<p>deb – The vast majority of ensembles, including marching band, are available to non-majors. Some are more competitive than others, as you might imagine, but there appear to be tons of performance opportunities. My son plays baritone in the marching band and euphonium in concert bands. Per the marching band website, the instrumentation calls for 15 baritones. When we were at rehearsal, there were 8 baritones present, and appeared from the formation that 1 or 2 were absent. Frankly, it looked like they had room in the flutes as well, though I wasn’t focusing on those.</p>
<p>In terms of “preppiness”, I’m not sure how to respond. To me it seemed like a normal college – lots of jeans and T-Shirts, kids asleep on any available piece of furniture, etc. Saw lots of groups of kids studying together, etc. In my day, preppy was blue sportcoat, gray slacks and striped tie for dress up, Izod shirt, Khakis and topsiders for casual. I saw about the same amount of “logo” stuff (A&F, Hollister, etc.) that I see among kids in our community. Of course, can’t tell from a single day, but it didn’t strike me as being overly fashion conscious or snooty, if that is what you are getting at.</p>
<p>Don’t know much about the engineering program, but others have provided some links for that. The new building is drop dead gorgeous, though.</p>
<p>HTH</p>