Match my S23, good (but not great) scores, rigor, recs; below avg ECs; homeschool

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics
US Citizen
Massachusetts
Homeschooled (almost all online classes & dual enrollment)
Male, white

Intended Major(s)
Data science…or contemporary music composition

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 3.95
SAT Scores: 1480 (760 math, 720 English)

Coursework
2 APs (Calc AB, 5; US Gov, 4)
Senior year all dual enrollment (Calc 2, Comp Sci, Communications, Honors Comp I this fall; not sure about spring, but it will be a similar load)
2 years Spanish

Awards
Does Nat Merit Commended count?

Extracurriculars
— 30 hours/week job (health aide for his brother with cerebral palsy)
— Church & youth group (student leader senior year)
— Took up music playing & composing sophomore year independently, now spends about 2 hours/day practicing & composing, plays on worship team at church
— D&D group, writes extensive, involved campaigns & DMs the weekly group

Essays/LORs/Other
Fine, but probably not stand out. Only current rec from last year’s creative writing teacher. He had the same teacher for physics & Calc last year, and she quit in Jan, so he finished the class independent study, with a “substitute” grading the work but no interaction. Maybe can get a rec from community college prof this semester?

Cost Constraints / Budget
NPCs say we can afford 70K but no way. I think max family contribution is 50 K. (Do schools ever make exceptions for unusual circumstances? We have two completely & permanently disabled children who will require our support for the rest of their lives. Although they don’t have unusually high costs to support them now, we really can’t run our savings down to zero to pay for college.)

Schools
(not sure about these categories)

  • Safety
    UMass Lowell
  • Likely/* Match
    Clark
  • Reach
    WPI

Have BU & BC on the list, but thinking about dropping them due to reach and cost. Would like to add a few better fit schools to the list, though, but not sure what.

To make it a little more complicated, and over constrained, he is mildly on the autism spectrum which primarily manifests as social anxiety, and so finding a good fit might be a bit tricky. He has been focusing on schools close to home with the idea that familiarity will be helpful & he’ll have known supports nearby. But also, he does best in an environment with other highly academic kids, because he struggles more to connect to people who are less academically focused or logical.

Any ideas for schools we should look into?

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As a Mass resident UMass Amherst is hard to beat in many ways. Top rated CS, strong music program though not sure about contemporary specifically.
For direct admit to CS it’s almost always a reach but his stats are up there. For music it’s much more likely admit. I haven’t come across many kids that didn’t love their experience there, including my D22.

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I am going to recommend three schools that might be a bit off the radar for most folks but speaking from personal experience, provide wonderful Christ centered education. They give very good merit. Your son is more than qualified to apply to these schools and many more. In fact there will be 100s of colleges.

Cedarville University. Academic Programs | Cedarville University
Lipscomb University. https://www.lipscomb.edu/
Christian Brothers University. https://www.cbu.edu/

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Your son seems like an awesome kid. You may want to look at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY, which is well known for its support services. It’s not local to you, but it could be a good fit for some of your other criteria. Good luck.

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Wheaton College (MA) would be a safety. Super flexible curriculum, good support, honors programs. Cute campus.

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Yes,some schools can do a special circumstances consideration for you given these circumstances. You would need to contact EACH financial aid office to see if they do these, and if so, what documentation you need to provide to them.

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He can list it, but it’s not going to shift anything.

Those schools need to be off the list. Both are reaches. BU is notoriously stingy. BC only gives merit awards to the most exceptional students. If your max is 50k, he needs seriously good merit scholarships. He needs colleges with high acceptance rates. You have good instate options, especially with UM Amherst.

This list is a good starting point. https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/a-plus

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This was actually on his original list, but after visiting he felt like it was just too…LAC(?) for him. The tour guide talked about the copious “emotional support animals” in the dorms, and mentioned at least 5 different traditions that just seemed illogical to my son & an extra layer of social expectations to try to learn and manage.

I thought the academic programs and support looked really great, but the social atmosphere didn’t seem like a good fit for him.

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I would generally agree, but if either of their financial aid offices would review and provide a different (better) financial aid offer due to the family’s special circumstances, then they may be possible. But if both institutions say no to the financial circumstances, then yes, I would definitely drop these.

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These are a few schools that you might want to consider. I’ve included the percentage of students without financial need who received merit aid along with the average merit award. Most of the numbers come from here, but I did have to calculate those numbers for Gordon from its Common Data Set. Definitely run the Net Price Calculators but also reach out to the financial aid offices to determine how they would view your family’s circumstances.

  • Brandeis: 34%, $14,542, about 3600 undergrads

  • College of the Holy Cross: 17%, $16,357, about 3k undergrads

  • Gordon: 95%, $12,984, about 1400 undergrads; I’ve been told that it’s fairly religious

  • Hampshire: 93%, $18,615, about 500 undergrads. This one would definitely need to be the right fit, but it seems as though your son could customize exactly what he would want out of his experience. There’s very close guidance from the professors, and he would also be able to take classes at Amherst or U. Mass (or Mt. Holyoke or Smith, but those two aren’t in Amherst). I would also make investigate what the college’s future prospects are financially…I’ve heard it rumored that it may end up joining U. Mass as a special college at some point, but that’s just conjecture I read somewhere.

  • Westfield State: (didn’t calculate % of merit aid, but this should definitely be in-budget), about 4200 undergrads. In case your son decides that a big college experience like at U. Mass – Amherst isn’t right for him, this school offers a residential college experience at a much more intimate size. The honors program sounds promising (and it seems as though the non-honors core classes are still relatively small at 25-35 students), and you can see whether the academic supports available would be helpful for your family.

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This info is really helpful. There are a number of schools here I want to look into, or encourage my son to give a second look.

For contacting the financial aid offices, is that something we would do after acceptance and receiving a financial aid package? Or would I contact them before applying to sound out whether there would be any possibility?

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I would reach out to them before applying. I would call the financial aid office and ask for an appointment to discuss a financial aid estimate because your family has unique circumstances that the Net Price Calculator doesn’t take into its calculations. Then use that estimate as your NPC to determine whether the school remains in the running or not.

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You need to contact each school and ask them what to do. I agree you should discuss this with a financial aid officer, but some schools don’t even consider doing these special circumstances considerations until after acceptances. And some schools don’t do them at all.

You need to contact each financial aid department and ask them what to do regarding your special situation. I think you WILL find some that will be helpful. But you have to ask each school what they do…and want.

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I think Clark is an excellent choice. Maybe check out Bennington too, very friendly to homeschoolers and creative kids.

IF he applies to schools with a BM program, including either UMass, check to see whether music resources/teachers go to the BM students.

Regarding music, would he have a portfolio and/or be able to audition? Would he prefer to continue doing his own thing with music? Many schools offer courses for non-majors that might fit his interests, that he could take as electives while focusing on CS. Is that his preference?

If he wants to major in music, he can do a BM (usually a prescreen portfolio or audition is required, though not always an instrumental audition for composers). He can do a BA in music or double major that usuallly does not require a portfolio or audition BUT he can submit a music resume with recording/video, music resume and music letters of recommendation (1-2), which can help admissions if talent is there, regardless of major.

Other possibilities are major/minor and double degree. Check the Double Degree Dilemma essay on the Read Me thread on the music major forum- it is about different ways to do music.

For contemporary music, UMass Lowell may be a good choice. The best schools for that include USC, Berklee, Belmont, MIami Frost, NYU (too expensive), U of Denver, College of St.Rose, and there are many others. But again, there are mostly good BM options.

For double degree in music and CS, Oberlin, Lawrence, Ithaca, Tufts, and Bard are often mentioned though larger places like UMichigan are also good, Harvard and Yale have BA/MM’s. UMass Lowell might have that option.

Clark has a really good music program that might fit his needs and there is no BM on campus which is a plus in terms of opportunities for BA students.

Bennington, Sarah Lawrence, Vassar, Clark are all great possibilities. Hobard William-Smith? And check on how music would happen for a CS student at UMass Lowell.

I am most enthused about Clark! Do WPI students get to do music and take classes at Clark as a part of a consortium?

ps yes special circumstances are often considered. The CS Profile used by some schools actually has a section for it. Include costs for medical care, services, transportation etc.

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I would second Marist and ask whether there is a CS-focused and/or Honors-focused tour.

Seconding Clark and WPI!

Not sure about Sarah Lawrence and Bennington, their CS offerings may be a bit limited depending on your son’s level.

Wht about SUNY Buffalo? Tuition, fees, R&B add up to 42K OOS, so even before any scholarship would be under budget.

What kind of environment would be best for him (anonymity in large lecture halls or direct intellectual interaction in small classes?)

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These suggestion have been really helpful. They gave me some specific questions to ask, and pointed to some decisions my son needed to be more clear on. (The essay @compmom posted was so helpful!) A couple of things that emerged from our conversations:

(1) He feels very strongly that he doesn’t want to be more than 2 hours from home. He thinks that if he knows he could come home (or we could visit him) pretty easily at any point, that will reduce his overall anxiety, which will then make him less likely to actually need to come home. That limits potential schools to pretty much MA (or I guess RI).

(2) He has come to the conclusion that, although he would love to make a living as a composer, it probably isn’t very likely and he isn’t willing to do the things he would need to do to make it more likely. (For instance, he has ZERO interest in teaching music lessons, or performing other people’s music, or composing “commercial” music, or working in other aspects of the music business.) He is much happier with the idea of having a typical job doing something he also enjoys, and composing the music he likes in his spare time. If something ever came of it, great. But he would be happier with a regular job in math/science/computers & music as a hobby than trying to pursue music full-time and the grind that would likely be for him.

So this means we are ideally looking for a Massachusetts school with a Data Science program, opportunities to pursue music courses outside a major, & a student population that is academically inclined (or at least a significant sub-population that is). It sounds like the schools on his list (Clark, WPI, & probably UMass Lowell) do fit this, and I am going to look into some the the other MA suggestions here to see if any of them pique my son’s interest.

(The non-MA suggestions aren’t a waste though–S24 has a similar academic profile without the desire to stay close to home, so many of the other schools are going on his “explore” list.)

And I am working on talking to the FA offices about our circumstances. According to the NPCs, we could afford Lowell & Clark without any special consideration. WPI has a very generic NPC that takes in very little, and not detailed, info and gives extremely optimistic expected costs, so I should probably talk to them earlier rather than later. (BU & BC both list an expected cost of $70K+, but WPI says $30K? Seems fishy…)

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On one hand, I think smaller classes with more interaction would be best for him. On the other, I think he would be more likely to find people he clicks with at a school with more people. But maybe a smaller school, with the right mix of people, could work.

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Umass Amherst? How about Amherst, Williams, Tufts? (And again, I love Clark)

PM’ing you

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OP- make sure your son does a deep dive on any college that looks interesting and affordable. He does NOT need to major in Data Science to get a great job DOING data science. He can look at the U’s which have specific programs- which candidly, is more of a branding exercise than anything else, and see what the course offerings are like elsewhere even if he majors in applied math (a great and flexible major) or something else.

My company hires lots of new grads for data science roles- and a very low percentage of them come out of “programs”. They have strong quant and analytical skills, they can program in the relevant statistical packages, they are good communicators, they are exceptionally curious. And yes, some of them are music majors! We’ve hired bio majors, finance majors, urban planning majors, poli sci majors. Curiosity plus everything else- you don’t need a “program”.

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I’ve said the same thing on several posts. I’m not a fan of Data Science degrees. Too new and unknown. There’s no accreditation like ABET as far as I know. Each school will have its own strengths and weaknesses for business, math and CS.

Some of the best data scientists I’ve worked with were Physics majors. Some of the best programmers majored in Philosophy.

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