<p>I would suggest you look through threads here and on the parents' page with postings about music schools. There is a lot of good information there, but you will have to search through some stuff to find it. You need to decide what direction you want to go with your music. If you want to major in piano performance, Bachelor of Music, you will be looking for different things than if you want to do a music major, Bachelor of Arts. Most schools with top notch piano faculty have BM programs. Access to the top faculty is usually limited to piano majors. For example, Rice has an excellent music school that is very difficult to get into. If you are have not been accepted to its Shepard School, you will be able to take some music classes there, but you will not be able to study piano with any of the faculty. The best you can hope for is to study with a graduate student. It is possible to do a double degree in piano performance and something in another school, but will be difficult and time consuming. You need to be very committed to complete a double degree program. </p>
<p>Given your interests, you will most likely want to pursue a BA in music. You can study piano and major in something else as well. If you decide to go this path, you want to look for schools that afford you access to strong piano teachers, but may not necessarily offer degrees in performance. A third option is to not worry about majoring in music at all, but pursue piano study on your own without getting credit for it. This may allow you the most flexibility and time to pursue tennis as well. If you choose this option, you would want to attend a school in a large city where there are many piano teachers to choose from. This option would mean that you would be paying for your lessons independently. </p>
<p>Finally, if you decide you really want to pursue piano professionally, you need to understand that you are going to have to audition to get into any of the major music programs. All schools offerning the BM will require an audition to be accepted. BA programs don't usually require this.<br>
Ultimately, you need to figure out what exactly you want to do with piano before you can choose schools that offer the best options for you.</p>
<p>The University of Rochester has the Eastman school of music which has a very good piano program. I'm looking into Rochester/Eastman for violin and academics, and it seems to be a good match for me.</p>
<p>If you are thinking of swarthmore as a college that you'd be potentially interested in, keep in mind that it is Division III. Not to say that it isn't competitive (because although i don't know much about tennis and wouldn't, it was a big deal in the college when the men's tennis team made it to some big tournament type thing (I don't know, a tennis conference or something)) As far as being a "piano major" i doubt you can be one. You can probably be a music major and the college has the resourses to get you a private tutor for piano lessons outside of the college. This year, one kid even put up his own dance/music performance in which he composed the music, wrote the story plot and so on. Swarthmore is what it is, a liberal arts school and not a performing arts school so keep that in mind.</p>
<p>You should definitely seriously consider Williams. I'm also very serious pianist and also played tennis in high school (although I had little interest in continuing it in college). Besides being academically on-par with Swarthmore (ie: one of the best colleges in the country), Williams has a very strong music department (piano is no exception) and one of the best tennis teams in the nation. Williams has an artist in residence in piano, Doris Stevenson, who is a phenomenal performer and takes on the more serious students. There are virtually unlimitted opportunities to perform as a soloist and in ensembles (I performed Carnival of the Animals with a chamber orchestra last spring in a theatre/music production for local children), and a vibrant community of exceptional musicians. </p>
<p>The tennis team, despite being very strong, is not difficult to play on (I believe they accept virtually anyone who's interested). The coach is also one of the Deans of the college (Dave Johnson) and is uniformly loved by the student body and tennis team.</p>
<p>Shennie has offered some good input regarding the BM / BA choice. Bear in mind that if you pursue a BM in Piano Performance, as you would at a conservatory or top School of Music, you can probably anticipate practicing piano - what? - six or seven hours a day? And it seems to me that you'd need to be available when your piano teacher is available; that would probably eventually conflict with having your afternoons free to be a varsity athlete. If it's likely to work out, I'd guess that it's most likely to work out in a Division III athletic program.</p>