My kid had a PhD mentor who never answered emails but was the best mentor ever and they are still in touch.
By the way my son applied to his top undergrad school because the tour guide had keys. At 18 my son loved having keys. So kids have all kinds of responses to schools that are valid to them.
I’m sure he’d love to visit every school he might be interested in, but he simply doesn’t have the money to do that in the fall and then again a few months later for auditions. At any rate–agree to disagree at this point, I think—we’re way off topic for undergrad LACs strong in music!
We are at the end of the admission process. Thanks everyone for their input! He was accepted at a bunch of schools, and is deciding between Amherst and UMich and possibly Cornell. UMich definitely has the stronger music program. UMich also gave him a nice merit scholarship for music, which brought the price down a lot. Something to consider for anyone looking at UMich - they do give decent merit money for music! Amherst seems stronger for pre-law/liberal arts and the whole school was like a dream. Cornell he just loves because it’s close to home and an Ivy and all of that. He’s not sure if music at Amherst or Cornell is enough music for him. We’ll see in a few weeks. Thanks again all!
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SMTD at Michigan ? For BM or BA? Double degree or double major or music major? With the 5 college consortium there should be quite a few teachers to choose from. Tough choice but two very different situations!
SMTD for BM violin performance, double degree at UMich with LSA pre-law track. Amherst would be a double major Music and Law Jurisprudence and Social Thought
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@kokotg has a musician at amherst. My S24 is at Williams and has had more music opportunities than he actually wants, ha!
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congrats to him on having so many great options! I’ll just add as a newish thing since I posted in fall, since you mention composition, that that’s something my Amherst kid has been spending a lot of time on lately that I don’t know he would have had so much time for had he gone for a performance degree. His older brother just premiered one of his pieces at his senior recital in fact. So….my BM music kid and my BA music kid are just having very different experiences. Both have been able to do as much music-related stuff as they’ve wanted, but my BA kid has discovered and/or deepened interests in musicology and composition, which likely wouldn’t have happened in a BM program (right now he’s thinking he’ll most likely end up in grad school for musicology). But all of that would have felt like a distraction to some extent to my BM kid.
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Can you tell me more about your son’s experience with music at Williams? My son made it off the wait list and is now at the last minute looking at Williams as an option.
i will send you a pm so we can discuss
Indiana is more Iowa or PSU with a great music school. Not much like Michigan in any way I know.
Strong in business, government, journalism, languages and more. Given the OP is looking for top music schools, sans engineering, I’ll stick by my comparison.
I have spent time at all three visiting. Iowa City, University Park and Bloomington are very similar. Ann Arbor very different vibe. Town matters too.
OP is looking at schools including U Mich. I think IU is above the others you are listing.
Anyway, it was a recommendation of a less competitive school (although maybe not for music) that is at the level of others they are looking at - U Mich, Rochester, Oberlin, etc.
It’s ok you disagree - but no need to knock my recommendation of a top flight music school that OP will certainly be able to get in academically.
I see on your other thread that your son made it off the waitlist at Williams. Congratulations to him!! Please let us know which of these terrific schools is his final choice.