My S28 is still in high school. He just visited the college. Sorry if I worded it confusingly.
Since TN is ok, E Tennessee State (German Major), and closer to home (on the other side of the state), UT Martin (German minor) has a marching band. I thought UT Chatt but doesn’t have German. If otherwise it fits, it is in a city of a few hundred K, E Tenn State in a smaller city, and Martin a smaller town. Like UTC, but closer to home is Murray State, aka the Harvard of Kentucky 
But it’s lost German. All of these will hit budget and are within your size restriction.
If you like Ohio but Ohio U is too large, Marshall U, not too far from Ohio U in W Virginia and appears to offer a German minor. It is the right size and hits budget. And Ohio has schools like Toledo (Minor German) and Youngstown State (has German courses) that will hit. I believe someone else also mentioned C Michigan which has German. Closer to home, U Northern Iowa has a lot in the catalog for German but I don’t see it listed as a minor, etc.
Another to look at may be CNU in the Norfolk area (Hampton, VA) - it could get to budget and has the major. I’d also add SUNY Albany - not far from the airport and it’s a tad larger but doesn’t feel large. It has German classes - not sure about a major/minor. And I would take a flyer at U Tulsa - they give so much $$ to get kids to go there and has German…and it’s not far from home. In theory, it’s a reach but I wouldn’t not be surprised with an entrance and achievable cost.
Be careful - foreign languages are being discontinued at a lot of schools due to budget cuts (have been at UT Chatt and Murray State from my initial list) including some well known schools. And don’t just check to see who has classes but check the last few years or talk to the departments to ensure the classes aren’t just in the catalogue but are offered.
Good luck
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OHio University really doesn’t feel large. I hope you can get there to visit.
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LOVES the dorms! They are all suite style so no communal bathrooms which was a huge plus for her. She thinks there’s sufficient dining options as well. She thought Leadership Safari (and IMPACT, as she is a MAC Scholar) were useful to get her adjusted before school started.
Yes, the location from airports can be an issue. There is a smaller airport in Midland. My daughter got stuck with weather over Thanksgiving last year. There are dorms that stay open so kids don’t have to come home on those 4 day weekends.
As for size, my daughter thought she wanted smaller and I assumed that meant number of students. Ends up, for my daughter, smaller was more about acreage and class sizes. At Central Mich she can walk to each of her classes in less than 10 minutes and I think she said her biggest class was maybe 40 students. So while the total number of students at Central Michigan looks bigger, my daughter does not feel overwhelmed at all. We toured several smaller (by student numbers) schools and she found she missed the amenities and opportunities some of the bigger schools were offering. She loved being able to go to football and basketball games and is even checking out hockey with new friends. She joined a dance club and a Christian weekly meet up group and seems busy Monday-Friday. There are plenty of parties but that isn’t her scene so she tends to stay in and catch up on homework and laundry on weekend evenings, or she heads to a friends dorm to hang out which is easy as all the dorms have a common living space and there’s plenty of meet up spots within the dorm communities as well (she is in the Towers community for her second year).
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Thank you again. Glad she’s liking it so well! Going to push mine to keep it on the list we’re making. I fear the super small schools may not give an undecided major the exposure to find her way (super small likely wouldn’t have marching band either).
Wow! Thank you! I fear you spent a ton of time on this! I’m going to have to try the college navigator. To answer your question, no, Duluth is fine. I think it’s a neat town. Always pass through on the way Ely. I’m thinking too big a city for her like DePaul in Chicago or SLU in St. Louis. It’s more the fast paced nature of things and distractions I think (those places also tend to not have marching band/football. I’m going to share this list with her! It’s great!
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Thank you for your kind comments, @Tuco11! One thing that I failed to note was that you may also want to include related majors when looking at the number of majors in a field. For instance, here is the list from the source with first and second majors for German Language and Literature.
German Language and Literature
But then there are additional majors that would probably convey additional strength in a department (or might showcase a school that doesn’t label their field as German Language and Literature) such as:
German Language Teacher Education
German Studies
Germanic Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, General
Germanic Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, Other
And sometimes the IPEDS data (which is what this source and College Navigator use) are imperfect. For instance, UW-Eau Claire, with an undergrad population of about 9400 has 6 students who majored in Germanic Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, one of the midwest’s largest marching bands (source), but doesn’t show any students majoring in Music Education, even though there were 47 first major students in music, per College Navigator.
But, it turns out that it does have music education options (source) and @2plustrio mentioned it upthread! So this would be a great school to consider for your D. (UW-La Crosse, with about 9500 undergrads, also has an unlisted-in-IPEDS music education program (source), a marching band (source), as well as a German Language & Literature major, making it another school for your D to investigate.)
All of that said, I would use the resources I’ve provided to brainstorm and do research, but should not necessarily eliminate a school that otherwise seems promising without verifying on the school’s website what the actual situtation is.
Wishing your family the best of luck as it goes through the college search process. I’d love to hear your family’s thoughts on which schools end up getting applied to (or not) and why.
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I hope so. I think she goes to Wikipedia and checks out how many students it lists. Which ok. But there’s a lot more to it than that which you can’t tell with an out of context head count.
THANK YOU !! Never knew this existed. Looking for the band filter. What a great resource!!
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Have you looked at Marshall ? Seems to fit what you requested to a tee.
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The band filter is a separate internet search…I wish they included one! 
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(Personal comment; not moderating)
Apologies to @Tuco11 for this off-topic sidebar… @AustenNut we are so lucky to have your input on the site. The wealth of information you provide and generous contributions of your time are so appreciated.
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Agreed! I’d have to find it but I am pretty sure one of their recommendations was why my D25 ended up at the college she did!
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Yes! Thank you!
Nope. Overlooked by me inadvertently. Going to check it out too! Good idea!
Also ETSU. UT Martin, Toledo and Youngstown may be worth looks - all have German at some level. SUNY Albany and CNU both give you airport access. Good luck.
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I remembered that there is a college search tool with a marching band filter!
College Search - BigFuture | College Board
The College Board’s college search function can narrow schools down, and under Campus Life it has marching band.
I don’t know how accurate the tool is (I know that sometimes the enrollment numbers are different from what’s reported in IPEDS), but it’s at least another tool to help your family in its search.
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Do all of these have a decent marching band?
I used a Wikipedia to find marching bands and match desired school size. Then I checked for German. I only picked schools in the requested area (as I imyerpreted).
Marshall and Toledo are successful mid major schools. The others may be too - football wise.
But they all meet the criteria Op laid out.
Decent is in the eye of the beholder.
But I believe they are worth of OP taking a look to see if they might generate an interest. Only they can decide to investigate further or not.
I had Northern Iowa too. They have lots of German in the catalog but no degree that I see so left them off.
I think with language and humanities, one needs to investigate the size of the program and frequency of classes offered bcuz there will be more cuts coming - and you hope it’s not where you are.
So small language programs might give me pause.
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Awesome ! Thank you! I’ll use that for sure !
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