From: Amy Hespenheide
Subject: Re: To Molly--(long)
To: VOCALIST <vocalist>
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>



--- Nancy Mitchell wrote:

>
> At nineteen you have time to seriously pursue what you love to do.
> You have
> plenty of time in the future to switch majors. Take it from someone
> who is
> 49 and trying to get a degree in music--I assure you, it would be
> much
> easier for me to obtain a degree in computers or whatever at this age
> than
> it is trying to go for a music degree.
>

Just wanted to add my additional $.02 -- to pass along what I wish
someone had told me, when I was agonizing about my choice of major in
college. If you love music, I very much encourage you to stay with
music as a major in college, particularly if you are studying at a
liberal-arts college or general university (rather than a conservatory,
I mean). Although it may not seem like it, it will give you more
flexibility than more "professional"-sounding majors, like computer
science (or, in my case, political science). Your particular undergrad
major simply does not matter in many fields, especially business and
management. The special degrees are the advanced degrees: MBA, MPP,
etc. Similarly, you can certainly go to law school with any
undergraduate major; if you decide you want to pursue medicine, it's
relatively easy to take additional undergradute science classes in
order to take the MCAT, etc. BUT it is very difficult to get into any
master's music program without an undergraduate music degree. You need
to have the theory, eartraining, sightsinging, history, etc. And there
simply are not many undergraduate schools who make it simple to go back
and do a second undergrad degree in music. I wish I had stood my
ground when my parents encouraged me to choose a more "practical"
major than music. You do not need to be practical in that way in
college. Law, business, medicine, public health, social work,
engineering and other fields almost always require secondary
professional degrees, and getting into those degree programs has almost
everything to do with your GPA and your standardized test scores, and
almost nothing to do with the major you chose.

If you think you might be interested in computer science, take some
computer science classes; also, focus on acquiring good writing skills
and critical thinking skills. I know it's said over and over again,
but those really do transfer across almost all fields.

I certainly second what others have said about working on technique and
finding a different teacher, etc. Enjoy singing "Messiah" -- I know
your audience will enjoy your performance.

Amy Hespenheide

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