<p>I know this is instrument specific, but for performance majors in general, how do you think these conservatories rank in terms of music community prestige:</p>
<p>Oberlin Conservatory
Peabody Conservatory of Music
New England Conservatory of Music
Cleveland Institute of Music
Eastman</p>
<p>Similarly, how would you rank these university music departments:</p>
<p>Columbia
USC / Thornton SOM
Vanderbilt / Blair SOM
Carnegie Mellon
Northwestern
Case Western Reserve
Yale</p>
<p>This is really subjective and a little silly. Also, for guitar, it's even more instrument-specific than usual.
But what the heck.
CIM
NEC
Eastman
Oberlin
Peabody
USC
Northwestern
Yale
CMU
Vanderbilt
Columbia
Case Western</p>
<p>All are excellent.</p>
<p>For what it's worth, the last official USNWR music school ranking appears to have been done in 1994 for graduate schools only. Interestingly, I didn't think Oberlin had a grad school, but they're on the list. The methodology states that the score represents the school's average reputation based on a survey of deans and senior faculty, so that would be fairly comparable to your request for ranking based on "music community prestige" </p>
<p>THESE ARE THE SCHOOLS WITH THE HIGHEST SCORES IN THE U.S. NEWS SURVEYS OF DEANS AND SENIOR FACULTY</p>
<p>AVERAGE REPUTATION RANK SCHOOL SCORE</p>
<ol>
<li>INDIANA UNIVERSITY AT BLOOMINGTON 4.80</li>
<li>JUILLIARD SCHOOL (N.Y.) 4.80</li>
<li>UNIV. OF ROCHESTER--EASTMAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC (N.Y.) 4.80</li>
<li>UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 4.70</li>
<li>CURTIS INSTITUTE OF MUSIC (Pa.) 4.60</li>
<li>NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY (Ill.) 4.50</li>
<li>YALE UNIVERSITY (Conn.) 4.50</li>
<li>NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC (Mass.) 4.40</li>
<li>OBERLIN COLLEGE CONSERVATORY (Ohio) 4.40</li>
<li>UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 4.40</li>
<li>UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 4.40</li>
</ol>
<p>Oberlin has a mere handful of grad students in programs like Early Music and Music Education, mostly involving five-year programs that result in both a Bachelor's and a Master's degree. Also, Curtis does not have many grad students, the ones they do have are mostly in Opera.</p>