Every year, about a week or two into May, a list is posted at
NACAC - Home page containing colleges of all types that are still accepting applications for the upcoming fall semester. There are often some very good ones on the list. An intended performance major could apply to one of them and take some classes that would transfer (English, music history, basic keyboard skills, languages and so forth come to mind. Most music departments insist on their own theory classes.) If a student could coordinate the location of a school on that list with a good private teacher, perhaps even one who teaches at a music school of interest, then they would be ready to make another run the following year as a transfer student.