<p>Assuming your son is really serious about music education at SUNY, it should come down to Fredonia v Potsdam.</p>
<p>In answer to your question, if your son is merely a diligent student, his high SAT scores would suggest that he could coast through just about any college in the country, including Fredonia and Potsdam, so I don’t think that non-music academic rigor is the most relevant factor in deciding which school to attend. </p>
<p>Indeed, if he is an extremely driven student, his high SAT scores suggest that he can probably accomplish great things at just about any college, publish important work and move on to bigger and better things.</p>
<p>And if he is somewhere in between, it would be good to have inspiring and supportive faculty to push him in the right direction, but finding those one or two mentors probably has more to do with luck/fate than anything else.</p>
<p>Fredonia has a remarkable physical plant (indicating powerful friends in Albany) and a great caring hands-on student-centric administration, both of which are far more impressive than even the vast majority of private schools. I think that the faculty generally follows the administration’s lead in that regard, and that is what tips the scale for me.</p>
<p>Good Luck</p>
<p>For what its worth, my gut feeling/prejudice is that both the students and the faculty at Fredonia trend towards a stereotypical midwestern overly cheery attitude, which is occasionally deadened by snowbound cabin fever. At Potsdam, my sense is that there is a trend towards a stereotypical Northern New York gloominess which is occasionally enlivened by a sweaty rugged outdoorsy hardiness.</p>