<p>Mamakin,</p>
<p>Don’t mean to be snooty, but the MEIEA list is missing USC and Berklee which are probably the most prestigious of the popular music schools. I have lived by about five of the schools on the list and they are not considered the best music schools in their local area much less in a broader context and I suspect that is the case of several of the others. Several of the ones I know are lower end academic schools with almost no music status in their local area. There are very high quality schools on the list like Belmont, Miami, NYU and Indiana, but also some lower options.</p>