<p>I think a lot of the state universities have great programs.</p>
<p>Have you also looked into Chapman?
[Chapman</a> University - Music - Performing Ensembles - Jazz](<a href=“Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music | College of Performing Arts | Chapman University”>Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music | College of Performing Arts | Chapman University)</p>
<p>USC’s Thornton School of Music offers a full program of jazz studies in addition to the Studio/Jazz Guitar department.</p>
<p>Well known names in jazz studies are Professors Jason Goldman, Vince Mendoza, Bob Mintzer, Ndugu Chancler, Peter Erskine, Roy McCurdy and Russell Ferrante, among others. The saxaphone jazz faculty are Jason Goldman, Bob Mintzer and Bob Sheppard.</p>
<p>Los Angeles is in the heart of the entertainment industry. It is the home of major recording studios, radio, film and television industries. </p>
<p>There is much interaction at Thornton with the USC School of Theatre and the School of Cinematic Arts. </p>
<p>Housing choices include the Arts & Humanities dorm, special interest floors and eight residential colleges with faculty masters in residence.</p>
<p>USC offers a Freshmen Science Honors program, Resident Honors Program and the Thematic Option. Faculty student ratio is 1/9. Study abroad includes 27 programs in 5 continents.</p>
<p>Harvard does usually have a few fantastic jazz musicians in each class, though there’s very little academic support for jazz performance. There are a few top notch jazz scholars in the music department and the AfAm Studies department, but the courses are primarily sociological and musicological in nature. However, like almost everything else at Harvard that’s arts related, the hub and heart of activity are in the extracurricular groups. And a vibrant scene indeed. Joshua Redman studied something completely unrelated but is now one of the top names in Jazz. </p>
<p>Another option would be to look into taking private lessons with sometime in Boston, either with an independent musician or perhaps through a prof at Boston Conservatory or Berklee Music. Harvard’s OFA is usually very willing to help in that regard, including sometimes subsidizing for lessons.</p>
<p>Although I’m a Harvard alum and parent, and I admire Tom Everett, who founded the jazz program at Harvard 40 years ago and is still there (and is a great guy), I have to say that Harvard would not be my first choice if I were serious about pursuing jazz. Though it would be ahead of Yale, which has no jazz program at all. And at least Boston has resources like Berklee (where Josh Redman spent a lot of time when he was at Harvard) and NEC and a number of jazz clubs.</p>
<p>It’s true that Harvard does draw some amazing jazz musicians, just because it’s Harvard, but the jazz superstars who came out of Harvard, like Redman or Aaron Goldberg, mostly did their jazz outside of Harvard. Redman had friends at Berklee - who were the people who persuaded him to defer entrance to Yale Law School (where he was admitted) after graduation and instead join them in New York for a year to play jazz. Fortunately for the world, during that year he not only became immersed in the New York jazz scene, but also won the Thelonious Monk competition in saxophone and never did make it to law school. Goldberg spent a year in New York studying jazz at New School before going to Harvard and then basically commuted between Boston and New York while at Harvard in order to pursue his jazz career in New York (and is now based in New York).</p>
<p>Of the Ivies, there is little question that the best place to pursue jazz seriously is Columbia, which has an excellent jazz program and can also draw on the unparalleled jazz resources of New York City. Presumably for these reasons, Columbia gets some of the top student jazz musicians from around the country. Second choice would probably be Princeton, which has a number of excellent jazz ensembles and a new certificate program in jazz, but it obviously can’t match New York in terms of jazz opportunities and resources.</p>