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I have been admitted to Upenn, Amherst College and McGill.

Upenn obviously is an ivy league school and they offered me 33,000 dollars scholarship and Benjamin Franklin Scholar.

Amherst College is the #1 liberal arts college in the United States and has a very small class size and five college cross registering program seems very appealing. Amherst College offered me 32,000 dollars scholarship.

McGill university is in Canada and has been ranked as #9 among the universities worldwide. They do have a fine reputation but the class itself seems to be bigger than that at Upenn or Amherst. They are offering me 5,000 scholarship a year and eligible for 10,000 dollars additional scholarship.

I probably want to double major in Mathematics and Music. What do you think?

I appreciate your advice in advance.

By Hautbois (Hautbois) on Friday, April 11, 2003 - 05:41 pm: Edit

In what area of music, if I might ask? Performance? If so, on what?

Math and music. Interesting combo! I was horrendous at math and great at music. I've heard that the two often go hand in hand but they certainly didn't for me.

Congratulations on such great schools! What "fun" to get to choose, eh?

By Thisistrue (Thisistrue) on Friday, April 11, 2003 - 05:47 pm: Edit

Music Composition

By Pnwdad (Pnwdad) on Friday, April 11, 2003 - 07:34 pm: Edit

Wow, congratulations on being admitted to such tough schools. I would scratch McGill; although it is a great university, the classes will be bigger than at your other choices, & the FA package isn't nearly as good even factoring in the exchange rate.

Amherst will have smaller classes & I suspect be more nurturing overall. It is also in a bucolic setting as opposed to a major metropolis. It is a small music dept, but if your primary goal is a well-rounded liberal arts education with math & music at the center of it, Amherst would be a great choice.

If you are more committed to a professional music education with good liberal arts surrounding it, & don't mind living in a big city, I would seriously consider Penn. It has grad programs in both math & music so the university resources will be far richer across the board (faculty, library, labs, etc.), plus, Philadelphia has a lot more happening in the surrounding musical community.

If you haven't already done so, consider calling or visiting & talking with the head of the music composition program & math dept at each school. You will be spending a lot of time with those professors.

Hope this helps, & best wishes for a successful college career!

pnwdad

p.s. you probably know this already, but just in case..... wherever you go, the BA isn't the end of the road, & any of these institutions will prepare you well for grad school, whether in music or in mathematics.

By Thisistrue (Thisistrue) on Friday, April 11, 2003 - 07:49 pm: Edit

Thank you for your advice, pnwdad. I am not too sure whether having graduate students around is such a positive factor. Professors are more likely to work with graduate students than with undergrads. What's more, I would hate it if I am taught by graduate students.

You are right about the FA package and the exchange rate. however, McGill's tuition is much lower than American universities. But I do agree that at Upenn or Amherst College, I will be able to get the individualized attention.

By Dadster (Dadster) on Friday, April 11, 2003 - 08:13 pm: Edit

Great choices, thisistrue! Assuming you have visited the campuses, did any of them "feel right" to you? I wouldn't discount your emotions in choosing between great schools - objectively, there's no bad choice...