I am a vocal music education major and I have completed my freshman year. I go to a small private christian college in Georgia. I love almost everything about it. The size, how nice the people and the professors are, all of that stuff. The thing is, it turns out that their music department that I thought was good based on their old youtube videos, is not what I expected it to be. Since it is a christian college, the department is dominated by Worship Arts majors. Therefore, everything revolves around their needs. The expectations are low because these students would come in not knowing a lick about classical music or training. Therefore, they’re not really strong musicians and its evident in their recital performances. Also, in choir, I just feel like I am in a mass church choir with college-aged people instead of being in a choir at a college level. All we sing is christian repertoire which is okay sometimes, but its not like the ones I have performed in high school, All State, or what I hear at the University of Georgia. I just feel like the music is bland and all that is really enforced is making sure we hit all of the notes but not much of a worry for vowels and blend (Granted, our previous concert was parts from Handel’s Messiah with our local orchestra and it sounded pretty good). Lastly, the music facility is terrible. We have to sing in the chapel but the acoustics are so terrible, we even have to mike the piano!
I feel like I am learning what I need to know in my general music classes, voice lessons, and my music education classes, but the fact that I think that our performances are mediocre is just making this whole music major thing feel… bleh… and while it is nice to be considered one of the stronger musicians, I don’t feel challenged enough.
So with all of that and feeling like I can’t really find “my people” on the campus even though everyone is nice, I want to transfer but i’m not sure if my reasons are valid. I’ve found a college called Reinhardt University and it is a small campus, is “christian” but it’s not really as enforced (such as required chapels) which I am totally fine with, and their music department is way better. And according to their website, I shouldn’t be able to have any major problems with my transfer credits since we are under the same accreditation. I guess I just have the fear of what if my personal problems that I have before carry over in this school, what if the majority of the music majors are snobs like the ones I was stuck with in high school, will the drive from school to home be too much for me since it is double the length from the school I am at now?
So do I have valid reasoning for transferring and should start looking into that process now? Any other advice you got for me?
edit I am definitely not from Cornell University and I am not sure where that has come from