from * Hollywood Reporter *
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/top-25-music-schools-2015-842747
What a mixed bag. It doesn’t really take into account the different aesthetics at the different schools, which is pretty important in composition. Is this a list for commercial success, academic excellence, what? It’s the Hollywood Reporter after all.
The posts on this forum by aspiring composers are almost all geared to future film work. They are generally working with technology. However, there are still some starving young composers in and out of grad school who are writing music on paper 
“It’s the Hollywood Reporter after all.” Yup, my thoughts exactly.
As happy as I am to see it packed with schools in California…lt does look like it was compiled by someone whose nephew goes to Full Sail. :))
Nice emoticon!!
The fact that Liz Phair (as much as I like her) is listed as the notable alum for Oberlin demonstrates that this is a joke of a list.
full Sail included but McGill and Toronto missing. Do they publish the methodology anywhere?
These best-of lists are always ridiculous.
Darn emoticons don’t work for me.
I agree that such lists are ludicrous, but I especially liked the false advertising here. Entitle the list “The Top 25 Music Schools” and then limit your scope to schools purportedly producing film scorers, songwriters and music industry execs. I hope there is more to the field of music study than that.
Oh, if only I was 15 and could load my post with LOLs and Hahahahaha!!
Here we go again…
I’m sorry.
@palomina “do not post listicles on the music majors forum” should be on CC’s TOS. To be honest any one of those schools (with the exception of Full Sail) might be the number one option for the right student. It ALL depends on the student, their strengths, their instument and their goals. There are probably another 25-50 schools that could also be listed as a number one choice.
Oh, don’t feel bad Palomina! Most of us saw that list circulating on social media and I’m glad you posted it because it was fun to discuss it.
Nothing like a music school ranking list to get the juices flowing! My favorite music school ranking list is still this one, http://seatedovation.blogspot.com.ar/2014/04/top-ten-music-school-rankings.html, which was posted in this thread, http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/1682933-problems-with-music-school-rankings-in-selecting-schools-p1.html, last year.
On a more serious note, this commentary on music school rankings from the dean of admissions at highly ranked Eastman is fairly thoughtful: http://www.esm.rochester.edu/admissions/2014/10/best-music-school-for-you/.
Jazzpianodad, that list made my day. Thanks! Maybe you should repost it as a thread. Better than the Onion.
This was great: “Featuring a lauded entrepreneurship initiative that trains barista skills at one of the three coffee shops housed in its new state-of-the-art building”…
Well, it’s hard to pick out the funniest, all 10 are hilarious.
I agree. Jazzpianodad, thank you for providing the link. Since my son is going through grad school admission right now, it is especially appropriate.
As others have pointed out, this list in many ways is meaningless, because they seem to be focused on the movie industry (not surprising), but then make it a broad based “best music schools”.
The real problem with any list is they come up with criteria that may not mean much. For example, you could have a school with a low acceptance rate because they calculate the acceptance rate based on those who apply, while another school may base it on those who actually audition (I don’t know how those numbers are calculated in reality). I have seen schools in lists with low acceptance rates where the level of the program as a whole is a lot less than programs that accept many more kids, in part because the program tends to attract second tier students in the first place, then attract a lot of kids who aren’t that good at all.
And of coursse, it all depends on the student, their area and what they want to do. Going to USC or UCLA to learn how to do film music is kind of a no brainer, both have close ties to the film industry and probably access to movie music composers, whereas for example, I suspect going to Yale School of Music or Juilliard might not work as well if movie music is your goal. One of the schools mentioned in this list, if you were heading into strings, I would not recommend from what I have heard about it, yet that same school might have a fantastic piano department. A school may have a couple of first rate cello teachers, which if you can get into their studio would be a big wow, but the rest of the teachers are so so, and so forth.
I especially love USNWR, that one really makes me chuckle, because looking at things like salaries, or worse, incoming SAT scores and AP tests and such is a joke for a music school, since it has nothing to do with how well the students play as musicians, and in fact might be a negative in some senses. Faculty to student ratio also might not mean much, a great teacher might have 25 students in their studio, as long as they can handle that, who cares, whereas a small program might have 4 violin students to each violin teacher, but it is a mediocre program…
As others have said time and again, there is no science to all this, it is a dark art. The top X list of music schools has to be tailored to each student and their needs and desires, so it becomes “these are my top picks”, and a school that some big list says is “number1” might in fact not be a very good program at all for a student.
Could any CC’ers “in the know” post their personal list of top 10 or 20 music schools in North America. Not ranked but just a list.
What’s the point? The list will vary according to instrument, major, focus, teacher, etc.