How does admission work for prospective music major?

kmcmom13
Mon, 30 Jan 2012 07:18:00 +0000

Mdndad, University of Michigan’s school of music has a jazz bfa program plus the ability to dual degree in many top rated disciplines – but it will likely take 5 years even with APs to transfer (must be 5s to transfer). The school of music is fairly large with numerous playing opportunities and a very active music scene. Students interested in a dual degree apply to both the music school and LSA or Engineering school, and can be accepted at both, one or neither. Dual degree students have special counseling to assist with the not inconsiderable task of ensuring that scheduling works. In the jazz degree, one nice option is the availability of jazz theory and improv instead of the traditional written an aural theory.
Since moving to the common app last year, the university averages 39,000 applicants, so is no longer what you would call an “ivy alternative safety” per se, even for kids with super high stats, but even if your son were admitted to jazz and not to the u., transfers to seek a second degree aren’t unheard of.
Let me know if you have any questions. My son attends there as a “pat” major (a combo of music tech, comp, engineering and performance) and finds that a lot of the jazz students are involved in his areas/projects, so he knows quite a few of them. (trumpet was his principal instrument way back when, and in hs he was pretty much equally divided between jazz and western.)
Best wishes in your search!

PS - the jazz bfa is still intense like the bmus at umich, so it’s not like ba major/minor options, but there is also a degree through the music school called the bachelor of musical arts that is a sequence intended to accommodate cohort study in another discipline as well. If your son were interested in something like engineering, umich has a top program in same, although pursuit of both is incredibly demanding and many of my sons friends have changed their minds after a few years of grueling dual pursuit – though it IS possible. In that case, he’d apply to both the COE and SOM, the latter by dec. 1st or earlier.