He is a high school senior. He plays flute. He’s good but not conservatory good. He’s academically talented with a good SAT, phenomenal GPA and top 10% of his class. He considered music education before but was discouraged by college music teachers who conducted various honor bands he was in that made comments like “you have to hate money”, “flute players are a dime a dozen so don’t bother” and “if you like something else even 1% then that’s what you have to study because music has to be 100%”. So he switched to physics. But literally two weeks before senior year started he switched back to music education.
Now I am rushing to figure out schools to apply to (no clue what constitutes a good program or how that transfers to employability), making lists of deadlines and requirements. He has always loved his instrument and decided to stop listening to other people, but he’s behind on everything. To top it off he has only visited two colleges that offer the degree. He will apply at both.
Any ideas on where I should start? Prioritizing is something he is still learning to do. He is currently working on pieces for ILMEA audition and another strictly fun opportunity. He is prepping for a recorded interview to go to an all-state conference for students who want to study music education. He has marching band competitions almost every weekend for the next month and the one he doesn’t he is re-taking the SAT. He doesn’t want us pulling him from school because he has a full AP courseload. Most of the schools I’m looking at have little in common for auditions so lots more pieces to learn while also learning music for the 2 high school ensembles he is in. He dropped his varsity sports this year to accommodate all the music but now he has more to do. ANY help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
We are in IL. He’d like to get out of here. Looking at UofMich-Ann Arbor. He wants to look at Texas and Florida for colleges but we just can’t figure out the logistics of him going back and forth since none he is looking at have nearby airports. We are willing to drive so have a decent radius we can do, but not that far. He doesn’t want a tiny school but also nothing much larger than UofIL. Money is a factor so need good merit-based aid and/or need based for out of state student. Sadly some really good colleges are out because of that.
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