I need a list of recognized contemporary music colleges and conservatories for back ups to Berklee.?

So, I'm currently a Berklee hopeful, but as any student preparing for college, I need at least a few back up colleges if I can't make it into Berklee for my freshman year. I plan on taking composition, jazz composition, and possibly film scoring (if this info helps). I'm not looking for a classical conservatory type school like Julliard but a college that fits the need and interests of a musician wishing to expand his knowledge into countless genres and styles of music. I'm just looking for a list of recognized, 'prestigious?' (I guess) colleges of contemporary music that I would likely attend then transfer over into Berklee. Thanks in advance. I don't really care where the college is located, preferably somewhere in North America, Europe (that would be nice :] ), or even Japan.

Some other schools that may fit what you're looking for are: Indiana University, Oberlin, University of Miami (very strong in contemporary forms of music), the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, NYU maybe, the Manhattan School of Music maybe. I've heard people talk about the U of North Texas, but for me, that's a maybe. You'd want to do further research.

But you're right, in that Berklee should be your first choice.

You say Juilliard isn't a fit, and so it probably isn't, but I did want to mention that they have a newly formed area of focus on contemporary and jazz. So if you haven't checked them out lately, you could look at them again.

Oberlin