I'm going to divide this blog post into two sections. The first (the one you're reading) will be devoted to my thoughts on college recruiting and how I got to the Being Uniquely You portion of this. If you're not involved in a college scene, feel free to skip to Part II. The second will be my thoughts on changing a dated system and being uniquely you. Believe it or not, they're strongly connected.
A dear friend recently came to me with a problem centered around staying relevant in an extremely competitive market. As I'm sure you know, I teach music at a college. Part of my job is attracting students to my school. There are many ways people do this but the old fashioned way is by playing principal in a symphony and getting a reputation as a great player. We'll talk about the downsides of this but another way of recruiting was hosting festivals with the intent of attracting students. Still other schools have large scholarship endowments, preparation programs, well-known faculty, and still others attract students with large marching bands.
Each of these ways are pretty common and were fairly tried-and-true for many years. In our modern college environment, each of these has it's challenges and are proving to be dated. Let's look at them carefully.
In the early to middle part of the 20th century, there were pretty much two options for musicians at the college level... future educators and symphony performers.
For the educators, students chose their schools based on their personal geography, the quality of the music education degree, and to some extent the quality of the band or orchestra. Their degree is an extension of the education department. These students typically end up teaching music in schools as general music teachers or band/choir/orchestra conductors.
For the players, people studied music at places like Curtis, Juilliard, and Eastman with the intention of becoming professional clarinetists themselves. Eventually, the larger state schools caught on and, for a while, the two groups produced most of the country's clarinetists for the symphonies and upper military bands. As the arts became deemphasized nationally, many symphonies started folding, reducing forces, or adjusting to their reduced revenues. In short: fewer jobs. People stuck with their dreams of playing in a symphony for a living and we were left where we are today... many candidates for a very few number of jobs, people playing lots of smaller gigs in regional symphonies, and many people switching fields. A more recent stress for performing musicians are auditions resulting in no selection. Clearly there are some problems with our old school model of hiring musicians for symphonies but either way, there are fewer jobs and reduced interest in pursuing that as a career. That translates to reduced interest in studying clarinet (or any instrument) in the college levels.
The next means of recruitment of quality candidates is by hosting festivals. It's the idea that you have a party, invite guests and some of those guests see how great your school is and want to come there. Most All-State festivals are based around this model. Typically the organizational bodies do this. Some schools host this type of event every year. It is my observation that potential students typically go to one to two of these events a year, at best. But they're fun, you meet some interesting people, hear some good performances, and give your school a fairly high profile in a very specific market. One problem here is that you rely on having a decent number of high school band directors and other community people attending to make the festival a success. Festivals set up for large ensembles often offer adjudication for ensembles. This approach can turn a friendly gathering into a competition which isn't all bad but is still dependent on a large number of band directors bringing their bands.
The next recruiting tool is the Jerry Maguire concept: Show me the money! Some schools have incredible scholarship endowments. Some have virtually none. Most have at least a little bit for a moderate number of students. In my experience, this is the single best recruiting tool. People have trouble saying no to a free college education, though it happens on occasion. On the recruiting side of this, we have a little more trouble as often funding is limited and we have to spread it thinner than anyone would prefer. With an impending student loan crisis, smart students will be hesitant to borrow money for an education, especially for a career path that can be as tumultuous as a performing musician. I advise students enroll in a music education degree so that upon graduation, they'll have at least a good shot at a junior high band director job or something better (though, I know many people who are perfectly happy with this career path). This all changes if the student has aspiration in a field other than music. The highest percentage of students accepted to medical schools are music majors. Students on this track may be better served by a general music degree or if they are highly motivated, a performance degree. These students need lots of electives that just aren't feasible in a music education degree. The big thing here is that students leave college expecting careers and that is not guaranteed in any field but more students will matriculate at our schools if we have a good track record of job placement, even if that's not officially our job. Students want to go to school for little out-of-pocket expense and to have a job when they graduate. While an admirable goal, I've never met a student who went to school only to improve their mind.
Some schools recruit by being good at getting students' jobs. Many schools lie or fudge the numbers on this so I advise students do their due diligence before forking over any cash or signing up for financial aid. That said, some schools are virtually feeders for jobs such as playing in the lower tier military bands, landing freelance work, and getting into graduate programs. This can be a great recruiting tool if everyone is honest and upfront with their information.
Often schools will employ well-known faculty. This is good for attracting the student who wants to study with a celebrity of the instrument. But, then again, how many of us are celebrities? Very few. You can make yourself better-known by visiting schools, having an online, social media presence, writing a blog (did you think I do this because I have something to get off my chest?), or otherwise putting their name, face, and musical sound on the minds of students and their parents.
The last means of recruitment I'll discuss is programs' marching band. This can be a mixed bag of blessings and curses. In my experience, marching bands are typically made of mostly non-majors but at smaller schools, the percentage can go up dramatically. This is a fun way for students to be part of the football program and many schools offer scholarships for participation. At some schools, no scholarships are required to field a marching band larger than some small towns. Some students really want to go to a school where they can participate in this way. There is nothing inherently wrong with this approach however, the students should be advised about how to deal with cold temperatures, the perils of some of the choreography, and since marching band rehearsals and performance take a huge amount of time, they should be taught how to maximize their available time. This experience is very helpful for students interested in a career in the military and being good at it before boot camp will save them some push-ups in the mud later down the road.
None of these recruiting methods is inherently better than any other. Sometimes we rely on a combination of a few of them. They worked. The bottom line is, for us to stay relevant and employed, we need students. We need to contribute something meaningful to the larger academic and musical communities. For students to continue in music, they need us. Here's the problem: getting them in the door is only half the battle. Students may be signing up for a music education, which they'll get, but what they don't see is that we have to teach them basic business and entrepreneurship and how to shape a career around their unique skill set. I'll continue this in Part II. Thanks for reading thus far!
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