One thing to think about in terms of double degree BA/MM (like Harvard/NEC) for composition. As a student’s music develops, he or she may want to have free choice about where to do a master’s, or, for that matter, directly enter a PHD. Doing a double degree locks a student in to a particular school 4+ years too early, in some ways.
The original poster may not have applied to any double degrees but a few of the schools listed do offer them.
I agree @compmom. I think locking oneself into a master’s program when still a high school student is limiting. The teacher, aesthetics, or type of program one wants as a senior in college will not necessarily be the same that one wanted as a high school student.
Thank you all! Yes, I already applied to all of my colleges (the list is in my original post), and I am wondering which would provide me with the most “versatile” education, so to speak. I know that the majority of my schools don’t have a performance track necessarily, which is fine, but do you think that without a performance track that I might still be prepared (via individual lessons and supplemental performance experience) to pursue a performance career/masters in performance, should I choose to take that route? If so, which of the schools that I applied to do you think would “leave that door open” for me and has a strong, well-rounded music program for someone unsure if they want to pursue musical academia or music performance? Thank you all again though for your helpful responses!
And yes @honestmom, I’m sure it really depends on the teacher for classical guitar since it is more of a solo endeavor than other instruments. If anyone has studied with any of the music/classical guitar teachers at the schools that I have applied to and has helpful info or anecdotes, that would be great (all of them would find me a teacher, even if they don’t have one on faculty, and I have contacted each to find out who that teacher would be), although I doubt there’s that many classical guitarists on here, so that may be too lucky 
For what it’s worth, Sharon Isbin got her B.A. at Yale, and then went to the Yale School of Music.
I know Harvard, Yale and Princeton all have strong academic music departments, and I expect many (if not all) of the other colleges you’ve listed do as well. But except for Eastman, none of them has an undergraduate program geared towards someone who wants to pursue music performance as a career. Schools like Harvard, Yale and Princeton do attract some very talented musicians, some of whom go on to careers in music performance, but those student-musicians generally rely on resources outside the school for the bulk of their performance work. As I’ve posted elsewhere, my son turned down some top conservatories to go to Columbia, even though he is interested in music performance as a career, because he saw a path to continue performance in NYC outside of Columbia. Although Columbia has some significant jazz performance resources within the school, and my son makes full use of those resources, it’s really not enough by itself. He does signficantly more music performance outside Columbia than he does at Columbia.
So for the music performance side of things (again with the exception of Eastman), I think the key question will be what performance resources will be available to you outside the school. For example, if you’re at Penn, is it realistic to expect that you could pursue performance study with a teacher at Curtis. If you’re at Yale, is it realistic that you could study with faculty at YSM? (As someone noted earlier, most undergrad musicians at Yale are assigned to graduate students for lessons.) Also important is the extent to which you can get credits towards graduation from your performance work. My son gets a significant amount of credits from performance, which allows him to take fewer academic courses and frees up more time for practice and performance outside of school. Some colleges limit the amount of credits you can get for music performance.
It’s important to recognize that a college is never going to offer the kind of music immersion, particularly on the performance side, that you will find at a conservatory. So it’s going to take more work, and a lot of outside resources, to pursue music performance seriously while going to a non-conservatory college. It can be done, and there are people who do it successfully, but it’s a more difficult path than the conservatory route.
On the other hand, a conservatory is never going to offer the kind of ‘academic’ immersion you will get at a university like Yale, Harvard, Princeton, etc. Since you have applied to these three and other similar schools, you must also be interested in that kind of college experience as well. I can only speak for Yale as I do not have experience with the others, but I can say that it provided my sons with a profoundly exciting and life-changing intellectual experience. In addition, it provided them with extensive performance opportunities–solo, chamber, and large ensembles, and lessons. So, the musical side of education you are asking about can be done–my son double majored in music and a non-music subject, and is now at a music conservatory for graduate school. On the practical side, quite honestly I think you need to wait to see where you are actually accepted–because these are all highly competitive schools and admission to any is not guaranteed. Once you have all the cards on the table, then you can start weighing the various options of teachers, music course offerings, etc.
Completely agree, and this is precisely why my son ended up at Columbia and not a conservatory. My point was only that it’s important to understand the tradeoffs, and to understand that if you go the college route but still want to pursue music performance seriously, it’s going to take some extra work to make sure you have the right resources. Also completely agree that it’s smart to wait to see where you get in and then start weighing the options. But the month you have to decide goes by quickly (my son took all the way to the last day to decide), so good to be doing some informational leg-work in advance.
If you get into any of these schools, you will do fine My daughter loved Harvard. She is a composer and classical guitarist and continued with a private teacher for guitar. Grad school is more than possible for students who continue training both within and outside of Harvard-or any of these schools.
You may be overthinking this. it won’t be long before you hear where you are accepted. At that point, do full research on the schools that admitted you, online and on campus. There will be differences between schools that are both obvious and nuanced. (For instance, Brown’s music major has three strands, composition/theory, ethnomusicology and technology.)
Since all the schools on your list are fantastic for what you apparently want, I think you may just be jumping the gun a bit because it’s hard to wait. I’m like that too
You may end up with a few schools to look into, or all of them, but in the end you really cannot go wrong.