<p>Alright, I'm just going to lay it all out for you. I am NOT a stellar student when it comes to my academics. I think that I average around a 3.0 GPA. I have never really had an interest in doing anything besides persuing a career in music (more specifically vocal and a dabble on piano). My parents fully support this. I am doing Independent Study right now, and hope to graduate by Dec. '06/Jan. '07. </p>
<p>I'm here looking for some suggestions that you all may have regarding music schools. I don't want to go somewhere where I will stuck being classically trained...I've gone through that and I'm done with it. I'm not looking to get into Juillard or anything like that, because A. I'm realistic and B. I wouldn't grow there. I'm looking for a real good jazz voice program. I don't just want to go to a music school that gets me nowhere. I've done some searching and I've come across not too much to be honest. I did however find The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. It seems like a neat place but I've never heard of it. Anybody know anything about it? Anybody know any other jazz programs?</p>
<p>While I'm not an academic whiz, I'm not stupid. I don't want to throw my life away. I want to be smart about it.</p>
<p>Check out BGSU's College of Musical Arts. Pretty good for performance and very good for music ed. If you get a 22 + on the ACT it'd be a solid match for you.</p>
<p>Yeah, I got a 24 on my ACT. Not stellar but eh, it works for me. I will check them out though, thanks for the suggestions. Never really heard of either. My biggest fear is ending up somewhere too "restrictive". That's why New School looked pretty good to me. It just seems to have a certain "feel" about it, even just by looking at the brochures. Plus it's in NYC...I'm not sure if you can get a better location than that for this sort of thing. And they talked on their website about how they help students to find work which was slightly reassuring. They also offer a 5 yr. program with a dual degree through the New School...but we will see. I definitely have a lot more research to do on this subject.</p>
<p>And I'm not really interested in the Music Ed. aspect so much as I am performance. </p>
<p>Thanks again! Will definitely check those out.</p>
<p>Indiana University has a lot to offer, even if you can't get into the music school itself. (You can still take just about any course in the music school; or, I should say, I did that, in 1974, before I was good enough to get into a proper music school elsewhere!)</p>
<p>University of North Texas - known for its jazz music program and not that hard to get into (for academics, not sure how competitive the music school is)</p>