<p>I think violindad is right on. A couple more thoughts:</p>
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<li> In my experience, the advantage of more “personalized attention” that you get at a smaller school seems to be an apparent benefit more than a real one. In most schools, unless the size of the individual studio is extremely large, it seems that people get the attention that they need. While a singer or instrumentalist may find that they stand out more, the performance opportunities that they’d receive at the small school (perhaps more chances for solo performance, particularly with ensembles) aren’t terribly more than top programs, which tend to build these experiences into performance curricula. A possible exception for this is opera, but while schools with no chance for undergraduates in roles could be a problem, I’ve heard operatic directors complain about undergraduate performances where there isn’t really a deep enough pool of different voices to draw from, and thus singers are stuck in roles not well-suited to their voices, and stretch them needlessly and ineffectively. Another situation I’ve seen in small schools (in my case with instrumentalists, but it seems it would be as much or more of a problem with singers) is that particularly talented individuals are called upon to be a member of too many ensembles (to try to stack each with as much ability as possible) and find themselves without time or energy to put the time in to better their own skills outside of ensembles.</li>
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<p>The other side to that coin, I hear, are extremely large schools (UNT and Indiana are the ones that come to mind) that just have so many students that if one fails to perform, they might fall right through the cracks. I think this happens to students that might thrive if pushed by a small school, but, again, if the performer needs that much outside motivation, they might have been destined to become one of the many students at lesser-known schools who shine in the small pond but find themselves totally lost in a performing environment that doesn’t care that they won the concerto competition at East Left-Armpit State.</p>
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<li> One thing that I’ve seen in the world of brass playing and heard others comment upon, but suspect might be true for other musicians, is that, while a fair number of successful performers do their undergrads at relative unknowns for music, nearly everyone eventually spends at least some time at a more prestigious institution. It’s rare to see someone that doesn’t follow up a BM from a small school with a master’s or certificate from a nationally-known school winning big auditions. It happens, but as violindad mentioned, the ensemble skills need to be there, and while much of the function of an undergraduate institution for an instrumentalist is simply a place to put in the necessary hours of practice, it seems that people need to spend some time performing with other players at their advanced level before they can really get a career going.</li>
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