Best Colleges For Music Degrees

[BlackJesus]

Any recommendations? Never too early to start looking

[LKendrick]

Depends on what your focus will be, Therapy, Business, Performance, Education, ect, what instrument you play if you're looking for a certain professor, cost, ect.  

 

A little biased because I'm going here, but West Texas A&M has a fantastic Education program, and the Therapy program is pretty fantastic as well.  Of course there's many other great colleges in the state as well, I'm never going to use the word best, because it just depends on many factors.   

[Percussionization]

If you are in percussion, UNT is the place to go.

[takigan]

If you are in ANYTHING, UNT is the place to go....if you want to be surrounded by an army of the best Percussionists/Trumpets/Clarinetists/Whatever in the world, faculty and student, then yes UNT is the place to be.  And if your focus is Jazz, it's a no-brainer.

But I wouldn't say that answers the OP's question....even if their instrument was percussion.  It ultimately depends on major, and what they plan to do with their degree.

If you want to become as skilled on your instrument as humanly possible, want to play professionally and don't want to pay out-of-state tuition, I really don't think there's a better place than UNT (even the best schools like Rice, UT & UH don't even hold a candle in comparison).  That doesn't have as much to do with the professors and what is taught at UNT, as much as it does the environment of excellence there.  At UNT, if you're not practicing at least 2 hours a day you WILL fall behind as a player.....there's an insane atmosphere of competition among the nearly 2,000 music majors that make up the school of music (more than any other school in the country), and even if you were an All-Stater in HS, you probably won't make the top band/orchestra as a freshman....By comparison at SHSU (my Alma Mater), if you made the 5A/6A All-State band in HS you were pretty much guaranteed a spot in the top band at Sam....unless you had a complete lack of fundamentals, or you auditioned on something like Alto Clarinet or Contrabassoon (easy trip) or.....you were a Tuba or Saxophone player (the 2 strongest studios @ Sam).  I think the same is true for places like Texas Tech, Texas State, WTAMU, SFA and pretty much everywhere else in Texas....that's just the level that UNT is on.

Now, for those wanting to become a band director, I think UNT is a GREAT choice as far as netting the job goes.  March a Top 7 Drum Corps, and graduate with a Music Ed degree from UNT and you're pretty much guaranteed an Assistant Director job at a pretty good HS in DFW (granted you're a likable person and you put those DCI connections to use).  But I don't think UNT is the place to go to get the tools necessary to eventually become a GREAT band director.  There are some wonderful TMEA Honor Band directors who went to UNT, but not a proportional number of them compared to the number of graduates that they put out, and not proportional considering the proximity of the school to the "Mecca" of some of the strongest band programs in the country (DFW).  No, most Honor Band finalists are from DFW, but their directors come from everywhere else but UNT (including schools in the area like UTA, UTD, SMU, TCU).....but mostly U of H, lol.

U of H comes up a lot in recommended schools for Music Ed.  One thing UH really does well is put you in the mindset of becoming the best teacher ever.  That kind of attitude can make you accomplish great things.  One thing I'm not too fond of is that UH have this common mindset that "If I don't get a job at an AWESOME school like the one I went to, or at least one of its feeders, then I don't want to teach at all".  They also have the reputation for being a bit "cocky"....a lot of them think their way is the best and only way to teach and that their school is "the place" for Music Ed.  That attitude can be a bit offputting.  Still....you can't deny what their alums have accomplished...and every UH grad I've met has had an extremely great grasp on instrumental pedagogy.  I don't think they're blowing smoke...they've got a great thing going there and they're one of the best choices for Music Ed.

From there, all you're going to get is recommendations by people for where they go/went to college, or places they've heard about from people who go there....and you really can't put too much faith in those.  I will say the university's proximity to a metropolitan area with strong band programs is IDEAL.....because you'll want to be somewhere where you'll have the opportunity to teach private lessons, do visual teching, and land yourself a great student teacher placement so you can get yourself some good professional contacts (and their recommendations....maybe even a job offer from them if you're lucky!).  Teaching experience and recommendations are KEY to getting a good job....it's WHO you know as much as (and even more than!) what you know.

I'd stay away from out-of-state schools for Music Ed, unless your goal is to end up teaching out there. You already live in the greatest place in the U.S. to teach music! There are so many people coming to Texas from out of state every year because they know this is the place to teach.  But many of them have to accept less than ideal jobs because they don't know anyone from Texas who can hook them up with a good one.  You put yourself at a networking disadvantage for getting a job here by spending 4-6 years out of state.  You're also going to spend oodles on out-of-state tuition.

[beowulf]

Brandon,

 

UNT is a fine school, but your post is overboard and silly.  As for "not holding a candle to UNT" for performance, feel free to look at the rosters of every major symphony orchestra in America, and compare Rice to UNT.  I expect you would find at least a 10:1 ratio in Rice's favor.

 

For jazz, UNT is supreme.  For music ed, it is one of several excellent colleges in Texas.

[LKendrick]

Brandon,

 

UNT is a fine school, but your post is overboard and silly. As for "not holding a candle to UNT" for performance, feel free to look at the rosters of every major symphony orchestra in America, and compare Rice to UNT. I expect you would find at least a 10:1 ratio in Rice's favor.

 

For jazz, UNT is supreme. For music ed, it is one of several excellent colleges in Texas.

Percussion as well it is the place to go, but I agree there are quite a few colleges with just as good education programs.

[LKendrick]

I guess in the end it is what you do with your degree that matters, not where you got it. I would like to think that I can be just as successful regardless of where I am going to college, just as many others have. Wherever you end up, just be the best player you can be, go to class, work hard, and learn as much as you can and you will be set for the rest of your life, regardless of where you end up going to school. Go somewhere you feel like you can learn, succeed, and get as much individual time with your music professors as possible.

[takigan]

Brandon,

 

UNT is a fine school, but your post is overboard and silly.  As for "not holding a candle to UNT" for performance, feel free to look at the rosters of every major symphony orchestra in America, and compare Rice to UNT.  I expect you would find at least a 10:1 ratio in Rice's favor.

 

10:1 is a bold statement when you consider that Rice's music program is only one FIFTH the size of UNT's.  To have a ten fold lead despite being five fold behind means that the students are FIFTY times more effective at winning auditions.  That doesn't seem bloody mathematically likely.

 

Why are we talking orchestras anyway?  For starters this discussion doesn't include strings at all.  I'm referring to the Wind/Percussion studies program.  I might agree with you that there are more Violin, Viola and Cello players from Rice with pro jobs than there are that hail from UNT (maybe....but neither one of us can prove it without basically a case study), though I feel like your 10:1 number is regurgitated from some Rice professor...ie. it sounds heavily biased.  How many Rice alums are playing in the military bands?  Based on the Rice almuni page, it's likely in the single digits.....UNT currently has over 70 alums playing in full time positions in professional military Wind Orchestras nationwide based on their own alum page.

 

And I know you've already agreed that UNT is the place to be for jazz, but seriously, look how many UNT Jazz alums have Wikipedia pages due to the success of their careers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_University_of_North_Texas_College_of_Music_alumni#Other_Alumni  .  No other school nationwide can touch this.