.
My musical child and I visited Vanderbilt (Blair School of Music). Pretty good faculty, honestly, but the music building is old and dumpy and too far away from most of the rest of the campus, IMHO, for a comfortable double major. However, maybe there are school buses or something dual majors can take. After we visited, we crossed it off so did not investigate logistics of a double major.
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Sadly no buses. We felt the same about the campus. It takes about 20 minutes to walk fast to get from music to regular class. Plus the dorms were over a very busy public street over a bridge. And the construction was everywhere - garages, hospitals.
Nashville is a great city though.
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One school I think that hasn’t been mentioned here but that has a GREAT cello teacher is The Cincinnati Conservatory, part of University of Cincinnati. The teacher’s name is Alan Rafferty. Besides being a wonderful teacher from the technical and musical point of view, he also seems like a wonderful person. And I do believe you can double major there.
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100% agree about Alan.
Cincinnati was a hard sell for mine though sadly 
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Dual degree at Rice feels more in theory than real. Shepherd students can get an additional major (outside Shepherd) with some work but to fulfill another degree requirements is much harder than in some other universities (Northwester, JHU, U Mich, etc.). Rice has an orchestra for non-shepherd students, Rice campanile orchestra, and they sound quite good. If your academic stats is on par, adding a supplement won’t hurt. Stanford also has decent orchestra.
Update on Northwestern (talked to a member of my son’s group who studied under Jannsen), he said there were some dual degrees in the studio, including a few who did engineering and comp sci and the like. He said it is possible, but that the kids who did this were really driven both in music and in the other area, that Jannsen will expect that music always stays at the top of what the kid is doing (the kid must have been intense, he said he worked for Google after graduation and also got a masters from Juilliard while working there, I dont know how he arranged that one…
A lot of the elite schools (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc) are big on music even if they don’t have performance. They are proud of their orchestras (and they are quite good, often filled with kids who have gone to elite hs prep programs), and they will pay for kids to study with a teacher. Lot of kids do that , make ma and pa happy, then go to Juilliard et al for grad school in music. The downside is if you are thinking of going into music it isn’t obviously the musical intensity it would be at a music school, you may not have the same experience with chamber, you won’t have the theory and solfege, which could affect grad school admission, but it is a valid route, it really depends on the student, what drives them.
Rice basically doesn’t really allow dual degree for Shepherd students, if they do it is really difficult to do. Knowing a bit about the school (my S went there in grad school), and the way the program is run they kind of have the attitude that music has to come first, the Shepherd Orchestra alone is an intense experience.
A quibble: Princeton has a minor in music performance.
how’s the music minor or non-music major situation at northwestern? e.g. playing in orchestras, taking occasional private lesson?
My experience is old, but generally nonmajors can only play in the nonmajor orchestra – it’s decent but not amazing. Lessons would likely be with a grad student or adjunct faculty. There isn’t a music performance minor that I am aware of, but you can do a music studies minor. There are a bunch of general music courses you can take, mostly musicology and theory type classes.
There is an orchestra for non-Bienen students. it’s called “philharmonia”. There should be some of their videos online.
non-Bienen students can take lessons from Bienen professors; however, it depends on the studio and professor. Your best answer should come directly from the professor himself.
From what I heard, non-Bienen students have access to some practice rooms but the access is very limited. I don’t think they have instrument lockers like the Bienen students do.
My son didn’t get into Bienen but plays viola in Philharmonia and really enjoys it. Last year it was split into two ensembles; this year it’s back to one but they split larger instrument sections to play only on certain pieces. My son loves the grad student director.
Their winter quarter concert is Sunday 3/9 at 3pm; I think you can watch them on the Pick-Staiger live stream.
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I saw this news, remembered this thread, and thought it worth sharing.
"Congratulations to undergraduate cello student Noam Ginsparg, who has advanced to the semifinals of the 40th Klein Competition
Noam is one of nine semifinalists selected from 130 entrants to compete in the Irving M. Klein International String Competition from June 7-8. He is in the dual degree program, studying cello with Hans Jørgen Jensen and computer science in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. "
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