I am a rising senior currently trying to come up with a college list.
I have a 1550 SAT, with 800 on the math section and 750 on Reading and Writing. With my PSAT score, I expect to be a national merit semi-finalist. My GPA is a 4.6 weighted, 4.0 unweighted. I have taken many AP and college-level math courses. I just recently finished Calc 3 at the University of Minnesota.
I am also an accomplished musician at the state level. I have won awards through Solo and Ensemble for viola performance.
I want to be able to play in a decent orchestra where I don’t necessarily have to be a major in college.
My college wants are as follows:
Good orchestra
Applied Mathematics, Computer Science or Financial Math (in that order)
Greater than 3500 kids
Has to be close to a city with population 80K (urban/suburban area)
Prefer Midwest, East coast or West Coast
Diversity
Friendly-ish atmosphere, not serve your self (so I may be leaning more private college)
I am struggling with my list a lot, I appreciate any suggestions or help!
Look at Harvey Mudd and/or Pomona - smaller schools, but the consortium is almost 7000 kids - great music for non-majors, in LA county.
Northwestern is another option, close to Chicago, lots of music for non-majors.
I am sure that you will get many great suggestions, but I will suggest checking out Case Western. It has a lot of the characteristics that you mentioned and its partnership with Cleveland Institute of Music offers a lot of opportunities for non-majors. Also offers merit and music scholarships (for non-majors).
Have you talked to your parents about cost constraints?
Having finished calculus 3 in 11th grade, you may want to look for math departments with good subarea coverage in the junior/senior level math courses, and access to graduate level math courses for undergraduates. Check course catalogs, schedules, and faculty rosters of math departments.
I hope you will submit a music supplement- often with recording.video, music resume and music letters of recommendation- if your talent supports one. Check with schools on what they accept. You do not have to major in music to benefit from a supplement.
MIT has excellent music. Tufts, Williams, Amherst, Wesleyan and other “little Ivies,” Vassar come to mind and you could try Harvard, Yale, Princeton (especially is you need aid). Macalaster, Davidson, Oberlin (non-Con but access to the Con’s resources). Clark, College of Wooster, St. Olaf. So many schools, so I’ll stop there.
Music/Math would indicate St Olaf- a safety if you show interest (visit, join the mailing list, send a music supplement, etc.)
UMN Honors would be another safety. UWisconsin (Honors) probably also.
I don’t think typical NMF universities will be better but if you want OOS/warmth, look into ASU Barrett.
You probably don’t need help with a list of universities classified as “reach for everyone”.
Beside the obvious suspects, look into Northwestern (especially their accelerated Math track for kids in your situation), Williams, Wesleyan, and HarveyMudd.
That leaves universities like Case Western (seconding! DO show interest) or NYU (Courant Institute/may not be affordable).
What’s your budget and how does it compare to EFC?
What other PSEO classes did you take?
What’s your senior schedule like?
Have you taken English&History/social science every year? What’s the highest level you’ve reached in a world language?
It’s a reach but the first school I thought of was Yale. There are a ton of very high level ensembles for those not majoring in music at the school. Many of those entering the school are talented musicians, as well as academically strong.
I’m not sure this one fits your “near a bigger city” criteria, but Skidmore might be a good option as well.
I have not taken any other PSEO classes but plan to take 2 (History of World Civilizations through my local community college and Theory of Interest at UMN) in the fall. My senior schedule is AP Comp Sci A, Orchestra, Spanish Elective, AP Macro, AP Stats, and then my two PSEO classes.
I have taken English every year but did not take Social Studies last year. Instead, I took a research class that my school offers.
I took Spanish 4 my freshman year, AP Spanish my sophomore year, and Spanish Humanities my junior year (an immersion class). I have a platinum bilingual seal!
I plan to apply to Harvey Mudd, Williams, and Northwestern. I need to look more into safety schools. Thank you for your suggestion of St Olaf. I will research that college more.
I am worried about the cost of the schools. I know my parents are willing to pay for a majority of my college, but I don’t want to be a financial burden. I have no idea what our EFC is, but I think it is fairly high. I highly doubt that I will get any aid for college.
I know my parents want me to go to the best college that I can get into. However, is taking on student debt worth it for me if I manage to get into a top school? I am most likely going to get my Masters. Would going to Case Western (where I might be able to get merit based scholarships) be more beneficial then going to say Harvey Mudd?
I am worried about the cost of college. I know my parents are willing to pay for a majority of my college, but I don’t want to be a financial burden. I have no idea what our EFC is, but I think it is fairly high. I highly doubt that I will get any aid for college.
I know my parents want me to go to the best college that I can get into. However, is taking on student debt worth it for me if I manage to get into a top school? I am most likely going to get my Masters. Would going to Case Western (where I might be able to get merit-based scholarships) be more beneficial then going to say Harvey Mudd?
I’m surprised no one has mentioned it, but I’d take a good look at U. of Rochester (NY). It has about 6800 undergrads, a strong student body, and tries to to attract top students with merit aid. I’m unsure if non-Eastman students can audition for Eastman ensembles, but there are numerous ensembles for non-Eastman students taught by the music faculty in the College of Arts & Sciences: Music Ensembles : Concerts & Ensembles : Arthur Satz Department of Music : University of Rochester. At least one of the orchestras from the Satz department also tours domestically and internationally, so I expect it would also be of high quality.
Rochester offers a B.S. in Applied Math and its math department offers through a PhD in math, so there should certainly be sufficient depth of coursework available to you.
The student body is diverse (16% Asian, 5% Black, 8% Hispanic, 40% White, 4% 2+ races, 3% unknown, and 24% non-US residents). Rochester has over 200k residents, and the metro areas has about a million.
Also, I would definitely throw an app in to U. of Wisconsin-Madison, as I believe you’d get in-state tuition there due to the MN/WI reciprocity agreement, it’s also strong pretty much across the board, and it may be a financial safety as well (if in-state at MN is affordable).
What do you mean by offers? Many private schools mentioned in this thread don’t offer merit aid, so if you do not believe that you are eligible for need-based financial aid, your family will be paying full price. Are your parents comfortable with costs of 75K-90K per year or more?
Are you sure you won’t qualify for financial aid? Check out schools that are need blind and have generous aid for incomes under $159k, and sometimes some aid even for incomes over $150k. This may have been asked already: have you done the Net Price Calculators?
Have you identified scholarships that you can apply to for merit?
Student debt is limited to 5.5k for freshman year and a bit more each subsequent year. Anything else has to be taken by your parents.
Back when your parents went to college, what they said is how you did it: you applied to a bunch of colleges and you compared your offers. For about 10 years however all colleges have to have something called a NPC, net price calculator. Families must then answer the questions and they see what their offer is likely to be. Then they decide if it’s within budget or worth applying.
Run the NPC on MIT, Harvard, HarveyMudd, and Williams. They calculate differently but typically have the most generous FA in the US. If you don’t qualify for financial aid there, you wont qualify for FA anywhere and your parents have to decide whether they’re willing to pay that amount (from savibgs&income) or if they’d rarher have you go for merit aid colleges.
Fortunately for you, UWisconsin is a superb university and if you want something smaller they have a “Residential college”, as well as an Honors College. Very few “merit aid” colleges, baside Umn, will be better than UWisconsin.
Add St Olaf after running the NPC to have another safety -it offers merit for music&academics but you’d have to show interest ASAP.
Those would be safeties - as long as your parents canafford what these cost (run the NPC).
Your parents, if they haven’t checked college tuition costs recently, will have a shock -40 years ago, Harvard was about 16k in tuition. Today it’s 85k for full pay families. So, knowing what they can pay and are willing to pay is crucial.