<p>All the big state schools in your part of the world offer music composition, as well as many of the smaller state schools - Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Bowling Green State, Univ. of Missouri Kansas City and many many more. There are some really interesting new music ensembles at some of the smaller state schools such as at Grand Valley State in Allendale, Michigan. If I were you I would definitely check them out - could be a great bargain and exciting too.</p>
<p>SpiritManager, see [College</a> Confidential - BB Code List](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/misc.php?do=bbcode]College”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/misc.php?do=bbcode) and in particular the url tag.</p>
<p>Normally, if you enter something that is obviously a URL, the site will automatically put it inside a url tag and, if that page is named, will also grab the name and display it instead of the url. It cannot do that given only the thread title, so what you want to do is enter URLs for the desired threads one per line and it will pull up the title automatically. Or, you can specify both the URL and name yourself using the url tag in BB code.</p>
<p>I searched for two of the threads you cited and copied their URLs on the next two lines. You can see the result</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/990497-realistic-college-list-music-composition.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/990497-realistic-college-list-music-composition.html</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/749881-best-liberal-arts-college-music-program-composition.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/749881-best-liberal-arts-college-music-program-composition.html</a></p>
<p>Thanks, BassDad - I was lazy and didn’t want to copy and paste each url one at a time - hoping I could just copy the whole post and it would work (Which it didn’t!)</p>
<p>Bandgeek –
I would very very strongly suggest that you go and visit the University of Michigan composition program, as well as the PAT (performing arts technology - bmus degree or bfa degree). Go during one of the audition/interview days, take the tour, etc.</p>
<p>The “PAT” program is not exactly traditional (includes engineering and sound reinforcement, electronic composition, film scoring etc.) but most of the students selected have a strong composing, ensemble playing and multimedia backgrounds. You can also concentrate in performance on your instrument in the A curricula of the program, or alternately concentrate in multimedia composition, or, of interest to a MATH student, concentrate in engineering while still composing music and performing. The traditional BMUS in Composition is an excellent program with very well regarded instructors that my son speaks very highly of. Each year, Michigan is right up there with heavy-hitting conservatories & privates in terms of ASCAP & BMI composition fellowships and awards or SEAMUS awards; and its profs stay current too, most recently receiving several grammy nominations, including classical composition. Lots of students in Michigan think of UMich as just a “state” school when in actual fact is has one of North America’s top performing arts schools – so consider yourself fortunate to have the “in-state-rate-of-tuition” opportunity for the taking!</p>
<p>In Michigan, I feel you WILL NOT beat UMich for calibre OR in-state price, and if you were fortunate enough to get in, that would be my personal (and of course, highly biased 
) recommendation. To get a feel, go read up on some of the composers there and give a listen to their work. </p>
<p>That said, other universities such as Indiana/Jacobs school of music can be within your price range (about 23k tuition Out of State BUT generous automatic scholarship for high stat students that will bring that down almost to UMich In-State tuition pricing, provided your GPA and ACTs are UMich-admit caliber) and you would want to optimize your chances by applying to a good number of well ranked programs since UMich is not at all an easy admit.</p>
<p>FYI - a budget of $30k a year would necessitate additional financial aid at private schools/conservatories, or generous merit awards. Fortunately, there are many excellent state composition programs in the midwest!</p>
<p>I do know UMich is a really good program. I have done a lot of research and participate in the youth bands they have. I would say it would be my school of choice but I’m looking for back-up plans because I know it is a hard program to get into as well!</p>
<p>Have you taken a look at Jacobs/Indianna, Iowa or UNT? They all seem to have concert band strengths together with composition depts/degrees, I think, plus more the big 10 environment and opportunities to continue in marching band if you wanted. (Not excluding programs like Oberlin for any reason other than price…)</p>
<p>I wouldn’t exclude Oberlin a priori on the basis of price. They offer good financial aid that is skewed more toward grants than loans. Some stats may be found at [Oberlin</a> College | Office of Financial Aid | Can I Afford Oberlin?](<a href=“http://new.oberlin.edu/office/financial-aid/overview/]Oberlin”>http://new.oberlin.edu/office/financial-aid/overview/)</p>
<p>Their marching band may not be quite what you expect, however. See <a href=“http://www.oberlin.edu/stuorg/OCMB/[/url]”>http://www.oberlin.edu/stuorg/OCMB/</a> (and yes that is pretty much the whole thing in the pictures, if it is still active at all).</p>
<p>^I was assuming when the poster said he could afford $30,000 k a year that mean he’d have quite a high EFC, but you’re right – OP, stay wide open on the price thing because you never know what kind of package you’d get!</p>
<p>There’s good colleges with strong music program
Rice
Rochester (Eastman)
JHU
UCLA
USC
Go to any school in NY, study music at Manhattan or Juilliard
Princeton (Curtis is nearby)
Go to any school in Boston, study music at Boston or NEC</p>
<p>Florida State University, University of North Florida (whose jazz ensembles are on par with those of UNT, though I realize you play bassoon), and Stetson University all have great music programs.</p>
<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>
<p>Just a note - USC and UCLA’s film scoring programs are post-graduate programs.</p>
<p>^And I believe USC’s is simply a post-grad, unfunded, one-year “certificate” not actually a Masters. (I think. Last time I checked.)</p>