Music Programs at Drexel v. Belmont

psa6819
Sat, 15 Feb 2014 03:30:22 +0000

Our son is facing the exact same decision. Both programs have great reputations - there are several main differences that we have found:

1. Belmont = smaller fish in big music pond; Drexel = bigger fish in smaller music pond. As a musician, you will likely be surrounded by more like-minded people at Belmont. The trade-off though, for example, is if you want to participate in ensembles, Belmont’s guitar ensemble only takes 4 guitarists for the full year out of a ton of auditions, and tends to favor music majors over music business majors.

2. Ironically, even though Belmont is a much bigger music school, the music biz program is very heavily weighted with regular business classes - even if you use all your electives on music courses/lessons, it still only works out to 33% music-related classes vs. 67% business/GenEd’s. Drexel is the exact opposite, with 67% music to only 33% business/GenEd. Plus, at Drexel you are automatically taking classes from the music school (theory, history, songwriting, instrument lessons, ensembles), whereas these would have to be electives at Belmont, and you only get about 7-8 credits for electives.

3. You mention the 2 summer music industry co-ops at Drexel that are built into the program - this is different because an internship is an elective at Belmont, and it might require doing the internship during the school year when you are taking other classes; whereas it’s more of a full-time immersion with Drexel. Again, being in a bigger music pond will also mean more kids competing for the same intern positions at Belmont.

4. This is the biggest difference though, and why our son is leaning towards Drexel: if you are looking to break into the recorded music scene for a career (as a musician, band, or related recording role), Drexel has their own music label, Mad Dragon Records, and Drexel/Mad Dragon have connections with the local public radio station, WXPN, which is a part of the Univ of Pennsylvania (campuses are neighbors). WXPN, being not-for-profit, makes it a bigger part of their mission to help promote new local bands… both through recorded music like their “XPN Local” CD and through XPN’s live venue at the World Café. At least 3 of the new artists on XPN Local CD are on the Mad Dragon label. Check out this link: http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/arts-culture/54794-drexels-mad-dragon-record-label-turns-out-hits-careers-in-music-business-

Point being, at Drexel you would have unique access to a potential local gold mine: Yes, Philly is a smaller music scene, but there are not that many successful student-run record labels and I don’t know of any other public radio stations that play the variety of music like WXPN…

Plus, Drexel’s music industry program is the most highly selective major at the school: they only take 54 freshman out of 800+ applicants (6-7% acceptance rate - so congrats for getting in!), whereas Belmont is about a 75% acceptance rate.

The biggest negative for Drexel had previously been their lack of student housing, but they have and are investing in a bunch of new construction projects - check out the president’s website (John Fry) and his vision for neighborhood development: http://www.drexel.edu/president/JohnFry/biography/