<p>I'm looking for some good/decent music schools around the SE for music ed. Specifically I play trombone. I know it's most cost-effective in-state, but I'm looking for more options regionally. Currently I'm looking towards:</p>
<p>Florida State
U of Georgia
Columbus State
Vanderbilt</p>
<p>Add University of Miami and Belmont in Nashville.</p>
<p>How Christian is Belmont? I know it’s a Christian school, but it is very intense or is there still some diversity?</p>
<p>If you include Virginia in your definition of southeast, James Madison University is well known for music education and brass studies. Almost all of the band directors in our school district went there with trombone as their primary instrument.</p>
<p>Can’t overlook University of Alabama’s Trombone Studio. Dr. Whitaker has an outstanding reputation, works with the Alessi Seminar, the students have done really well at ITF, definitely worth considering. Admission is very competitive and I believe they take 2-3 max. Rollslide.com has more info.</p>
<p>Straight up, I would think that most state universities with marching band programs would be considered as “good/decent” for a Music Ed major.</p>
<p>I know that at this stage you might not really know exactly what you are looking for, but maybe it’s time to start being more specific with what you feel you need.</p>
<p>As a trombone player interested in music ed, I have to assume you are looking to be a band director. Thus I would think that a college with a significant marching band program would be tops on your list. Otherwise, you need to seriously consider doing the drum corp thing to gain more marching band experiance.</p>
<p>You indicated that at this point you don’t want to rule out colleges based on cost. Does this mean that cost doesn’t matter, or will you be needing financial aid. Some colleges don’t offer much in the way of music scholarships, others offer a great deal. If you feel you may need financial aid, you may want to be finding out about music scholarship $$$ at various colleges and adding that as part of your criteria.</p>
<p>Anywhere in the Southeast there is probably a nice selection of colleges within a one day round-trip drive. Is there really a need for you to look any further than say a 4 or 5 hours radius from your home? Are you looking for a specific location, such as in the mountains or close to the beach or in a major city?</p>
<p>Would you prefer a college that has a higher or lower male:female ratio?</p>
<p>What about student diversity - would you mind if a college was mostly black or mostly white or does it matter at all?</p>
<p>What about religion? Would going to a very strict Baptist College that doesn’t allow drinking or dancing or even public hand holding be a problem?</p>
<p>Is class size an issue? Do you think you would be better off at a college with a very small average class size (class size can range from as low as 10 to upwards of 300 students).</p>
<p>Would you prefer a college that would allow you to double major? Would you be interested in a college that offers an optional “performance certificate” in addition to the music ed degree? Are you interested in having a minor (some colleges don’t offer minors)?</p>
<p>Would a college that doesn’t have a graduate school be better for you? Colleges with grad schools often have grad students teaching introductory level classes.</p>
<p>Do you want to go to a college that has that major university experiance, or a smaller “warm fuzzy” college?</p>
<p>What about academics. I noticed that you have Vanderbilt on your list. That college is near Ivy League in status, and near Ivy League on the hard to get in scale. Are you looking for a top academic college?</p>
<p>Now to confuse things just a tad bit more, let me add a few to your list:</p>
<p>1) Furman University. Considered a top school in the southeast for academics. One of the highest graduation rates, one of the most expensive colleges, up to 50% tuition scholarships for music, great academic scholarships, also offers scholarships for leadership. Vast majority of students go on to grad school but Furman only offers one graduate degree (biochemistry or something like that) so there will be no graduate students teaching. They encourage music students to give private lessons (for pay) after their first year, and will even hook you up with pre-college students for lessons. Average SAT score around 1300 (on the old scale - first two parts only) but will accept students based almost entirely on talent (meaning a tallented music student can get in with an average or just slightly above average SAT score). Very small music department, awsome marching band although it is fairly small (around 100 members). Marching band Director also happens to be a world famous composer. Very “warm and fuzzy” atmosphere, beautiful traditional campus, all students required to live on campus, not a party school at all, near a really lively and nice small city with a good nightlife scene, slightly “preppy” student body although it is very diverse and tollerant of diversity. Promotes it’s music department as a “conservatory level music education within a liberal arts framework” (or something like that).</p>
<p>2) Western Carolina University. Moderately priced for instate and out of state students but they offer very little in the way of scholarships. Not high on anyones list for academics (SAT average of around 1000), but they have one of the best marching band programs in the country (~400 members, absolutely AWSOME shows, just wow is all I can say). Small to medium size college, very isolated in the Smoky Mountains but very nice traditional campus. </p>
<p>3) University of South Carolina @ Columbia. Fairly average academic reputation but moving up on the status scale (average SAT approaching 1200 but becoming more selective each year). About 40% of applicants are turned down, and many who are accepted are only allowed Spring semester entrance. If you do well enough on your music audition, and if they have a need for that instrument, you can get in with slighly sub-standard academics (test scores or grades). Fairly small and relatively unknown music department, but if you can play at the allstate level a modist music scholarship is virtually guaranteed. Moderately priced although they do add on a LOT of extra fees to the published price (lab fees, music enrichment fees, engineering fee, matriculation fee, campus housing application fee, music locker fee, etc). INSTATE tuition for all marching band members, that’s like a $8,000 automatic discount for out of state students, plus an additional automatic small marching band scholarship and direct pay for certain athletic band ensembles such as the basketball pep band. I think the minimum SAT score for an academic scholarships is around 1200, and something approaching half the student body gets awarded a small academic scholarhip. I don’t know anything about their trombone studio, but I feel their trumpet studio is one of the best in the southeast (very demanding trumpet professor who also brings in great guest professors such as Allen Vizzutti for performances, private lessons and master classes). Very large campus in the downtown part of a small city. The heart of the campus, the “horseshoe” is very traditional, very historic, and probably one of the most beautiful college areas I have ever seen, but the college spans many blocks in every direction and outside of the horseshoe is somewhat intermingled with non-campus buildings. The marching band program is a little on the small side for a 30,000 student university, and doesn’t neccesarally have a great reputation outside of it’s preshow (which some consider to be the most exciting preshow in the nation) but thats largely because they do a different halftime show at every game - so the halftime performances are fairly simple. About 40% of the students are from out of state, the business school is highly regarded, the International Business program is usually ranked #1 in the country. The honors college (which accepts any major) considered near Ivy League in terms of quality of instruction and quality of students (highly selective). Lots of diversity on campus, lots of activities, free shuttles, something like 27 different dining areas (each with a different atmosphere and flavor), 80 or so majors and about that many minors - never know when you may want to change majors.</p>
<p>My D is in music and theatre education at CSU. She is very pleased with the school. She is a voice major with many friends in music education. If you are in GA, the cost of the education is a deal. If you are not in GA, you possibly can get out of state tuition waived.</p>
<p>The main campus of CSU is so-so, but the downtown fine arts campus is incredible. The music school and performing venues are some of the best I’ve seen. Check it out.</p>
<p>@Mater- I have been considering JMU. I loved the campus and area when I visited but I’m just not sure about the distance. It’s worth looking at more though.</p>
<p>@AL34- I just don’t know if I could see myself there. I’m an LSU fan, so I dunno…
(But I will keep it on the list for the solid studio)</p>
<p>@imagep- Wow! Thanks for taking the time for all that!
And to answer some of your questions:
I am indeed looking to be a band director and yes a good marching band is on the list. I’m also into the drum corps experience as well. I marched with an open class corps this past summer for some experience and I’m thinking of doing a world class one for next year, but we’ll see.
Well, it’s not so much that cost doesn’t matter, it’s more that I don’t want to limit myself to just in-state schools. I will probably be looking for some financial aid, and I’m pretty confident I should be able to get academic scholarships at most schools. My family will be able to cover a good chunk of the expenses (savings and comfortable financial situation). The only variable to all this is where my sister ends up going to school.
A 4-5 hour drive is pretty much the max I would want to go. Maybe a little more, but I’d like to be able to take some weekend trips home and such. It’d be nice for the campus to be at least somewhat near small city. A good college town would be nice.
I’d prefer the gender ratio be fairly neutral. But if it leaned one way, I’d rather there be more males just because I seem to get along with them better than most girls.
I don’t want to go to a historically black college or anything like that, but I would like diversity.
I’m Buddhist, so I’d rather not go to a Christian school. Religious diversity would be nice.
Double majoring in non-music subjects as well as minors would be really nice but not so much required.
I don’t really care about graduate students or not. I guess not having those degrees would be slightly preferred, but I’m not going to rule somewhere out because of it.
I don’t want a college that’s too small or too large, but I could deal with a larger college if the music school was still very tight-knit and slightly isolated.
Academics are somewhat important to me, but for the right music program, I can see going to a less than perfect academic school.
And thanks for the suggestions!</p>
<p>@henrob- I know what you mean about the music venues. It’s towards the top of my list of schools because of them. (And because Dr. Palmer is just so awesome.)</p>
<p>How is U of N Alabama? I saw their marching band at the BOA Super Regional exhibition and they didn’t look too shabby.</p>
<p>Florida State clearly has the national reputation, but it’s larger and you will probably be working with a doctoral/grad student vs. the professor as an undergrad at least 50% of the time (you will take a master class with the professor no matter what)…U of South Carolina is in the middle size-wise, and is one I would take a serious look at. The trombone professor is well accomplished, keeps a relatively small studio, and is publishing some quality music books…</p>
<p>I asked an admissions rep from Belmont your question about whether the religious aspect was really prevelent in the student culture. That person said that it is certainly there if you want to tap into it, but it’s not opressive.</p>
<p>We visited Belmont in September and got the same feeling. While the school ha christian roots, it is not cult-like in any way. Music seems to be the primary religion there. The way religion seems to pervade the campus is in a tone of friendliness and sincerity, in welcoming and seeing the best in others. We are not from the South, and we are Catholic, and we were pleasantly surprised by the campus vibe. It’s not 1960’s Berkeley, but it’s also not an Evangelical bootcamp.</p>