I’m not looking for a professional marching band :). it’s just what he really enjoys. Some students really want to play a club sport, be near skiing, or join a particular club. It’s the thing he’d like to continue doing a few more years in college. And since there are many engineering colleges, narrowing it down to one where he can continue marching band makes sense to me.
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Western and Grand Valley could both be on a true safety list, but in both cases the engineering buildings are not on the main campus and it is a turn off to him. We have friends at both and have talked to them a bit (mostly for my daughter). So it would be something he’d have to decide on - marching or location of engineering. We will add one of them for sure.
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Also consider the time commitment to the Marching Band program (wherever it is). S23 wanted to be involved in MB, was accepted to UTK and ultimately was one of the reasons why he did NOT go there. It was pretty clear that because of his academic program he was unlikely to be able to get both to work beyond Freshman year.
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University of New Mexico marching band doesn’t require an audition.
With the Amigo Scholarship (automatic for grades) the cost will be around $23K/year.
ABET accredited engineering. <16000 undergrads.
All marching band students get an additional scholarship of up to $700/year.
Go Lobos!
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I am familiar with Miami University of Ohio - my daughter played in the pit for 4 years there. Auditions are by video and due July but unless something has changed, they were for placement only – I don’t think they ever rejected anyone from the band. They have a full pit as well as a color guard and twirlers. Band is a class for 1-2 credits and is assessed an extra fee on the tuition bill of something like $110 (for uniform rental I think). They play all home games both pregame and halftime and everyone performs, they don’t cut people week to week. They travel to some but not all away games and they did have the option of traveling to the bowl games when the team made one (though I don’t think they took the pit equipment to the bowl games so I don’t know what the pit members did who went - my daughter never wanted to go as it was usually over Christmas) As far as away games, I know they always did the University of Cincinnati game and also performed at a BOA show in Lucasoil stadium and once performed at the Ohio State stadium during a game. Pretty sure they performed somewhere near Detroit once as well. Band had an assigned timeslot for rehearsals but if there was a class conflict, they were pretty good at working with you so you could stay in the band. Band camp was held about 5 days to a week (depending on section - percussion and guard started earliest) before the rest of the freshmen moved in so the band members got to know the campus in advance and also grew very close to each other - pretty much all my daughter’s BFFs were people from the band. Miami has a great engineering department and is particularly strong in chemical and paper engineering. They give really good merit - it ended up being my daughter’s cheapest option, coming in far below our own state schools. And they have a very strong honors program. My daughter was in STEM but not in engineering – she ended up graduating with 3 majors and is now in a top 10 grad program in her field.
I also have several friends with children in the Lehigh University band. Again, they are a true marching band (not just pep band, they march) and I don’t believe they reject anyone although I don’t know their exact audition process. I know they play home games, not sure about away. Lehigh is a great engineering school as well and the kids in the marching band seem to have a blast.
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Great info. Thank you! We will check out both of them. I know a few who went to Miami of Ohio and they all really enjoyed their time and are doing great things now.
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Found this info on the Lehigh band for you - looks like there’s no auditions and they take everyone. They don’t tend to give much merit but they are generous with need-based financial aid. If you don’t have financial need, though, you are probably looking at BIG bucks to attend Lehigh.
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My son is in the WVU band. Another good thing is that they do not have to re-audition each year for the marching band. They do have to audition each year for pep band if he is interested in that.
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