Choosing the Right College

DePaul School of Music

  For someone in high school, picking the college that you trust to give you a quality education can be one of the most nerve racking experiences of your younger years. You have to factor in the staff, location, reputation, and of course the money when you're making the choice. Last year I went around auditioning at a few different schools, so...

Why did I choose DePaul?

  The first time that DePaul came up on my radar for a college was when my private teacher, Wendy Hinman, started discussing good teachers to look at for when I go to college. Her top pick by far was Jon Boen. This is because she had studied with him for a couple years in college and he really stood out to her. She told me that I needed to find him, no matter where he taught, and audition there. Luckily, he happened to teach at a great music school as well!

  Now I'm not the kind of person to just take her word for it, and I decided to do some research and find out if this sounded like the right fit for me. His reputation was definitely astounding, which means he had experience winning jobs and isn't that a huge end result we should look for in a teacher. I then found a CD that featured his playing, and took the time to really listen and see what I thought of his playing (with some personal taste counted in).

  He passed all these rounds with flying colors and I finally took the time to look more in-depth at the university he taught at. It turned out that DePaul actually had two professors for the horn, both with different experiences and great credentials. I liked this set up because Jon is older and plays principal for the Lyric Opera and Oto Carrillo, the second professor, is younger and plays various parts in the CSO. Besides the the obvious difference in ensemble this also allows for many unique viewpoints between the two to be absorbed. 

Later, I also found out that you rotate between the
 professors for two years each... Whew! I bet they'd probably get some
 complaints for lessons like this. Poker Face.

  Now that I had done my research on the professors it was time to check out the rest of the DePaul School Music. First off, the fact that School of Music is separate from the rest of the University and is run as more of conservatory really hooked me. On top of that, the campus in the center of Lincoln Park, Chicago with tons of activities to do and all in a very safe environment. This week, for example, there was a Chicago Civic concert on Monday, the CSO playing Also Sprach tonight, and CSO performing Mahler 4 on Saturday night. I saw this type of constant "music stimulus" as a vital part of having a successful time  in college and an aid to better avoid burn-out.

  Finally, the last couple problems about coming to DePaul were the fact of getting accepted and actually being able to pay it off. Since the School of Music is run like a conservatory the stakes are a bit higher; 74 music freshmen were accepted this year with only three horns. The only solution for this was good ol' practice and hard work. 

  The issue of money actually worked itself out well because of the first problem. Since less students were accepted, everyone that was accepted could get higher scholarships. After scholarships my tuition and housing came out to about the same as a state school, and I also know of some talented students getting full rides.

  All in all, this added up to make DePaul an easy number one choice for me (once I got my acceptance letter). I hope that many of you are as fortunate as me and get to find a school where you just seem to fit in perfectly. If that doesn't seem to be the case for you, then just take some different schools step by step and see which one starts to stand above the others.

Related/Referenced Sources: Seven Factors on Choosing a Teacher for Advanced Study