<p>I can't help with IR departments, but I know a bit about music schools that offer double majors pretty well.</p>
<p>Hopkins/Peabody is a very difficult double program to get into. You need to be accepted separately by both schools, then accepted into the double degree program after that. I think they accept something like a couple of people per year into all three, so you could be looking at much worse odds there than at Princeton, Harvard or Stanford.</p>
<p>If you want to get into Shepherd at Rice, you are going to have to be among the best handful of players in the country on your instrument. If you are not routinely taking first chair at the all-state level or higher, your chances there may not be very good. Their tuition is not as outrageous as it is at some schools and the academic prestige factor is high, so the competition is going to be rough. They have about 125 undergrads and 175 grad students total in Shepherd, including singers and keyboard players. That means that there are probably going to be something like two to four undergrad horn students in the entire program. If none happen to graduate the year before you want to start, there may be no openings at all for undergrad horn players that year. They will not take on a lot of extra instrumentalists that they cannot place in available ensembles.</p>
<p>Oberlin is a good option for those who are interested in double majors, but I can tell you nothing about their IR program. They do have a lot of people in the double degree program and a relatively high percentage of them manage to complete it. I would highly suggest looking there if you can verify that they have a good IR program. At around 550 students in the conservatory, almost entirely undergrad, and with two orchestras, a wind ensemble and several chamber music groups, they need a bunch more horns every year than a program the size of Rice's.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon is often mentioned as a music school for high-performing academic students, but you have to be careful there to see how long it would take to complete two bachelors degrees. The music program alone requires a very high number of credit hours and does not permit much flexibility to explore other areas in depth, so a double degree there could easily run to six years.</p>
<p>you might have a look at Case Western. They have programs that let you work on a BA while studying music with the teachers from Cleveland Institute of Music across the street. Again, you would have to see if the IR department (if any) at CWRU is up to your standards.</p>
<p>Bard college has a relatively new conservatory program that looks great on paper, but it seems to be having some problems getting started. The interesting part there is that they require all of their BM students to take a second non-musical major. It is worth a look, but be sure to talk to some students on your instrument there to get a first hand account of how they feel things are working out.</p>
<p>Temple in Philadelphia would be very much an academic safety for you, but they get some very good teachers in music from the Philly Orchestra (some of them also teach at Curtis). Again, no ideas about IR there.</p>
<p>I have heard that U Rochester/Eastman is not an easy double degree because of the logistics of getting back and forth between the main campus and the music school. I have heard others say it is not all that bad, but you have to be very organized about your schedule.</p>
<p>New England Conservatory has double degree programs with both Harvard and Tufts, but admission is very difficult and the program gets very expensive because you wind up paying tuition at both schools. NEC is not known for giving out much financial aid.</p>
<p>Georgetown has a rather small music department and does not list a horn teacher that I could find. They might be willing to hire an adjunct, but you may not know who that is until you get there. The picture of their "orchestra" makes it look like they have 30 or so people in it, and the only brass I noticed were a couple of trumpets. Both their orchestra and wind ensemble are open to students, teachers and community members. That is often a red flag if you are looking for a top music school that should have more than enough talented students filling out their top ensembles.</p>
<p>Lawrence, Northwestern and St. Olaf all have very good music programs. It may be worthwhile looking to see what their IR departments are like. Northwestern may be a bit of a reach and there have been some concerns recently about the state of their music program, but it looks like they are starting to put some real money into it and rebuild after having lost some key teachers.</p>