LACs with marching bands

<p>Furman is a selective LAC that plays I-AA football and has a pretty decent marching band. Are there others?</p>

<p>wooster has a marching band and is pretty serious about it.</p>

<p>Holy Cross and Bucknell</p>

<p>Thanks - I don’t think Bucknell does - there was a CC student a year ago who wanted to be in a marching band, felt Bucknell was her best acceptance, and was considering yielding on marching in order to go there.</p>

<p>others according to collegeboard: Gettysburg, Oberlin, Marist. And small “LAC-like” universities: Rice, Tufts, Dartmouth Brown, Elon, Lehigh</p>

<p>Thanks Huskem, I guess I should be more specific since the CollegeBoard college search tool doesn’t make the distinction between marching bands and “scatter” bands. Most Ivies (all except Cornell) and many top privates tend to have scatter bands, which are in essence, satires of marching bands. They dress up in funny garb, run around in circles, crash into each other, incorporate kazoo players, get in hot water with the administration for inappropriate content, etc. Stanford has the most famous scatter band. My son, the marching band purist, views them as heretical. Frankly, scatter bands sound like a lot more fun to me, but in support of a kid who finds zen in the sharing of drumline cadences, I’m looking for the traditional, marching-in-lines, following-the-drum-major type of marching band experience.</p>

<p>we faced a similar problem years ago when our D was looking for an LAC with a marching band. Many of the schools that listed “marching band” on the collegeboard, melted upon further review. I think Wooster was the only one that measured up with her high school band, which at that time was one of the top bands on the East coast.</p>

<p>Yup - it looks like Wooster and Gettysburg have pretty legit marching bands.</p>

<p>My D was also accepted at Gburg, but the band did not seem to have the same “status” on campus as at W. As it turned out she never participated in a college band anyway. Many of her friends who were serious band geeks, went to larger schools where the band was a big deal and a big part of the college culture. In our state, I believe it is “Big Blue” at PSU.</p>

<p>Bucknell does not have a marching band. They have a pep band that plays at football and basketball games. Gettysburg has an actual Marching Band with approx. 100 members.</p>

<p>I found it useful to search youtube for that particular school’s marching band - you get a full pic of what you are dealing with - e.g. Oberlin (my alma mater) does have a marching bnad but it also has a drum major dressed as a chicken and about 15 kids marching albeit in traditional style. My son is still looking for the perfect marching band fit but he’s measuring it against what he’s had in HS, so scatter bands don’t cut it!</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>LOLLOLLOLLOLLOL!!! And so “Oberlin”!</p>

<p>gadad, I’m on the same quest you are. The collegeboard search filter is so inaccurate. </p>

<p>The worst part is, the uniform is important to me in a sense. Carnegie Mellon’s “marching band” wears kilts. No thanks. =/</p>

<p>^^^ Oops . . . I think that’ll rule out the “Scot Marching Band” at Wooster, too. (Though actually, the uniforms look awesome! Check it out)</p>

<p>[Scot</a> Marching Band Rank Pictures](<a href=“http://www3.wooster.edu/music/band/Media/Images/2005-2006/Rank%20Pictures/index.htm]Scot”>http://www3.wooster.edu/music/band/Media/Images/2005-2006/Rank%20Pictures/index.htm)</p>

<p>We should have our own discussion category for colleges with “real” marching bands. I’m sure you have already found the web listing: <a href=“http://www.bands.byu.edu/college_marching_bands.html[/url]”>www.bands.byu.edu/college_marching_bands.html</a> ? At least that gives you some direct links to the marching band websites - you can look for the LACs from there. My son had the same issue with CMU kilts “no thanks, that’s crap” were his exact words. Look for the whiteout-Blue Band PSU youtube videos - insane. After we visited Penn St. and the admissions video actually showed marching band members vignettes (“why I chose PSU”) and saw the youtube videos, it’s hard to find anything to compare. Prob being, they have only 50% of incoming frosh actually “make” the band - after enduring band camp.</p>

<p>Too bad I probably won’t afford it OOS or OOS to UConn, which are my top choices…</p>

<p>Lehigh has a wonderful marching band!</p>

<p>Patriot League schools-Holy Cross, Lafayette, Bucknell.</p>

<p>

It was stated earlier that Bucknell does not have a marching band, but a pep band. Same at Lafayette, although in recent years it has grown to about 35 or 40 members.</p>