Hey, HS junior here. I’m a good student, all As w high SAT, and I’m looking for a good academic school. I’m also really interested in music, potentially as a career, and so I’m looking at music programs Around the country. I know of rice, Vanderbilt, northwestern, and maybe Michigan matching those. In regards to Ivy League schools, besides the Columbia/Juilliard and Harvard/berklee programs, are the undergrad music programs good or comparable to the Vanderbilt, rice, etc. programs? And are there any highly academic schools with good music programs that I’m missing? FYI music composition is my main interest, and jazz as a secondary one. Any helpful thoughts, please share.
Wesleyan has one of the best world music programs in the country. Jazz is treated as a unique component of that and some great performers got their start there:
https://jazztimes.com/blog/mary-halvorson-wins-macarthur-foundation-genius-grant/
What is your home state? What is your budget? What are your stats?
There are quite a few very good music programs. Yale is one example. U.Mass Amherst is another. There are quite a few excellent programs in Canada. McGill is an obvious one (their music library and recording facilities are both quite impressive) but there are lots of others.
There are many many threads on this subject on the Music Major forum - which is where I recommend browsing. For composition, in particular, the list of highly academic schools with strong composition programs is long.
You’ll want to read right off the bat the “Double Degree Dilemma” thread pinned to the top of the Music Major forum - it is a thorough discussion of the different paths to study music. And for Music Composition - there is a multitude of choices: BA, BM, Double Degree, major in something else altogether and take classes. There is no one right way to get where you want to go.
Harvard and Columbia have their own composition departments - some of the best in the world - it’s not necessary to go for a double degree with Juilliard or NEC. If you wanted to study instrumental performance, that would be different.
For instance, for jazz performance, and classical composition, Columbia would fit your bill. As would Bard College. Not every college will be strong in both jazz performance and/or composition, and classical composition. You’ll need to dig into that.
MIT has a great composition department. University of Chicago. Williams. Holy Cross. Tufts. Oberlin. USC. Some universities, as opposed to LACS, will be more focused on their graduate students, however, which is something to look into.
Again, pop over to the Music Major forum - there is a treasure trove of information there. Or, do a google search: “talk.collegeconfidential.com music major composition” to find quickly some of the older threads.
With the new format, it seems to be harder to find the specialized forums - so here’s a link: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/