@“Meryem Ouhirra” My D (jazz drummer) only applied to 4 schools, and 3 of them are on your list so figured I’d weigh in with what we know about them from both personal experience and my D’s broader connections.
New School she liked and they gave her some reasonable merit, but she doesn’t really want to go to school in NYC.
Part of that is that we live nearby and she’s in the city every weekend now due to her pre-college jazz program at MSM. But great players there and obviously a strong focus on jazz.
Berklee she liked (and she has a bunch of friends there) and they gave her a modest merit award based on her audition back in December. But (at least for her) it felt too big and like there was a little too much variability in the quality of the students she’s encountered from there. That’s a consequence of its size frankly. There are amazing players there to be sure. But in a school that size there has to be a relatively wide bell curve to make their financials work. So that was a factor that influenced her. Now there are resources at Berklee that aren’t available anyplace else. And if she really saw herself taking advantage of them, I suspect she might have reached a different conclusion. But she is looking for a relatively straight jazz curriculum so compared the schools on that basis.
Frost is her top choice among jazz schools at the moment, and she has also received a solid merit award from them. But it’s been at the top of her list for 2 years since we started visiting. For a variety of reasons. She’s gotten to know the faculty well, and has a few friends in both the jazz and contemporary programs. At 700 students, I’m not sure I’d call the music school “small”. And its level of stature within the broader university makes it feel larger than that in some ways. One of the main questions my D had with regard to these schools was what are the ensemble opportunities like? And for a school of its size, she found that Frost has a huge number of ensembles with diversity from funk/fusion to Latin and everything in between. The faculty is great and well regarded. Both the head of the Jazz department (John Daversa) and one of the lead percussion teachers (Dafnis Prieto) won Grammys this year.
Of course as you say there are other considerations. Network, location, etc.
Here’s what she has found digging into those topics.
Most of the kids who go to Frost end up in NYC or LA after graduation. Frankly many of the kids who graduate from Berklee do too. So that felt like a wash to her. Both schools have well developed networks of graduates in both of those cities that you can connect with. I know because they have relatively active FB groups where alumni network with each other for gigs and other opportunities.
My D also has zero interest in football games and the parties that goes along with it lol.
But from what she has heard from her friends at Frost, they have their own independent social scene.
Unless of course you end up also playing in the “Band of the Hour” in which case the scenes overlap on game day lol. As a random note, I saw on their Instagram that the marching band got to play on stage with the EDM artist Griz this past weekend at a festival. Looked fun!
Anyway, they are both great programs with great faculty where you will be surrounded by students to grow and collaborate with. He can’t really go wrong in that regard.
Just wanted to give you our perspective on Frost because my D has gone a little deeper there.
Good luck making the call this month!
Who knows?!
