<p>Yale – that is something to look into; I’ve known many good musicians who got into Juilliard, etc. and chose Yale, even though the School of Music is graduate only. Students in the college can get lessons through the School of Music. Most are with graduate students. A few get lessons with faculty (usually lower level faculty). At the junior year, you can apply for a BA/MM program, where you go on to finish in the School of Music, which is tuition free (like Curtis). There are many performance groups; again, as at Harvard, it is student initiated and run, for the most part – there are some terrific musicians and they feel they are doing a lot of good performing. The academic courses take up a lot of time, though, as they do at Columbia and Harvard, so the reality is that practicing, especially during exam times, is going to be a second priority. There are students who are successful at Yale, Harvard, Columbia and go on in music. It can be done. But it is unusual and difficult.
Princeton has some pretty good music offerings, including free lessons with adjuncts; a few kids go all the way to NY for lessons, but that’s a tough trip to make very often in winter. Also some very talented musicians there. Great music department, but, again, strictly academic in focus.
For all of these schools, it looks to me that being a top-notch musician is a definite boost for admissions, so long as you also have top-notch academic credentials. Your scores are probably too low – I’d think you need at least 700’s in every SAT category and some high SAT II scores and AP scores.</p>