<p>The main reason I add it to my criteria for the college list I’m interested in is because i’m an introverted person and it seems an easy way to meet new people, and it’s just fun.</p>
<p>However, it severely reduces my options to what colleges I look at…</p>
<p>Anyone know something that could serve in it’s place so I have a broader scope?</p>
<p>There are lots of similar ways to meet people; band is no more than a club in which you have common interests. For band its playing a musical instrument, and if that’s something you enjoy you’ll find that most colleges (even if they don’t have a marching band) have a slew of musical options available such as a school orchestra, clubs organized around music, etc.</p>
<p>Pep band? Concert band (for non-majors?)</p>
<p>How good is your HS marching band? How much will you miss it if you have to settle for something like a concert band?</p>
<p>I hear you Kalookakoo. I have a son in HS who should be competitive for all the top colleges and univs, but he lives for the marching snare. He recognizes cadences played by Drum Corps International bands just as most teenagers recognize rock songs that are current hits. The challenge is that marching bands go with big-time football programs, so few of the top universities have big-time marching bands.</p>
<p>But if he winds up in the Honors program at a big football school in a top marching band, he’ll have a college experience that meets his dreams, so I can’t see that it’s a “bad” college criterion.</p>
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<p>Sounds like a good reason to me! There are LOTS of high quality universities with good marching bands. Like UCLA, Notre Dame, Michigan, U Virginia and U Texas. There is nothing quite like the thrill of playing for 80,000 cheering fans and waving to the camera on national television. Band is a great way to meet people, especially at freshman band camp, where you are on campus a full week before everybody else, and have a chance to orient yourself before the crowds arrive.</p>
<p>The only poor factor in a criteria is to ignore factors that are important to you.</p>
<p>Thanks guys for the input. </p>
<p>As for concert and pep band, I’m not as crazy for them as I am for marching band.</p>
<p>There’s something about band camp, bus trips to away games, marching, and playing before a sea of people that makes me feel GOOD.</p>
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<p>Sounds to me like marching band is very important to you. So in my humble opinion, it should be a factor in where you choose to apply.</p>
<p>The marching band criteria does seem to limit your options quite a bit and it’s a shame to eliminate schools that may meet all your other criteria on this basis. You might end up doing an a cappella group or a chamber group or the school newspaper. Don’t let this limit you too much.</p>
<p>if you like big schools, the criteria of having a marching band shouldn’t limit you that much.</p>
<p>DD wanted color guard, and a smallish school, and there was basically no overlap. She gave up on the color guard.</p>
<p>Big Ten schools.</p>
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<p>Yep. Marching Band is one of the best things about college, especially a big university. You get the best seats in the stadium, right in front of the cheerleaders, free food and lodging, free bus trips, and free home season tickets for your friends/family. Plus you will have way more fun than you ever imagined even in high school. Marching Bands in college are very involved in energizing the players and the fans, and when you perform out on the field, there are no judges like in high school tournaments, so it’s more fun and less pressure. Plus, there are homecoming and bowl game parades, and pep rallies.</p>
<p>Yes, Big 10 schools combine great marching band programs and great academics. He should consider Northwestern, Wisconsin, or Michigan. They have both.</p>
<p>Before you commit to the Wisconsin band or any other band that uses the “chair step” when marching, watch them on Youtube. It looks painful, and my S says he’d be humiliated from the “dorkiness” of it.</p>
<p>I always check them via youtube and their website. </p>
<p>And guys, I do live in NY. Going across the country isn’t practical for me. I was actually looking into the Big East and similar schools. Trying to make sure since I probably won’t have enough (if any) Financial Aid to help cover the cost, I find some schools who are somewhat generous with merit. Which has only led me to Pitt (if I can get my SAT score higher by another 100 points by October)</p>
<p>I am African American, but that doesn’t seem to help me in the scholarship section (that I can see).</p>
<p>Kalookakoo, What instrument do you play? And what subjects are you interested in majoring in?</p>
<p>Kalookakoo,</p>
<p>I only say this because you said you live in NY and that FA will be important. Have you considered UB? I know that compared to Big Ten and Big East, UB is not as a high-powered of a marching band program. But they do have a nice marching band, it’s probably the best in the SUNY system, and SUNY in-state tuition is low. So before dismissing UB outright, you ought look them up. UB is a member of the Mid-America Conference, which doesn’t receive an automatic bid to a major bowl, but it is still a respectable conference and marching bands do play an important part in school spirit. [My D goes to Western Michigan, and Western has a really fine marching band.]</p>
<p>Please keep in mind that most Big Ten schools and many Big East schools are public colleges and would be OOS to you. OOS publics usually provide little or no financial aid beyond Stafford loans and Pell grants (if you are eligible, most students aren’t).</p>
<p>Do you know how much money your family can provide for your college expenses? If not, you need to find that out before you get your heart set on an OOS school that you won’t be able to afford.</p>
<p>I play the clarinet, though I wish to hopefully pick up the Mellophone after the first year.
I’m most likely majoring in electrical or computer engineering.</p>
<p>And robinsuesanders, the point you make is right on target. That’s the conflicting factor that makes me have to put aside a majority of the schools that I would have liked to go to. My family makes about 150k a year, but we struggle to pay the mortgages for the house we live in and the own we rent out. Our third one was just foreclosed a month ago. </p>
<p>Worst case scenario, I go to UB or Stonybrook, and I get over it.</p>
<p>Same boat but in NJ. We still have Univ. Pittsburgh, Univ. of Miami on the list, primarily because they do have a good marching band and merit aid (from what I hear). What’s on your list? Cornell has a decent marching (only non-scatter ivy) band, I’m just not sure about merit aid there.</p>
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<p>You sounds like the kind of student that many colleges would love to have!</p>
<p>I suggest that you apply to several universities that have marching bands and engineering departments, see which one offers you the best scholarship package. and THEN make your decision on where to go. Good Luck! :)</p>