Transitioning to a completely unrelated field (Microbiology to Music)

Graduate School
1

Hello,

As I near the end of my undergraduate studies in Microbiology, and realize that I cannot do anything in science because I absolutely hate it, I decided to give my passion a shot and go for a graduate degree in Music. Throughout my college years I took a couple of voice courses at my university, however, I don’t have a lot of music courses (let alone a bachelor’s). I met with my university’s coordinator for the graduate program in music education and she told me about the pre-requisites that I needed to take in order to apply to the program. However, I feel like the time has come for me to go somewhere else. This is why I was wondering if anyone knows of any good school where I might have a chance at entering a Master’s in Music program by quickly taking pre-requisite courses. Or if there are any programs where I might be able to take both the prerequisites and the masters in a combined program. . I really want to go into Choral conducting. It has been my passion since I was 16, but decided to ignore it until now because of family and economic reasons. However, I feel now that the time has come to make the transition.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

2

Especially in a competitive field like music, you don’t just want to go to any graduate school where you can get in by taking a bunch of quick prerequisites. You want to go to a graduate program that is going to give you the connections, training, and exposure necessary to set you up for success in the field - particularly if you have to pay for that MM, which most likely you will.

I looked at a few music schools’ MM prerequisites (Juilliard, Yale School of Music, and the Manhattan School of Music, just because those are the ones I’m familiar with) and it looks like most schools don’t require an undergraduate degree in music - just that you have sufficient preparation in music and the “required repertoire.” Most music schools have what they consider their repertoire on the website (or maybe it’s a standard music thing that you would know).

You should confer with your university’s music program and ask them to tell you honestly whether you have a shot at top music schools given your background and current level of skill.