Colleges with good jazz/music programs

<p>My son is a junior who plays football and baritone saxophone in his school's jazz band. He would like to continue with both in college and perhaps have a music minor (english/history/creative writing major). It is fairly easy to find out about a school's football program but can anyone recommend some good music programs. He is primarily interested in the northeast. Thanks.</p>

<p>I can only think of three colleges in the northeast with really good jazz programs that even have a football team. They are:</p>

<p>Rutgers
UMass at Amherst.<br>
William Patterson State College</p>

<p>If you want to expend your geographic horizons a bit, you might also consider:</p>

<p>Oberlin College
University of Miami (FL)
Indiana University
Lawrence University
University of Arizona
University of North Texas
USC
Wayne State University</p>

<p>Penn State
Maryland</p>

<p>Thanks for the replies. Most of the schools (Rutger, Penn State, Miami) are D-1 football programs and that is an all consuming job (not sure he is at that level). Would be looking for I-AA, II, or III. UMass is a nice one. Any other "smaller" schools you can think of are appreciated.</p>

<p>James Madison
Rochester</p>

<p>Thanks, dudedad, the University of Rochester (Div III football) should have been on my first list. Eastman School of Music, which is associated with them, has an excellent jazz program.</p>

<p>The following schools all have jazz programs (perhaps not quite as good as Rutgers, UMass, William Paterson and Eastman though) and a football team that is not Division I:</p>

<p>Hofstra (I-AA)
Ithaca College (III)
Rowan University (III)
Westfield State College (III)</p>

<p>U of Pittsburgh has an excellent jazz program (my intro course was taught by Nathan Davis, all of the TA's were PhD's, and all are practicing jazz musicians). Their music program is mediocre, but their jazz is top-notch and intro to jazz is the most popular intro class to take care of the music/art requirement for CAS.</p>

<p>Plus, Pitt is very well-known for their football and basketball (though they seem on-again, off-again in the past years in the rankings...though you are primarily interested in football)!</p>

<p>Just to get an idea of the jazz at Pitt, here's a link:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.pitt.edu/%7Epittjazz/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.pitt.edu/~pittjazz/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I definately back up dudedad's recommendation of Rochester as you have Eastman (he can take classes there and free lessons from the top music school in the country!) right there. Additionally he would definately be able to continue football as they are D-3...</p>

<p>A bunch of others that came to mind that you may wish to look at. All have decent or better music departments but I do not know much about the jazz scene at these. The designation in parentheses is the division in which their football team competes.</p>

<p>Amherst College (III)
Bowdoin College (III)
Bucknell University (IAA)
Colgate University (IAA)
Cornell University (IAA)
Dartmouth College (IAA)
Hartwick College (III)
Indiana University of PA (II)
Long Island University, CW Post (II)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (III)
Susquehanna University (III)
The College of New Jersey (III)
University of Pennsylvania (IAA)
Wesleyan University (III)
West Chester University (II)
Yale University (IAA)</p>

<p>Good jazz resource is the International Association for Jazz Education </p>

<p><a href="http://www.iaje.org%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.iaje.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>In my area, a lot of jazz people go to DePaul (Chicago). I've heard it's kind of tough to get into music there.</p>

<p>Wesleyan is good in both jazz and world music. Don't know about it's football.</p>

<p>Hey everyone, thanks for the great input. Does anyone know of schools that offer Music Production as a major/minor?</p>

<p>There are a lot of music production schools out there. If you are interested in a program at a "normal" school, look into U. Miami and Ithaca. If you want a conservatory sort of approach, check out Hartt if you want a place with a more classical approach and Berklee if you are more pop/rock/jazz oriented. If you want more of a trade school approach that gets you a degree or certificate ASAP with lots of hands on work in production and not a lot else, check out Full Sail.</p>

<p>University of Chicago has some very good jazz opportunities and a non-life-consuming football team, as well as being an amazing place in general.</p>

<p>The real question is how good a saxophonist is your son. When people mention schools like Rutgers, Miami, North Texas, Maryland, Eastman etc. regarding participation in the jazz band, that is the equivilant of suggesting that a high school football player should look at Southern Cal, Texas, Penn State because they think they would like to play football in college. Does he study sax privately? Does he have a good classical background in addition to jazz chops? Does he have solid improv skills? What is his combo experience? I intend no disrespect but unless your son is a really hot high school jazz saxophonist he has virtually no shot at most of the schools mentioned. In addition, if a college has even a moderately active music department the sax competition will require lots of individual practice by your son. Tough to do when you are playing an intercollegiate sport, even at the D3 level, and keep up with the academics. I would highly suggest you check out some jazz band CDs by top music schools like Temple University ( <a href="http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/6666684/a/Mean+What+You+Say.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/6666684/a/Mean+What+You+Say.htm&lt;/a> ) to get a perspective on the level of playing at good jazz schools.</p>

<p>Regarding music technology (production) Duquesne has a top program (excellent D1AA mid major football program) and Lebanon Valley also offers a music technology major.</p>

<p>Again, I mean no disrespect to you or your son. I just think that advising a saxophonist (who is not persuing music performance or music ed as a major) that there is a chance of coming out of high school and having a shot at playing jazz at Rowan, Ithaca, Indiana, JMU is practical is not great advice.</p>

<p>Swathman, you are right. As the father of a performance major, I was taking for granted that the OP's son has been taking private lessons for years and is playing at least in regions if not in state level ensembles. Re-reading the first post, I realize that may or may not be the case. He asked for "good" amd I read "best." It is possible that he is going to have to aim a bit lower.</p>

<p>Advice taken. Thanks!</p>

<p>I am glad to come upon a couple jazzmen. 11th grade S has been playing electric bass , studying with a jazz teacher for 6 years and just got second place to be in county jazz band . He also plays double bass in magnet public city high school orchestra where he will graduate with an IB diploma .His grades are good ( 4.0 gpa , some AP 4's ) . He had a 198 on his PSAT ( and I do not know what that is equivalent to on SATs next year as I hear those never go up much further from PSATs ) Possible major : music theory & composition or performance. Interests : jazz, plays rugby ( his team won their division last year ) but it's not necessary to play in college , only ecs: he works , belongs to school's sweatshop awareness club, soup kitchen volunteer . Prefers a college with vegetarian food option on menu . He wants a school that has some engineering programs ( in the chance he changes his mind ) in PA., Ohio, Conn. or NYS. </p>

<p>Any ideas ?? I looked in Rugg's books for starters .</p>

<p>Easydoesitmom,</p>

<p>If he is a really good bassist and a small, interdisciplinary engineering program would satisfy him, check out Oberlin. They have a 5-year double degree program if he decides to do both. It is very hard to get into the conservatory though and I would like his chances better if you had said he was playing in at least state-level groups. He has almost another year before auditions to improve, though. There are lots of vegetarian and vegan options in the cafeterias and the food co-ops. Also lots of kids interested in social and environmental activism.</p>

<p>If you want more of a hard-core engineering program, check out U. Rochester. Eastman Conservatory is also very hard to get into, however. I don't know about the vegetarian scene there.</p>

<p>Other possibilities include Bucknell, Cornell and Penn. All have great engineering schools and pretty good music departments. If he is not playing at the level that Oberlin and Eastman are looking for, these would be solid options. Again, I don't know about the vegetarian options there. Many schools post cafeteria menus on their websites, so perhaps you might find some pertinent info there.</p>