Reply to What were your DC’s top schools they were deciding between and where are they committing?

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "What were your DC’s top schools they were deciding between and where are they committing?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Down to Brown and Northwestern.  Still deciding. [/quote]

Brown, definitely. Not even close. [/quote]

Northwestern, without question. Not even close.[/quote]

hahahaha. they are both great and both have something the other doesn't.

NU offers way more in content and industry connections for the major. Better food and dorms. BUT, that music school restriction is killing her. She'd have to declare a 2nd major just to take theory classes and still wouldn't get faculty instrument lessons. She'd have to audition, get accepted and do a 5 year dual degree to get the lessons, and that would come w/ extra ensembles and classes. If there was a way she could do the BA Music as a double major and be allowed to get lessons, that might sway her. NU outranks Brown on some lists.

Brown was her dream school. LOVES the open curriculum. Major offerings are meager, and hers is the one (or one of few) department they don't let UGs take grad courses. But, she would definitely double and possibly triple major there. And, Brown is probably better for her secondary interests. She has many interests! So, now she needs to find out if/how she can supplement the main major w/ study abroad or summer programs, and if Brown will help financially w/ that. Brown has been better on FA so far. Not jazzed about the dorms/food there. Students seem more deep thinking and less superficial at Brown, but that is just casual observation. She would find her people at NU as well. And, then there's the Ivy status. DH and I are from no-name schools, so we're thrilled w/ all the choices, but having a kid at an Ivy would be cool. Not gonna lie.[/quote]

As a former music major and an amauter musican now, when looking for a place to study music, its all about the teacher you will study with, and becoming a music double major just to take theory classes isn't worth it. Also important is playing the music school ensembles. If NU will not let her study with the music school's professor for her instrument, or let her play in the school's main ensembles (which I suspect is the case) without being a one major music major, she should think twice about choosing NU if she really wants to continue to pursue music in college. Even if she does the double major, the scheduling of classes could be difficult between the requirements for the 2 majors. An alternative is to see if the music professor has a private studio she can join, or find another teacher in Chicago and take lessons outside of college- there are lots of musicians in Chicago offering lessons. And there are plenty of summer music program for college students to supplement ensemble playing.
Both schools are excellent- congrats to your DD and good luck with your choice.[/quote]

Thank you for this perspective. Yes. We have been thinking about seeing if faculty would do private lessons. the theory is for composing. She had wanted to do a composing minor (&keep up the instrument lessons), but, while those classes are open to non-majors, the foundational theory classes are not! The office people were nice with workarounds about declaring/dropping a major or using the theory + composing to build most of a BA. Her other major os theatre, and the idea was to use this towards building a musical. So aggravating that the music department is so exclusive. This must cost them some students. We know a lot of STEM majors who are excellent musicians. [/quote]

NU is very exclusive for music.  As a former STEM and Music major at NU, I definately feel it's worth it.  When I attended, most people did the BA and some music degree, only a very few could complete the Engineering and Music degrees, as it was 6 years worth of classes to be done in 5 years.  Now many many students do both.  
[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics