I’m a rising senior who is looking to narrow down my list of colleges to apply to. I have a 4.0 UW GPA, 1530 SAT (760 math and 770 English), and numerous extracurriculars, in particular founding and being Chief Editor of my school’s literary magazine, and spending 20+ hrs a week dancing at a high level.
I’m not 100% certain on what major I plan to pursue, but I’m interested in the fields of linguistics, library science, arts administration, and computer science, and definitely want to continue creative writing. I’d also love to be able to participate in a strong dance program, although I don’t plan to major in it. Other things I’d love at a school: artsy culture, suburban, good need and merit financial aid. Location isn’t too much of a constraint but I’d prefer not to go to school in the South.
I currently have a list of around 30 mostly liberal arts colleges I definitely need to narrow down, and am looking to do that by eliminating any that wouldn’t allow me to explore the different things I’m interested in. Worst case scenario would be getting locked into one field I turn out hating. I know I kinda dumped a ton of maybe too-specific info, but any knowledge of any schools’ flexibility with allowing students to pursue multiple fields (or lack thereof) would be super helpful. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this!
You might get some good answers from people here, and even better ones if you list some of the schools you’re interested in.
My S24 is also looking for schools where he will be able to explore a wide range of fields and not be locked in. We have found that, unfortunately, the best way to find that out is to read extensively on the requirements of schools you are considering to find out
(1) what the General Ed requirements are, and how flexible they are
(2) what the four year plan might be for a couple of majors you can see yourself ending up in, and how much space outside of those classes you will have, as well as the sequencing of the classes to see if you can decide on the major sophomore year and still get in all the classes you need
(3) (maybe relevant) what credit you would get for AP or DE classes to free up space in your schedule
(4) any school policies on when majors have to be declared, or what it takes to change, major, or any major’s that have restricted entrance
It is a lot of work, but it has been the only way we have found to reliably tell if a school might work for his desire to explore different fields.
Potentially good choices for a student with multiple academic interests include colleges with especially flexible curricula, such as Smith, Hamilton, Amherst, Brown and Grinnell. Through research, you can discover which of these schools might match your additional criteria.
That’s super helpful, thank you!! With the General Ed requirements, what does it mean for them to be flexible? Should they be broad so I can satisfy them through exploring different fields, or should they just be minimal so I can have more freedom overall?
You have to understand how these two things interact at each school. At some, merit will just decrease your need. At others, they may stack or partially stack.
Thank you, I’ll check those out! Here’s my current, way-too-long list (although my main goal is definitely narrowing it down, any great options I haven’t considered yet are also appreciated) -
Whitman College
Lawrence University
Emerson College
Willamette University
University of Washington
Franklin and Marshall College
University of Michigan
University of Rochester
Kenyon College
Denison University
Macalester College
Skidmore College
Vassar College
Reed College
Oberlin College
University of Virginia
Grinnell College
Middlebury College
Colorado College
Wesleyan University
Carleton College
Swarthmore College
Brown University
Williams College
Amherst College
Northwestern University
Colby College
Bowdoin College
Pomona College
Johns Hopkins
Washington University in St. Louis
Yeah, my counselor has explained that part a bit, though I’m still learning about the whole process. I guess what I’m looking for is optimal financial aid, either through need or merit awards.
I keep reading and can’t find that comment :). Thanks for sub featuring.
To OP - nothing matters more than budget.
Do you have a specific # you need to get to ?
Have you run any schools off your list to see if you qualify for need aid and if so how much ? That you say you have need doesn’t necessarily mean they agree or with a similar amount.
Mainly I want to see if schools on your list work or if you need to pivot based on budget. Your academics would get you a lot of merit aid at certain schools.
Thanks. Nothing wrong with a long list. My daughter started with 110. We got on all their mailing lists - and she got several app waivers. As we deleted schools, we unsubscribed from the emails.
What type of dance? Some are much easier to find than others - my daughter wanted to continue ballet at a high level and that narrowed the search substantially.
My dancing is currently very ballet-focused too, but I’m open to switching to a more modern-based program, especially as I’ve been finding it very difficult to find schools with ballet programs (I know Dickinson is a good choice as a liberal arts college with strong ballet, but ballet kind of swallowed all of my high school life and I’d love to have more time and freedom without the stress of a pre-professional program, if that makes sense.)
I don’t have a specific number, but the goal is to minimize loans. Can you clarify what you mean by run the schools to see if I qualify for need aid? Many of the schools on my list meet 100% of need, so I was under the impression that need aid mostly came down to my FAFSA. Many of the ones that meet less than 100% of need are safeties or targets, so I might receive more merit aid from them.
If you would like an estimate of expenses for a lot of schools quickly, this site can be helpful:
Note that the listed colleges are “participating schools” and endorse the use of this site. For further substantiation, you can compare results to those of individual Net Price Calculators.
My son prefers them to either be minimal or at least flexible in the sense that there is a wide variety of classes that would meet the requirement.
Distribution requirements that say, “take six classes with at least one in each of these three broad categories“ are preferable to him to requirements to take one history class (from a list of six) and one art class (from a defined list) etc.
But, depending on what your interests are, it’s possible that even a strict distribution requirement would align with what you are interested in taking. That is one of the reasons I think it is helpful to actually look at the requirements yourself. Of course, it is hard to do that for 30 schools, so maybe you can prioritize schools based on some other factors, and then start looking at the schools that seem to otherwise be top contenders.
Does your PSAT score indicate you are likely to be a National Merit Semifinalist? The reason I ask is there are a few schools that give big merit awards for NMSF/NMF status, including some that have very strong programs in dance, creative writing, CS etc.
