<p>To add to Earl’s list, my daughter describes Harvard (PhD program), Oberlin and UCSD as “European avant-garde.” Electroacoustic composition is also offered at these schools. </p>
<p>She also made the point that conservatories tend to be more conservative than colleges, and may have an aesthetic that could be explicitly described, but, at the same time, composition teachers may be very accepting and encouraging of other styles in their students.</p>
<p>Very quick add here, as Ive just (also belatedly) posted to your original post regarding why IU. To go further just into the question of compositional style, another big reason my son liked the school (Indiana, Jacobs, for searching purposes) is the large number of comp professors, and the departments stated openness to all styles among the students as well as the faculty. Their programs plan, which is more common perhaps than I thought, is to have every undergrad comp major work with one faculty member per year at least for the first three years, so that each student ends up working with several composers and a variety of ideas, and ends up as well with three or four good letters of rec for grad school. I think I mentioned elsewhere that his freshman year prof. has my son writing for a single instrument, which my husband & I think is terrific. Its a nice idea for him to get down to basics for a bit. And after all the stress of applications, its been good for me to remember that, as kmcmom13 said happened with her son, a lot of change is going to happen! So bottom line, I feel very confident that while all this education and change is going on, my son will at least be well cared for and supported in his artistic growth whatever that turns out to look like. So I agree with EarlGr8: any good program will foster a growth artistically but I have to disagree that IU Jacobs is particularly tonal and traditional overall. Its a bit more traditional a musical education than some might like (fundamentals! 
, including theory drill. Seriously) but from what I have seen so far, the compositional aesthetic is one of real collegiality and openness to all kinds of ideas.</p>
<p>I stand by my previous impression of IU as a composition program with a “traditional” focus. Dzubay, Baker, Freund, J. Haas, etc., are all composers famous for conservative aesthetics, as do the most well-known graduates of the school. There are some composition programs that have internal “camps”, but IU is rather pretty well known (and famous in the composition world) for its conservative composition program. It’s a very conservatory-style department. This is a rather pretty strong reputation that is attached to this department, and has been for many decades, so I stand by my “impression”. Yes, there is a large comp faculty at Jacobs, and yes each one of them are different from each other, but none are particularly known in the field as progressives.</p>
<p>Note that I don’t necessarily equate “conservative” as “tonal” but rather evaluate it in a larger holistic vision of the approach to composition. In short, instead of specific techniques or aesthetic attachments, I see the dichotomy as more about how the composer views him or herself relative to the traditions and lineages s/he is tracing from. Therefore, “traditional” or “conservative” are by no means negative connotations! I know many reading this thread will have innately bad feelings about those words when used to describe arts and creativity, but I’m really just using them as convenient labels. This of course is very reductive to each program on an individual basis, but I think discerning readers all take that assumption, to understand that it is just a superficial larger label, and that the specifics of each individual department is up to them to investigate further personally.</p>
<p>Also note that I don’t really regard “openness to all kinds of ideas” as necessarily a vital definitive aspect of a department’s aesthetic. You can have a department that is very open to all ideas (as most departments are) but still have an overarching approach or sound.</p>
<p>However, your post and your son’s experience at the school perfectly encapsulates what OCMusicMom’s wanted to get out of this thread, i.e. a student’s internal experience at a specific school versus the larger, external reputation of a department. It also speaks to my earlier point about a student’s day-to-day life in the department being more affected by the specific fostering faculty teaching and by general opportunities. Your son obviously is having a great development as a composer at Indiana, which is not surprising, since it is known for being a good program. And any good program (just about all the ones I originally listed are indeed great comp programs, by most measures), as I said, will foster a growth artistically, and all of the established programs in composition have readings, ensembles, guest visitors, masterclasses, etc. to try out developing one’s voice.</p>
<p>Report from the front - My son’s first two composition assignments at Oberlin were completely tonal while every one since has had, at least in part, atonal aspects. At Oberlin, comp students do not undertake composition studies with an individual faculty member until the second year so these assignments are from his first semester composition class.</p>