<p>As some one who was looking for a similar type of program, I know how hard it is since all the programs are somewhat different. Oberlin and NYU will be very different than the other programs you mentioned as they are actually conservatory programs. You may want to check out McGill for another conservatory program within a university. In terms of liberal arts colleges, I don’t know much about the program at Williams. Wesleyan has Anthony Braxton, a big name in avant garde jazz, if thats what you’re into, but no other big name jazz faculty. Princeton has a decent program with ensembles that have beaten out conservatory groups in the past for Downbeat awards, but the faculty are not big names like Braxton. Columbia (I am a bit biased here since that is where I will be going next year) has probably the strongest program out of the three with many major New York players like Steve Wilson and Don Sickler and Manhattan School of Music is across the street if you need more people to play with. Most of these schools have a few academic jazz courses like transcription and theory but not on the level of NYU or Oberlin. For another suggestion, Amherst might have a decent program. You could probably take jazz classes at UMass and Stephan Crump, bass player for Vijay Iyer’s band, went there.</p>