Hartt School of Music vs. SUNY Fredonia for Composition

<p>I'm a composer and percussionist who has been accepted into both programs at Hartt and SUNY Fredonia (As well as others, but these are my top two). I'm going to each school for strictly composition, and I have received a 25,000$ Scholarship to Hartt, which is half tuition, with an extra 5,000 from FAFSA in loans. Fredonia has given me alot of money in FAFSA that is not loans. I live in a single parent household and I don't want to spend extra money unless it is worth it.</p>

<p>I was wondering if anyone had advice as to if the name recognition of a private school like Hartt is more valuable than the affordability of a SUNY School, even though the program at Fredonia is incredible as well. I guess another question would also be if name recognition is going to mean anything as a composer in general, one who wishes to advance on to compose concert repertoire and possibly score for films and video games.</p>

<p>(The percussion aspect of my life won't matter as much at Fredonia, while at Hartt I may be more interested in Dual- Majoring in Percussion performance).
Thanks to every/anyone in advance!</p>

<p>Are you planning on graduate school? If so, talk to each school and try to determine where their comp graduates have gone recently. Is the graduate school record something the school emphasizes? </p>

<p>Robert Carl at Hartt is a wonderful teacher & would be a great person to study with. He makes very sharp, quick observations and is also very humble as a person. I do know that SUNY Fredonia has an overnight composer’s series where they bring in different composers. The two composers I know who have been guests recently have said positive things. Rob Deemer has written about his program there some on New Music Box; it could be worthwhile to dig through some of those.</p>

<p>Things to consider that might help: Who do you want to study with? (Teacher was a deciding factor for me a few years ago). Also, are the levels of the performers you’ll have access to at each school comparable? One thing that might be nice about Hartt is location- a little more connected to things on the East Coast & would give you the opportunity to have your music played outside of school in the city/have exposure to musical events happening outside of school.</p>

<p>@compdad I’m really focussing on the undergrad right now, but I’ve heard good things about both graduate programs.</p>

<p>@musician34 Both Dr. MacBride and Dr. Deemer seem like great teachers, I’m visiting Hartt on friday to get a better feel than I could on the audition day. Both percussion professors at each school seem great as well and I have spoken a lot with Ben Toth (Hartt). As for location the Hartt school is much more in tune with things on the coast and that was one of my focal points, and also because Fredonia is 8 hours away from Long Island, where I live.
The level of performance seems fairly the same, both schools have very good performance programs. If money were not a factor I would probably choose Hartt, I’ve spoken to them about a scholarship raise and they are looking into it, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.</p>

<p>Bardcomposer - my comment was not directed at the graduate programs of the schools. Rather, my point was that if you are considering going to grad school somewhere after undergrad, then you should a look at the quality of the grad programs into which the undergrads of the two schools are accepted. </p>