<p>My D was accepted at Berklee, Belmont and USC, but with no financial aid (and 2 other kids in school) we opted for a local option (Azusa Pacific). We never ended up visiting Belmont, but living in So Cal, had plenty of exposure to the USC Pop Music program. We went to finals performances for multiple years. Frankly, the performances were solid, but nothing special. My D and her twin were in a summer music program at the LA Music Academy a couple of years ago and after one week, the performances were on par with what we heard at USC. We do think the connections at the bigger name schools are a huge selling point, but graduating with hundreds of thousands of dollars of college debt was just too much on the negative side. The APU staff is filled with professors that have advanced degrees from Thornton, Eastman, etc., so the quality of education is good, and the music program has a great reputation. Not much is posted about these smaller schools, but there are plenty of them that deserve consideration.</p>