White female living in Washington DC Metro area as US citizen at rigorous magnet HS IB program with 4.0 uw and 4.93 w GPA. Five AP’s with score of 5 plus 2 AP’s with score of 4 and 2 IB exams with score of 6. ACT of 35 without superscore. Senior year AP BC Calculus, AP Physics C, IB HL Chemistry, HL history, HL English, Theory of Knowledge and IB SL Philosophy.
Intended Major(s)
Music, Economics, Philosophy
Awards
None of note
Extracurriculars
Talented viola and piano player plus extensive ballet and modern dance. Submitting arts supplements for both instruments plus dance. Private studio teaching stings to children. Two years volunteering for community orchestra as assistant. School orchestra, pit orchestra, four years at Interlochen and made it to top orchestra. She started a few school clubs for music and food allergies, but arts are her “thing.”
Essays/LORs/Other
Essays are decent, if internally focused. She did not volunteer in prisons or start a community non-profit. She’s a normal kid who has shown good commitment to school and the arts and will have good recommendations.
Cost Constraints / Budget
None; full-pay OK
Schools
Reaches:
Swarthmore (ED1)
Williams
Amherst
Wesleyan
Williams
Matches:
Tufts
William & Mary
Hamilton
Dickinson
Likelies:
Muhlenburg
U Maryland - College Park
James Madison University
U of New Hampshire
I think you fairly accurately placed the schools into categories. With very high stats like yours, it is hard to identify true matches. I think Dickinson is a safety (or low match). And Wesleyan is probably a high match or maybe low reach (along with Tufts).
Swat, Williams and Amherst - you have the right stats on paper. Have you talked with the music and dance faculty? Do they need a viola? Again, you look great … but so do lots of their applicants.
Did you look at Vassar? It would also be a high match, low reach, and has a strong performing arts focus. As in … on parents weekend there is no football game but a lot of ochestra performances.
I don’t know if you looked at historic women’s colleges, but Bryn Mawr might be a nice safety if you liked Swarthmore. The tri-co relationship means you could be taking at least some of the same classes as you would at Swat.
Similarly, with Amhert you could consider consortium members Smith (low reach, high match) or Holyoke (safety).
I point these out because 3 of your 4 safeties are really different from the LACs you have listed as reaches and matches. If you think a LAC is the best environment for you, then you should have some safety LACs.
It is not possible for someone here to be very accurate when the arts are involved.
Based upon your academic profile, your list is reasonable:
Wesleyan and Tufts take a similar student and would be on the low end of your reaches or the high end of your matches. Dickinson would be a likely and William and Mary would be on the high end of the likely category.
Not sure these tweaks matter but admissions odds will be more accurate
Thank you! It’s good to hear we are on the right track. She’s established a relationship with the Swarthmore music department and taken a sample ballet class. We would like to do another visit in November to keep her name fresh on their lips. If they need a violist, it could increase her odds, but no one has come out and said that. As for a lower-tier LAC vs. a larger university, it may just come down to price. Is it really worth paying $85k/year for a LAC when she can get a solid degree from UMD-CP at half the price? We will see what Swat does for her ED application. I have to feel she will have some choices in RD. She really liked Hamilton, Tufts and W&M so we are not pinning all our hopes on Swat.
Appreciate the validation. It’s been quite a road getting here!
I’m sure she has a chance - but it’s Swat…it’s not easy.
I’d move Tufts and Hamilton to Reaches, especially RD and Dickinson to likely.
UMD is a match and the other three, are safe.
There’s many more LACs - very good ones - she’d have better odds at - if that’s what she truly wants.
If she likes W&M, Miami of Ohio has a similar feel (to me) and depending on if you are in VA or MD - might get you more merit than - well I was thinking JMU - but not sure which side of DC you are on.
If the supplement is not finished, unless she is an accomplished accompanist it is probably better off concentrating on viola. Many fewer applications and much more opportunity for her to help the school than with piano.
Keep in mind that at less competitive LACs she might get merit $. Looking at Holyoke’s common data set … 80 out of the 200 incoming freshmen with no need got on average $22k in merit scholarships. Kids with the highest stats likely get more than that.
My hunch is that your daughter will get into one or more of the schools that she has higher on her list. But it is always advisable to have a safety you really like.
Yes, she is focusing on viola in her arts supplements. She is also setting up private lessons at any schools who offer them with the viola instructor. She is very accomplished at piano (playing Chopin’s Revolutionary etude and Beethoven’s 8th piano sonata Pathetique) but piano is not as versatile, she knows. The hope is they need a violist for their orchestra and having an extra pianist around to fill in gaps can be handy. She is happy with all schools on the list. She will have a great time and life regardless.
Sounds like a wonderful kid! It is crazy how we have to use these supplements as a tool rather than an exhibition. How can the kid help the school, viola is definitely an instrument that most schools need and want and do not have as many applicants. Can only help her!
It looks like you have done your homework! But just in case you haven’t, I would encourage your DD to listen to recordings of the orchestras at your various possible schools, and make sure that she would enjoy playing with the group, if that is important to her. Some SLACs with wonderful music programs just don’t have the numbers for a strong orchestra - they deal with this in different ways (emphasizing orchestra in admissions and making sure they have the instrumentation that they need, or combining with professionals - which helps musicianship but often hurts community, or focusing on chamber music, or focusing on jazz (not helpful for viola), or just running an orchestra that does the best it can).
In your list, there is a high variance in terms of orchestras. Just a thought, if that matters much to your child.
Why is Oberlin not on her list? Just wondering.
Swarthmore is a really tough school to get into. Being full pay won’t help as they are truly need blind.
Has she considered Dartmouth ED? Believe it or not, very strong music program along with a top notch advanced program in electro-accoustic music.
My husband and I nixed Oberlin due to a poor free speech rating from FIRE.
Dartmouth has almost no dance.
But they were both considered!
As for the level of orchestra, we will see where she gets in and drill down from there. No sense in having favorites if she doesn’t get in. The colleges she selected had at least reasonably decent music and dance in addition to academics.
Just fyi, I think Swarthmore ranks significantly worse than Oberlin with FIRE–so perhaps not a good guide for eliminating schools from your list altogether.
I know Gettysburg does not have Dance major but I would strongly recommend exploring options there. You actually may like it even more than Dickinson and Muhlenberg. DD applied to Dickinson, Gettysburg, and Muhlenberg. She got major scholarship at Gettysburg, and good ones from the rest. We also crossed from the list Oberlin after the visit. I know nothing about art majors since DD was looking for premed.