I’m looking for a list or your ideas on great liberal arts schools with strong music departments but not the full conservatory experience. Looking to take the BA route as opposed to a BM but still wanting lessons and performance opportunities. Also want to leave the door open for an MM down the road.
Not a music parent but been here long enough to know the make St Olaf comes up more than any other. Lawrence gets a lot of mentions too.
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Those are both audition based schools with BMs. Opportunities for non music majors exist though.
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So basically every school without a conservatory or music school attached will have options for music BA that is not an audition based program. What experience is your child looking for and what is their academics? Most ivy’s, LACs, Emory, Duke and so many other highly competitive schools have excellent music programs but there are also countless other schools.
Specific lacs to look at are Williams, Amherst, Davidson, Skidmore, Vassar, Wesleyan, Pomona, macalester, and I am sure there are many others I am missing.
Are you looking for LACs where you can have opportunities in music as a non-major, or where you can major in music but earn a BA rather than BM?
For the former, a lot of LACs will offer these opportunities. Look in the music departments and check out the choices in small ensembles and lessons. I think that Oberlin offers many such opportunities, even if its music majors are in the conservatory. If you’re looking for the latter, it would help to know more about what kind of school you’re looking for: preferred region(s), level of selectivity (what are their stats and scores, ECs, etc.) any other factors that could help narrow it down.
St Olaf has a BA as well as a BM and about 1/3 students are involved in music. The norm is admission to any major with expectation to participate in music, and the stronger musicians audition for a scholarship in November/December (regardless of potential major).
Ensembles are by audition with different levels plus there are all sorts of non audition groups. Music scholarships are open to non majors who will participate in the ensembles.
I would agree there are more opportunities for non majors if the college doesn’t have a conservatory - in that case it’s a good idea to see what’s open to non conservatory students.
What are your child’s stats?
There’s a wide range from Concordia Moorhead to Vassar for instance.
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A friend’s kid had a great experience at Luther. Merit plus music scholarship and he got to travel to Europe with the orchestra.
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Whitman is another that I’ve heard good things about, music-wise; and they will provide a merit pre-read which can be very helpful.
If you tell us more about your student’s academic interests, geographic preferences, and stats, the suggestions will be better focused.
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I also ask if your child wants a BA majoring in music, or a BA in something else with continued lessons and EC performance. Lots of schools for both.
In general I would avoid schools with BM programs because the best teachers and performance opportunities often go to them- but there are exceptions so check carefully,
Oberlin has a Musical Studies BA that promises opportunities in the Conservatory but I am not sure how that is working out.
In general the Ivies and “little Ivies” have good music programs (some were listed above, and I would add Tufts). Willliams, Vassar and Davidson come to mind first. There are varying lists of little Ivies Little Ivies - Wikipedia
The other schools I would consider are the Colleges that Change Lives ctcl.org Clark University has a good music department and an interesting curriculum, Just one example. St.Olaf, Bard and Oberlin are on there too. Bard has a “low wall” between college and conservatory so that might be one to investigate for a BA musician.
If your child has another academic interest, and has preferences for size, location and “vibe” they can probably prioritize those and then look at the music offerings. There are so many colleges that have good music (professors and teachers are everywhere with the current job market in academia!) so your child can think about those other factors first or alongside.
One other thing: some schools have a teacher for you and some ask that you find your own (Harvard for instance). Yale tends to have SOM grad students teach undergrads. These are also things to look into. Who teaches the BA students and is the teacher provided? In our experience with a BA student, a conservatory teacher taught them even though they were in a different school. So being in a city helped!
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My son was deciding between a BM and a liberal arts college with strong music offerings this time last year. He found quite a bit of variation in how robust music seemed to be at various small LACs. At some schools, music faculty were very proactive about reaching out to him and responsive and enthusiastic when he asked questions; at others he had trouble getting people to answer e-mails, even after he’d been admitted. He ended up at Amherst, and is having a very good experience there, musically and otherwise. He was also really impressed with music at Emory, although he decided it wasn’t as good of a fit for him academically. So I’d say to start reaching out to music faculty pretty early on, and he’ll likely get a good sense of what the music culture is like at a school by those interactions. My son had good luck asking for sample lessons at LACs as well (the only place that shot him down, interestingly, was Amherst, where the teacher said she only offered lessons to admitted students). And make sure to spend some time focusing on music when doing campus visits; he should be able to talk to faculty and students, sit in on a rehearsal, see a performance if the timing is right.
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My D26 has a very similar search in progress, and in addition to many of the others listed above, another that she’s considering is Trinity U (TX). Non-majors are eligible for all lessons/ensembles/choirs and also for music scholarships that range from $1500 to $10,000 (we were told $4000 is common) and are stackable with other merit and need-based aid.
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We waited until after acceptances to do these things, at least for BA options, though public concerts are of course always available. Once accepted, schools will often go to some lengths to convince a student to pick them. One school offered to find/hire a teacher for my kid once admitted, as an example. Meeting faculty and attending classes also happened at various schools after acceptance.
I personally would not base evaluations of music departments based on the responsiveness of faculty before admission. (In fact we later learned some of the best teachers were notorious for not answering emails. So we called admissions to access contact.)
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The particular school I’m thinking of is one where he could not get the private teacher to respond to e-mails after he had been admitted and was planning a visit. The orchestra director eventually responded after a couple of attempts at contact and he was able to sit in a rehearsal…which reaffirmed that music at that school wasn’t what he was looking for.
In retrospect, I’ll say that I actually wish he’d been able to do MORE research into music offerings at LACs before applying, because he wound up with a lot of acceptances and there wasn’t time to investigate all of them in April. He was on the fence until the last possible second about a BM vs not, and he absolutely wasn’t interested in considering schools where he didn’t feel like he’d be able to do what he wanted to do musically. Incidentally, my oldest son who was interested in math did the same sort of thing on college visits–setting up meetings with math faculty, asking about the possibility of sitting in on classes–it often takes a lot of time and money to do college visits; no reason not to get as much out of them as possible!
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Luther College in IA, Southwestern University in TX, University of Puget Sound in WA are all good LAC’s to consider for music
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My daughter is a second year at Bard. She is a student in the Conservatory (BM in Vocal Performance) but she takes many of her music classes with BA Music students at the College. BA students can even audition to enter the Conservatory later on if they want to. If you have any questions, feel free to DM me!
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Luther College in IA has a music department as robust as a conservatory, but within the context of a liberal arts school. Several of the other Lutheran colleges also have strong music programs - Concordia, St. Olaf, and Gustavus in MN, Pacific Lutheran in WA. A high percentage of students on these campuses are involved in music groups. I’m not even Lutheran, but I know the music traditions at these schools are very strong. What part of the country are you wanting?
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Lawrence U is a great environment for both BMus students, BA students, and non-majors. The other school I’m thinking of is U of Puget Sound.
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