Music opportunities in college for non-majors

[Beebalm]

My dd is feeling a bit lost in the college search process and was nearly in tears today. She has devoted MANY MANY hours of blood, sweat, and tears in developing her level of music. (violin) In a perfect world, she would throw caution to the wind and major in music. However, the music world is so competitive, and she knows that she doesn't want to struggle as she sees so many of her teachers and friends doing. She's a super student, has very high test scores, and wants to pursue a career in neuroscience or something related. Ultimately, she wants to go to med school. Here's the question: How can you keep music in your life while pursuing your degree? She's interested in pursuing a minor in music and possibly even double-majoring.

When trying to get her to nail down her objectives, the most important thing is that she wants a good teacher to help her continue to grow musically and the opportunity to play with others in an orchestra, chamber ensemble, something. She made one phone call to Rice and the woman she talked to (bless her heart:glare:) said they didn't want people that minored or were non-music majors in the program. I find it hard to believe there are NO opportunities...have a feeling she wasn't plugged in to the right person.

Anyway, have any of you found great colleges (selfish mom...any in the South, esp?) where your very musically involved kids have been able to plug in?

Thanks in advance.

[TravelingChris]

My daughter will not apply to a school where she doesn't have an opportunity to sing. It is that simple. So far, we haven't found a college that doesn't give that opportunity to non music majors but we haven't checked everywhere. Many schools have music options listed under student organizations. So there might be some music options only for majors but others for everybody. I think because most of the schools my dd is looking at are fairly small, they welcome non majors to sing.

[mcconnellboys]

I think the music programs available at many schools look very different. At the school my son will be attending, those who love music, but who may not be majoring in it, can take short classes throughout the semester (even beginners can take these) from professors (13, thirty minute classes per semester) and join in a school ensemble that plays at various times during the year. Several hours practice time is also required per week. I think there are also other options for those who are more advanced in their playing skills.

 

Many of the schools we looked at offered options for playing in a variety of groups while on campus.

 

So, in the south, I recall specifically that the University of Louisville has offerings; Centre College has the offerings I mentioned; I think Transylvania had offerings. Further north, DePauw had offerings; I believe Miami of Ohio had some offerings. I feel certain Oberlin would offer a lot. Campbellsville University, in Kentucky, probably offers a lot. Further south, you might check with Sewanee, University of the South.

[kokotg]

I feel certain Oberlin would offer a lot.

 

My husband went to Oberlin, and its conservatory was one of the big deciding factors (he's a math major who plays piano).

[patchfire]

Check for schools that have a music department but don't offer a music major. Same thing for theatre. The best options for non-majors are at schools that don't offer the major, imo.

[Brenda in MA]

The University of Rochester and Carnegie Mellon. Both schools have excellent science departments and also excellent music departments.

 

The University of Rochester definitely offers any student with skills continuing music lessons even if they are not a music major. They have some very generous merit scholarships as well, and since you're from a state that is distant from them, your dd might have a better than average chance at one of the lucrative scholarships.

 

My son interviewed at U of R, applied there and was accepted. He loved the place and would have gone there had the scholarship been better. Alas, they are not working hard to lure students from Massachusetts.

 

Best wishes in your dd's search,

Brenda

[Guest Barb B]

Back when I went to school - the same opportunities were there for non music majors as there were for music majors. Lots of non music majors signed up for lessons in thier instrument (I think you register for it just like you would a class). Also, the various orchestras on most campuses are usually available to non music majors. The joke us music majors had was that the engineering and pre med. majors were usually much better musicians then the music majors were!

 

Barb

[klmama]

Have you checked with the good state universities in your area? I attended one in another part of the country, and several of the top performers in the top orchestra were science majors. There were multiple levels of band and orchestra - based on ability, not on major.

[Hannah C.]

At University of Dallas we have a music department, but no music major. Students can take one 30-minute lesson per week with an instructor and be part of ensembles, etc. or be in the choir.

 

I can see why some schools which are famous for their music departments would not want to give resources to someone who is not majoring. I have a friend who's a music ed major at Baylor University, and she has to struggle to get studio time. I'm guessing this varies a lot from school to school though.

 

Hopefully your dd can find a college where she can keep working on her violin as well as pursuing another course of study. :grouphug:

[emubird]

There are a lot of good schools out there that allow non-majors into the music classes/performance groups -- even schools with top notch music majors. I think it's odd that there's a school that doesn't, in fact. I'd just look elsewhere. (Although, I'd be sure to check that this one person wasn't just giving her some weird story about this. This seems very strange to me.)

 

However, if that's the school she has her heart set on, why not double major in both music and something else? Then, when the music major gets to be too much, just drop back to a minor. Or just only finish the "other" major while dragging one's feet on the music major, thus allowing her to take the music classes, but not have to do everything she doesn't have time for. I know people who minored in music specifically so they could get cheaper lessons. The key is just not being totally honest, unfortunately, but I personally wouldn't feel too bad about it if this is really their policy. I know there are music faculty here and there that have the idea that you have sleep/eat/breathe music or you're just not worth having around, but I think they lose a lot of good students that way who just decide to do something else.

[Musicmom]

My dd is feeling a bit lost in the college search process and was nearly in tears today. She has devoted MANY MANY hours of blood, sweat, and tears in developing her level of music. (violin) In a perfect world, she would throw caution to the wind and major in music. However, the music world is so competitive, and she knows that she doesn't want to struggle as she sees so many of her teachers and friends doing. She's a super student, has very high test scores, and wants to pursue a career in neuroscience or something related. Ultimately, she wants to go to med school. Here's the question: How can you keep music in your life while pursuing your degree? She's interested in pursuing a minor in music and possibly even double-majoring.

When trying to get her to nail down her objectives, the most important thing is that she wants a good teacher to help her continue to grow musically and the opportunity to play with others in an orchestra, chamber ensemble, something. She made one phone call to Rice and the woman she talked to (bless her heart:glare:) said they didn't want people that minored or were non-music majors in the program. I find it hard to believe there are NO opportunities...have a feeling she wasn't plugged in to the right person.

Anyway, have any of you found great colleges (selfish mom...any in the South, esp?) where your very musically involved kids have been able to plug in?

Thanks in advance.

:grouphug: I hear ya! Ds was/is in the same situation. He also has put MANY hours into violin and piano and has reached a very high level of proficiency on each instrument. He's also a great student and very interested in computer science/engineering/robotics--MUCH better for a career than music. He just graduated and is going to be attending Carnegie Mellon this fall. It appears to be one of the best places to pursue music as a non-major and that was one of the main reasons it was very high on his list. He wants to pursue double music minors in violin and piano and at least when we visited this appeared to be possible. We'll see how it turns out... he's looking at auditioning for the philharmonic orchestra, but it does have a huge time commitment. And his CS course load will be intense too.

 

We also investigated Rice and got the same response you did. Their conservatory doors are absolutely closed to non-majors. We crossed them off our list.

 

If your dd is so inclined, double majoring in music may be the way to go. It gets her foot in the door for music as well as her intended career field. Then she could drop back to a minor if it gets to intense (just make sure there IS a minor!)

 

From our search, here are some schools to consider:

 

Carnegie Mellon (of course :001_smile:)

 

Columbia University (ds's friend who is a cellist is going there this fall, double majoring in music and biology--he's also likely headed for med school)

 

Northwestern University (here she'd probably need to double major; we didn't see a performance minor or much opportunity if not a double major.)

 

Cornell (ds applied and was accepted here. Music level, orchestra and opportunities appeared to be good. Most orchestra members are majoring in other fields.)

 

University of Minnesota (you would need to double major here in order to get into the music school, but it's an excellent school and tremendous music opps in the Twin Cities. We have friends whose 2 sons each double majored in music and engineering--very successfully! One's a fabulous violinist, the other a fabulous cellist. U of M is also tops in many fields and their Honors program is excellent. Ds was accepted at U of M.)

 

University of Rochester (maybe--we didn't get good answers when we talked to the music dept, but the Eastman School of Music is just 3 miles away and the 2 schools do partner with each other. Opps may be better with a double major; I don't know for sure.)

 

HTH!

[AnitaMS]

my dd is going to be a neuroscience major at a huge public univ this fall, but loves theater, dance and music.

 

So, she is taking modern dance for two credits, and choir for one credit. Supposedly this school really has very little choral for non-majors, but she is going to try out for the choirs. They will place her in the appropriate one.

[Dmmetler]

Any good university school of music will have many opportunities for non-music majors. My father teaches at James Madison in the Chemistry department and has joked that many of his best students are there for the band and orchestra (JMU has the top music program of any VA state school, and one of the top instrumental programs in the USA). I won't suggest mine, though-while I'm comfortable with our music school, we're hardly tops in Neuroscience!

 

Carnegie Mellon would be a great choice, and she should also consider University of Pittsburgh across the street, which has an excellent medical college and supporting undergraduate programs. It is very possible to take some courses at both schools.