Hi,
I'm a current master's student at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, but I did my undergrad at UNT. I don't want to post a whole lot of stuff on this thread, but I just went through grad school apps last fall, so if you need any feedback on what I found doing my research, I'm open to talking on AIM or MSN.
AIM: patpit77
MSN: patpit77@hotmail.com
UNT is a great school. It's rather large, which is very good for finding performers for your work. Every studio has at least a few talented performers. The number of students in the composition studios isn't a huge concern as a grad student because you'll have priority for studio choices. While I was studying, I spent a year in David Bithell's studio and a semester in Cindy McTee's. I also took several courses with Joseph Klein and still keep in touch with all of them to some degree. In my experience, none of the professors there have a teaching method that really pushes a particular style, which is very nice. Looking at each professor's work, you can see where their focus lies, but all of them have worked in a variety of media. If you have an interest in electronic music or intermedia, UNT has resources that you won't find at many other public institutions. The proximity to Dallas-Fort Worth puts you near two very high-quality symphony orchestras, as well as several museums, chamber music societies, new music ensembles, and other venues that offer musical performances. The College of Music at UNT also makes scheduling your own recitals relatively easy compared to some schools. Housing and property costs are also very reasonable in Texas.
Now for the bad news. First and foremost, UNT is a public university and therefore doesn't have a huge amount of money to give for financial aid. If you have experience with electronic music, you can get an assistantship with CEMI, though you'll be competing with the other grad students. These positions often go to master's students, though. The composition TF positions are pretty much always taken by doctoral students. If you can't get an assistantship, you can arrange for employment on campus for an in-state tuition waiver, which makes the tuition more reasonable, but you can't expect many scholarships or grants. I managed a large scholarship from the university as an undergrad, but that was for SAT scores, so that won't help you...sorry. Also, even though the system UNT uses for scheduling recitals is convenient, the large number of students can make arranging performances a little difficult (they program about 800+ performances a year in the CoM).
Speaking on the schools you mentioned before, if cost is a big issue, you should still apply to Yale. I applied and was rejected, but if you do manage to get accepted, they offer full tuition grants to all performance and composition grad students. Unfortunately, that's why it's so hard to get in. I'm currently attending Bowling Green mostly because of the great assistantships they offer. They don't have many doctoral students, so most master's students end up with an assistantship, which covers the full cost of tuition. They don't have any huge names on faculty, but Burton Beerman and Marilyn Shrude are both respected experienced names. Also, Mikel Khuen and Elainie Lillios both went to UNT. The scope of the program here isn't quite so wide as UNT, but that's partially because it's a much smaller program.
When I was applying, I applied to Eastman, Yale, Michigan, BGSU, UNT, University of Texas, and Peabody, and interviewed at and was accepted to Peabody in addition to BGSU, so if you have questions about any of these school, I'd be happy to discuss.
