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StephanieA
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| Posted: Jan 28 2013 at 2:03pm | IP Logged
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Hello! The kids are all down with the flu and that gives me a few minutes to post a question.
I need some thoughts concerning my 5th daughter who is freshmen in HS this year. She plays the violin and wants to major in music performance in college. Her current teacher is the violin professor at our local university. He has taught her for 5 years and only wants to teach her for 3 more years (4 at the max). That puts her in college, yes, but we and she have serious reservations about going into big time debt for a violin performance undergraduate degree. She isn't a stellar player, so while she could get into a conservatory or music school, she won't command a scholarship.
Our local university would give her a full-ride. However, we and her professor know that she wouldn't do well with him for another 7 years. So we are thinking of graduating her from high school at 17 (junior year) and letting her attend the university for her undergraduate degree.
My reservations are plenty. It is a secular college. Four of her siblings have attended and/or graduated from there, so we know the good, bad, and the ugly. Secondly, she isn't a stellar student. I haven't spent near enough time with her, getting her prepped for this step.
However, if she went the regular route, by freshmen year, she would be
maxed with her professor and with the university. She knows she doesn't want to go there 3-4 years, starting at age 18. On the other hand, we know plenty of kids who have graduated from a music conservatory with her similar skills and they can't find a job and are left with $$$$ dollars in debt. I don't want to do that with her.
We have 8 more children, so saving $$ for college just wasn't in the cards on our income.
Any thoughts to sway us one way or the other?
Thanks so much!!!
Blessings,
Stephanie
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3ringcircus
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| Posted: Jan 28 2013 at 2:21pm | IP Logged
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So, she's good enough that the local professor (who is the best around?) won't be able to challenge her in 4 yrs, but not good enough to command a top salary in a major orchestra if she continues the way she has been?
Seems like this decision is going to be difficult to make w/ her still being so young. What if she gets a lot better in the next couple of years (scholarship to conservatory), or gets burned out (taking music out of the plan)? My college roommate was an amazing flute player, but left the music performance degree program and changed to math. She was possibly similar to your DD: good enough to get a full ride in our dept. that was better at training music teachers than performers, but not good enough to become world-class. She may not be an incredible scholar now, but a lot can happen in a few years.
My gut tells me that there needn't be a hurry to move her along to college. She will be that much younger when she has to make critical life decisions.
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Christine
Mom to my circus of boys: G-1/06, D-1/04, S-4/10
Started HS in Fall'12
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: Jan 28 2013 at 2:31pm | IP Logged
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So it boils down to whether she will spend 6 versus 7 more years with her current teacher?
Are there no other state schools around with decent if not stellar music departments that offer strings?
I do see the merit in her finding a different teacher down the road to stretch her in different ways, but I can't see how that one year is vital. Are you thinking ahead to grad school when she will then move onto a new instructor?
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Jan 28 2013 at 3:31pm | IP Logged
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I would be looking for a college simliar to your local one that would give her a full ride.. but have different instructors rather than trying to get her into college a year early so that she still has a year while in college with this instructor. I'm not sure what the advantage to that would be?
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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StephanieA
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| Posted: Jan 28 2013 at 5:54pm | IP Logged
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I wanted to add this addendum:
First: Either way, Elizabeth would CLEP enough credits for a year at this college or near so. If we graduated her next year (2014), she would be with this teacher 4 more years (her sophomore year, 1st year college, 2nd year college, and 3rd year college).
If she graduated at the regular time, she would have 6 years(sophomore year, junior year, senior year, freshmen, sophomore, and junior year college).
She would be living at home and our rules would be: no socializing as a college student at least until she was 18....not even the Catholic Neumann Center. As a 16 and 17 year old, she would be treated as if she were still in high school. At 18 (her high school senior year or it would be her junior year in college), we would relax the rules.
The college music program is not extensive. She already plays weekly at master class. She could play in the orchestra, but we have chosen not to allow her to do so at this point because it is a college atmosphere and she's 15. My fear is that by her college freshmen year she will be unchallenged and find unhealthy things to keep her busy. The classes won't be difficult and she will very likely be able to graze through too much. Her professor has seen this happen and is discouraging this by telling us "I don't want to teach her".
My 4th daughter Marie is better suited for this college. She is now double-majoring in music and middle-school education. However, she isn't a gifted violin performer. She will make a great Suzuki teacher though because she loves kids, music, and middle school math and history (her emphasis).
But Elizabeth really isn't mature enough to sift through all this.
This is what makes it a bit difficult. If she graduated early at age 20, she would have her undergraduate degree debt free. Then she could decide what she wanted to do....another degree to support herself. Graduate school in music, etc. I don't know if I should push her into getting 2 degrees at SEMO, knowing that it would take her an additional year and her true desire would be to increase her violin skills which really wouldn't happen after 2-3 more years with this professor.
Does this make more sense ;)
My head just can't process all this, so I am reaching out for some words of wisdom!
Blessings,
Stephanie
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StephanieA
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| Posted: Jan 28 2013 at 6:06pm | IP Logged
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To answer some of the other questions.
First, to get to play in an orchestra full-time is extremely competitive. Her professor is quite a wonderful player and teacher. He has studios in our town as well as in St. Louis. Through him, Elizabeth was able to get a master class with the concert chair of the St. Louis Symphony last month to prepare her for a competition this Saturday. This professor is really going out of his way for our family. That said, to get a better teacher, she would need to go to a conservatory or college with a music department concentrating more on performance.There she wouldn't command much of a scholarship (if at all) and would graduate with debt as an undergraduate - not at all palatable to us.
The point her of changing her mind is certainly a BIG possibility. She is just a darn fun kid with various interests and a truly lovable personality around her siblings. But she is immature and innocent in many ways.
Immature as in she would rather be outside playing basketball or running in our ditch than out with girls her age shopping or getting serious about school.
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: Jan 28 2013 at 8:53pm | IP Logged
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Tough one.
The way you have it set up, with her living at home, rules about socialization, etc, I don't really see any disadvantages to graduating her early, except that she might not be able to academically handle the college-level non-music classes. But you will be there to support her, so it isn't as if she will be on her own to sink or swim.
I would take a hard look at her career goals. I know it is early, but if she truly wants to be a professional musician, then going to conservatory or university with a highly regarded music program is pretty much a necessity, despite the cost. And as you said, unless she is super talented, there is no guarantee that will even be enough, it is soooo competitive.
That being said, doing very well as an undergrad and getting into an excellent graduate program could get her the best of both worlds. She will be debt free, and have hopefully by then distinguished herself enough to get a job as a professional musician.
Also, it will give her time to mature and know if this is indeed the career path she wants without having dropped a bundle on an expensive school.
Take my advice for what it is worth. My only experience is that my daughter went to school as a performance major and halfway through switched to English Lit. She decided that she loved music, but she loved books more. 
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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Topic: Should she graduate HS early?
