Son interested in the LACs. Wants to double major in Music + [N/A]. Anyone familiar with the music departments at Williams, Amherst, Middlebury, Wesleyan and Colby care to rate them? Thanks.
Wesleyan has an international reputation in Ethnomusicology, the study of world music. So, music tends to be one of those departments that overflows its boundaries and affects theater, dance, area studies, language - even science. Classical Western music is practiced and taught alongside Jazz, Central Javanese Gamelan, Japanese Taiko drumming, West African drumming, South Indian vocal music (Wesleyan hosts one of the longest running annual Navaratri festivals in the United States) among other specialties:
About the Major, Musics - Wesleyan University
Moreover, the extracurricular music scene at Wesleyan is pretty robust; student bands form pretty easily. Live music is a weekend feature. MGMT was created at Wesleyan in the early 2000s and a recently discovered video of one of their campus performances just went viral: Watch a young MGMT perform 'Kids' to Wesleyan students in 2003
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Music what? Performance, music history, music education? What?
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Wesleyan could make an excellent choice for music. Some reasons for this have been described above.
Amherst could be excellent as well, partly because of its notably flexible curriculum, which is especially conducive to students seeking to major in more than one field.
My S24 is a first year at Williams. He is not a music major but is in orchestra, chamber and private lessons. he is playing now in the pit orchestra for the opera for winter study. Music absolutely is extensive at Williams, I think that I was told 40% of students participate in some way. They love musicians there. He is very happy with the music opportunities. (He also applied to Emory which has an excellent music program, and Vassar which was also good, he did not like Wesleyan, he also applied to several performance based programs)
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Agree that Wesleyan sounds like the best option for this student, assuming he has the stats to get in and it’s affordable.
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Wesleyan has always been good for world music/ethnomusicology.
Williams has a really good music department and there is a regional orchestra.
Amherst has the 5 college consortium in an area with a lot of offerings.
Personally I would choose Williams. But it depends on his interests and goals. And what his other desired major might be.
I also like the Tufts music dept., with which I am personally familiar. It’s close to Cambridge and Boston which is an added plus.
There is an excellent music major forum here on CC where you could post this question.
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Subjective comments on general aspects of four of these schools appear in this post: Struggling with D21's List. ED & ED2: Amherst, Hamilton, Wellesley, Vassar - #7 by merc81.
You might consider adding St. Olaf to the list? Great for music and many other majors, and it also has a higher acceptance rate than those listed (just noting this as the wonderful schools you listed aren’t slam dunks for anyone!).
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When DS was at Colby, there was a ton of music stuff going on. Students didn’t need to be music majors to participate. Jan Plan offered a few opportunities too, especially ones that might have been harder to work out during the regular semester. (I.e, jazz improv ensembles)
I’d consider access to and cost of lessons, ensembles, performance opportunities, (and non-school run) activity (if interestedin bands, for example). Depending on goals, you can also figure out whether a major or minor is necessary for your goals. My guess is that at most of these schools, a student could avail themselves of all the classes and activities they want without being a major.
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Thankyou
My child shared a similar desire to do music performance + another major in a liberal arts college setting. Seriously considered the conservatory/college route (was accepted to Oberlin conservatory and the college for their dual degree program). Ended up at Amherst and is VERY happy. Things she considered:
(1) She wanted an orchestra that was all students. The Amherst orchestra is 100% students (and this year it is huge, over 100 members!). Many SLACs seed the orchestra with ringers - adult instrumentalists - to round out the parts, like Williams with their excellent Berkshire symphony orchestra. On the one hand, students have the opportunity to play alongside professionals. But for my child, this was a nonstarter; for her the orchestra needed to be a strong community. The Amherst orchestra is a wonderful community; the students throw parties, have game nights, regularly eat together. She feared that an orchestra that was a mix of adults and students could result in the possibility of her instrument group (not strings) being her and some non-collegians, which did not sound like what she wanted from college. One measure of the quality of community: most students stay in the orchestra all four years. My son, who was a recreational instrumentalist, was in the excellent Vassar orchestra, but felt there was not much community there - people came to the practices, played the music, then scattered. He left the orchestra after a year.
(2) She also wanted the orchestra to be strong. Obviously, a non-conservatory orchestra will not be as strong as a conservatory … but she has been pleased with the quality of the musicians that she plays with. Her nightmare was to be the first chair the day she arrived - she wanted to play with people better than herself (and she has been able to do so). Some SLAC orchestras are friendly and fun, but the quality of the orchestra is lower. The Amherst conductor has succeeded in creating a culture of strong musicianship, and he works well with admissions to make sure that he has good musicians coming in each year. They have six to seven concerts a year, and undertake really ambitious music (Mahlers 3rd symphony was their last concert last year - given that they’re not professionals, they did a great job).
(3) The clincher for her: she was able to join the U Mass-Amherst studio for her instrument, and take her private lessons there, and participate in that much larger music program for her individual music. U-Mass offers PhD’s in music; her instrument studio is about 18 people, from advanced PhD students to freshmen. The quality of instruction and peers is extremely high. Her professor is a full-time faculty member at UMass teaching his instrument, not a part-time adjunct cobbling together multiple jobs at different places to make a living (as it would’ve been at most SLACs that she considered). She could ride the bus to UMass or walk if the weather was nice.
(4) Chamber music didn’t factor into her choice at all, but in retrospect, she has LOVED the chamber music opportunities. A culture of encouraging student ensembles (and giving credit for it), and enough motivated and interested student musicians has made this possible.
(5) Jazz is available, and she has dipped her toes into it, but has not been a serious factor for her. There is a whole parallel group of musicians doing jazz, considerable in size and motivation.
This is just her experience. Different instruments will have different results. After looking at the orchestras, and who would be her private instructor, she only applied to Amherst among the NESCACs. If she was to rank your schools, I suspect her very arbitrary list would look like: Amherst, Williams, Wesleyan (she’s not interested in ethnomusicology), Middlebury, Colby.
You don’t ask about other schools … but Lawrence University is a hidden gem for music +. Oberlin and Bard, of course, even if not in the conservatory. Macalester has strong options thanks to being in Minneapolis. Barnard has a great arrangement with both Julliard and the Manhattan School of Music. And of course St. Olaf. Love St. Olaf. Good luck!
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and Tufts!
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Yes, I didn’t include Tufts because (NESCAC aside) it’s not a liberal arts college, but rather a research university (a very good one!). Of course Tufts has a strong music program, but unfortunately, their collaboration with the New England Conservatory that allowed students to get a dual degree between the two schools ended in 2023.
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Like the other schools mentioned, Tufts is a “little Ivy.” Amherst, Williams, Wesleyan, Middlebury, Colby don’t have double degree programs either!
I have no investment in suggesting Tufts. But it does have a really vibrant music program and access to teachers in the Boston area. Just mentioning it for others.
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SO my S24 is at Williams and I definitely had concerns about the orchestra being mixed professionals and students. It has actually been great, he gets to play side by side with his teacher and has learned a lot. I definitely do not think that the orchestra acts there as a big social draw since they only rehearse for 2 weeks each cycle but he has found a social group with the chamber music musicians. He is part of the pit orchestra now for the student opera for winter study and is loving that. The level is really high and it is a lot of fun.
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Yes, Tufts music is good! And for others, if your child is interested in a mid-size university like Tufts rather than a LAC, there are many great options in that size range, including Carnegie Mellon, Case Western, Rice, Emory, and others.
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I would add that Williams also has a really strong jazz program.
Tufts feels like an LAC though it does have grad programs so yes it is a university.
Actually, ime, Tufts doesn’t feel like a LAC. It’s not so much because of the grad schools (because the biggest of these aren’t in Medford anyway) but the size of the UG student body. Note that for many students, the bigger size is a plus. It DOES have a UG focus, but it really doesn’t feel like the LACs generally mentioned herr or in the rest of its athletic conference.
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