<p>My Junior son, a jazz drummer, has applied for summer 2012 jazz programs at Skidmore, Eastman, UArts and NYSMF. If he's accepted to any of these, how would they rank in prestige for a future university application? Thanks for your advice.</p>
<p>No expertise on percussion or jazz here, but we know a terrific jazz drummer who did the summer program at Eastman and found it a good experience. (Tuition at the program was the award for something or another at a local music school with a good jazz program.)</p>
<p>I think “prestige” won’t matter that much since it will be the audition for music schools that matters. So, look at the faculty especially for percussion and see if any of them work at schools your daughter is interested attending. Son attended Skidmore Jazz. He enjoyed it and learned quite a bit. He isn’t a Jazz major but just mentioned over break that he was happy that he went to the Skidmore camp since he is in 2 jazz groups this year and is using many of the techniques and coaching learned at Skidmore. He truly enjoyed the honest and often colorful comments of the Jazz artists that were brought in to work with the students. His favorite bit of advice was that when working with a new group always call out the charts you know first so you don’t get caught in an awkward moment of having to fake it and flubbing. I’ve heard that Eastman is at an even higher level than Skidmore but don’t have personal experience.</p>
<p>Thanks for your advice!</p>
<p>My son and one of his classmates at Oberlin met at the Eastman camp–both are drummers and have many other friends there, interestingly, who they met at Eastman. I can’t speak for anyone other than my son, but Eastman was a great place for him to meet people he still stays in touch with but, most importantly, solidified the notions both that he wanted to go to a music school and that he could “compete” for a spot at one.</p>
<p>Hi. My son also did Eastman and made great friends there, some of whom he still communicates with or plays with many years later. He expected an incredibly high level of play, and found it good, but not quite as high level as he had hoped.</p>
<p>I think in terms of prestige, however, none of these is really significantly “better” than any other (they’re all good, and can offer great experiences for your son). What is really more impressive is to get accepted to Vail, or GRAMMY or NFAA YoungArts (there are a couple of others, but these are three biggies for jazz). Those programs and awards are nationally recognized and extremely prestigious (and extremely competitive too!).</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>