My plan is to apply EA to any school that offers it. I don’t think I’ll be applying ED anywhere just because I’m not sure about financial aid - with the new FASFA updates that no longer consider if you have a sibling in college at the same time, financial aid could be an issue. Also with skating - tryouts are in March - April so I wouldn’t be ready to commit to a school without having a spot on a team yet.
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Miami is on my list, but I’m not the biggest fan of the rural location. Delaware, UVM, Binghamton, Pitt, and Nebraska are not on the list because I want to continue doing synchronized skating and all of these are not close to the main teams I’m looking at, which are located in Chicago, Boston, NYC, and ann arbor.
I listed 2k as a rough estimate, so I would probably be fine with schools in the 1.5k range. I’m visiting a couple of them this summer so hopefully I can get a better idea of how small/big I want a school to be.
Thanks!
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Congratulations on your achievements.
The NPCs aren’t setup right now for the new FAFSA changes. So, if you do run them, make sure to put in that you will be the only one in college (although it seems likely that the CSS Profile schools will continue to give a benefit to those with more than one student in college at the same time, but we still don’t know for sure). NPCs may not be accurate if your parents are divorced, own real estate beyond a primary home, or own a business…are any of those the case for you?
What state are you in? If not Michigan or Wisconsin, I don’t think either MSU or Madison will get to your price point. MSU will if your budget ends up at $50K.
Have you checked out any of the recommendations posters have made for targets? I second Fordham and a number of austennut’s recs. You might also look at Trinity College and Conn College…but run the NPCs to check affordability.
You will find it extremely difficult to find the time to continue with team skating, let alone the time to commute to practices. So if it is extremely important to you, i would focus on boston, nyc, and chicago schools. U chicago and northwestern. Harvard, Tufts, BU, NEU, BC, maybe Brandeis. Barnard, Columbia, NYU, Fordham. Then make a fin and academic safety or two.
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I’m in Wisconsin - so UW would be affordable without aid. You’re probably right about Michigan State, I was under the impression their merit aid was more generous. I’ve been looking into Fordham, especially with the NMF money, but the closest they have to my intended major is biology, and my parents think that a bio degree would not make me marketable anywhere without grad/med school. Considering Conn - I like the school but it’s a bit far.
Generally, the NPCs for private colleges that I ran gave okay EFCs (ones my family could probably afford). I think around 40-45k is the budget for us. That could change if the FAFSA updates (2 kids in college rule) are not fixed by the CSS profile. Do you think the FAFSA changes are going to drastically affect aid at schools that also have the CSS profile?
No one knows for sure. Colleges will make these decisions this summer. I would expect though that CSS schools will still take cost of any siblings’ colleges into account in their aid formulas. But, again, we can’t count on that.
You could get enough merit aid to make it affordable. COA this year was $53K so you might get enough merit to get in the $40K-$45K range. But, that school doesn’t get you close to Boston/NYC/Chicago for skating, nor does Miami Ohio. Since you have Loyola Chicago on the lis, you might also consider DePaul, have you looked at that school? That would be another highly likely and good chance it gets in your price range.
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Thanks for the recommendation on DePaul. I’ll look into it, but I have a friend there who does not recommend the school. I also mentioned Ann Arbor as one of the locations I’m looking at for skating teams, so Michigan state would be about an hour away. UMich would be great but there would be no way for me to get enough aid to afford it as an OOS student. Miami ohio has their own varsity synchronized skating program at the school. Not a huge fan of the school but their team is pretty good. TBH - I would only really consider going there if they gave me a hefty scholarship.
You say colleges will decide this summer if their CSS profile will take multiple siblings in college into account - but how would I find out what they decide? Or do I just have to wait until I get a financial aid package back?
Miami of Ohio.
You said the magic words. Hefty Scholarship.
They have auto merit and it’s possible.
But you still have to like it. Fine school.
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We will know when they update their NPCs for 2024-25. That might not be until the fall. At that point you could also send an email or call the financial aid office and just ask how they are going to handle FA for families with more than one student in college.
@milklover1 as I see it Miami makes so much sense for you. I would expect you would get OOS tuition merit scholarship with maybe a chance at a full ride presidential scholarship.
My D21 had an UW 4.0 a 35 Act and got an invite to presidents weekend and got a 38k a year scholarship. So we are just paying about 14k a year OOS for room and board which will be less when she goes off campus for years 3 and 4. I would think with your great credentials and your competitive skating you could do similar in merit scholarship money.
Although it is in Oxford Ohio and not NYC the school has 18,000 undergrads and is 45 minutes from Cincinnati. With a school that size there is plenty to do on campus or within a 45 minute drive to a mid size city.
And most importantly for you it has the skating you want. You wont have to travel to get to your skating but walk a couple of minutes to a great ice facility and a great team.
Finally as you know medical school is very expensive and generally no merit money is given for medical school. IMHO save your money (or parents money) take the great merit money at Miami, continue your skating with a top notch team, make good grades and go to medical school in the big cities of NY, Boston and Chicago being debt free from your undergraduate education
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I started thinking about your college list and @parentologist’s comment about the difficulty to find sufficient training time (much less adding a commute to it) and @DadTwoGirls’ comment about getting sufficient time for medically-related extracurriculars. With that in-mind, I looked at this list of colleges that have intercollegiate synchronized skating teams. You might well say, hold up, I said I was interested in the teams in New York City, Chicago, and Boston, and these aren’t those teams. All very true. But it might be nice to be on a team surrounded by other people who have academic responsibilities in addition to their team responsibilities as well as not really having a commute (assuming these schools have ice rinks on or very near to campus).
With that said, these are some schools that you might want to consider, sorted by my very fallible guesses of what might be your chances at these schools. Also, I believe there’s in-state tuition reciprocity between Wisconsin and Minnesota, so the MN schools should definitely be within budget. As always, run the Net Price Calculators and see what automatic scholarships are offered.
Extremely Likely (80-99+%)
- East Carolina (NC): About 22k undergrads and a very strong reputation in the health fields
- Indiana – Bloomington: About 34k undergrads
- Marquette (WI): About 7700 undergrads
- Quinnipiac (CT): About 6300 undergrads
- Towson (MD): About 18k undergrads
- U. of Colorado – Boulder: About 31k undergrads
- U. of Maine – About 10k undergrads…full ride for national merit scholars
- U. of Minnesota – Duluth: About 9k undergrads.
- U. of Minnesota – Twin Cities: About 36k undergrads
- U. of Montana: About 7200 undergrads
- Western Michigan: About 15k undergrads
Likely (60-79%)
- CUNY City College: About 12k undergrads. Also, look into applying to the Macaulay Honors College. Does not have its own team; accidentally left this school off the list when looking at NYC schools. This is 6.3 miles from the 10011 zip code.
- Purdue (IN): About 37k undergrads
- U. of Connecticut: About 19k undergrads
- U. of Delaware: About 19k undergrads
- U. of Denver (CO): About 5900 undergrads
- U. of Illinois – Urbana Champaign: About 35k undergrads
- U. of Vermont: About 12k undergrads
- U. of Wisconsin – Madison: About 35k undergrads
Toss-Up (40-59%)
- Mount Holyoke (MA): About 2200 undergrads
- U. of Maryland – College Park: About 31k undergrads
Lower Probability (20-39%)
- Case Western (OH) About 5800 undergrads
- Smith (MA): Women’s college of about 2600 undergrads
Low Probability (less than 20%)
- Brown (RI): About 7300 undergrads
- Dartmouth (NH): About 4600 undergrads
- Hamilton (NY): About 2100 undergrads
- Harvard (MA): About 9600 undergrads
- U. of Notre Dame (IN): About 9k undergrads
- U. of Pennsylvania: About 11k undergrads
- Yale (CT): About 6500 undergrads
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The thing is there’s a big difference between intercollegiate and synchronized. Intercollegiate is still figure skating (individual sport) but you get points for your team by placing high in your division/level. Kind of like gymnastics/swimming. Synchro is a whole different thing - it’s essentially all-star cheer on ice - lifting, throwing, etc. So the schools on the list under the category “intercollegiate” just have individual figure skating teams that compete in intercollegiate events. College synchronized skating teams are under the “collegiate” or “open-collegiate” category, however, teams at the highest level (senior) are not on the list as most teams are club teams. Not sure why some of the others aren’t, maybe because you had to fill out a form or email someone to get your team added to the list. Miami is one of the only two college-based senior teams in the US, but there are 4-6 total depending on the year. Then there are an additional 5ish teams in senior elite 12, which is a newer (and slightly less popular) division that has the same rules as traditional senior but only requires 12 skaters.
Senior can go international and collegiate can’t. Senior teams are overall better than collegiate teams and have a much more intense training load. My goal is to be on a senior team and compete internationally, so I would really prefer to be near one of these cities: Ann Arbor, Chicago, NYC (Conn suburbs), or Boston. Or attend Miami, which has a lot of positives (good merit aid, not too far from cities, varsity skating program - everything is paid for by the school, and not very much grade deflation) but I really didn’t like the campus vibe when I was there and am not a huge fan of greek life/parties, which are big on campus.
Thanks, @milklover1 for helping to break down the ratings sheet. Silly me thought that a list labeled, “2022-2023 Intercollegiate, Synchro Teams List” was actually a list of synchronized skating teams that competed intercollegiately!
To make sure I’m understanding correctly, these are the schools that offer a synchronized skating team (per that link), as they either say “synchronized” or “SST” which I’m now assuming means synchronized skating team:
- Adrian (MI)
- Miami (OH)
- Michigan State
- U. of Delaware
- U. of Illinois
- U. of Michigan
- Cornell (NY)
- Northwestern (IL)
- Ohio U.
- Princeton (NJ)
- St. Ben’s (MN)
- U. of Vermont
But, to compete internationally, you need to be a part of a “senior” level team which, according to US Figure Skating, is from one of these 5 teams, three of which are presumably the ones in Chicago, New York City, and Boston.
In looking at the internet, it appears that the non-college senior level teams max out at age 25. How many team members at the non-college squads are attending college full time? Or working full time? Is skating supposed to be the full-time activity and everything else is done on the side?
You currently skate 20 hours/week. How much time does it take to get to the rink from where you live/go to school? Is 20 hours like 3 hours/day, 7 days/week? 4 hours/day for 5 days a week? Are other conditioning activities included within those 20 hours, or is that expected to be completed outside of the 20 hours? (Conditioning meaning dance classes, weight lifting, running, etc.) Basically, I’m trying to figure out how many hours you will need to set aside each week for figure skating, and then figure out how that would work with attending college at the same time. I remember that Debi Thomas went to college (Stanford!) while being a top skater, but according to good 'ole Wikipedia, “it was unusual for a top U.S. skater to go to college at the same time as competing.” I remember Paul Wylie also went to college while competing (Harvard!), and Michelle Kwan went to UCLA for a little bit, but then ended up finishing her degree after retiring. For the most part, most of the senior skaters did not seem to be going to college while competing. I haven’t followed figure skating very closely for a good while, though, and perhaps things have changed.
With respect to Miami of Ohio, I’d visit it again. With all the time you’ll be spending on the ice and with your teammates, I don’t think Greek life will phase you one way or the other (and with 18k undergrads, there will be thousands of non-Greek folk to hang with). I think it will come in at a great price, the university will cover all the skating costs, and it’s a good education with a senior level team that would allow you to compete for a spot on the US team.
Have you considered Adrian?
Here’s a breakdown of in-season time commitments:
3 days a week for 12 hrs total: team practice (includes on ice and workouts/ballet/etc.) This is mostly weekends and one day during the week.
I drive 1-1.5 hrs each way for practice so that brings it up to 18-20 hrs.
(I am now realizing I spend more than 20 hrs/week in peak season but whatever)
Then I practice individually at a local rink a couple times a week (total of like 5 hours in season but not competition week, maybe 3 if in season during comp week). During competition weeks the time commitment goes to like 50 hrs but I’m disregarding that because that makes it too complicated.
Then as soon as I’m out of season (literally 1-2 weeks after our final competition) high school soccer starts. During this time, I skate on my own and it’s probably around 6 hrs/week. Scheduling is hard with high school sports because they’re every day right after school so I end up skating early mornings.
After soccer is over, the season starts back up again and practices go up to about 8-10 hrs/week. We don’t compete until late October, so the summer is more relaxed (ish). During the summer I compete individually so I skate 4 days/week for 2 hrs/day. So total about 18 hrs/week during the summer.
With respect to the club teams and college - the vast majority are in college. These teams practice schedules are pretty similar to mine right now but they have more team practice hours (fine by me - I’ll just cut down my individual hours - as long as I’m practicing somehow). I know some on these teams are college grads or high school grads working part/full time. There are usually a couple high school seniors on these teams. Most go to school full-time but may have a reduced course load. I know sometimes if the school has a quarter or trimester system, some people will not take any classes during peak competition season and take summer classes instead. The practices are scheduled around school usually - some teams prefer to do 4 straight days of practice and have off during the week to do school, other teams prefer to do morning/evening practices during the week. Usually 12-20 hrs total of practice. Miami follows NCAA rules so they have max 20 hrs/week. Other than that not exactly sure.
I have thought about doing college part-time so that I have more time for working and other extracurriculars but am concerned about it affecting financial aid eligibility or my med school apps. Do med schools negatively view part-time schooling?
Adrian - parents most likely won’t let me go there. they’re already kind of upset about me considering Miami as it is “not a great school”. But if I get good aid I can use it to convince them otherwise. They don’t really get the whole “undergrad prestige doesn’t matter for med school - GPA, MCAT, and experience do!” thing. Either way, Adrian is most likely not on my list. They’re not super strong in skating or pre-med or any of my intended majors.
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@AustenNut is bringing up an issue that worries me also.
Both daughters had majors that overlapped quite a bit with premed classes. They both ended up with multiple friends who were premed (one of whom is now an MD). The amount of commitment that it takes to do well in premed classes, and to keep up the medical related volunteer work, is very, very large. There are a LOT of details to learn, a LOT of studying to do, and classes that are full of very strong students.
One daughter was briefly on a sychronized skating team. For her it was a minor commitment. However, her team was not even remotely competitive at a high level. Being competitive at a “win the US championship” level I would expect is also a huge commitment of time and effort. I am very impressed that you were able to do this. The ability to put in this much time and effort and to keep at it and win a championship (never mind two) is a huge accomplishment.
However I personally do not understand how anyone could do both at the same time.
I am not the expert on premed and medical school admissions. However, I thought that I had heard that medical schools expect you to be a full time student both as an undergraduate student and when you are in medical school. I think that they might indeed negatively view part-time schooling.
When my daughters were skating they had a friend who was really good (eg, double axels at about as young an age as any woman ever, and very graceful). She was also a very nice person and a good student. At some point she had to decide: Did she want to seriously try to become “Olympic level” competitive for skating, or did she want to focus on academics? She figured that she could only do one of these at a top level. She decided to neglect her skating and focus on academics (I think that she might be in medical school right now).
I am concerned that doing both at once might not be possible.
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Old Yiddish saying. “With one tuchis (ass), you cannot dance at two weddings.” You are talking about three, maybe four simultaneous weddings. Senior level synch skating including commute, college with premed classes,which is really like a double major, plus all the shadowing, clinical time, volunteering, and research, not to mention mcat prep too. It just isnt possible. The sites near boston, nyc, chicago are still a hefty commute. Impossible to do it all.
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sorry just realized your are currently junior
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