<p>This is my first post ever... I am a parent of a high school junior, who is looking for a great college that will satisfy 2 majors. My daughter is a talented vocalist (alto) and an excellent writer. She was lucky enough to have had a Westminster Trained Chorale Director and has performed at Carnegie Hall (with John Rutter by request) every year with her Chorale. They have a smaller Jazz choir as well. She also is in all the Drama Productions and has had the female lead for the past 2 years. Enough bragging. </p>
<p>She is interested in a career in Communications (unsure of specifics) and probably a minor in vocal performance (classical) (maybe a BA). </p>
<p>Most of the schools we are looking at have either a strong department in one of the areas.</p>
<p>She is just about straight A's all honors classes. SAT's are good (her top score 730 in writing).
These are the schools we've seen so far. She loves the DC Area and doesn't prefer cold climate.
BU (liked)
American (liked)
Ithaca (liked)
Tufts
Penn State
U of Penn ( she said people didn't look happy, too competitive)
Syracuse (didn't like, didn't offer a vocal performance minor)
U of Maryland (liked)</p>
<p>we think that Northwestern would be good but not sure her SAT's will be high enough</p>
<p>EDIT – Didn’t see the last line when I posted this. Must be getting dottery.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, my suggestions are cold climate ones. I am not sure about the vocal options, but Northwestern’s School of Communications is tops in its field. Since the music department is also very strong, I’d think if in fact a vocal minor is available it would be worth serious consideration. Not to mention the fact that Chicago is a major market for both communications and performance
Good luck in your search.
(P.S. Depending on exactly what she wants to do with communications would in part determine the best selections – as well as the caliber of music program. Obviously, she’d want a challenging environment for VP, and your list so far does not seem to emphasize that.)</p>
<p>OK, let me try to be helpful and not redundant this time ;)</p>
<p>Also snows, but at University of Michigan by taking a bachelor of music arts (not a minor) in vocal performance you can develop a cohort field of study OR dual degree, and UMich does have a Comm studies dept. Overall academic fit, with strong vocal. Just don’t know about the comparative caliber of Comm Studies but suspect it would be respectable. Now, if at Ross, then top-drawer.</p>
<p>Without grade point average, sat scores and a sense of what you can pay, it’s difficult to give advice. You have already listed some of the better programs. You might also want to look at Emerson in Boston, Temple in Phila and Elon in N.C. or even G.W. in D.C. Remember if she goes to an out of state public you’re likely to pay top dollar.</p>
<p>Okay, I’ll be more specific, if that helps. GPA right now 4.43 weighted, 2000 SAT’s (on first try, will take again in June) and hoping to get financial aid but expect to pay no more than $30,000 a year out of pocket.</p>
<p>with those stats there will be a wide range of choices. Looks like you can get merit aid at schools that give merit maybe even out of state. What’s your EFC? That will largely determine whether you can maintain your 30K out of pocket at the top need based privates. But the app has a good chance to get accepted with merit at all the schools you have mentioned. My first D also wanted to study communications and play in the band so we researched and visited some of the same schools. Halfway through her senior year she decided she wanted to focus on writing and go to an LAC. Fortunately, we had visited a couple and had a some options. You might want to put a couple of LAC’s on your list just in case. Unfortunately communications programs are very limited at LAC’s.</p>
<p>Remember, I am new at this/what is an EFC? Does she have a chance at Northwestern as well? Those average SAT’s seem to be higher at this point. We will look at Wesleyan and Mulenberg as well, on the advice of another parent. G.W. is also on the list but the cost seems out of reach unless she gets aid.</p>
<p>EFC stands for Expected Family Contribution, which is the number that results from your FAFSA (which stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid). If your student is a junior and you do not already have another student in college, you will not know your EFC unless you have played around with one of the internet sites that helps you estimate what it will be. You will eventually have to file a FAFSA form, because that is required by most colleges for any consideration for financial aid. Check out <a href=“http://www.fafsa.ed.gov%5B/url%5D”>www.fafsa.ed.gov</a> if you want a preview of what you are in for. I will warn you, however, that most people get an EFC that is substantially higher than what they feel they can afford to pay. Some schools also require another form called the CSS PROFILE.</p>
<p>The idea is that the schools compare the cost of attendance against the EFC to compute the amount of need-based aid that they will offer. Schools that meet the full amount of need (they are in the minority and are usually pretty competitive) will offer a package that is equal to the difference between those numbers. Most schools will offer somewhat less than that. In both cases, it is important to distinguish between the grants that you do not have to repay and the loans that you do have to repay.</p>
<p>The good news is that your daughter could get a fair amount of scholarship money based on her academic credentials and her talent as demonstrated at an audition. Unfortunately there is no way to predict those numbers, except in the case of schools that offer automatic academic scholarships based on combinations of her GPA and test scores. The less-than-good news is that the schools will subtract any such scholarships from the cost of admission before calculating what they will offer as need-based aid.</p>
<p>You should check out UNC-Chapel Hill. Excellent communications and music, and lots of students double major. Very strong student-run musical theatre productions. Difficult to get into from out-of-state but you’re in the ballpark with that gpa and SAT score. And you can’t beat the weather!</p>
<p>You estimate your efc on fafsa4caster, that’ll be pretty accurate for the publics, but unfortunately the privates use a different system that takes into account many of your assets, so their expectations tend to be higher. Wesleyan, I believe, is need based aid so it may be expensive. Muhlenberg gives merit and that may fit your budget, also has very good music, performing arts etc. GW also gives lots of merit aid, so don’t cross it off. BU actually has a chart on it’s finaid site that indicates how much you are likely to receive. My D applied to Muhlenberg and liked it, but her favorites were Ithaca and Elon.</p>
<p>Also look into USC and the Annenberg School of Communication (or is it Journalism?) Also consider the many liberal arts colleges which have strong writing programs, and offer opportunities in vocal music. Lots of good choices. No need to officially major in communications to go into communications as a field.</p>
<p>Agree with above. We chose Annenberg over Medill and SI Newhouse due to high rate of Peabody/Pulitzer winners on teaching staff. They encourage double majors. Jazz vocal program and Annenberg for Journalism is hard to beat!</p>
<p>To add to Georgia Girl’s comments: The new degrees for journalism at Annenberg are: “Broadcast and Digital Journalism” and “Print and Digital Journalism.” This shows that they are right in touch with the changes taking place in journalism today. Another reason we chose USC. And again, for music, USC has terrific jazz vocal program.</p>
<p>We as parents, thought Penn (Annenberg ) to be a great choice originally, but then her first round of SAT scores didn’t seem high enough, plus she got a bad feeling when she toured the school. She felt the competitive edge in the crowd and on campus. Believe me, I think she is capable but, not sure she has the personality to deal with this. Perhaps she will apply as a reach school and see what happens. What are her chances with her stats? Did not even mention originally that she holds officer positions in Student Council, Chorale, and Drama Club.</p>
<p>There are so many majors in the communication field, and some schools may have excellent overall programs but weak in other areas. Our D was interested in broadcast journalism, and that really narrowed the field. For that schools need a TV station and hopefully one that is vibrant and actually broadcasts to a larger audience than just the students. Ithaca, Syracuse and Temple had excellent programs in that area. We were very impressed with the program at American but it had the feel of a graduate program, so it got eliminated. With communication it seems important to narrow down the field. I also found it helpful to look at the site for the society of professional journalism. They have an awards section which is broken down by specialty and that indicates what the top programs in specific areas are. [Society</a> of Professional Journalists: Mark of Excellence Awards](<a href=“http://www.spj.org/a-moe.asp]Society”>Mark of Excellence Awards - Society of Professional Journalists)</p>
