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.

USC is within about an hour's drive of RCC. In terms of drum corps though, USC is within an hour and a half of Pacific Crest, Velvet Knights, Impulse, and Mystikal, but still a ways (6-8 hours) away from the biggies like Blue Devils and SCV.

Penn State might be a good option. It's a good academic school, their fall drum line is pretty good, and their indoor drumline has medaled in PIO for three straight years now: 3rd in '06, 2nd in '07 & '08. It's also within driving distance for the Cadets, Bluecoats, and maybe even Glassmen. The DCA champion Reading Buccaneers are also nearby.



Being a Bay Area native and Cal football fan, I beg to differ. Cal (UC Berkeley) is a top-notch academic school, but it's not the place for you if you're looking for a better-than-average drumline. The band as a whole is a bit old school, kinda "Big Ten"-ish. Their video game halftime show last year had me cracking up, though.

To be fair, I'll list the positives, too: You're within minutes of the Blue Devils and SCV isn't much further away. If they're a bit above your current skill level, there's BDB and the SCV Cadets. Sacramento's about an hour and a half up I-80, so the Mandarins are also within commute distance, as are the Freelancers for your winter fix. BD Entertainment, part of the Blue Devils organization, also fields a drumline for the San Francisco 49ers.



Nothing against any of the schools listed, but that web site you mention is based on the opinion of a college football fan with no musical experience.

I recommend NC State University (maybe I'm biased); although it doesn't fully satisfy 2 3 or 4, I'll make my case.

1) I'm not sure of the stats, but we have a pretty strong Chemistry programme. Perhaps you might also want to consider engineering; our College of Engineering is in the top 20 in the nation, and we take our share of natural science courses. You can probably get in to either, no problems, especially if you've taken higher-level science and math courses. I got in to the College of Engineering (Chem E) with a 4.2 GPA and a 2110 SAT, having taken (most importantly) AP Chemistry and Calculus. If you haven't considered engineering, definitely look into it, especially if you do or have done well in Calculus.
Here are a couple curricula pages for comparison:
BS in Chemistry
BS in Chem E
Given the overlap, one could take the first Chem E course (material/energy balances), and depending on the experience, stick with a Chem E major or switch to Chemistry without any great loss. Also, AP classes give you mucho credit... I don't know what 3s do for anyone (definitely some credit), but a 4 or 5 on the Calculus BC exam places you out of 8 hours (MA 141 & 241), and on the Chemistry exam 8 hours (CH 100, 101, 200, 201).

Also, in-state tuition is incredibly cheap, and you'll be somewhat close to home (3 hours?).

I'm only throwing all these details out there because, being from North Carolina, you'll probably get stuff in the mail from the University, and it'd be a fair guess that it will be one of the schools you apply to.

2) No finals-ranked lines nearby, but there is a PIW line, "Constitution," that recently finished its second year of competition. Our placement at WGI Worlds was unimpressive (20 out of 20), but the ensemble is no joke. Part of their future success will depend on getting more people to come out and audition, so come out and audition! I assume that if you don't make the tenor line, you'll probably stick with Fusion, but I'll still throw it out there that they'll have a spot for everyone who really wants to be in the ensemble, though it may be a cymbal or front ensemble spot, if not the prospective member's first choice. Having a lot of college-aged friends during your senior year of high school can help ease the transition between high school and university.

3) Our drumline might not be as strong as it is large (9 Bass, 6 Tenors, 11 Snares, 11 Cymbals), but it's a ton of fun; I've never been bored playing our music. I think there's a video on YouTube (maybe search NCSU drumline) of our cadence sequence if you want to check that out. There's been a steady increase in playing ability on the line over the years, and I'm pretty optimistic about how we'll be by the time you enter college. I'm the only one on the line with DCI aspirations; I wish that weren't the case, but maybe that's where you come in.

4) We're about three hours from Crown... you'd need to fly to anyone else. RDU airport is a short distance west on I-40 from the University.


There's my sales pitch for NC State, Constitution, and Engineering. Given your academic record and apparently strong passion for drumming, I think you should consider all three.

careful, I bet lots of those bands are military style and would hold little value to someone interested in Boa/DCI style stuff.

what do you mean "military style"????

Yeah so I was definitely wondering if anybody was going to mention Western Carolina in there but then I realized not many people know about WCU's marching band. But anyways- heres the pitch-

the band is going to have about 360 people in it this year after making cuts- the drumline size is 10-5-6-and god knows how many cymbals we have this year. And there is no chance you'll ever get bored with any of our music...ever. Check out the website under Percussion Auditions on the left side (www.prideofthemountains.com) And we're going to be one of the 2 host bands (the other is RCC) at BOA grand nationals this year in Indy.

I guess closeness to a WGI line is relative to what you want- we've had a guy march Rhythm X before and a few go and try out for MCM as well as Odyssey Percussion Theatre- I think Odyssey is within a couple hours but the others are a good bit further- but worthwhile.

Corps-wise- Crown is 3 hours away- Spirit is 5 or 6- Coats I think is about 7 or 8- so again- relative on how far you'd want to travel.

As for the science program- WCU is currently going through a huge overhaul in terms of new science facilities- they're building like crazy.

So overall- check us out- vicfirth.com did 3 podcasts with our show on their site's front page at one point and all the exercises are on the bands homepage.

And if you want a bit more of an amusing video

http://youtube.com/watch?v=yJAfqditFR0

Its a vid of the line playing most of our 60 second warmup as host band for BandBeat last year- and a hobo came and danced in the arc

WCU's drumline is awesome, a lot of guys in Spirit are from WCU. Not sure about the school itself though.

Someone mentioned University of California's drumline, are you kidding? That's one of the best schools in the country, but their drumline is no where near cutting edge. But hey, you get a degree from Berkeley, and you are going to be making bank.

Now, when you say good academically, keep in mind that is all relative to what you want to study. Since you're the science type, you might want to take a look at Georgia Tech. Their drumline is one of the best in the country, easily; it's located in ATL, which isn't far from Charlotte or Spirit or Crown and has two WGI lines (Odyssey and Quest), and isn't too far from Nashville (MCM). On the flipside, you probably won't have too much time for a lot of that at GT. It's very rigorous, and degrees from there mean something for a reason. Its also lacking in the ladies department. Not saying it can't be done though, a guy from Phantom's snareline last year is a Computer Science major at GT.

I really wanted to go there, but with out of state tuition and what not, on top of the lifestyle or lack of it, I decided not to go. I'm at UF, the school is awesome (especially the science department; Gainesville is the coldest place on earth with a lab reaching millionths of absolute zero), the drumline's pretty good, and its close to Boston Crusaders camps in Orlando, and isn't terribly far from Spirit or Crown. UCF is in orlando as well.