Liberal arts & Music Major

binx
Tue, 05 Jun 2007 08:29:38 +0000

Flutie, as BassDad said, a little more info would be helpful. And as IZ said, there are tons of schools that welcome musicians who are not majoring in it. My D was in your spot a year ago. She has since decided to major in music, at least to start out. But we began her college search looking for schools that would allow her to minor in music and/or participate as a non-major.

We looked at a range of schools, to help D narrow down what she wanted. Here are some things to look for when you are exploring web pages.

If the school’s orchestra uses people from the community, then the following are probably true: a) non-majors will be welcome and b) there may be music scholarships available if you are any good at all and c) the music program is NOT very strong. We eliminated “community” orchestras from D’s list. She wanted a bigger music program. The College of William and Mary is one that springs to mind that she eliminated for this reason (and they don’t give music scholarships.)

If the school has a conservatory level music program, even if they say orchestra auditions are open to all students, it will may be pretty difficult to get very far. Ask lots of questions at this type of school. My D eventually eliminated Indiana U from her list for this reason.

The types of degrees - BM, BA, minor, etc, vary widely from school to school. Look at the course requirements to see exactly what each type of degree entails. For instance, at Furman, there is no minor. They consider their BA degree to be similar to many schools’ minors. It is easy to double major with a BA there. D liked that option very much. They are also very welcoming to non-majors, and give music scholarships.

On the other hand, at Miami U of Ohio, the BA in music doesn’t even have private lessons associated with it. Their minor, though, does. D is enrolled there as a performance major, with intent to double. One of a few schools that would allow her this option.

Another school she liked was St. Olaf. She applied there not as a music major, but only as a music participant, intending to major in something else. They are welcoming to non-majors, and a large percentage of their population in involved in the arts in some way or another. D auditioned for music scholarship, and was awarded one as a non-major.

If you have the stats, Emory U in Atlanta is very welcoming to non-majors, and has a ton of options for an undecided student. It is very easy to double major there, and hard working students have even successfully tripled!

Since D started her search not intending to major, but wanting to continue studying music, we made sure to schedule a violin lesson at each school we visited. This allowed her to meet the violin teacher, and get some specific info about how the music program worked. What we learned in person was so much more detailed than what the websites tell you.

Some other quirks of programs to be aware of:

At Allegheny, for example, they REQUIRE a major and a minor in different disciplines. Music is in their Humanities discipline, which means my D could not major and minor (or double major) in both music and languages.

At Bard, they require music majors to double major!

At another school (I can’t remember which), music majors are encouraged to double with a language.

Hope this gives you some ideas about the process, even if you don’t care for the particular schools I’ve mentioned. It is not as simple as: Which schools will let me do music?