Quality Grad school for international students

[sammmue]

I am thinking of continuing my Graduate studies in the States. I am a 3rd-year undergrad majoring in piano and studying music ed.

I am interested in:
- Further developing my pianistic skills and studying more 20th-century music 
- Getting into research and specializing in music ed and piano peg.
- Community that are accepting of international students

I am looking at the schools that have a blend of good faculty in piano yet offer great music ed and piano pedagogy curricula. Musicology and Analysis must be included too. Few schools that caught my eye:

- Florida State University
- University of Oklahoma
- University of South Carolina
- Southern Methodist University

Any recommendations or comments on these schools that I have in mind? Please do leave it, I greatly appreciate it. 

[nightwindsonata]

Hello!

Just went through a similar process, applied to a master's degree in performance at a bunch of schools. Here are ones I recommend:

- University of Oregon (my school!!!): we have excellent faculty here, as well as a very strong pedagogy program. My piano studio is extremely accepting of international students--I'm one of the only Americans in it! Everyone else is from Latin America or Asia; and it's the most entertaining thing in the world watching them teach each other bad words in other languages. At one point our studio had 11 different nationalities represented.
- University of Colorado: The faculty is very good, but picky. You can't beat the beauty of living a stone's throw from the Rocky Mountains. They have a very practical take on piano studies, with a heavy focus on pedagogy and learning solo rep (especially solo rep by underrepresented composers). It is a very picky school though--it was the only one of the 4 that I auditioned to but didn't get in (lowkey heartbreaking, I had my heart set on CU)
- University of North Texas: One of the largest piano programs in the country. Come here if you have your heart set on performing in competitions (lots of them). There is some pedagogy training and collaborative opportunities, but it is mostly performance. There is also not a lot of money to go around for master's students.

Altogether, I highly recommend you check out the University of Oregon, though: it really does check all your boxes. I had to decide if I wanted to stay in Oregon or move to a different state, but despite receiving a very compelling offer elsewhere, I elected to stay at the U of O, because the graduate school here is so good (much better than their undergrad program, in my opinion).

DM if you want more info!