I have realized that I want to be a music professor(I know I’m ambitious ). I know that I would not want to tach elementary or middle school. I would teach at a high school as a temporary position, not for the rest of my life.
I know I would need at least a master’s degree, but I am not sure which type of bachelor’s degree to get. Are there any good schools where I can go and get my Bachelor’s and then transfer to get my master’s that are also affordable?
I know that to be a full-time professor, I would most likely need a doctoral degree. I would like to either teach music theory or music history. I could also teach vocal music in a private practice.
My main mission is to light a flame for music in other people, as my teacher did for me, whether it is through theory, history, or singing.
Just to be realistic, there are many more smart, talented, and creative people who would love to be college professors than college professor jobs available. So it is a very hard path which many will fail to follow, for one reason or another.
But to start down that path, I would make a point of choosing a college where you feel like you would be able to work closely with the professors in your department. In terms of degrees, my understanding is you probably want to do a BM if you want to go the performance path, but can do a BA in any of Music, Composition, or Music Education for the theory path, and then maybe Music Education specifically for that path. But others may have more thoughts on that.
I’m in academia but not in the performing arts, so this advice might not be spot on. However, I recommend that you look up music departments at a variety of colleges and universities (because if you do go into higher ed and are successful at finding a tenure-track job, you won’t likely have much of a choice as to where you end up, so it’s good to consider a spectrum of possibilities). Find out how many people in these departments are tenured/tenure-track, and how many are adjunct (the tenure-track titles are assistant, associate, and full professor). Look at individual faculty CVs, if you can (sometimes there are links on the department faculty page, sometimes you can google). Look for the following information: where did they go to school (BA/BFA-Ph.D., or MFA, if applicable), what kinds of ensembles/bands/orchestras have they played for, how did they shape their careers, etc. What kinds of prior jobs have they held? If you’re looking at adjuncts, are they primarily performers who teach part-time, or do they have to patch together teaching gigs to earn their living? Maybe, after looking around, you might try contacting a few of these professors for information interviews. At that point, you might be able to ask some informed questions and get valuable advice.
One thing I can tell you – careers in K-12 and higher ed are not interchangeable, and they require different kinds of preparation. So a Music Ed teaching certification program is unlikely to lead you to higher ed, and a Ph.D. is unlikely to lead you to a primary or secondary ed teaching career. So if you’re hesitant to teach K-12, it’s just a matter of choosing a different career path.
I have a kid who is a professional musician. He is also an adjunct at a community college system. And he also has a few other income streams. He never has wanted to work in the public schools and does not have that certification.
You mentioned getting a degree in music education. Please…do that only if you actually want to be a teacher. If you do….once you get your bachelors and hopefully a job, just work a few years. You might find that you can complete your masters by attending part time in the evenings and summers. Many public school teachers do this.
Some states actually require you to get a masters within a certain time period to maintain your certification.
You know…once you get that masters, you might find you can teach a CC course each term in the evenings. Maybe.
I will say…music education jobs in the schools are not exactly plentiful.
You definitely want to attend a program in the state in which you plan to teach…and make sure that the program will fulfill all of the certification requirements.
Yes, for four year college teaching or a full time salaried CC job , you will need a PhD. But even with that, a job won’t be easy to get. You will need to be VERY flexible about where you are willing to work. We know a number of music PhD folks who are teaching in the public schools…for a variety of reasons (pay and benefits are sometimes better).
I think you have some good options to explore. Just take your time. You might want to discuss this all with your music teacher(s) at your school. They will likely be a good resource.
Yes you would need a doctorate, either a PhD or DMA. These are funded and you often can get a master’s along the way that is also funded. Doctoral students generally get a stipend for serving as teaching asssstants. But stipends are not generous and you would need to have another job most likely. Toward the end, a doctoral student might get paid adjunct level pay for teaching a class.
It is very hard these days to get a tenure track job and you have to be willing to go anywhere. Many colleges are cutting programs and faculty, humanities/arts are not in demand, and demographic changes are reducing student populations.
You need a lot of accomplishments beyond a degree to get a good teaching job.
You can get a bachelor’s with any major and still go to grad school for music, in some cases. From what you write, I am confused about what you want as an undergrad. Full immersion in music (3/4 classes in music) with a BM? A BA with 1/4 classes in music. Is there any other major you might consider with EC music?
Unfortunately, with the info in your other posts, you cannot afford to be unrealistic. We are all sympathetic. I hope your parents do decide to help. You want to leave home, One step at a time. Apply to desired schools, make plans otherwise to work, pay rent with roommates, and take community college classes.
When you reach 24, look into Smith’s Ida Comsttock program or other programs for non-traditional students. You will then be eligible for financial aid on your own income. I am not saying wait 5 years. But if you work and do school part-time, that may actually become a scenario for you. There is plenty of time and ultimately you can succeed.
Yes. Thank you. I have made the decision that I will be going for a music ed degree to hopefully be able to teach at a college. After my bachelor’s degree, I will get a job, probably at a high school, and save up money to go for my master’s, and start teaching as an adjunct. Then I will have to go for my doctorate after I have saved up some money.
This is all unrealistic on many levels. I know PhD’s in music with major accomplishments who are having trouble getting an adjunct job. Once obtained, the pay is abysmal so you need another job alongside the adjunct job. It is very unlikely you could even get an adjunct job with just a bachelor’s.
A master’s is very expensive. You can sometimes get a funded master’s as part of a doctoral program. However in the current climate and demographic decline, many universities are cutting music programs and cutting faculty and staff. Humanities and arts are not necessarily thriving, and there will be even fewer students in the future decade or two.
Music ed is not going to get you a college teaching job. You might be able to teach at a public school if you get a degree in the state you want to teach in, but of course those jobs are competitive.
I am concerned that you are making decisions with incomplete information. I am concerned that you are choosing music ed based on that information. You can major in anything, take VP lessons (many schools fund lessons- explore that), do extracurricular performance, take music electives. You can major in music too, for the love of it, and your career does not have to be music-related.
I’ll take a look at your “How would I become a college professor” thread.
What are your current extracurriculars? Look at Colleges that Change Lives. one school I like is Clark in Worcester MA and they do give merit. St. Olaf is on there too.
I am part of student council and the NHS. I do not participate in choir as of right now because of my parents. I will be participating in the next school yr.
I want full immersion, but I am not sure if I can get in. I will be applying to a balanced list of BM programs, BA programs, and CCs. I am very willing to go anywhere ,even if it means moving across the country.
One of my kids wiht a PhD teaches university students and got in through a back door. And has another job. It is extremely difficult to get tenure. The info you posted is outdated. Colleges are replacing tenured positions with adjuncts. I know very very accomplished PhD’s in music who do not have teaching jobs let alone tenure. Do not count on this! And are you willing to live anywhere?
Your decisions are complicated by your parents’ unwillingness to help, your stated need to leave home, possible loans to pay off, and the uncertainties in a music or teaching career. The best advice I can give is to study what you love but over a longer stretch of time. Work, do community college gen eds at a slow pace. Develop your voice in any way you can. Once you are 24, apply to a program for non-traditional students or a music program with aid based on your own income.
There are lots of online and on campus college programs for non-traditional students and they are more affordable too. In my state, BU has one, UMass Amherst Without Walls, Lesley LCAL degree completion. Smith and Wellesley have on campus programs for women. See if SUNY’’s have any programs for non-traditional students or if you can matriculate and take one class at a time. This might be after community college.
Aspiring to be a professor is not absolutely impossible but again I would not count on it and I have a lot of exposure to music PhD’s who are struggling.
Thank you for this advice. I will keep this goal in the back of my head and keep my options open. What is the best way to do that? I understand that that is not the best path.
I think you can approach this sort of thing one step at a time.
Since I believe you are still going to be in HS next year, your next step is to make sure you end up with a really solid college-prep HS education, along with continuing to explore your interest in music.
You can also be identifying suitable colleges for applications. I would suggest your criteria include that they be comfortably affordable, have music programs you would find exciting, but also would be good colleges for you even if you decide to pivot to something else.
By the time you are actually choosing a college, you may already have changed your mind about all this. But assuming not, you can choose your favorite suitable college offer, and then get started in an appropriate music program. You don’t have to decide which exact program yet. At the same time, make sure not to neglect the “general education” portion of your college experience, and be open-minded to learning about entirely different educational and career paths than anything you have considered before.
And so on. It is frankly very likely that at some point you will decide to do something different. But you can start down a path like that and see how it goes.
And the great thing about college? You can be taking a Psych class for one of your distribution requirements, and the professor mentions a study that shows that non-verbal Alzheimer’s patients can sing (they can’t speak, but they can sing) in some situations. And you think “OMG, Music Therapy!”
Or your sociology class reads an analysis that shows that youthful offenders in the criminal justice system who play an instrument or learn an instrument while incarcerated have a reduced rate of recidivism and you realize “Wow, I want to study Criminal Justice or Criminology”.
College is filled with moments where something you never thought about- or never thought would be interesting- suddenly comes alive and your whole path changes.
I am not sure @NiceUnparticularMan or @Blossom have read your other thread. Parents are not willing to pay anything for college. Loans are not a wise choice. And you want/need to move out of the family home. Parents are not allowing participation in choir, which is, as I remember, the main musical activity for singing for you, though you may return. There is a mentor at the school for voice, though not a paid teacher. Forum folks made some suggestions within these parameters.
I am trying to keep all the points in mind made on multiple threads straight but think I’ve lost the narrative. Need to move out; no financial support from the family; wants a degree in music leading to anything but teaching k-12…. am I missing something salient?
Also, the OP may be applying to some audition-based programs in vocal performance but does not really have anyone to provide guidance during this process and has never had private lessons so is unsure where they stand vis a vis these programs.
I think the goals- any goals- are possible long term, but short term is challenging. Community college while living with roommates and working. Part-time if necessary. Later transfer including more affordable degree completion programs online or in person. Once 24, financial aid is based on student’s own income. Merit aid for music seems unlikely but we have no way to know. No harm in applying to schools for BA or BM but loans should be avoided. I also wondered if family counseling might help the situation. Once college is finished, a doctorate might be possible but stipends for assistant teaching are not generous, and as I wrote before the opportunities for college teaching in music (and the humanities) seem to be declining. Lots of sympathy to the OP! Who may be very talented.
All of the programs I am applying to are audition-based, save for one CC. They are mostly BA programs. I have an inheritance of a substantial amount that I will receive once my grandma’s estate is finalized, in about 1 to 2 years. I may have to do some loans, and then pay them back with my inheritance. I won’t be able to access the money until I am twenty-five, but I can ask the trustee to take some out ot send to the school.
). I know that I would not want to tach elementary or middle school. I would teach at a high school as a temporary position, not for the rest of my life.