<p>Oberlin, Bard. Both high-qual LACs, practice rooms everywhere, and a supportive environment in which to chase that musical dream while still majoring in economics or math or whatever.</p>
<p>What about Chicago area schools? DePaul is larger than the target size but has a great music school and is in a GREAT music city. It sounds like a good safety for this kid AND it has rolling admissions.</p>
<p>Also, Oberlin has a lot of interesting music classes—history, theory, etc. I think they’re open to all.</p>
<p>I know my suggestion isn’t exactly a perfect match because of the size, but a good friend of our family ( who comes from a set of accomplished musicians parents and also brother ) has really been able to satisfy his passion for music , while majoring in another field of study at BU.
He is now a senior there. Bass guitar is his main instrument, but he does play regular guitar as well as drums</p>
<p>I think not Oberlin - that was my first thought but the OP is asking for safety and match schools. In my opinion, Oberlin is not a safety or match the this student.</p>
<p>I was thinking of Belmont.</p>
<p>You are smart to think about whether a non-major can take music classes, get practice rooms, etc. My son was interested in a school that was very very very strong in dance and music. Son likes those areas but was not going to major in either. At the very very end of the decision process, we found out that it was impossible/not permitted for a non-major to ever take a dance class (because space in the classes was at a premium.)</p>
<p>I third Wesleyan… and he should contact the track coach (at any school) if he is interested in running in college. </p>
<p>I second Clark. </p>
<p>I think BC does have a different culture than the other three…</p>
<p>If you’d consider East Coast but further south, you might want to look into College of Charleston. It’s a public LAC, right in a very cool city with lots of arts and music opportunities of all types – classical to jazz to alternative to world… My s, who is a musician but not a music major, has found it easy to find kindred musical spirits. I think your stats are a match. About 30% of the students are OOS, too, which I think is a big plus.</p>