Help Needed With Universities...

[orions_belt27]

hey guys :) , i'm from Singapore and in 5 years time, i'll be enrolling in a university abroad to study music.

I've got lots of questions about the 3 unis dat i have singled out. They are the Australian National University (Canberra Sch of Music), University of Adelaide (Elder Sch of Music), and McGill University in Montreal Canada.

My area of study would be jazz performance, therefore i would like to know from you guys just how solid the jazz programs of these universities are?

i've been considering lots of factors like cost of living in the respective countries etc and i roughly know the jazz standard of the 2 Australian unis. Some people dat i know also recommended Australia as a good place to study jazz. However, I've not much of an inkling of how McGill is faring in terms of jazz.. even though it's touted as the best uni in canada?

for example, i know dat ANU and UA have links with Juilliard etc etc but i'm not too sure bout McGill and only for the fact dat it is in Montreal and the Montreal jazz fest~ so just how credible is McGill's jazz program?

i dun wanna jeopardize my quality of education just because of $$.

so can anyone help me with this? any sort of input related to cost of living in the country, the quality of jazz programs etc are welcome~ thank you :D

[morgan]

Not Berklee? Or North Texas State U ?

[Peterk]

> for example, i know dat ANU and UA have links with Juilliard etc etc but > i'm not too sure bout McGill and only for the fact dat it is in Montreal
> and the Montreal jazz fest~ so just how credible is McGill's jazz
> program?

Hi Orions!

I'm from Montreal and did an engineering degree at McGill. I haven't experienced the music program first hand but have seen lots and lots of concerts put on by students here. It looks good.

In addition, cost of living in Montreal is very cheap for a city of its size in North America and has a vibrant artistic community. You might have a hard time finding places to play outside of the jazz festival period though since there are not as many jazz clubs around as there should be.

Mind you...I love Australia as well. If you've ever been to Melbourne, Montreal is very similar in many respects. Adelaide and Canberra are a lot smaller and probably less lively in terms of music and arts in general.

[orions_belt27]

Hey Peterk~

could i ask?

how much did u have to pay for ur studies? did u get govt subsidy or something?

how much can an international student expect to pay for a 4 year program?

and thanx for ur comments~ appreciate it~

[hammer]

hey orionsbelt, i'm from Singapore 2... how old are you? i'm 17 well... 18 this year...wat u doin now? mi in JC... BTW wat setup u play( U in thomson jazz band?) i haf a pre-selmer post THnC buescher 400 :D :D :D with a Morgan L :lol: :lol: :lol: ... u can't imagine how much trouble it was juz to get that mouthpiece....
Ben

[Peterk]

Hi Orions,

how much did u have to pay for ur studies? did u get govt subsidy or something?

Not very much at all. I think it came to about 4,000$ a year (including books) for 4.5 years. So the whole engineering degree cost something like 20,000$. But yes I did get it much cheaper because I live here.

I went to the school's website to get the info for you:

http://www.mcgill.ca/student-accounts/fees/tuition/citizenship/

It looks like it's about 11,000$ CDN (~ 7,000$ US) per year for international students.

You can also go here...

http://www.mcgill.ca/music/departments/jazz/

to get info about the program. Lots of good teachers in that list. These guys play quite a bit around town!

[kcp]

Yet, another good word for Montréal...

Although I've never studied music in college or University, I'm actively involved and in touch with the Montréal jazz and music scene. Almost all of the greatest jazz musicians from Montréal have been to McGill, several of whom are well respected internationally.

As peterk mentions: "In addition, cost of living in Montreal is very cheap for a city of its size in North America and has a vibrant artistic community"
I would like to add that Montréal is very open-minded culturally, in fact the most multicultural city in North America. Low crime rate and very clean for a city it's size. The only thing I would gladly trade is the 6 months winter but even that is not enough to make me move somewhere else :wink: BTW Montreal is home of Cirque du Soleil, Oscar Peterson, Maynard Furgesson...

[orions_belt27]

Yo hammer~

nice to know another fellow singaporean in this forum~ i'm 19. and actually i dun have a set up yet, soon though, very soon~ i'm incredibly new to this saxophone thinghy. music though, is a great passion of mine. it's my only passion i must say.

i'm currently in my last year ngee ann poly, doin a Dip in mass communications~ gd interest, not passion though hahah~

i've actually been drumming for about 6 years already but, i didnt wanna do music the percussion way, besides, i know not how to play any MUSICAL instruments~ so, i was determined to pick up a musical instrument. and since i loved jazz so much, i wanted to do the sax becos hardly anyone i knew played dat so yea~ i like to challenge myself with a difficult instrument such as this. it makes me even more determined and resolute to wanna master it~


and to Kim and Peterk, thanks for the input~ i think i might very well make McGill and Montreal my choice destination of overseas education. This whole music thinghy means a hell lot to me. And i wanna be extremely sure dat i get the best kinda education i can get at a cost i can afford :) thanx u guys~ no wonder they say how great this forum is... haha! :D

cheers you all~

[disgruntleddave]

i have absolutely no information on any of those except mcgill. I went there with my music class on a trip (from toronto) and had a clinic. I dont know really about the program, but i did see their main jazz band playing, and I have a CD (conundrum). They sound really great, and the guy in charge seemed nice, and is great on the sax. Wish you the best of luck.

[miamuffins]

I've been to clinics to McGill as well (with my high school); the instructor could get a bit...unethical at times (like making the trumpet players stick their horns in the mouths without the mouthpiece) but it was so crazy it was great. My music teacher went to McGill and he says everything there is just amazing, and most of my graduating friends are going there for music performance/education. Montreal itself is an amazing city...anyone would love it there.

..best thing was that I didn't have to speak a word of french. :D "Je ne french pas"

[orions_belt27]

Thanx alot MajinX! i wish you the best in wat u do too~

And miamuffins, yea i've heard from other sources about Montreal as well and I think i'm not wrong to say dat it's THE jazz capital of Canada? And just a few days back, i read the article "McGill: A Jazz Hothouse" on the university's website, courtesy of the link provided by Peterk and yea i'm pretty impressed and i'll definitely wanna find out more about the sch and the city~

Thanx guys :)

[orions_belt27]

Sorry guys, a colleague of mine just told me dat it isnt exactly dat cheap to study in Montreal/Canada.. :?

By the way, she studied in Toronto like 10 plus years back and she was comparing the cost of living in Canada to dat of Singapore :) so i'm not too sure whether things would have changed by then.. (i'm thinkin dat it should have but i'm not too sure)

so in order to be extremely sure about things, i just got a few more questions.. :)

just wanted to ask u guys more about the cost of living per month or per year in Montreal? :)

how much can i expect to spend per month/year if i live a 'normal' non extravagent life in Montreal/Canada? :)

and also to those of you who have been to cities like Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide Australia, how does the cost of living compare to Montreal, AND Canada as a whole?

thanx for takin time out to answer these queries :) i appreciate any help dat i receive :) thanx again~ :D

ben~

[kcp]

Hi again orion,

To be honnest I dunno how the cost of studies compare to between Montréal and Toronto or the rest of Canada. However I lived in Toronto for 5 years before coming back to Montréal 10 years ago. From what I remember appartment rents in Toronto we're extremely expensive back then. Maybe that it changed, check it out, or maybe someone here can tell how much do rents cost in Torono nowadays.

To give you an example I live in the South East part of downtown near the river, in a nice 5½ appartment, Old French style, 2 floors, interior bricked wall, 12 feet high ceilling, large windows, 3 balconies and a private backyard. Near all accomodations (subway, post office, etc) yet there are many parks and vegetation around. My rent is 500$ CDN per month. Generally speaking in Montreal it's 100$CDN per rooms in the apprtment, so say you have a 3½, then it's 300$ or around that price.

Of course it depends of the area of town that you live in. If you live on the "Plateau" (the hip area of town) then yeah, rent is gonna be more expensive. Actually I discourage the Plateau because there has been too much hype about that area of town in the past years, and IMO landlords tend to exagerate on rental costs.

Also, generally speaking if you live in the English parts of the city, such as NDG, Westmount, Mount-Royal, rent is going to be way more expensive too. And oh... Old Montreal --> forget about it!

Bottom line is, there are plenty of other neighborhoods that are real nice and not too costly like the Latin Quarters, The "Cartier à mélasse" (where I live), "Cartier Rosemont", Little Italy and others if you don't mind mixing-up with neighbours who speak mainly French and other languages other than English. Actually that's what I'd say is the wonderful part about living in Montréal! But don't worry about the language issue, even though 80% of Montreal's population is French, you're garanteed to always find someone who can speak English around the corner.

In terms of cost for food and essential needs, I beleive that the prices are the same as in the rest of Canada. The down side the tax; In the Province of Québec there is the GST (General service tax) tax 7% and the QST (Quebec sales tax) of 7.5% added on top of the GST. But essential food such as bread, milk, fruits are not taxable, just like in the rest of Canada.

Anyway, sorry for the long post, I hope this helped answer your question a little better. By no means did I want to say that Montréal is the best place for you to study. (I'm a born montrealer, I can't help it, it's in my nature to be very enthousiastic and proud of my homecity) Take your time to think about and investigate about other possibilities.

[orions_belt27]

hey kim~

no good reply is ever too long for me haha :D

thanx alot~ dat's something i hadnt found out in my research all this while~ dat's really something i'd take note of :) thanx again!

ben~

[DC]

Hello Orion,

Small musical world, isn't it? I am an American tenor player, and taught saxophone & jazz at the University of Adelaide in 1997 and 98. I have just accepted that post again, and am awaiting visa clearance to begin teaching immediately. I assure you, Adelaide Uni is a good program, 3 big bands, 20 combos, +/- 150 jazz majors, 30 + saxophone majors. In 1998, I took my 3rd year student quintet to Manhatten, to perform at the IAJE conference, the first Aussie University ensemble to do so. Adelaide is a lovely, affordable city, with a lively jazz and music scene, since the jazz program has been around the University for decades. Because there has been a strong presence of saxophone teachers at the school for a long time, there is consequently a tremendously talented local saxophone working core. These guys can play! I know McGill is a great school too, as (of course) are all the others mentioned in the thread. A friend of mine taught at McGill for some years, we went to graduate school together in Colorado. So, I'm not trying to pursuade you to come to Adelaide, but simply wanted to contribute my first hand experience. Best wishes with your decision, doesn't sound like you can go wrong with any of the choices! cheers, Dusty

[orions_belt27]

hey DC~

thanx alot for dat :) i wish you all the best with teaching at Adelaide too! :)

ben~

[hodges1]

i decided to read this section out of curiosity. i am almost 38 and don't intend on going to a music university program at this point, but have some knowledge of the good schools. i was reading on this board that someone just said no to berklee and north texas. why is that? i heard a lot of good things about the manhattan school of music. i don't know any studentr or people who went to berkelee. how about julliard? how is the retention rate at that school? how many students who graduate, generally fall under teaching, and how many under performance? additionally, what kind of percentage of those graduating with music degrees stay with music as their main career, or choose another career as a main source of income to support themselves while maintaining their musical career?