@zozoty I understand looking for matches that are affordable…if she can bring her ACT or SAT up (around 34/1540) then she should really look at Pitt for PreMed as she’d get excellent merit. They have an outstanding program and it would not be an under reach. We love Moravian, but my D15 is a music education and performance major (she’s doing exceptionally well, was very high stat and is going there for next to nothing honestly, they are VERY generous with merit). However…I am not sure i’d go there for Pre-Med. Nursing YES…Occupational Therapy YES…but they don’t have their premed up and running yet as far as I know. I’d also consider Miami Ohio as others have mentioned they are generous with merit (typically) and they have a marching band. Udel is another good choice and not an underreach. Their Honors Program is nationally known and there are many opportunities for good students, not to mention that she could walk away with some decent merit. My current senior applied to Pitt, Udel, Miami OH, Arizona, South Carolina, Rutgers. She is fairly high stat with a 34 ACT and She got excellent merit at every school bringing them into a much more affordable range. She is planning to go to grad school so lower cost was absolutely necessary.
Yes what @Hanna says -that is how you get the most merit
My daughter had a high school classmate who is pre med at U-Del. She was in the top 10 in the high school class of 325, and many thought she might be going to a “higher ranked” school, but when the money came in, it was the best choice. This is a very likely scenario.
My daughter is pre-med at Mount Holyoke, and if your daughter were to join the band at U-Mass ( I went to U-Mass and the band has a top reputation) she would need her own car, unless the P.V.T.A.(free bus service to all 5 colleges) happens to just work for her schedule, (not likely)
I agree on this site many have high standards. I think posters are more inclined to post when their student gets into a top college, but less reluctant to post, “unfortunately my student didn’t get into any of their reaches, and we could not afford many of their matches, so they are going to State U,” but it happens more often than not. Most of my daughters high school classmates fall into this category. We lucked out, my daughter had a great day the day she took her SAT, and it matters a lot, IMHO. I probably won’t be posting a ton when my son is ready for college, or should I say if he is ever ready for college . )
The best college is the one that they are going to learn the most, be comfortable at and that you can afford. By the middle of their Freshman year you will only care if they are happy, not the sticker on the car.
“So, if you are still with me, the requirements are cheap/lots of merit aid, marching band with pit, within a reasonable distance of Philly, and a good enough pre-med program to get her into medical school.”
OP, i love this sum-up. and what’s even better is that dozens of people here actually have an informed opinion about this. 
Towson has Division 1 athletics while West Chester is D2. That’s a big difference when it comes to marching band. Check where the band performs (professional sports events, parades) along with the school sports events.
Since UCONN hasn’t been discussed, I’ll add some anecdotal info. My DD has a number of friends who attended UCONN as it is our flagship. Her close friend was in the marching band and graduated with a degree in music education. Her friend said that most of the members were either music majors or music education majors. There is a music dorm and she moved there sophomore year. They associated only with each other. She never had time or inclination to visit with her other previously close friends. ( 2 who went on to medical school). @deb922 spoke of something similar in post #32 regarding the time commitment. A premed student will have numerous labs to fit into a schedule, study groups, possible research or internships to learn and make her an attractive med school candidate. Her friends will more than likely be 2 very distinct groups.
@thingamajig NJ is really bad too!
My son has friends in the marching bands at both IUP and Christopher Newport and they all love their band experience! The CNU band director is supposedly great and the university is smaller than most public universities. Definitely a school on the rise. Does James Madison U. have a pit? my son has friends in JMU’s band also. It’s a huge band and a great music program. I don’t know anything about how much academic merit is available at those schools, though.
My DD also was an instrumentalist…and wanted to continue playing her instrument in an orchestra…not a band…an orchestra. What she did…she contacted EACH music department directly…orchestra director, private instructor on her instrument, and the head of the department. She got excellent and helpful information from all.
Here is what I think you need to do…
- Find out who is the director of the marching band at the colleges she might like. Have her contact THAT person.
- Contact the music department. They can fill her in on private lessons and the like.
- Re: being challenged in college...she will find her tribe...and really...there are smart kids at every single college in this country. TBH, that wouldn’t worry me at all. The courses she will need to take (think....Ochem and the like) are not taken by slackers.
- This may sound like a funny way to choose a college....but has she seen schools with this type of ensemble on TV broadcasted sports events? If this is Important...than start looking in the pit!
I want to add…any school where my kid was told she would not have the chance to play in the orchestra was immediately dropped from her list of potential applications. And a LOT were dropped. This was THE hardest criteria for our college search…the hardest. But she landed in a fine school that had her majors of interest, played first chair in the orchestra AND took private lessons all four years, and the school location had a “pleasing climate” which was her final criteria.
You can send me a PM and I’ll tell you where she is now!
I’m with @Trisherella - I’ve got a marimba DS and I’m bookmarking!
For more southern schools - Elon (they use MarimbaCats), App State, Western Carolina, and James Madison all have front ensembles. At a tour, Wake Forest told us they did (student), but I still have not seen it with my own eyes. The others I can all vouch for. Don’t know about the viability of any of them, but as a family who are looking for a front ensemble ourselves, I thought I’d put them out there.
I don’t know anything about their band, but UAB definitely has a very good program for students pursuing careers in health professions. Also, Birmingham is a lot more diverse than many rural areas of Alabama, it still has a Southern feel, but is more moderate than the state as a whole. I live in a rural area of Alabama, but lived in Birmingham for a few years during and after college, and also have friends and relatives in the Birmingham area. UAB is downtown and right in the midst of UAB hospital, Children’s hospital, and other medical buildings. If you are looking for a beautiful, green campus, it wouldn’t be the place, but if a more urban setting would appeal to her then it is great. There has been a lot of revitalization in recent years in the area and it has a variety of things to offer.
U of Delaware is a pretty solid school. I know a number of top students who have had it as a safety because it really has a lot to offer - pretty campus, not quite as big as many other state universities. We’re in NY and a lot of kids here want anything but a SUNY.
Some of the big marching band schools like the University of Southern California and the University of Wisconsin have have every band member on scholarship. I do not know what it covers but it would be worth investigation.
Thanks again. I do know that UDel and Towson both say they give stipends to everyone in the marching band. Towson’s goes up to $1000 I think. Since there are a few marimba parents on here, I will post my whole list tomorrow (too tired right now) – there are more colleges but I ruled them out for various reasons. I will add Elon, App State, and Western Carolina onto my list and make a comprehensive “list of colleges with pits” – there were a few threads on here bemoaning the lack of such a list that I found in my search so maybe it’s worthy of its own thread – Pit Parents Unite!
Nice to hear good feedback about Christopher Newport and James Madison – I don’t know much about either. Wondering if Chis topher N. is a little too far south. And I know absolutely nothing about James Madison other than that they do, indeed, have a pit.
I’m thinking I might need to rule out IUP only because oddly enough my college boyfriend (with whom things did not end on great terms) is now a professor there in a subject area that D19 would definitely encounter as a pre-med. It’s not a big department and I’m thinking she’d probably have classes with him, and that would just be extremely extremely strange (although he would probably never know who she was since I’m married and her last name is different). But still. Too weird. Is there a thread on here for the weirdest reason you as a parent have ever ruled out a college? Because I think that’s a contender.
@thumper1 - I like the idea of calling the music departments directly. I will try to sic her on that, but I will probably just get “Why? I just want to go to West Chester” pushback. Sigh.
@twoinanddone - I have no idea about the difference between D1 and D2 sports (I have nerdy kids, not sporty ones, much to my husband’s dismay). What is the difference? I don’t think any of the bands on my list really travel to very many away games. It seems like the big schools that take their football (and marching band ) really seriously like Ohio State and Penn State don’t have pits anyway – too hard to transport the large instruments I guess.
@ECmotherx2 - good to know that about UConn - a lot of the band pages I have been on make the bands seem very open to non-music majors and emphasize that band is very doable even with a heavy academic load. You make UConn’s sound kind of cliquey and snobbish though. I will definitely try to make sure she susses out the culture of the band and the workload.
Which brings up a good point – we have a regular campus visit scheduled with West Chester and then a meeting with one of the premed advisors. Do you think we could/should also get a visit with a music/band director even though she is not planning to major in music? Seems like if we do that for every school, college visits are going to take forever and be a bit of a scheduling mess. Maybe we can just email the band directors to get a sense of what the commitment is like if we can’t glean it from the website. And of course, where West Chester is concerned, she can just ask her friend who is a psych major and was in the marching band this year.
D1 schools are normally bigger and sports are a little better funded, play teams from farther away (so travel farther). West Chester is going to play mostly the other PA schools. Towson is a much bigger school and thus the crowds at games are bigger. (12000). Delaware is about 20k. Joe Flacko, current QB for the Baltimore Ravens, went to Delaware.
Normally bands don’t travel to games that are far away, except maybe a pep band or special selection will go, or play at basketball too. For D1, if the team goes to a bowl game, the band usually does go. Towson and Delaware haven’t been to bowl games for a while.
Christopher Newport is probably less than 100 miles further south than JMU. CNU is near the beach in a major metropolitan area. It’s a little lower ranked than JMU, But is still considered one of the top six publics in a state that has some very good colleges. It likes to advertise itself as a public LAC. Students are required to live on campus for the first three years. It has about 5,000 students.
JMU is a also another very popular school in VA. It’s probably ranked a bit higher than CNU due to its size - DI vs DIII, but it’s actually a little less selective than CNU. It’s located in a medium sized city in the western part of the state near the mountains. There’s a small ski area right outside of town, but I don’t think they get much snow. JMU is the complete opposite of JMU regarding housing - I think on campus housing is only guaranteed for freshman. Freshman also aren’t allowed to have cars on campus. It has 20,000+ undergraduates.
Getting to CNU is probably more annoying than JMU as I believe that there’s only one main access road to Newport News from I95 (always a delightful drive) that passes by both William and Mary and Colonial Williamsburg. Traffic can be a nightmare in that general area and anywhere on I95 during the summer, school breaks, and holidays. However, there’s Amtrak service in Richmond that’d get her to Philly in about 4 hours or so (my kid goes the other way - she attends college in PA and finds traveling back and forth from VA on Amtrak pretty easy).
That being said, I haven’t heard of any students who haven’t enjoyed attending either of these schools. Both have about a 90% freshman retention rate.
@LeastComplicated we go to Williamsburg from Baltimore often and we take 301 to avoid 95 altogether.
Then maybe this isn’t that important to your daughter. She needs to contact the marching band directors as well.
Your situation is unique with the desire for a pit marimba type group. But do check with each school. Elon, for example, came off of our kid’s list because they made it very clear that their music majors got first priority in the orchestra. The adcom was clear that my DD (an oboe/English horn player who was state ranked number 1 in a competitive state) would not be able to audition for an orchestra seat as a non-major. The karma of it all…we knew students there…and the orchestra had NO oboe player for at least a couple of DD’s undergrad years.
So…just make sure.
I am confused. If your D wants to go to West Chester, you can afford it, and she clearly has the stats to get in, what’s the conundrum here?
Personally- I think your D might be able to find a more academically intense environment. But if she doesn’t want that…
West Chester is fine for science, marching band and music.
If they offer her merit or even free tuition, that would be a big savings. They have an honors college and dorm and that would make it a smaller community.
My D had a great high school chemistry teacher and he went to IUP. She had such a good foundation for college chemistry.
The Cook honors college should give some merit and would provide a nurturing environment in their own residence hall, great study abroad opportunities, etc.
I would suggest to do some visits in the spring, preferably not the big open house type visits but instead schedule a visit with the honors college, the music department and the science department, where you can get one on one information.