The list of schools below is fairly extensive and eclectic. It contains far fewer Top X schools than you might expect, though there are some. There are a few Pennsylvania publics in here, none of which would be considered the size of a liberal arts college. But your in-state publics might be as close to a financial safety as you will get that is also an extremely likely admit, and your son will need to have at least one school (and preferably more than one) that’s extremely likely to admit him, be affordable, and that he’d like to attend.
The list is sorted by my guesses as to your son’s chances, based on how you’ve described him (i.e. probably not Amherst/Williams competitive, but close). The fewer mentions a school gets on CC, the more extensive/popular its music-related majors were in the most recent year of IPEDS data. If a school gets more mentions on CC, then it may have had fewer music grads in the most recent year. But this list certainly gives lots of chances to research various schools over the coming year!
Extremely Likely (80-99+%)
Bellarmine (KY): About 2300 undergrads
Capital (OH): About 1900 undergrads
Elmhurst (IL): About 3k undergrads
Hampton (VA): About 2800 undergrads at this HBCU
Indiana U. of Pennsylvania: About 7k undergrads
Millersville U. of Pennsylvania: About 5800 undergrads
Millikin (IL): About 1700 undergrads
Moravian (PA ): About 1900 undergrads
Nazareth (NY): About 2k undergrads
Rider (NJ): About 3200 undergrads
SUNY at Fredonia: About 3200 undergrads
SUNY College at Potsdam: About 2100 undergrads and can also cross-register with Clarkson
Susquehanna (PA ) About 2200 undergrads
Temple (PA ): About 24k undergrads
The College of Saint Rose (NY): About 1400 undergrads
U. of North Carolina – Asheville: About 2900 undergrads
Wheaton (IL): About 2200 undergrads, academically well-regarded institution that’s strongly tied to its Christian faith
I just want to second this recommendation. My oldest graduated from Bellarmine in May and is working on his Master’s now. Had a great experience there. I’m a big fan.
No doubt that Williams is highly selective but they do favor musicians (and artists) in admissions. Their website says “Around a quarter of the students at Williams are actively involved in the musical life of the department each year.” Their music program is a major investment: a large number of instructors with a wide range of specialties, beautiful facilities, and multiple performance opportunities with orchestras and ensembles.
Fit is an important factor in LAC admissions. It helps if the applicant can convey an interest in spending four years in an insular, mountain village environment. Interest in participating in outdoorsy activities (or sports) is also a plus, though not a necessity.
As a general statement, Williams students have ample opportunities to form personal bonds with their instructors, while at Williams and afterwards in recommendations and advising. It’s a close knit, nurturing community.
Students are required to fulfill distribution requirements by taking 3 courses in each of three general categories: arts/humanities, math/sciences, social sciences. My son, who was an art major, didn’t find the requirements especially burdensome.
I would also suggest that your son look at Colby. I don’t have any specific information about their music program, but they’ve just completed a spectacular new performing arts center, which indicates a commitment.
I forgot Tufts! I was going to mention Wooster but OP said northeast. There are some West Coast schools as well.
If he applies to BA programs, he needs to do a music supplement with video/recording, music resume, and music letters of recommendation. Coming from a performing arts school should help with that!
Again this is confusing, and goals need to be clarified:
We love the idea of a good liberal arts eduction, and he’ll need that reading/writing/thinking for his music career, but 4 years of classes that are not predominantly music related would not be palatable for him.
It it okay to apply to both BA and BM and decide later…PM’ing you
I don’t think it needs to be a big cohort. 20 awesome music peers could be plenty if the chemistry is right. I suppose the benefit of a music school/program with a lot of kids is that he’d have much more chance to try out different combos and vibes over 4 years.
Can you explain this? Why would fewer mentions on CC correlate directly with fewer music grads? I’m certainly familiar with a handful of the schools listed and know a bit about their music. Do the schools you listed generally have “strong” music possibilities?
I’m laughing at how I’m confusing you - we are confusing ourselves:) It’s quite a complex thinking process to go through with a neurodivergent music kid who also does well in school but really only wants music but not just one kind of music.
He is going to need some liberal arts general exposure, which we’d ideally like to be flexible and quality. I am really impressed with my daughter’s initial experience at Grinnell and I am wanting that for my son but paired with “enough” music and I don’t know if that exists or if it’s affordable.
Yes, my older kid applied ED to Grinnell in order to take advantage of the admissions boost because the financial aid was so robust and was one of our lowest NPC’s. Because of that, we didn’t get the final info for a bunch of the schools that it would have been helpful to know the offer for now that my son is looking. She is also musical and was looking specifically for different music opportunities than my son is.
I’ll explain a bit about how I came up with the list, and then maybe that will make things clearer.
I looked through College Navigator (the feds’ website aggregating a bunch of data) looking at schools offering music, music performance, jazz, music technology majors, etc. I then looked at the number of first majors in the most recent year (IPEDS data only counts the first major…if a kid double majors, the second major is not counted). If the number of music majors looked promising, I then looked at the net price to see if any of the prices were below $20k as a proxy for the chances of getting the school to that price point. Those were the main filters I used to provide the suggestions listed above.
Schools that had very small numbers of first majors (0-4) weren’t included at all. Based on your daughter’s attendance at Grinnell and your mentioning of schools with very low admit rates that are more financially generous, some of the schools that have a more established reputation on CC I had a lower number of music majors (perhaps 5 or so in a graduating class, so probably at least 20 music majors in the school plus kids who have it as a double major or who are just interested in music but not majoring). Those would be schools like Vassar, Kenyon, Rhodes, Franklin & Marshall, and College of Wooster (I think…I’ve slept since doing this and I have a terrible time remembering numbers).
Basically, the more first-hand accounts of academic excellence a school has, the lower the bar was for inclusion on music. The fewer first-hand accounts of a school (for any reason), the more robust the music offerings appeared to be (often not just by number of music majors, but a diversity of different types of music majors). For colleges that only had a “music” major, but a good number of them, I will leave that to your family to explore what the curricular possibilities are within that major (i.e. production and performance, etc).
Hopefully this makes sense. If it doesn’t, however, let me know and I’ll try and clarify!
Thanks. He did Eastman’s summer jazz program two summers ago and felt it was pretty traditional jazz. I didn’t realize the conservatory was open curriculum; we’ll check that out.
Ha! I’m going to need more brain time than I have right now to think through this, but I appreciate your effort so, so much. Thank you! I am so impressed with the ability to research in this mathy way.
This is interesting:
Basically, the more first-hand accounts of academic excellence a school has, the lower the bar was for inclusion on music. The fewer first-hand accounts of a school (for any reason), the more robust the music offerings appeared to be (often not just by number of music majors, but a diversity of different types of music majors)
New School isn’t crazy. We already toured it for jazz. Small, open program. Talked to some upperclassmen who said that you can take whatever you want but you can also fall through the cracks; nobody is overseeing. NYC is an amazing place to be for jazz, obv. Expensive though, even if aid, because the city is just expensive to exist in no matter what. Could be an intense environment for a ND kid, though born and raised in Philly so very used to city life.
That was basically the point of my previous message.
Sorry! I guess my “mathy” way of searching is how I try to find schools that fly beneath the radar of people who may only know the names of 50-100 schools. For most fields, it’s extremely competitive to get jobs as professors, and the ones who get the jobs are usually pretty amazing, no matter how renowned the school that they’re teaching at is. But lots of schools may say they offer “music” as a major, but it’s hard to judge the quality of their offerings without digging into them individually. I figure if there’s a decent-sized cohort of majors, then I can trust that those people actually did more research and found that the school met their needs. Additionally, when schools aren’t in that Top X category that are known by a lot of people, students can end up getting really generous merit aid, especially helpful when looking for a great deal.
Since a couple of people have mentioned Kenyon, I thought I’d add a few words since we have first-hand experience with their music program. While Kenyon is not particularly known for music, it has a lively music scene. My daughter, who is a senior there, has been taking 3 music classes almost every semester (lessons in voice and an instrument+ a wind ensemble), even though she’s not a music major or minor. I don’t know anything about their jazz program, but overall it seems like a very good music department, and quite rigorous (even non majors and non minors are required to take a jury exam and play from memory). My daughter was also accepted to Grinnell (along with Oberlin, Macalester, and St. Olaf), so we were looking for a similar academic and social experience as your kids, it seems. Oh, and Kenyon has a music scholarship (as does St. Olaf).
Two suggestions for you. Ithaca College has a phenomenal music program and lots of musicians on campus with beautiful facilities. There is definitely flexibility in the curriculum… son can major in music, SRT (which I believe includes lessons/ensemble on primary instrument) or music with an outside major. Talk to them about what you’re looking for. And great merit aid for musicians.
The other suggestion I have is Knox. They aren’t known for music per se, but have a really wonderful jazz program. I get the feeling your kid would be able to cobble together whatever sort of major they want in a highly supportive atmosphere. The jazz professor there is fantastic and I highly suggest your reach out to her.
Ithaca is a great suggestion. That was one that the average net prices didn’t look favorable for meeting budget. But if Ithaca offers full tuition scholarships or something similar for top candidates, then I think it is certainly worth considering.