<p>My son wants to major or minor in music. He has been playing the piano for about 10 years and the violin for 2 years. Can anyone recommend colleges with good music schools as well as strong academics? Thank you.</p>
<p>If you scroll down to the music majors forum under "College Majors" you will find lots and lots of information tucked away, just ready for you to read. Once you've had a good chance to go through it, the people on that board will have lots of recommendations for any specific questions you might have. </p>
<p>Hope to see you post there....I've gotten lots of good help over the last few months.</p>
<p>Also, here is the link to another thread in this forum. This thread has a listing of music schools from US News. I'm guessing this list is from the last ranking of music graduate programs that was done in the late '90s, as I am under the impression from discussion here that there has been no recent ranking of music programs. But it is a great list to use in the beginning of your search.</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>You'll find that if he pursues a music performance degree, it'll be almost impossible to take advantage of the academic quality of an institution because the performance degree + the core curriculum will take up virtually all of the hours required or graduation. It sounds as if you're thinking about a B.A. in Music - not a B.Mus. - and you might want to look at quality liberal arts colleges.</p>
<p>What is the difference between a B.A. in Music and a B.Mus? Why choose one over the other?</p>
<p>Rolling Stone Magazine recently listed the USC Thornton School of Music as a Top-5 music school. Students at Thornton benefit from the school's location within the University of Southern California, offering strong academic programs and opportunities to supplement a music education with a different major or minor.</p>
<p>A Bachelor of Arts degree in Music is a liberal arts degree that any student may opt to pursue - the courses in the major will require about 36 hours out of the 120-128 required for graduation in most places. It's a degree for people with an interest in music though not necessarily a plan to become a professional performer. A Bachelor of Music degree is a pre-professional degree that may take up anywhere from 75-100 hours including performance training for academic credit. Entrance is by audition only, and it's essentially a conservatory education in a college setting.</p>
<p>northwestern..</p>
<p>There are a few universities with good music schools and strong academics: U Michigan, Northwestern, Indiana (not so strong academically), UCLA (not so strong musically; offers a BA in performance, though), USC, UCSanta Barbara, Boston College are some examples. Then there are double degree programs, the most workable of which is Oberlin Conservatory/College, which admits about 30-40 each year to the double degree program. Bard has a new double degree program, but it has not been around long enough to have a track record. Johns-Hopkins and Peabody have a double degree program, but it is less coordinated and accepts very few students. Harvard/NEC, Yale/Yale School of Music, Tufts/NEC, and Columbia/Juilliard are 5 year programs for a BA and MM, but accept so few students (even those admitted separately to both schools) that they might as well not exist -- I would consider the programs as a kind of bait and switch for very smart and musically talented kids. At the top of the academic list, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Brown have lots of talented musicians, but the music performance program at each is essentially self-driven (though Princeton has a "certificate" program that begins in the junior year -- just when the academic requirements of junior and senior theses kicks in) and extracurricular. UC Berkeley has a music BA program that requires performance and has a good orchestra and chamber music program; Stanford also has a lot of performance opportunities (though the orchestra is not as good). You can find out a lot more on the music major site on CC -- including important information about the audition process. Good luck!</p>
<p>I second the recommendation to visit the music major forum. In the meantime this is a good place to start: <a href="http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/787%5B/url%5D">http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/787</a></p>