From my experience, the most successful people in society seem to be people who enjoy what they are doing. One of my instructors at a university in cleveland told me, "If I love what I'm doing, do it." I find identification in my music, because I love to perform. There are more times that I can practice with pleasure than times when I practice for requirement.
Unfortunately, the university has changed that perspective in many ways. I understand the need for requirement classes in general. From what I'm told, requirements teach me the basics of what I want to study, or live with. From my experience, I've experienced a contrary. I've only been to michigan for a year and a half, but my required learning experiences has included: studying independently than to attend lectures by bumbling professors, reading textbooks assigned by professors who haven't read them, learning the differences of Gregorian chant, and learning how to properly argue the existence of self-identity. This can be useful to many people, but the most important question for me is, how will this help me land an orchestra job?
So for now, I will learn what is being prescribed to me. But if anybody is seeking out to apply to Michigan, I'd strongly ask them to talk to current students themselves rather than to go to the admissions office an watch testimonials. From what I see, Michigan is giving me the choice of identity, but is telling me the recipe of becoming that identity. I've always wanted to identify myself as a performance musician. But right now, more than ever, I feel as if I'm wasting my time learning material which I am becoming more and more disillusioned with. I'm being fed butter at a time when I feel I need bread.
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