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.

Yeah Crowndrummer, Western's drumline is sick. If I were going to major in music, I'd be all over it. I actually went to your camp this summer, and now I have Miles, Kyle, Justin, Austin, and Caleb on my Facebook haha. And Austin's going to be Fusion's snare tech this year. Plus, for those of you that don't know, Fusion is absorbing Constituion this year, so that kinda kills NC State, Chapel Hill, and Duke.

Good news though. I looked at more stuff, and I found UCLA and MSU (Michigan), and I'm going to look up Georgia Tech. Thanks everyone for all the replies, you've been a huge help.

I am betting you mean OSU (The Ohio State University) and not Ohio University if by military, you mean traditional.

I think he actually meant "show style" not "military style."

OU is definitely show style. I went to OU and tried out freshman year. Other than making a wrong turn on the marching tryout (oops. I was nervous), I ripped right through the timbale tryout piece and sight reading (c'mon--I played quads, 2 drums is a sinch) and got the question "Can you play it again and maybe move around more? Y'know, groove a bit?" At that point I realized that 1)I wasn't going to make the cut (rhythm I got, coordination not so much) and 2)I probably didn't *want* to make the cut. There are some really good drummers (percussion majors, DCI vets, etc.) on the line, but it's not for everyone.