The following schools have traditionally been generous with merit aid, often automatically granted for certain grades/scores.
Alabama
Ole Miss
Miss State
Arizona
Miami OH
South Carolina
All will have psychology and dancing of various kinds. Many will also have specialist programs that put you with a cohort of similar students based on interests, ability, etc. All have Honors programs (Ole Miss and S Carolina both v good). Alabama has a research program (good for psych) and a liberal arts residential program. And several others.
Some are rural (Miss State, Miami). UofSC is in Columbus the state capital. Oxford MS is a great town and surprisingly liberal.
They all do rolling acceptances and some are open already/ open soon.
Having one of these as auto acceptance + merit before October takes a LOT of stress out of the process.
Good luck
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A few years ago the woman who was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship had as a major activity Indian dancing. She was not a dance major. She attended U of Colorado and thatâs not a campus particularly known for having a lot of Indian students, but this woman found plenty of ways to work it into her life on campus -through clubs, performances, teaching, participating in the community off campus. She took a real leadership role to bring the dances to others on campus and organize performances.
Iâd think any school near a city or even a town with a community that supports Indian culture would work fine for her to continue her dance.
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I would take a second look at the Barnard option. Excellent academics and dance, and it is actually one of the 4 colleges of Columbia. Here is an old thread on the relationship: separate presidents, large overlap in classes and ECâs (but Columbia has the Core), diploma has both Columbia and Barnard on it. Not really like other âwomenâs collegesâ that are more isolated and not connected to a coed university.
Is Barnard the same as Columbia? - Colleges and Universities A-Z / Columbia University - College Confidential Forums
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I agree Barnard sounds perfect.
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All the schools mentioned below offer majors in South Asian studies or languages, so it would be likely that your daughter would either find a community of fellow Indian dancers, or would have a good target audience of people interested in learning.
I would run the Net Price Calculators (NPC) at Harvard, Brown, U. of Chicago, and U. of Pennsylvania and see what they say. Middleburyâs not quite as racially diverse, but it is still respectably so, so running the NPC there, too, would also be worthwhile. If your family changes its mind about all-womenâs schools, then Wellesley and Mount Holyoke should be considered, too. All of these schools meet full financial need, as they calculate it. If the number their NPC provides is comfortable for you, then I think any of these would be contenders as âreachâ schools (reach not in terms of your daughterâs qualifications, but simply the fact that the odds of admission are so low due to the high demand from highly-qualified students).
For schools that are not quite as competitive, I would look at SUNY Binghamton, Indiana University, and U. of Missouri, though Missouri is the least racially diverse of the bunch. But I think your daughterâs chances of getting good merit aid at these would be quite respectable. College of Wooster in Ohio also gives very generous merit aid.