My son has narrowed it down to these two schools, and we are having a hard time deciding. He is wanting to major in biology or premed of some kind, but would also like to be involved in a jazz program. He loves music, and he does have a passion for it. I know UNT has a great jazz program, but I don’t think hes wanting to focus on music only. Plus, UNT College of Music is so competitive even if he did fully commit to music he may never get into the jazz program. We just found out Sam Houston has a jazz program, and you don’t have to be a music major to try out. I personally feel like he gets the best of both worlds at SHSU, but he wasn’t crazy about the campus. He did not like the rural setting and is worried there will be “nothing to do” in Huntsville. He likes the more urban setting at UNT. I have a better vibe with SHSU, but I am not the one going there. However, he does like that he may get the opportunity to do both at SHSU.
He would have loved to go to UT, but he goes to a super competitive high school, and even though he does have a strong GPA he didn’t rank high enough to get in as a freshman. He also loved Baylor, but we just couldn’t swing it financially right now. He may transfer to one of these schools in the future.
Any advice on making the final decision?
My son visited both schools and found them to be similar. UNT is much larger and like stated they have a well established music program. Both are about the same distance from a major urban city (Denton to Dallas is 50 miles while Huntsville to Houston is 60 minutes). He has friends at both schools and the ones at Sam Houston complain about being bored more than those at UNT. You may want to check into Texas State University Jazz program. The school is very similar to UNT but there is much more to do due to being located between Austin and San Antonio. It’s the school my son is attending. I sounds like he really wants to go to UNT but understands he may have to give up jazz. Being in the Sam Houston jazz program is not a given so he also needs to consider this.
Thanks for the reply! When we toured Texas State over the summer and they told us they did not have a Jazz program, so he put the school towards the bottom of the list. We revisited the Texas State web site last night, and they have a few jazz options. =) He has decided Texas State is his school. They have a jazz band you can try out for even if you are not a music major, so he’s going to try out. Even if he doesn’t make it into the jazz band I think he will still be happy here. It looks like a really neat school.