[Help] Choosing an Undergrad Music School. Composition Major.

Hi guys, now I’m accepted by UIUC School of Music, Berklee, UNT School of Music, and Temple University Boyer College of Music. Before I was applying, I thought I would definitely choose UIUC if I were accepted, since my concentration is classical/ contemporary classical music and I want to finally pursue a DMA degree. But now I’m not that sure if UIUC is the best choice, as Berklee’s reputation may help a lot for my further application to graduate schools and one of my friends at church, who got his Guitar DMA at UNT, strongly recommends UNT.
Any suggestion is appreciated!

Give us more inputs, such as budget, please.

Uh, that’s not a major concern. The schools’ faculties, academic environment, and reputataion matter the most to me.
Thanks for your input!

You have some great choices. I am sort of wondering about your choices about where to apply to if you are a classical/contemporary classical composer, at least in the context of Boston: NEC and BoCo are right down the street from Berklee.

Berklee and BoCo have merged which might help you if you went to Berklee. Berklee is large and multi-faceted and has a large and wonderful composition faculty. It would be a great choice.

That said, the other schools are great too. UIUC composition faculty look interesting: I know of two of them, and one of them actually went to UNT for grad work.

UNT has a great reputation particularly for electronic work.

Temple is in Philly, so is Curtis…

Since all of these schools would offer you a satisfying 4 years, are there other criteria you can use: location; faculty you want to work with; dominant aesthetic or freedom from such; course offferings; performance opportunities (how may concerts.year?)

If you want to get a doctoral degree ultimately, your undergrad school matters less than the works you produced, though networking and such are important. The latter can be done at summer programs as well.

I would go where your gut tells you. Have you visited all of the programs?

I think if it’s a DMA you’re ultimately aiming towards in classical composition - if you mean New Music by ‘contemporary’, rather than ‘commercial’ I don’t believe in that field that Berklee’s reputation outweighs the others on your list at all.

I know a couple of professors at Berklee in the composition dept. ( by “know” I am not saying we are friends! I know of them and know some of their students or know other composers who host them etc.) and I think Berklee could certainly work out. It’s just that it is large and there is sooo much going on.

Just want to repeat that students from all kinds of schools end up in good grad schools if their work is quality and interesting. The main goal, is to develop the oft-cited “individual voice.”

But UNT and UIUC have great faculty too. I don’t know that much about Boyer…

hey at what year of high school should i audition for Berklee? junior or senior?

You audition during the school year before the year you plan to attend. For UNT, you are not accepted as a composition major, but into the instrument on which you auditioned. After taking base composition courses, you must be accepted into the composition major. It is a large but good department, although I think its true strength is in its graduate composition programs.