Overall my advice would be to read this forum whenever you can and come back often. Read the sticky threads to help understand the process. Ask specific questions when you have them. The music school admissions process is very different from standard admissions, and this forum has been the single best source I have found for information and advice, due to the helpful, experienced parents here.
Does your son have some idea of his music career goals? That will help narrow down the choices. Also remember that at many schools, music applicants are not held to quite the same academic standards as the main admissions pool, though it varies by school. The audition is the most important part of the application. Don’t rule out a school completely based on stats at this point, call or email the school of music if you aren’t sure to see if there are minimum GPA/test scores a music student should aim for. Some schools explicitly state the minimums on their music admissions web site.
Have him choose senior year courses carefully - senior year is not the time for a music applicant to load up on rigorous courses. Be conservative.
FYI my son (though he has a good GPA) doesn’t want to take more English or math or science classes in college, either, but we have found that even conservatories will require a certain amount of general education classes, often roughly one per semester. I think all schools we looked at required at least one English writing class. Some states may have laws requiring degree granting institutions to have a certain amount of gen ed classes, too. Music schools that are part of a larger university usually have the broadest general ed requirements, sometimes that amounts to 2 classes per semester. It really depends on the school. We have been looking into that right now, because it will definitely be a factor in my son’s decision this spring. Many music schools put academic advising sheets and course catalogs online if you go to the academic section of a music school school’s web site. Those will show you a sample of what coursework a typical major would take in each semester. Some schools have very specific classes that fulfill gen ed requirements, others just have broad categories and the student has a lot of choice. You can also google “core curriculum” plus the school name to looks at general ed requirements at universities.
You may want to look primarily at conservatories to minimize the amount of gen ed courses, but many of them are very hard to get into, so if your son wants to be competitive for those he probably needs an experienced private teacher to help him work on audition prep and to select target schools that might be a good fit. If you aren’t sure where your son stands, skill wise, you might want to ask the percussion group leader or pay for a lesson with a professor at a nearby college or a top teacher to assess his skills and perhaps make some suggestions on schools and what he needs to work on. Some colleges offer mock audition days for juniors in the spring. If he can attend any of those he might get some valuable feedback and get a better idea of the audition process, even if he doesn’t end up applying to that particular school. Some schools also have music major “shadow days” which will give prospective students a bit more of an idea what studying music is like.
Shenandoah Conservatory might be worth a look - it is a little less competitive on many instruments, supposedly has a good jazz program, seems to be very forgiving on stats (based on Common Data set and one very low GPA/test score student we know who went there for jazz studies), and they supposedly offer merit to most students they accept. U of North Texas also is worth a look - great reputation for jazz, and often very affordable with many students qualifying for in state tuition. I don’t know anything about their gen ed requirements.
Also think about your family’s budget for your student now, before you pick schools to apply to. Look at the Financial Aid forum here at CC. Run the FAFSA4caster tool to get an idea of your family’s EFC so you can see if you can afford your EFC. Run the net price calculator at target schools, though unless it is a conservatory, most don’t account for music merit awards, which can be significant at some schools. This forum is a good source to find out which schools have a good reputation for merit.
Good luck!
He might also enjoy works by Steve Reick and Inuksuit by John Luther Adams. These can all be googled easily. Just a thought!