If you are considering Carleton, you should also look at St. Olaf in the same town of Northfield. Gorgeous campus, super happy students. Strong across multiple disciplines, plus you can open-enroll in classes at Carleton. I know some tippy-top students who turned down T20s to attend St. Olaf on big merit, thrived there, and had their pick of top grad schools.
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Thank you! I’ll definitely check this out with my parents!
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I very much understand the rigor of a preprofessional program. Some of the schools my daughter explored for having ballet and some flexibility in continuing to perform and not major (she considered double majoring, but wanted to be sure would be at a place that would allow her to continue to dance even if she decided against majoring):
Washington University St. Louis
University of Rochester
Case Western
University of of Southern California
Bucknell
Butler
Columbia/Barnard (Columbia is NOT a flexible program so keep that in mind)
Smith
Mt Holyoke
Vassar
These were also on her list, but you mentioned no southern:
Duke
University of South Carolina
University of Richmond
Tulane
Best of luck in your search.
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That makes sense, thank you so much! It does seem wise at this point to narrow down the list based on other factors (cost being a huge one) and then look at curriculum flexibility like you said.
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Most of my info regarding financial aid has come from a meeting with the financial aid counselor at my school, so my knowledge is definitely incomplete and I appreciate your insights. I’ll ask my counselor about the CSS Profile and will look at net price calculators with my parents, as well as taking loan vs. loan-free schools into consideration.
$90k a year is definitely very unreasonable for my financial circumstances, but the reason I don’t have a specific # yet is that I am my parents’ first child going through this process and we haven’t yet sat down and discussed concrete actual numbers. I know that’s an important step and will definitely take it, but right now I’m just looking to strategically outline my list to include the best possible aid packages, and possibly negotiating power with merit aid from safeties.
I think my selection index is exactly one point below the estimated cut-off for Semifinalists this year, which is super frustrating. But they were only estimates, so who knows? Crossing my fingers. Just in case I qualify, what are those few schools you mentioned?
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Thank you! Will look into it
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Thank you, this list is super helpful!
So b4 you do this and it’s a great thought - you need the budget #.
Forgetting CSS, you have to discuss with your folks.
Brown, for example, is $87500 for the upcoming year. The net price calculator will show if that’s your expected cost or it will be less.
What is your state ? If Michigan is OOS, it’s $72100 and $4k more the last two years.
Colorado college - $90100. It’s one class at a time if you’re not aware. Block scheduling.
Note tuition at most schools goes up each year - 3-5% is a fair #. And I’d argue college costs even more than they say, often dependent on lifestyle - but $3-5k is safe - more if Greek or maybe private lessons
Before you look at curriculums and anything else you have to figure out the budget and if you’ll qualify for need aid.
There are colleges out there for you but whether they are on the list I don’t know. It might be SUNY Bing vs UVA or Michigan. Or Truman State vs Carleton.
There’s no way to know until you understand your finances.
CSS is an in depth form that will gather assets, home equity, income etc.
Some people don’t earn a lot but have a lot of stock or their home is worth a lot. A college would expect you to spend or as they say invest in you - because you are worth the money even if it’s not readily there - like you have to sell an investment or even the house.
If you are very low income ($65k-ish or less) and have little assets, there’s a wonderful program called questbridge.
Here’s more info on css. But look at the three schools I mentioned and run their Net Price Calculator. Most your schools use CSS including the only two public meets need schools - UVA and UNC. Fafsa doesn’t matter. It’s for federal government loans. Public and less prestigious privates may use Fafsa. There’s a third tier called IDOC - but you don’t need to worry about that yet.
You can also run Willamette NPC. They don’t meet need but have merit and you can see what they show.
In addition to interdisciplinary majors you should also look at schools that offer CS in the college of letters, arts, and sciences.
Generally this will allow you to double major/minor in humanities and the arts.
What state are you located in?
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freer curriculum: Brown, Amherst, Hamilton, Smith, Bennington, Sarah Lawrence
for dance Barnard (check for ballet, they used to have it), maybe BU (in phys. ed.), Both Bennington and Sarah Lawrence have mostly modern/choreography, Vassar, Smith, Skidmore, Goucher
Dance for non-majors may be harder to research: look at EC’s and physical education, arts dept. etc.
Are you doing an arts supplement with dance video (solo or featuring you ), dance resume, letters of recommendation related to dance- if accepted by the schools?
Though it doesn’t hurt to get some “ballpark figures”, MyIntuition isn’t 100% accurate. You’re going to wind up double-checking its results against the college’s own NPC interactive site:
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University of Tulsa is a small private university in the suburbs of Tulsa with a new president who is really impressive. It is a full ride for National Merit, plus lots of individual mentoring and other opportunities. The incoming freshman class is estimated to be over 20% National Merit students so you would be in good company. No Dance major, but there are club opportunities, and it does have strong English, creative writing, CS and arts management etc. Tulsa is maybe farther South than you would prefer, but is a hip town with lots of art and cultural opportunities. I would say University of Tulsa has a lot of overlap with WUSTL.
Fordham has an outstanding dance major, as well as multiple other strong majors. There are 2 campuses: one in a lovely upscale neighborhood just 2 blocks from Central Park, and the other a leafy gated very traditional campus in the Bronx across the street from the New York botanical gardens (free admission for Fordham students.) Neither is suburban, like you would prefer, but my own suburban kid is thriving there, and has adapted to NYC more easily than any of us predicted. He is literally across the street from Lincoln Center, home of ABT and NYCB. Walking distance to discounted Broadway shows. LOTS of internships in performing arts management etc.
University of Texas at Dallas is another school that is farther South than your preferred geographic location, but in other ways may be a good match. It is in the suburbs of Dallas which is a city with lots of art and culture. Lots of mentoring and other opportunities including a tradition where every month National Merit students go on an outing with faculty members to some art event such as ballet, musicals, music etc. UT-D was initially started as a tech-focused school and still has incredible CS and other tech, but the president is really investing in the arts side of campus. His goal is to make UT-D a school like Carnegie Mellon which is renowned in both STEM and the performing arts. Also good linguistics and research speech pathology. Not at all a typical “rah rah” Southern school. Only DIII sports, and almost no Greek involvement. Smart, nerdy vibe. Dance minor, I believe.
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Where there are fewer of them, and/or where they can be satisfied by the courses in the various subjects you will be taking anyway.
Other criteria to consider:
- All of the possible majors of interest (or something similar enough) are offered.
- For each possible major of interest, sufficient depth and breadth of upper level course work is offered at reasonable frequency.
- For each possible major of interest, the lower level course work requirements are not excessive, since excessive requirements makes it more difficult to fit the lower level course work for multiple majors into your first few semesters schedule. Computer science can be the main focus here, since the major at some colleges (particularly where it is in an engineering division) can have additional non-CS science and math requirements that are not required at other colleges.
- One of the following is true:
- All of the majors are open admission for enrolled students who want to declare them.
- All except one of the majors are open admission for enrolled students who want to declare them, and you are directly admitted to that exception major. Note: in your case, the exception major is usually computer science, although arts majors may also be gated with selective admission including audition or portfolio.
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Most of the action needs to be done by your parents, meaning that they need to do the financial planning to figure out what they can afford for you and your younger siblings’ college, while ensuring enough for their own retirement. A college’s net price calculator can tell you what the college will expect you to pay, but until your parents have done the financial planning, you will not know if it is affordable (unless the net price the college offers is $0 or close to it).
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Just a small clarification, although many people would say that most of Tulsa proper is like the suburbs of other “real” cities, TU is in one of the more city-like/urban areas.
Of course, based on CC testimonials, NPCs can be wildly inaccurate, e.g., Chance a Track Recruit for Bates ED 1 [estimate 3.8 GPA, art and visual culture major] - #21 by nichols51.
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The student needs a starting point.
Looking at schools and curriculum is great and interesting but highly inefficient until we get a sense of the financial picture.
The NPC is the best starting point we have.
With a # we can certainly find schools that could get there on merit $$ if it’s in the right range. For example an Arizona would be mid 20s vs say a Michigan or UVA on the list.
But we know nothing about affordability or state the student is from.
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@lkg4answers and @ucscuuw Thank you both! I will look into what you said.
I’m from Washington state.
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Thank you! I do plan to submit an arts supplement with dance video since I think it may help my chances of admission. What do you mean by “if accepted by the schools”? At many schools, isn’t it possible to submit supplementary items at the same time as the Common App?