<p>The Fiske Guide includes a list of colleges with strong music programs. You can ask local performers, your music teachers. What about Mannes at the New School?</p>
<p>-oops that’s NYC, but you’d probably have a chance to start subbing there, get your feet wet, so to speak.</p>
<p>About a college job: most pay around $7/hour and offer about 10-12 hours/week. They are usually designed to work around class and exam schedules. That’s a lot of hours to get to $400. If you are not on work-study, through finaid, you may not get first pick. Many students find off-campus work hard to get because jobs are not near the school and employers may not want to deal with kids who are only available around their classes and with schedules that change each semester. Just be aware.</p>
<p>Not trying to discourage JMU- the kids I know who went there loved it. But the whole concept of a “dream school” is problematic.</p>
<p>Oh I didn’t see that bottom part of your post, but yeah I know there’s no real audition to get that gig, that its all about networking. I know most people start out subbing, they’ll sit in for several performances and bring a tape recorder or something so they can learn the parts. But I do have relatives who live in NYC and they are involved with broadway so hopefully ill have at least a couple people in the business who can help with networking. And I would love to go to mannes but I doubt I could afford it, and either way my parents don’t want me to go to school in a big city…I kept telling them I wanted to go to college in NYC for years but I finally lost hope on that one.</p>
<p>A gap year is a year between high school and college. People get jobs or volunteer or travel or start companies or whatever they want. In your case it could be a way to leave home and let them get used to it.</p>
<p>Other than the band trip, have you ever been away from home? For how long? Could you call or text or email your family, or was all communication impossible? How well did they do? How well did you do?</p>
<p>Is there any way to live with your New York relatives without starting World War III?</p>
<p>University of the Arts in Philadelphia has good ties to visiting Broadway shows and might give you good connections. Yes, it’s in a city. But at this point, do you really care? Schools in the middle of nowhere won’t have those connections.</p>
<p>As a last resort, many colleges allow their full-time employees to take part-time classes for free. You obviously don’t get the student experience, and it takes much longer to graduate, but lots of people have done it.</p>
<p>It looks like both you and your parents have very limiting constraints on what schools are acceptable (compared to other students and other parents), such that the set of schools which is the intersection of your set of acceptable schools and their set of acceptable schools is the empty set.</p>
<p>If you have the means to pay for college yourself, you don’t need your parents’ permission. </p>
<p>But apparently you don’t, so it’s a moot point.</p>
<p>I don’t agree with your parents’ position, but the reality is that as long as you are financially dependent on them, they get to call the shots. I would concentrate on finding a school that works for you and is acceptable to them.</p>
<p>I honestly get that I might not be able to go to JMU, but I don’t see what harm can come from just applying and seeing if I get in, and if so, how much financial aid I receive.</p>
<p>Well other than the band trip that I do every year, I’ve gone to a camp at berklee college of music for a week, which I know isn’t that long, but that still worked out fine. I called them I think only once or twice while I was there. </p>
<p>As for school in Philly, I think I said this but my parents don’t want me to go to a school in a big city, especially Philly. I had looked at a school in Philly and my dad completely flipped out and said I couldn’t go to school there. He was saying how I’d get robbed or mugged and all these things, if I went to school there, NYC, Baltimore, dc, etc. So I stopped looking at schools in big cities cause my parents don’t want me there.</p>
<p>Have you considered auditioning for the U.S. Army or other service branches? You could pursue your calling, escape your protective parents, and accumulate money and benefits to fund your college dreams.</p>
<p>Do you have any kind of job now? If you truly have potential as a professional musician, you should have at least the occasional paying gig by now. If not, why not?</p>
<p>You may get better help with your search process if you spend some time in the Music Majors sub-forum inside the College Majors Forum. Go to the main page where all of the forums are listed, and scroll down to find it.</p>
<p>I have considered playing for some branch of the military. I really liked the idea of it, plus they help pay off college debt, but my older brother is a pilot in the navy and he had to argue and fight so hard with our parents to get to where he is today. Whenever my dad would joke and say I should join the navy or army band, my mom would flip out and get so mad, so pursuing that would take a lot of arguing on top of our disagreements on colleges. I’m also not very athletic so I’m not sure I could pass the physical fitness exam they give.</p>
<p>And no I do not have a job. As I said before, my parents won’t let me get a job. They say that I have the rest of my life to work, so they don’t think I should get a job now while I’m in school. And there aren’t any professional gigs I could get in my small town, especially for clarinet.</p>
<p>You don’t need your parents permission to join the military and/or their band. No need to argue with them. You can just do it.</p>
<p>If a school is 4 hours away, your mom is not going to be coming every weeken or come for lunch. That’s a 8 hour round trip! My kids’ uncergrad is 2 1/2 hours away, and I would RARELY drive up for the day because that’s 5 hours of driving in one day. </p>
<p>Besides, once you’re in college, you can “conveniently” have obligations on weekends…study groups, volunteer efforts, etc that you can mention up front to your parents to keep they away.</p>
<p>Apply to JMU anyway. Your parents CAN NOT stop you. You don’t need their signature (unless you are homeschooled).</p>
<p>BUT realize that your stats might not get you in.</p>
<p>AND realize that the costs may be prohibitive.</p>
<p>SO, look for other schools to apply to and don’t fall in love with any one school. If you don’t get in (or get aid) and have no other affordable acceptances, community college will be your only option.</p>
<p>Hopefully, in the spring once you have acceptances and financial aid offers both you and your parents will like the same school.</p>
<p>IF not, deal with it then. You will be an adult and CAN make your own decisions (though money may be an issue). You CAN join the military without their permission at that point. You might even be able to tell them your choice is between joining the military and going to XYZ college. They may find themselves preferring to help with college. ;)</p>
Go to the JMU website and use the net price calculator to see if this choice is even plausible financially for your family.
Create a college search thread where you say “I’m looking for additional schools that have these qualities that I liked about JMU and yet are within this geographic limit”. The poster above who pointed out that both you and your parents are overly limiting your search was right, and you need some more ideas.</p>
<p>I just want to add that unless you are an exceptional musician you won’t get into any service band right now. The majority of the players enter the service with masters degrees (and they are enlisted).</p>
<p>First of all, take a minute to recognize and appreciate that you are in a better position than many others whose parents cannot or will not help them with college costs. And also recognize that for any student in any situation it would be a huge mistake to believe that there is only one school where he/she can thrive (especially as with your case if it is a bit of a reach). </p>
<p>I would work hard with your parents, guidance counselor and do research to find schools that meet your needs and meet your parents constraints. You can apply to JMU but before you go you have to decide if it is worth maybe cutting ties with your parents. Perhaps look at Bard and Skidmore and I’m sure there are others. And you can post here for ideas:
[Music</a> Major - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/]Music”>Music Major - College Confidential Forums)</p>
<p>Look at SUNY Purchase; looking between the lines, looks like a great music program…it appears to me (at least) that there may be finances involved here that are not being discussed; and this may be the compromise that works for everyone…I do agree that the parent is delusional if he/she thinks that they will “drop by for lunch” at a school that is 4 hours away…</p>
<p>FYI flying anywhere from JMU is a bear; you have to get to Dulles…train seems to be the way to go for most…or, as mentioned, busses.</p>
<p>Skidmore has a fabulous new music building. There’s the Crane School at SUNY Potsdam. Sometimes, we can’t tell if a family is limiting a kid, pushing hard for a local option, for their own reasons-- or where they are simply trying to temper the “dream school” idea or focus their child on an environment they truly feel is better</p>
<p>Get a Fiske Guide or Princeton review. Post on the music forum, etc. Run the NPCs. It’s not feasible for the great majority of kids to pay for college on their own. Also, realistically assess whether you are at a level where you could audition well, if that’s a major requirement for admission. Good luck.</p>
<p>ps. yes, Harrisonburg is a bear to get to and from. Not what I’d call easy access, at all.</p>
<p>How much will your parents pay each year for a more local college. Don’t guess, ask them.</p>
<p>I know that you’ve mentioned that they’re letting you apply to some pricier local schools, but maybe they think you’re going to get aid for those schools.</p>
<p>Ask them how much they’d pay EACH YEAR for you to go to school within 4 hours distance. That answer may provide some insight.</p>
<p>Well I know we have about $50,000 saved for college (for all 4 years), but I’m not sure what they would specifically pay for each year. And I do understand that it would be a hassle trying to get home and vice versa, but so many kids do go far from home and make it work, I just wouldn’t have to come home for every little holiday or vacation. As for why my parents don’t want me to go there, they say its only because of the distance. If I went that far they wouldn’t get to see me as much as they’d like since it’d be either too time consuming or too expensive to constantly go home and back. It’s not because they don’t like the school or think its a bad choice for me, they just don’t like the distance. And about the military band, if I did that I definitely wouldn’t audition straight out of high school. I would go to college first, and I’m pretty sure I read something about the navy possibly paying $50,000 worth of your college loans which would be amazing. So if I did that and possibly got a job during school, I bet JMU could be affordable. And thanks everyone for replying! I appreciate the advice.</p>