Music Therapy Major

MACmiracle
Sat, 10 Feb 2018 03:01:40 +0000

@compmom Careers can take zigs and zags, and that is a much more normal than a straight career path. But I think if a student is genuinely interested in music therapy as a career, an accredited undergraduate program has it’s benefits.

The cost is one major factor to consider. Were D to have done another undergrad major, she could not have gone into a music therapy grad program immediately without financing it completely with loans. It would not be realistic for her to be able to pay that off on top of her undergrad loans.

Also, the music therapy jobs D is seeing all require certification or a plan to get certification in the near future. As far as I know, you can only get this by graduating from an accredited program, completing the internship (at least six months full-time and unpaid), and passing the exam. There are likely exceptions to this, but probably not many full time positions.

Another thing about music therapy programs is that the required courses and their sequence have little flexibility. It’s very difficult to switch into music therapy or transfer in and graduate in four years. It’s much easier to start in music therapy if there’s a serious interest and switch to something else, like music performance, if it doesn’t work out.