<p>In the various discussions of Music School/Conservatories connected with a university - Mannes doesn’t seem to be mentioned. Their website says that students at Mannes can supplement their curriculum with classes from any of the other New School colleges. Does anyone know anything about it?</p>
<p>Most conservatory programs have few academic requirements, usually a couple semesters of “freshman english”, a western history type course(s), possibly a math and science. There may or may not be enough “fat” in the four year schedule to allow for (or mandate) additional non-music electives.</p>
<p>Stand alone conservatories offer these required courses, but they are geared and taught to the general conservatory population. Complaints of many academically talented students at straight conservatory programs address a lack of intellectual stimulation or “low-level” required non-music academic mandated courses.</p>
<p>Conservatory, conservatory level programs attached to a parent university<br>
broaden the choices, as in most cases, an academically serious student may take advantage of the courses (even honors programs) offered to the non-music student population. These can be both the academic requirements like “freshman english” or an elective area of interest, be it quantum mechanics or basket weaving.</p>
<p>At Hartt, son had the option of taking the academic requirements within Hartt, or through U/Hartford. He chose to take all his academic requirements and electives with the general university population.</p>
<p>If you go to the 2008-09 curriculum link <a href=“http://www.newschool.edu/pdf/Mannes_Catalog.pdf[/url]”>http://www.newschool.edu/pdf/Mannes_Catalog.pdf</a> from the Mannes curriculum requirements from each program. Page 4 of that document details (“Undergraduate Academic Studies” and the “Undergraduate and Graduate Elective” subheads) these requirements. There’s not a lot of fat in the four year curriculum for electives (3 credits for an orchestral performance undergrad BM), and the academic requirements are fairly minimal.</p>
<p>If your student is like mine, and wanted non-music mental stimulation, it would be worth looking into the academic classes offered to the general New School population.</p>
<p>I think that Mannes is very good for a lot of programs. I love the school and I considered it very seriously when I was making my decisions as to where to go. When I looked at Mannes I learned about the way that it relates to the other schools. The New School is different from most other schools. Each member college of The New School is very independent. It includes a lot of top schools in whatever they do, Parsons School of Design is another one of the colleges.</p>
<p>Part of what makes it difficult to take many classes away from Mannes is the fact that the New School is all over Manhattan. For example, the main building for The New School is in the Village, but Mannes is way up on the Upper West Side. It’s a good thing to be able to take advantage of, but Mannes, like many other member colleges of The New School seems to very independent. Since it hasn’t been part of The New School for long, it remains to be seen if the school will ever be more centralized.</p>
<p>My S was accepted (two years ago) to a five-year double degree program which would have given him a BA from Eugene Lang college and a BM from The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. So you could look into a dual degree with Mannes and another school in the New School consortium.</p>
<p>Other than the BM, Mannes offers a BS Music degree with is essentially the BM plus additional 30 academic credits. These credits can be taken at the other schools within the New School system. This degree typically takes 5 years to complete. My D plays bassoon but is also a talented visual artist who is applying to Mannes. We were told that if her art portfolio was good enough, she would be able to take courses at Parsons with special permission. But I imagine that most of the classes (humanities, social sciences, etc) would be taken at the New School for General Studies downtown. And yes, students taking classes outside of Mannes would have to travel to get to those classes but that is the beauty of going to school in Manhattan. The whole city can be your campus.</p>