Colleges for a Future Teacher

College Search & Lists
1

Hi all :slight_smile:

I am a rising senior from Illinois and I am a little confused as to which colleges I should be applying to (I know it’s kind of late to still be sorting this all out, but please hear me out).

For most of high school I have known I wanted to be a high school teacher, but I was never sure what subject I would want to teach, because my academic interests were constantly changing. This last year though I have especially fallen in love with music and will be taking AP Music Theory next year. If I can, I would really like to major in music education. I will be working very hard for he next few months with my voice teacher to prepare for auditions in the winter, but they stress me out a lot. If music education doesn’t work out, I would instead choose to teach something like German, which I also enjoy a lot. I don’t know if it would be possible to major in both Music Education and German, but if that is possible i would love to do both. (Note that I’m not planning on going into teaching as a backup plan, I do really want to be a teacher above all else.)

From what I’ve observed, high school teachers don’t really need to go to a prestigious universities. Academically, though, I would consider myself somewhat competitive (35 ACT, 3.9ish GPA, decent but not extraordinary ECs), so I don’t know if I should consider more elite schools or not. Musically, I would consider myself a decent musician, though not the best. My sight singing and keyboard skills are dismal (although hopefully I will have picked up enough sight singing skills in AP Music Theory by the time auditions roll around).

I would like to teach in Illinois, so I suppose attending college here would be wise, although I wouldn’t be competent opposed to going somewhere out of state. As for the environment of the campus, I’m also not opposed to anything as long as the school has what I need academically and musically. I’m not completely sure of the financial situation at the moment, so please disregard that for now.

Mostly what I need is advice on how I am supposed to balance a list of academic reaches and safeties along with musical reaches and safeties. Am I able to apply to a school and still get in for academics if I don’t pass the music audition? Should I apply to some schools strictly academically and others strictly musically? I just don’t really know how to approach this problem, since I have two very different skill sets in two very different disciplines. I’m not looking for names of specific schools as much as I am asking what I should be looking for as I develop my list. Sorry if that’s really vague, I just don’t really know how to go about this.

Sorry for the super long lost and thanks for any help.

2

Why wouldn’t music education work out if that is what you want? I can understand someone saying they want to do music education if Broadway does not work out for them but you have a very realistic and workable plan. If you want to teach at the high school level, look and see what your state requires for certification. Given what you have written, you have more passion for music ed than for German. Read about some of the programs in your state. Although you may not want Illinois State University, there are some nice descriptions of the program on the internet that show that they coordinate the music competency and education/teaching skills closely. They also have a lab school which provides students with a broad range of teaching experiences so they can find their niche: “Music education students take a combination of General Education, professional, and music courses. The final phase of the program involves the formal internship period known as student teaching. Upon graduation with a Bachelor of Music Education, students are certified to teach music in grades K-12 in Illinois. There are four sequences in music education, each with its own plan of study: choral-general-vocal, choral-general-keyboard, instrumental band, and instrumental orchestra.”

I’m not suggesting Ill State for you but reading their web site may help you understand the certification requirements better. I suspect that this program is fairly typical but housed at a university that is not highly competitive to gain admission to. Since you are mostly interested in education, rather than performing, the requirements for competency (audition) won’t be as rigorous as it would be if you wanted to study at a conservatory, for example. If you have your eye on one particular school system, I’d look to see if there is a predominant college that the teachers have graduated from (only because that might give you an edge in terms of bring hired)-Ill State is apparently the biggest contributor of music ed teachers to public schools there but there are tons of options.

I’ll leave it to others to suggest specific schools.

Apparently Illinois requires that you have completed a program that is approved by the Illinois State Board of Education but there are apparently different roads to your goal-google Ill requirements (here is a nice description of certification requirements (http://catalog.niu.edu/content.php?catoid=9&navoid=235 or http://www.isbe.net/rules/archive/pdfs/25ark.pdf)

3

You need a college with

  1. a German studies major

  2. a music major, preferably one that is open to all students

  3. at least an education studies minor (this will provide classroom experience)

and

  1. good pre-professional advising.

With these elements in place, all of your possible goals will remain open to you.

Feel free to apply to highly selective, out-of-state colleges should their atmospheres appeal to you.

4

@lostaccount when I say “if music education doesn’t work out” it’s mostly that the thought of an audition holding so much weight in admissions terrifies me and if I were to not make it into any music education programs, I would still want to be a teacher, but for German. Thank you for information, it was really helpful.

@merc81 thank you for the advice. When you say a program that is open to all students, do you mean one that doesn’t require auditions? I think it would be smart to apply to some non-audition programs as a musical safety.

Some other questions:

Am I allowed to apply to a school for music and not pass the audition but still be admitted to the school, just not for music?

And is there anywhere I can find a list of rankings for music education, so that I can see which schools are more competitive or easier to gain admission? I haven’t been able to find a clear list.

Lastly, I talk about German as more of a backup because there aren’t any German major auditions, but I would love to do both. Is a music education/German double major realistic or is music education too specific to double major in anything?

5

I am the parent of a music ed major in your state. This is some of what I have learned.

  1. Each state determines requirements for teacher education. A college/university program has to be approved. For Illinois a coll/univ may only be approved for certain subjects. It varies. The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) is the place to go to get info. It is not as user friendly as I think it should be. This is a short overview of teacher certification link: .http://www.isbe.net/licensure/requirements/ed-lic-guidelines.pdf.

Here is the link for approved schools and program (major). Scroll down. Look at pages IV-XI for the chart. You can print the chart out to see them better. http://www.isbe.net/profprep/PDFs/directory.pdf

  1. If you wanted you could get an additional endorsement for German. I am not sure what that takes.
  2. In Illinois the Music ed endorsement is k-12. And it is the same certification for vocal or general or instrumental. I think everybody takes the same basic music classes: aural skills, music theory, etc. Then they have their studio lessons for vocal/instrumental.
  3. During college visits we were told the student still needed to be accepted into the university regardless of talent. So if the student has a great music talent but not so good academics, they would not be accepted. There was also a supplemental music essay to write.
  4. Concerning AP Music Theory class. Because it would be your major, some schools may not give credit for it because the school wants to make sure everything was covered.
  5. If you know some coll/univ you are interested in, you can ask for a mini-lesson with the studio. It should be free. The challenge is being vocal. There are probably more than one vocal teachers at a school so you might have a lesson with one and get assigned to someone else if you enrolled there.
  6. I know you said money may not matter, but with a 35 ACT you may get a lot merit aid from some public and private Illinois schools. Of course with the Illinois budget issue, who knows....
  7. You can look at OOS, but check what their certification covers. If you want to teach in that state, no problem.
  8. I don't know how interested your family would be in going to your concerts. The further away from home the harder it is for family to attend.
  9. A side note. If you go to a Illinois school, the college/univ may state that for applying the student only needs the ACT without writing. While that may be true, the teacher certification side needs the ACT with writing to fulfil the basic skills test. If you don't have it, you have to take the BST.

Good Luck!

6

@MerryLee

Thank you so much for all of this information. It really is helpful. I appreciate that you were so thorough in providing insight.

I think I have enough information for now so no more replies are necessary unless someone really wants to share any information. Thanks :slight_smile: