Grad school

Grad school? Yes. Where? I don't know. I'm feeling... out of sorts. I was planning to stay at SF State for my grad work, but my advisor is strongly urging me not to, and the more I think about it the more I think she is right. I'm scared, about a lot of things, but the more I learn about these schools the more excited I get about having more opportunities to perform, meeting new people, making connections, maybe even studying with a coloratura...

Here's my list so far. I'm trying first to expand it, then shrink it down to a reasonable number of schools to apply and (hopefully) audition for.

UCLA
USC
Long Beach
Indiana
North Texas
Boston Conservatory
Cincinnati Conservatory

Semi-interested in Oregon, but their website is really crappy so I'll need some more info on that front.

Long Beach calls my name for a few reasons, it's semi-small, it's in California, my sister goes there, they have a good program.

USC does 2 fully staged operas, a chamber opera, and opera scenes... this is pretty special. I need to find out more about UCLA... so far it's appealing because it's in LA and I have family and friends there. Way less scary.

Indiana puts on 8 fully staged operas a year. It's also GIGANTIC. They have 300 practice rooms! I love this, but feel like I might get lost and performance opportunities could be limited due to the sheer number of students they have...

North Texas is also gigantic... It's also in Texas. But according to my advisor, there is an awesome coloratura who teaches there and that is a very interesting prospect...

I do have to admit that I'm a little terrified of both Texas and the Midwest. I also have some more frightening personal issues regarding leaving San Francisco that I'm trying to reconcile with.

My interest is ultimately to get a doctorate, and thus be able to teach at a university and perform a lot. Why? I don't want the life of a regular performer, I don't want to travel the entire year. I want to teach, I want to perform, and I want a normal life (probably including a fair amount of travel, but not an exessive amount).