New England Conservatory vs. San Francisco Conservatory

Hello All,

I am a composer from Texas, who recently got accepted into several schools for an undergraduate degree, but I have narrowed the list of choices to the New England Conservatory and the San Francisco Conservatory. I compose in the more traditional form (pieces with romantic era music styles), but I hope to expand my musical vocabulary into using 21st century techniques. SFCM has given me a three times the amount of money that NEC gave me, and money is a factor. I like SFCM because they have new dorms, great faculty (the professor that would be my teacher even emailed me to compliment my music), and I felt welcomed when I auditioned, and I believe they have an excellent composition program. On the other hand, New England Conservatory is generally considered to be one of top 10 schools in the country, if not higher. Again, I felt welcomed, and I was impressed with their composition department and program. I also like that they encourage their students to write their own music in their own style, not necessarily how their teacher writes. Does anyone have any recommendations and more information regarding these schools?
Thanks!

I’d say the two schools are pretty comparable in the composition field - although there may be a bigger staff at NEC. If you like to write tonal music you might enjoy getting involved with SFCM’s new TAC program for writing for media - video games, film etc. NEC may have more opportunities to hear your music performed. It would be a good question to ask - to compare the two programs.

If SFCM is cheaper - that’s what I would choose as long as you like the composition faculty (and always be sure there’s more than one person you’d enjoy working with.)

I would check out Soundcloud and Bandcamp and Youtube, so you can listen to compositions by students at the two conservatories.

PM’ed you a few days ago…