<p>So I don't have any real questions for any of you, but I did come to a realization as I started to discuss college with people, including this site. As most of you know, I'm a high school junior jazz guitarist, contemplating dual degree but most definitely going into music.</p>
<p>I'm almost 100% confident that I do not want to go to a conservatory to study music. I need a full college experience. I want to be able to go to the football games and cheer my school's team on, and I want to collaborate with non-musicians to...</p>
<p>So that pretty much rules out Berklee, NEC, Juilliard, etc... Also, I used to think I wanted to shoot for Harvard/NEC or Tufts/NEC, but I don't really like that idea anymore, it just seems like a very big hassle, and that I wouldn't get the full experience of either place.</p>
<p>Now I am pretty much looking at the following places -</p>
<p>Oberlin - undergraduate based appeals to me, because I feel like it would be easier to not get lost in the crowd. However, I have no problem being part of a giant school as long as I get to work with great musicians.</p>
<p>University of Michigan - anybody know about the prestige of the jazz program here? I like the school, but know nothing about the music program, except that it has a really good composition department.</p>
<p>North Texas (UNT) - OK, I know it doesn't have great academics, and offers no dual degree, but it is recognized as one of the jazz programs in the country, and I have a friend going there that loves it, he's been going 2 years and I've known him since high school and his increase in musicianship has been phenomanel. It still is within a university, which I really like.</p>
<p>USC - I know very little about it, except that it has one of the best college football teams and that it is huge. I've heard there are a lot of very famous musicians that each there, and I saw info. for the studio/jazz guitar program they offer, which appeals to me because although it is jazz-based, it also gives a good foundation in other areas (rock/funk/classical/etc) which would be very helpful if I planned on becoming a studio musician.</p>
<p>Princeton University - I know what you are thinking, but I've looked into it. Princeton, if I was able to get accepted by some bizarre stroke of luck, would still have a lot of musical opportunities, without trapping me in "music land." They have ensembles that in the past have won downbeat awards over music schools, and their faculty includes Bruce Arnold, who has taught at NEC and Berklee. This along with Brown are the only non-music schools I've been looking at, because I believe that music, especially something as personal as jazz music, has to have the influence of other things as well (for me, it would be science, philosophy and religious studies, all of which interest me a lot). Jazz also is a thing that can very well be self-taught, as that has been the tradtition for the majority of jazz musicians in the past.</p>
<p>I would also look at BU and Indiana University, but neither of those schools offer jazz guitar. Oh well.</p>
<p>Whaddaya think?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>