<p>I cross-posted this on the Reed forum, but it doesn't get a lot of traffic. I wonder if any of you know the answer to this.</p>
<p>I was planning to bring my HS junior S to visit Reed College during spring break. My guess is that S will major in some social science, but will take many music classes (possibly earning a double major) because music (jazz, contemporary, world) is his passion. </p>
<p>While looking over Reed's website, I noticed that Reed has very few faculty in its Music Department (only three on a full time equivalency basis). Most other small LAC that we have looked at have many more faculty members in their music depts. For example, Whitman has 5.4 and Grinnell has 7. Anyone know what's up? Is music just not a strength of this college?</p>
<p>Mom, I live in Portland and no, music isn’t a big thing at Reed. Lewis & Clark and University of Portland (LACs) have some music, and the music department at Portland State is actually top notch (public). Portland has a vibrant and very accessible jazz scene, with a wonderful symphony and opera as entertainment staples in our small city.</p>
<p>Funny you should ask! When considering LAC’s for my violinist son, we looked very hard at Reed. I went to school there as did my mother (strong legacy). It would have been a real feather in his academic cap to go there and would have made Grandma happy. Sadly, Reed-loving family that we are, we concluded that it just didn’t have anything like the kind of program which would stimulate our son musically - a few teachers, a little chamber music. </p>
<p>On the other hand, I believe my mother told me that they were given a large gift last year which was intended to improve their music program. Too late for my son, but perhaps not for yours. It would be worth a phone call to inquire.</p>
<p>I do not know about Reed in particular, but the number of permanent faculty is not always a good indicator of the strength of a music department. Some schools hire lots of adjunct faculty, some of whom can be very good.</p>
<p>“I do not know about Reed in particular, but the number of permanent faculty is not always a good indicator of the strength of a music department. Some schools hire lots of adjunct faculty, some of whom can be very good.”</p>
<p>That can be the case, BassDad, but, as was stated in the NY Times article, schools are cutting down on adjunct faculty (I know all about that- I WAS one-emphasis on the WAS!). In some cases, regular profs will be asked to take over the classes, but if there were none qualified to do that and the program was tiny, it might stand to reason that programs would be cut altogether… We’ve talked a little about this in several threads, but it’s hard to predict what will happen in a year.</p>
<p>He ended up at IU strictly for music, but really liked Oberlin and nearly went there, but preferred the teacher at IU. U. Va. had a good, young violin teacher, but no performance major. I understand that there’s good music at Swarthmore, Yale (of course). We didn’t look too much further. He mostly focused on schools which had good academics and serious music as well (U. Wisconsin, U. Michigan). There are some good threads which talk about LAC’s with good music programs. I’m sure violadad will oblige with some links - I’m not good at that! It totally depends upon what instrument your child wants to study. It varies by instrument, but there are a lot of good LAC’s for voice which an instrumentalist might not find as rewarding musically - depends on the level of chamber music, orchestra, etc.</p>
<p>I don’t profess to have more than a passing knowledge of the best jazz programs, let alone coupling them with an LAC. I’m assuming the music is more for knowledge and participatory needs rather than as pre-professional performance training and a BM. As far as links go, here’s a few, with little on Reed specifically: </p>