Hey, my name is Chris, and I've been a member here for a little over two years now. I consider the forum members here very experienced, and value all of your opinions greatly. Therefore, I've come to you asking this question from the perspective of both a drummer and a student: Where should I look at for college?

I currently live in North Carolina (Charlotte Area), and I've come to the conclusion that there are no colleges in the state that have a decent combination of academics, drumline, and proximity to indoor/DCI lines.

Can anyone please help me by recommending colleges? I have over a 4.5 GPA and a 2110 on the SAT, so grades aren't an issue, and I'm involved in Beta Club, National Honors Society, Link Crew, Spanish National Honors Society, and other clubs in my school (in addition to marching band and indoor for 3 years and counting), so extracurriculars are covered as well. I'll be working towards scholarships as I enter my senior year, and I need to know where I should be trying to get money from. I don't care if the college is in state or not (although it would be nice if it was sort of close), my criteria are simply as follows:

1) Excellent academics (I probably won't major in music, despite how passionate I am about it. I'll probably be looking more in the direction of natural sciences such as chemistry).
2) Proximity to a WGI level PIO or PIW finals-ranking line (after marching my first WGI line this year, I don't think I ever want to stop until I age out).
3) Strong college drumline (playing the same tired patterns that every college uses just gets kind of boring. It'd be nice to see a drumline that can play more than the norm).
4) Proximity to a prominent DCI corps (this one isn't as important, because I can video audition in most corps, and my house is already near Crown, although I probably won't be good enough for them for a while. However, if the corps is near the college, that would be sweet).

Also worth noting, although I'm fairly gifted at rudimental percussion, I haven't put much time and effort into keyboards, so I can't just hop into a college that requires me to be a master of xylophone or something like that.

I'm not sure if this drumming "super-college" exists or not, but the colleges you guys list don't have to be 100% perfect in all there criteria. I tried to prioritize my points, so just come as close as you can. I thank everyone who actually read this message for putting in the time to help me out, and I look forward to reading your responses.

I know University of Cal. has a pretty good drumline.You can go to their website and look at all their cadences and music.I dont know if these are close But for WGI RCC is in california also. They might be on opposite ends of the state or the might be close i really dunno.

Ohio Univ. has the top band program in the US, according to some online thing I found about college marching bands.

http://www.collegesports-fans.com/articles/marching-bands-2007.html check it out it's the top ten marching colleges, maybe look for something that's close to what you are looking for.

Not to take anything away from OU's band but I'm not sure I would give much credence to a list of top marching bands that had Stanford in the top 10. The LSJMB is by far, one of the most entertaining bands you'll ever see but they're just a student run scatter band. Funny, yes...entertaining, yes...good, no.

Awesome! Keep the replies coming.

Also, doesn't one of those top two ranked Ohio schools not march tenors? I believe I saw somewhere they only do high tom and low tom players or something like that. That would be a definate minus for me.

Taking into account everything you're looking for I think it's going to be tough to find the right school. Personally, living in the Chicago area, you would be right in the middle drum corps central having Phantom, Madison, Pioneer, Colts, and Cavies all within a couple of hours. You've got Northwestern here which is a powerhouse of an academic school but their drumline isn't great. It's not horrible but it's not great either. You might take a look at Michigan, Michigan State, or Illinois. All fine institutions with decent drumline reputations. You might have to drive 4-6 hours to get to a corps camp but lots of people do it. Plus, Michigan has some decent WGI lines.

I'll definately have to look into the colleges you listed there, thanks .

A couple other possibilities I've been looking into are UT @ Austin and Southern Cal. Both of their drumlines seem very good and have decent locations. Any word on how those schools are academically? They both seem very solid to me, but I haven't been able to find any real info on it.

Both UT and SC carry good academic credentials. Texas would probably be a little cheaper as it's a public school as opposed to SC being private. Neither Texas or Southern California really get you close to one of the larger corps though.

Hm... I see. I can handle a drive to a DCI corps since that's only for a few training camps. Isn't USC right next to Riverside (or at least one of the million California finals lines) though? I looked up UT and it's right next to Crossmen for DCI and Austin Independent (PIO) for WGI.

UT definitely has a not bad drumline, though not on the same level as UNT. =P you can check them out I think on the vic firth site, they had a video up on them as I recall. And you're not far from the crossmen, and revo (both in nearby san antonio). Academically, UT is probably one of the country's best state universities. (note I said state, not private) But a warning, it's quite a bit warmer than the other places you mention.