<p>Hi I'm a junior looking for schools that would fit my academics and interests. Here are my stats just to give you an idea:
Catholic HS in south FL
GPA: 4.683 weighted (don't know unweighted)
sophomore year AP euro his. 4
junior AP's chem, Lit, US his.
class rank : 6 out of 299
SAT : 1410 (M 650, V 760) not really happy with this score but my guidence counselor said to wait and take the new test b/c I am better at verbal and writing.
EC's:
1) irish dance - 3 years, 6 - 8 hours per week, in top ten dancers of my school, 2 years on regional competition team, going to nationals this summer. I would really like to be able to continue dancing in college.
2) community service - about 600 hours
A) volunteer at church for homeless outreach mission (3 - 4 years)
B) library volunteer - 3 years, member of county's main library Teen Advisory board (plans, budgets and selects programs for kids)
C)student leadership club at school
3) girl scouts - senior scout working towards gold award; earned various patches, and pins etc.
4) art lessons under professional artist, mostly oil paints and sketching
5) various other small things like school play and dance team for 1 year
I'd prefer a school near a city. I wouldn't rule out any majors except those with too much math (i.e. engineering) I'm open to all sciences, humanities, and arts. I would like a school or area with a strong (at least existing) art / dance field but i'm not sure that those fields would be my major.</p>
<p>any suggestions or further questions would be help full
~ thanks</p>
<p>Given your broad academic interests there are many schools that will work for you.</p>
<p>To continue your dancing at a high level, I would recommend a school in a metro area, as you will likely need to do that off-campus. Obviously, cities like Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and maybe Washington DC or Minneapolis/St. Paul would work the best, though other cities would be fine too. You and your dance instructors should be able to identify the cities with the best dance opportunities for you.</p>
<p>Liberal arts schools - Barnard, Haverford, Bryn Mawr, Trinity, Lake Forest, Macalester. . .</p>
<p>Universities - Columbia, NYU, Tufts, Boston College, Boston University, Villanova, Case Western Reserve, Northwestern, Georgetown, University of Minnesota, Vanderbilt . .</p>
<p>Boston College offers irish dance classes, not sure at what level. I'd also talk to your dance instructor and see if he/she can give you a list of dance schools across the country (check the web as well - irish dancing magazine might have some available) and then see what colleges are located nearby. And, of course, there is always the possibility of studying in Ireland (Trinity College in Dublin for example).</p>
<p>thanks guys my parents don't really want me to base my college choices on dance but most good schools are actually in the best cities for irish dance. Chicago has world renound schools, schools in NY, and boston are also great with some world competitors too. Northeast and Midwest are the most competative regions for dance. Most cities have a dance school in them or near by so that's not really an issue. In fact it's worse here in the south, it's not unheard of to drive 2 hours to a dance class, luckily I usually don't have to. Studying in Ireland would be great but i'm not sure we could afford it because we will be heavily reliant on financial aid.</p>
<p>Isishdancer - Great - that helps. You might want to take a look at the University of Chicago as a possiblity. Northwestern might also work but it's a bit outside of Chicago.
And, in Boston, there's Tufts, Boston College (which has irish dancing), Boston U, Harvard, etc. In New York, you might take a look at Barnard and/or Columbia. I think your parents are probably smart to say you shouldn't base your decision on dancing but it's not a bad starting point for narrowing possibilities down either.</p>
<p>thanks for the help. My guidence counselor recomended Boston college to me early on because he thinks i could get great financial aid there. Does any one know how any of these schools rate for financial aid?? (can anyone give my a definition of what socially - economically depressed means to these schools??) Like you said dancing could be used to narrow down schools but most dance schools in the north are better and more competative than those in the south. Right now I am a bit behind in dance i cannot compete in national or regional solos because of competition levels that i must go through (a much longer process in the south because there are less competitions). Right now I am only going to nationals for teams. The fastest I could possibly get into regional solos would be Senior year and even then ther's no telling if I will place or not. Most girls dancing at my level have been dancing for 6 - 8 or more years, this is only my third year. I have read about U of chicago and Barnard / Columbia; they seemed like good fits for my personality. The other school I will look at too.
~ thank you</p>
<p>Here are the stats I have on financial aid for Boston College:
51% apply for aid typically, of those 38% were determined to have need, 98% of those received it. (That is a pretty good number, close to 100%). Average award package based on need alone: 22,859. Number of merit award: $7,561, 2% received a merit award. These numbers are slightly out of date - you might check their financial aid web site to see if there's more information.</p>