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I'm nearing the end of my master's program at my school and I've been thinking a lot about what may be coming up in the future. By the way, that's part of the reason why I haven't been so active on Piano Forums! Good to see you guys. I have missed you!

Anyway, continuing on, I'm one semester away from receiving my MM and am at a crossroads. I honestly don't know whether or not I want to try for a DMA. Is it worth it? What do you guys think? Pros and cons?

I've had a lot of things happen in the last year and a half, ever since I attended WPPC 2008 (where I got to meet some Piano Forums folks). I started a master's program. I got pregnant. I had a baby. I continued my master's program. I'm not going to lie, it wasn't easy, but not because of the piano requirements. It's really just time constraints, and even then, believe it or not, having a baby and attending school full-time while simultaneously keeping up a studio is not as crazy hard as you think!

For those of you with experience with doctorate level coursework and studio requirements, could you tell me what it's like? Can you tell me about job opportunities with a DMA, whether you felt it was worth it? I want to know if there is anything better than this, being at the master's level. I want to go farther, to go higher, go deeper, do more, but I am not sure whether a doctorate is going to take me the direction I want to go. Most definitely it will take me away from my very young son, because if I do make the decision to audition, I will enter the program as soon as possible.

Help!

Edit: I don't want to exclude non-doctorates either. Piano teachers of the forum, please tell me whether you think it is worth it to pursue a DMA!

Unless you see yourself teaching at the university level, don't bother. It's not worth the hoop-jumping and anxiety it will cause.

If you want to teach at the university level a PhD or DMA is a must -- and this is even becoming true for part-time positions. If you don't care to have this as an option in your future then don't bother.

I agree. At one point I considered getting my doctorate because I thought I wanted to teach at the university level. Then I realized that I loved being my own boss and hated politics, and musicians seem to be pretty bad about that stuff. I caught wind of it a few times with my limited experience enough to realize this.

Unless you want to teach at a big name college, there's no need for the doctorate (and you can even teach at a college or conservatory without the piece of paper if you have equivalent experience in performance).

So the question is, what would you use the degree for? Personally, I think you have only one chance to see your son grow.

Agree!

I also agree re only one chance to see your son grow..... Once those years are gone you can't press rewind.... I must say though, I am astonished to hear that a newborn, a fulltime course of study and running a teaching studio was fairly easily managed!!!

It is impossible to do if you are a single parent. I relied heavily on my husband. Things like eating and sleeping also go by the wayside. If you value those, along with sanity, I wouldn't recommend it.

Thanks for the input so far, guys. I've wanted to be a professor of piano for a long time but I have an idea of what it takes and I'm not sure I want to go there. And yes, I don't want to miss out on my kid growing up. I've already missed a good deal of time as a baby. He isn't a newborn anymore and he's fast turning into a toddler and I want to tell him to slow down! Don't go so fast!

One of the things holding me back from a possible DMA in pedagogy is the age difference. If I went for it now, I'd be a young DMA. I'd feel like I was teaching my brothers and sisters at the undergraduate level, and I don't think I could ever get the graduates to respect me! I already feel like I'm teaching siblings as a graduate teaching undergraduates. Well, that will fix itself in time, but I think the real issue is that I'm scared people will see through me and expose me for a fraud or something. I'm really feeling quite insecure about my abilities as a performer, which is definitely a requirement for a DMA. But I was sort of hoping I'd be able to really focus on practice without the stress of pregnancy and new parenthood if I went for a DMA. I'm so conflicted!

Honestly, I would chill out for say three years, just give yourself a chance to consolidate your learning from your Masters, get some more life experience, keep reading research/journals/whatever material that will be relevant to doctoral studies down the track, and you'll still be on track.

You won't stop being you if you aren't studying in a formal sense - and constructing your own private learning path for a few years will stand you in amazingly good stead when you return to working-towards-a-qualification study. Plus you get to enjoy parenthood while you still have a child!!!

I see lots of DMA recitals at our local university. And I'm curious whether these students find the employment they were hoping for after graduation. I wouldn't be surprised if there were 500 applicants for every job opening.

I know of a very fine pianist who wanted to get her doctorate. She is young and applied shortly after getting her masters. She was turned down because they wanted to see her out there teaching and performing for a while. I think that part holds a lot of weight when applying for a doctorate program.

So take this time to get more experience teaching, and if you desire, to perform. Most professors at universities are required to put on a recital once a year, I believe, as well as accompany other faculty recitals. If you are insecure about your abilities as a performer, then I don't think you're quite ready for this step. Take your time and you will know for sure after a few years.

Caring for an infant includes 3 shifts: day shift, evening shift and night shift. If someone is in school full time and runs a home studio, obviously someone else is caring for the baby for 2 or 3 shifts daily.

The other thing that this topic brings up for me is how I felt when I had an infant. My feeling was "wasted days and wasted nights". We are in a culture that says pieces of paper (college degrees) matter more than providing for the needs of our own child. It can be a rat race of trying to prove that we are competitive and can excel. Excelling at parenting has its value...but you won't get paid or get kudos for it.

I talked with a medical resident a few years ago. She had two children. She said "I sometimes wonder if it is worth it". (I'm thinking she means is med school worth it.) Then she goes on to say "But then I look at their faces and decide it is worth it". Definitely valuing career over family. Just saying that we're in a culture that highly values money and proof of intensity (graduate degrees etc).

BTW, out of six friends with PhD's or MD's, only one works in her field full time. I have no DMA friends, but I see one post on Craigslist to offer piano lessons.

Ah, sorry for not being able to reply to everyone until now. Thank you for the thoughtful responses.

Ann, I took care of most of the morning shift and the entire night shift. As I said upthread, if you want to do what I did, you have to be able to put eating and sleeping by the wayside.

I've been teaching continuously since I was 17 (you all can laugh at me now! But teaching has always been a lifelong dream for me) so by next year I will have had 10 years of experience in this field. I just outed my age to you guys! Anyway, I've been through a lot, learned a lot. Have solidified a lot of my "style" in the last 3-4 years. I've taught privately, in schools, in groups, in prep schools. I've looked at audition requirements and DMA requirements and my experience seems to have fit the bill.

I ought to be more clear and say that I'm not insecure in my ability to perform. I feel like I'm very well seasoned in that regard thanks to a childhood spent performing and competing. It's that I feel like my skills won't be up to par. I'm unsure whether I can go the next level past my current repertoire, physical limits notwithstanding. I'm unsure I even want to go that much farther past where I am now. It's not a goal of mine to play Gaspard, or Islamey, or Iberia (okay maybe Iberia). But if I had a tasty enough carrot, I could see myself pushing to get there.

I'm considering the politics angle, I hadn't thought of that. I know I'd be unequivocally bad at it. Pretty terrible as I speak my mind without thought of consequence for the most part. And if I got locked into a position I didn't feel comfortable in, that sounds like it'd be horrible. But I do want the experience of teaching advanced students.

Anyhow, thank you all again for chiming in. I think what I've decided to do is to prepare an audition for some schools. Just to test myself. And apply to see if I'd get in. If I get in, then it'd be like an affirmation of whatever it is I'm testing myself on, and then I can make the decision then. The answer is probably going to be no. As people said before, the baby years go fast. Too fast. I don't want to miss them!

Deciding whether/when to pursue a doctorate degree is a tough personal choice. You'd be the best person to answer that question.

However, I do have an opinion on whether to audition without the intention of entering into the program even if you were accepted. In short, I discourage using auditioning as a way to test yourself.

Most schools put in a lot of efforts into admissions, especially at the doctorate level. It takes a lot of time to consider and evaluate each applicant carefully. The professors invest the time and energy because they want to find the best matching students. An applicant who doesn't really want to enter the program wastes the admissions committee's time.

Often, there are many more qualified applicants than there are slots. Not being selected doesn't mean you didn't pass the test. Being selected without intention of going, you occupy a slot that could have gone to someone who would want to go. You might think that by quickly declining the offer you would free up the slot, but each of these actions takes time. By the time the school receives your decline, makes a new offer to the next student in line, that student might have already taken up an offer to a different school, even though that student might have preferred to attend the school that accepted you.

I realize there is no rule against just auditioning, and I understand that there is some chance that you might enter the program if you were accepted. Still, I feel that it's important to understand the cost of the action from the school's and the other applicants' perspectives.

Megumi, thank you for your input. I hadn't considered that aspect of it. I can still prepare as if I was going to audition and put the time and effort in to put a program together.

I am also about to enter my last year of my M.M. While I may stay one more year for a professional studies degree, I'm definitely holding off on a DMA.

First of all, I don't desire to continue going into debt and spending more money on degrees until I've actually made some of my own.

Mainly, however, I feel like regardless of what people say, it IS indeed possible to establish yourself professionally without a DMA. Maybe not necessarily as a faculty member at a university (all though there are indeed a lot who don't have DMA's), but it's possible to build very strong private studios, organize your own performances, accompany professionally, and do any number of things without this degree. In fact most job notices for university positions read, under qualifications, something like this : "Masters degree required, DMA recommended but applicants with lots of performance and pedagogical experience may be considered in lieu of a DMA".

Lastly, I think a lot of people underestimate the difficulty and competitiveness of actually securing a college position. On average there might be five or six job openings a year that are compatible with your personal circumstances, and for each job there will be hundreds and hundreds of applications coming in. And even if you do get the job, the starting salaries are usually less than a seasoned, serious private teacher in a large metropolitan area would make.

In light of all that I probably will end up going for a DMA some time down the road, but I'm going to try to explore different avenues of career prospects before heading in that direction.