Cleveland State University

Date: Jul 16 2012
Major: Music - Performance (This Major's Salary over time)
I was not prepared for a professional career or graduate school. I did go to a year of grad school and had to take many remedial courses. I was unprepared to work so hard. There is so little competition at CSU that I was in schock at the level of musicianship of the other students in grad school. I tried to work in my field before grad school, but was terribly unprepared both in respect of having insufficient knowledge and practical experience and not knowing how to get work. Grades were administered rather abitrarily in some classes. I remember, in my first quarter, coming to class with assignments complete and having done the homework, passing the tests, and a fellow student rarely coming to class, not understanding the classwork, and rarely doing homework while still getting an A; I got a C. Students who couldn't sing were given solos, the orchestra couldn't play in tune or in time, and the main auditorium wasn't acoustically tuned. Not all voice teachers had accompanists so it was nearly impossible to learn how to sing with accompaniment.

I remember my grad school audition a teacher asking me, "Did you have many performance opportunities at CSU?" and I said, "no." It was amazing that I got in to school at all.

I was unaware that other undergraduate programs actually put on fully staged productions and actually selected students from the school to perform concert solos.

I had a chance to change schools and I should have done that. I was afraid to do so because it would have delayed graduation, but it would have been well worth it.

For prospective students: Don't waste your time or money.