Best Schools for composing?

Thanks guys for all the suggestions, however spirited the debate may be. This week I'm going to get with my theory teacher and look into the best options. He'd probably be willing to take me to some of these places to see what would be the best fit for me.

I would like to know, where can I find these public statistics and who collected them and how? How can who rank something definitively when it's subjective anyways?

http://www.music.fsu.edu/Highlights/FSU-no.-3-for-arts-research

There are also things like placement levels, trends etc etc etc. The school you go to does have influence.

Yeah, if a job opening seeks a candidate with a law degree and one candidate went to a higher-ranked law school, you'd have a pretty valid point. Does this even apply to any job in composition (aside from teaching)?

Yes. It's a trickle down process, the top 20 or so schools latch on to the most talented and those with the most drive and talent declines as you go down the line.

Whoa! Look at all those jobs posted on Monster or Yahoo Jobs seeking composers! WOW! (Hint: There are none.) And getting 'a job' as a composer, as most of us know except maybe you, often involves -demonstrating- your talents as a composer. So, going to some elite school and paying 20k-40k or paying 10k to a local community college, it doesn't matter if you can produce quality work and promote yourself. NO ONE CARES where you went to school for music.

Well a lot of the "elite schools" are state universities, and those are relatively cheap. Also if you have the grades and whatnot, or even just the need, you should be getting adequate financial aid.

By the way, I'm confused by these numbers. You say "20-40k or 10k", but you aren't very exact. Are you talking about yearly tuition, or cost of all 4-years? Or cost of one semester? Average yearly state university tuition is around 12-14k (so 6-7k tops per semester), so 48k for all 4-years tops. I dunno about you, but I didn't pay for any of my schooling out of pocket. If we're talking a private school, you can just double those costs, and if we're talking a community college you can halve the yearly costs (Community Colleges are CHEEAAAAP).

But you have to understand though, I'm not even talking about the very very top schools, I'm talking the top 20-35ish. I'm just saying that it really is a waste of money and counter-intuitive to go to a school that's bottom ranked, bottom 100. One could even argue that the level of school needed for you go to and how pragmatic your degree is are inversely-related. You can go to a community college and major in nursing, the reasoning being that the job market for nurses is so large that you really don't need a Yale degree in nursing in order to be competitive. However, if you're getting a degree in Art History, or music composition, it would behoove you to go to a top 20-40 program in order to maximize your success once you graduate.

I perceive you to be a college student at one of these prestigious institutions (or an instructor) who actually has no experience outside of academia. Maybe you're just looking for schools to attend and think you have all of it figured out. You don't. It's obvious.

I'm in my *early 20s* and recently received my bachelors in music composition, so you're half right.

Are you a professional composer? Did you go to a bottom ranked school? Are you regularly receiving commissions? I'll be honest and say that I wouldn't really consider myself a composer, despite the degree. That last thing the world needs is another symphony...

Also, if you ask me, the bottom ranked schools are pumping out too many degree holders. The market is so flooded that only the most elite truly do anything worth existing. Music isn't like more practical career paths where even a degree from some school no one has ever heard of can give you hope of success. Of course, if you went to some bottom tier school I've never heard of and happen to have works performed in Lincoln Center, I'll gladly stop.

Yes. It's a trickle down process, the top 20 or so schools latch on to the most talented and those with the most drive and talent declines as you go down the line.

IF this was true, PROVE IT.

Well a lot of the "elite schools" are state universities, and those are relatively cheap. Also if you have the grades and whatnot, or even just the need, you should be getting adequate financial aid.

IVY schools (Harvard, NYU, Eastman, etc) are hardly cheap.

But you have to understand though, I'm not even talking about the very very top schools, I'm talking the top 20-35ish. I'm just saying that it really is a waste of money and counter-intuitive to go to a school that's bottom ranked, bottom 100. One could even argue that the level of school needed for you go to and how pragmatic your degree is are inversely-related. You can go to a community college and major in nursing, the reasoning being that the job market for nurses is so large that you really don't need a Yale degree in nursing in order to be competitive. However, if you're getting a degree in Art History, or music composition, it would behoove you to go to a top 20-40 program in order to maximize your success once you graduate.

Qualify "maximize your success," Hova.

I'm in my *early 20s* and recently received my bachelors in music composition, so you're half right.

Obviously, if you're saying you go to a top 20-40 school you're more likely to find a job. So, who's offering you a position, Hova? How's the resume holding up for interviews??

Are you a professional composer? Did you go to a bottom ranked school? Are you regularly receiving commissions? I'll be honest and say that I wouldn't really consider myself a composer, despite the degree. That last thing the world needs is another symphony...

Uhm... you're not a composer and you're trying to offer advice to someone who wants to be a composer. Wow.

Also, if you ask me, the bottom ranked schools are pumping out too many degree holders. The market is so flooded that only the most elite truly do anything worth existing. Music isn't like more practical career paths where even a degree from some school no one has ever heard of can give you hope of success. Of course, if you went to some bottom tier school I've never heard of and happen to have works performed in Lincoln Center, I'll gladly stop.

Please. Stop. You aren't even offering a qualified opinion if you don't call yourself a composer.

Find out WHAT you want to do, then find the program that DELIVERS that. Don't go by reputation (or lack of reputation). A good idea is to look at people who are successful in the field you want to enter, and look at where THEY went.

It doesn't matter if the school is famous for such-and-such a field of music if that's not what you want to do.

For example at one point I was looking at two graduate schools to add to my application list, UT Austin and Manhattan School of Music. No question, Manhattan is much more prestigious. But the Manhattan program didn't say ANYTHING about scoring for film or commercial music whereas at UT Austin there are lots of opportunities to work and network with the film program there. So in the end I added UT Austin to my apps and dropped Manhattan.

I am 100% against Hova's attitude that it's the degree-grantor that matters. No, it's the education you receive, and even that is far less important than your talent, work experience and portfolio. Most of the people who get accepted into SMPTV (the #1 film scoring program) come from no-name colleges. Would you call Southern Methodist University a "top ranked" music school? I've never even heard of it.

I definitely agree with you though that the market for NONCOMMERCIAL music is stuffed with hopeless graduates. <_<

Yes. It's a trickle down process, the top 20 or so schools latch on to the most talented and those with the most drive and talent declines as you go down the line.

I smell a troll.

But seriously, all this talk of "best schools" is crap. You can as well NOT study at all and still compose no problem. In fact in some cases I'd rather people not go study to begin with depending on who they'll have to deal with as teachers.

And that's the key here. Teachers. Who's teaching in all these places?

I mean that's the single most important factor in any place what so ever if your concern is composition, and the answer can vary wildly from one person to another. One teacher/approach may work great for one person, but fail for someone else. Of course there is some common ground between teachers that don't suck abysmally, but even so it can vary a lot.

So really, I would rather stick nails in my eyes than be caught going to study with someone I personally don't know or aren't sure that "works" for me. Paper or no, a bad choice like this can waste a lot of time and resources when all that was needed to prevent it was some proper research and poking around at the options.

If you have NO OPTIONS at all (since you live in Uganda) you could of course take whatever you can get, but like I said, it could all be a huge waste of time/money if you don't see eye to eye with the teacher.

I smell a troll.

Agreed. It smells foul in here (the thread).

:sick:

For example at one point I was looking at two graduate schools to add to my application list, UT Austin and Manhattan School of Music. No question, Manhattan is much more prestigious. But the Manhattan program didn't say ANYTHING about scoring for film or commercial music whereas at UT Austin there are lots of opportunities to work and network with the film program there. So in the end I added UT Austin to my apps and dropped Manhattan.

I am 100% against Hova's attitude that it's the degree-grantor that matters. No, it's the education you receive, and even that is far less important than your talent, work experience and portfolio. Most of the people who get accepted into SMPTV (the #1 film scoring program) come from no-name colleges. Would you call Southern Methodist University a "top ranked" music school? I've never even heard of it.

UT and Film scoring? If you are doing indepentdent work maybe, however the only school I know that teaches films scoring in Texas is the school I go to. however I could be wrong and things might have changed things since I was first looking for schools.

UT and Film scoring? If you are doing indepentdent work maybe, however the only school I know that teaches films school is the school I go to. however I could be wrong and things might have changed things since I was first looking for schools.

I actually know that UTs composition department works VERY closely with their Film department. But, it's not like a "program" or anything like Stephen F. Austin's, it's more of a friendly/mutual relationship.