<p>My S is a freshman in the commercial composition/arranging program at Belmont. Belmont was actually his Plan C; Plan A was Berklee and Plan B was NYU. He also applied to the classical compsition program at Temple and was not accepted. He was accepted at Berklee but with no scholarship, and not accepted at NYU. He got a very nice merit scholarship at Belmont and a great financial aid package. We insisted that he apply to Belmont and he is very happy there (lives right down the hall from Legion54’s S, small world!) He is taking basic music courses this year; we will know more about the program next year when he starts composition classes. He had a band and has done a lot of composing, but really wanted to go to college. It has done wonders for his playing (guitar) and singing, and it’s obvious he is more confident in his musical knowledge now than he was. Next year he plans to move off campus and start a band (it is very hard for freshmen at Belmont to have bands because they have to live in the dorm and can’t get practrice rooms.) He is also making connections with students in the music business and prioduction programs, which will be great when he is ready to start trying to publish his music. </p>
<p>He has a few musical friends back home who are going the community college route. Two of them are vocalists. They did not think they were good enough to get into a 4-year commerical music program (vopice is the most competitive instument at all the schools.) They are also happy, our local CC has an excellent basic theory program and its graduates have gotten into Berklee and other good music schools. They are able to do a lot of local gigs and take private voice lessons, and also save a ton of money before going to the more expensive prestige school later. I think this is always a viable Plan B for any potential musician. </p>
<p>I’m keeping an eye on these threads because my D is now threatening to major in music production. She is only in ninth grade so I have 3 years to talk her out of it. ;-)</p>