<p>Hey! If anyone could tell me anything about the music programs at the following schools, I'd greatly appreciate it! (Also, feel free to keep reccomending!)</p>
<p>Baldwin Wallace (OH)
Bloomsburg (PA)
Centenary (LA)
The College of New Jersey (NJ)
Duqesne (PA)
Elmhurst (IL)
Elon (NC)
Hofstra (NY)
Loyola New Orleans (LA)
Muhlenberg (PA)
Northpark (IL)
Otterbein (OH)
Roosevelt (IL)
Seton Hall (NJ)
SMU (TX)
Stephen F. Austin (TX)
Swarthmore (PA)</p>
<p>Duquesne funds talented students like crazy, and has some very fine faculty.
Roosevelt is simply too unselective for its own good. My father teaches there (not music), and I've heard quite a few of the students. Many of them are simply not at the level necessary to make a career in performance. That said, the faculty is excellent, and what talented students there are can really thrive under close attention.</p>
<p>Swarthmore doesn't provide lessons on campus. You audition for a lesson scholarship. If you are awarded one, your lessons will be funded, but you have to find a teacher, and make all your own lesson arrangements. This usually means travelling to Philly on the train once a week.</p>
<p>Thanks for yall's help so far. I really appreciate it, so keep it coming! I'd also like opinions about the following schools-
U of Hartford(CT)
Keene State (NH)
Wilkes (PA)</p>
<p>Hartt is really a very fine music school (at U of Hartford).
I don't know how much this says (I live in rural TN), but I've never heard of Keene State or Wilkes.</p>
<p>I don't know anything about Keene State's academics, but I have been to the town and seen the campus. My son attended a music composition summer camp in Dublin, NH, which is just up the road, and we used to stay in a motel in Keene when we went up to Walden (the camp) for Festival Week. The town of Keene is quite small but attractive, and from what we could see over the course of two years it seemed to be growing. The college itself is also quite small, with some 'traditional' brick buildings as well as miscellaneous other facilities. We walked around the campus one afternoon while killing some time, and joked about sending DS to college there. LOL, little did we know that he'd end up at a school that's actually even smaller. You'd better like cold weather and winter if you're considering attending school in NH, because that's definitely what you'll get. If you like hiking and getting out into nature, the area around Keene and Dublin is beautiful, for sure. We always enjoyed the drive up, but I don't know if I'd want to live up there year-round. There's not a whole lot else up there, so if you're the kind of person who needs bright lights and activity, Keene may not be for you.</p>
<p>Thanks for that marcyr. The weather is huge for me, so I think it may out of the running. Also, based on what I've seen, it seems like a nice place to visit, but I can't imagine living there.</p>
<p>At one point in time, a few years ago, Keene State was considered to be the best state music program, with an excellent faculty and liasons with various summer music programs and their faculties. It may still be the case. There are new facilities since then, and it has grown. The town itself is very supportive of the arts and the arts in the community itself are very strong. Many students come there from Massachusetts and Vermont (which did not used to have any state offered music degree programs, do not know about now.) Check it out more thoroughly to be sure, but do not just write it off.</p>
<p>Nobody has mentioned this book yet (that I've noticed): </p>
<p>Arco - the Performing Arts Major's College Guide (Performing Arts Major's College Guide) (Paperback)
by Carole J. Everett</p>
<p>We got it from the library. We got a lot of valuable information from it. The biggest drawback is that it is from 1998, so much of the info is out of date. We used it as a jumping off point, to consider programs we hadn't thought of before. It has some nice articles about auditions and such, as well.</p>
<p>We used the Arco guide as well as a couple from Thomson/Peterson's. I agree that their best use is to point out some schools that you may not have considered. Almost all of the factual content is furnished by the schools themselves and there is little there that is not available from the school websites, at least for the schools we considered. The editorial content is dated and should be taken with a grain (or three) of salt.</p>
<p>It is difficult to keep these books up-to-date and accurate across dozens of different types of programs. Teachers move around or retire, schools build new facilities and editors who may know about good programs for violinists may not have a clue when it comes to sopranos or sculptors. Schools change their selectivity depending on how many of a particular instrument they need to replace in any given year.</p>
<p>I would recommend the various performing arts guides to those who are quite early in their college search. Once you get down to it, there is no substitute for direct contact with college teachers, their current students, and other parents who have been through the process within the last year or two.</p>
<p>Rugg's Guide is a good jumping off place. From there you can check out the web sites of schools and send emails and ask questions here.</p>