<p>bandgeekatcarman:</p>
<p>My S is also aiming for a contemporary composition/film scoring career and is starting his auditions this weekend. Here is the list of schools he has applied to:</p>
<p>Belmont University, commercial music composition and arrangement - Belmont also has a classical composition program and you can move between them once you get there. Also has a fantastic school of music business and a songwriting program if you are more of a songwriter than a composer. Beautiful school too.</p>
<p>New York University/Steinhardt - composition. NYU’s program offers a concentration in film scoring and NYU has a graduate program in film scoring. And of course, NYU’s film school is one of the best and undergraduate composition majors get to work with the film students. NYU is hideously expensive. And NYC isn’t for everyone, though we loved it.</p>
<p>Temple University/Boyer - composition. Only school we know of that doesn’t require an instrumental audition and also begins composition classes in the freshman year (many conservatories don’t; you spend your first year with all the other music students taking basic theory, ear training, etc.) Temple is also very affordable, even for out of state students, and has a lot of scholarship money.</p>
<p>Berklee College of Music - only school on the East Coast that offers a film scoring major. Also has a contemporary composition program and a big scholarship program for composers. But everyone auditions at Berklee strictly on their instrument and then they sort out into majors in the sophomore year. So you have to be very good on your instrument to get accepted there even if you want to be a composer.</p>
<p>I know that USC and UCLA also offer film scoring degrees if you want to go out West. My S did not, so he did not apply. We also looked at James Madison and decided not to apply there because it is a more traditional classical composition program.</p>