<p>I am familiar with colburn, having a lot of friends there.</p>
<p>I would caution a parent with getting hung up on “reputation”. This reputation that you’re saying Colburn doesn’t have compared to Curtis is not exactly the best way of thinking.</p>
<p>Outside of the music world, no one knows or cares about Curtis. The only music school the average person would know about is Juilliard. </p>
<p>Colburn’s orchestra is probably the best student orchestra in the united states now. Curtis is having problems with some of its departments. They’re just hiring old famous grads with no real record for teaching. What made it great was that it had some of the best pedagogues ever. Now, it has a lot of great players who teach. As a result it’s not the same that it used to be.</p>
<p>To turn down Colburn, which I think is a better place to study (better city, better school environment etc…) because you think Curtis has a better reputation would be a mistake. Colburn will pay for everything. Curtis is a run down old house and frankly, the people are a bit scarry. I find colburn people less sheltered. The playing level is as high as Curtis. They’re sending an impressive number of grads to top orchestras. If your kid is really into performance, there’s really much better than that school.</p>