BA in Music from TESU: Feedback on PLAs, TECEPs, LearningCounts, etc.

[Mamasaphire]

My son is graduating in December with a BA in Music from TESU. Todd Siben has been INCREDIBLE. He has been nothing but polite, encouraging and helpful and has gone above and beyond for my son. While yes, there is there are young people who have been playing an instrument for a long time, many of the young people that apply for PLAs in upper level music have decided that they can read a book on something like Music Therapy (which often is a master's level topic) and get a PLA. PLA's are meant to show experience and a lot of young people just haven't lived long enough to have tons of musical experience--especially what would be considered college upper level (I'm not talking about Beg. or Intermediate Piano). So, he sees a lot of things that some us simply aren't aware of. If you want the BA in Music program to be respected ---the upper levels need to be truly college senior level abilities and knowledge. I truly appreciate that TESU even gives young people a chance, given that the school is meant for adults. My son will be 20 when he graduates (19 when he is actually done)--and 54--YES, 54 of his credits will be PLA Music. 18 in Violin performance (his teacher is a doctoral candidate who plays with an international level quartet...who did real juries with my son, just like conservatory. His PLA's reflected that and he played in a college orchestra for years by invitation.) 18 will be in chamber music as he has played in advanced chamber groups for years, again--very much college level. And 18 in piano as he is one of those who has played since he was 7 and takes lessons from a former concert pianist with his masters in performance. All of that is exactly what he would have done at conservatory. But thanks to TESU's flexibility and Todd Siben's very kind guidance (we're talking hours of discussion with son)--he has all that done at a very young age.

There are a lot of folks in music academia that have turned their noses at his degree. I think Todd Siben simply wants PLA's to be a true reflection of knowledge gained through experience and not some youngster reading a book and writing a nice paper and claiming they have the experience. I know for a fact that several College Plus students have done this and bragged about it. While I cannot discount any person's experience (he may very well have been rude to any number of people), be careful about judging his motives. Right now, unless you want to pay $1500 for each upper level class at Berklee Online (which my son did for several of his classes)--the only way to do upper level music for a TESU degree right now is PLA's---and if they are to be respected, they need to have the experience to back it. There are those that are trying to dodge that system, and Todd gets to deal with those people, in addition to the young students who truly have the experience and ability.

Maybe his mood depends on the day? I am typically a very polite (leaning towards people pleasing) adult in my 40's. He called me unexpectedly and was literally antagonistic from the beginning of the conversation -- even though he knew very little about me beyond the fact that I had many credits which stem back from the '90s and include both traditional and CBE credits. I was shaking by the time I got off the phone with him. He was rude, made assumptions, interrupted me, told me that he already knew what I wanted (ie "to graduate asap", when for me it's not been about that for years, I actually enjoy learning). He completely shot down my PLA thoughts -- even though I have 20 years of documentable experience.

I'm not bashing him though, and I'm glad he helped others. Like I said, maybe it was a bad day (week??) for him. On the other hand every experience (email & on the phone) that I've had with Marc have been pleasant, very productive, and most importantly contain accurate information.