Majoring in music and...

TiggerDad
Sat, 16 Apr 2016 18:13:06 +0000

To OP: My son and I have been dealing with pretty much the same situation as you except my son’s been playing violin for 12 years with piano on the side with many competitions, etc. Like you, he’s quite strong academically with no strong leaning towards any particular subject. Compmom along with others have been very helpful in sorting things out. The result of all the help we received is our plan to apply to: 1) several Ivy and liberal arts colleges with BS with Pre-Med concentration and college music participation in mind; and 2) BM degree programs at Northwester/Bienen, IU/Jacobs, Rice/Shepherd, etc. with possible double degree in mind. Because of my son’s dual interest in academic and violin performance, we felt that such universities with the integrated school of music built in would be ideal as opposed to those stand alone conservatories. Nevertheless, we do plan on 3) auditioning at NEC and perhaps Juilliard just to leave all options open (if merit amount, should he be accepted at either or both, and if any, is far superior to any others, then that could change the dynamics of our final decision-making).

Decision making isn’t easy. For instance, my son was more “definite” with our plan 1) just a few days ago. Currently, he’s open to all 3. By next fall, who knows? This is good, though, in my opinion. It’s allowing him to think things thoroughly and sort things out for himself with much soul searching. The point is there’s no formula to our dilemma. You might want to look at our own 1) - 3) options (plus other possible options of your own) and write down all pros and cons and see which option(s) would work best for you. Keep in mind, too, that discrepancies of financial package offers could come into play in your final decision, so do not narrow your options too tightly from the beginning.