College Suggestions, please: small, musical, and decent fin aid.

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hello, I am rather confused since there seem to be way too many colleges out there and very little time and funds to visit them all! Any suggestions will come greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>High School Junior
Homeschooled in Florida
Have not taken the ACT or SAT yet--will in December and April, respectively.
10th Grade PSAT: 68 Read, 70 Math, 76 Writing
Took 11th Grade PSAT, waiting for scores
4.0 Unweighted GPA</p>

<p>Freshman-Sophomore Year: Pre-IB Programme at Public High School
AP World History
AP European History
Honors Physics I
Pre-IB Alg II
IB Pre-Calc SL, 1st year of 2 year course
in addition to rest of Pre-IB courses</p>

<p>Junior Year: Classes through Virtual School
Chem I Honors
AP Calc AB
AP Language & Lit
I hope to do some independent studies eventually...</p>

<p>EC's
Freshman: Vice Pres. Freshman Class Cabinet, School Musical Chorus Member & Stage Crew, Chorus
Sophomore: National Honors Society, Assistant Stage Manager, Co-Lead Painter for Musical, Thespian, Chorus, knitting hats for volunteer hours
Junior: Orlando Girls Deanery Choir, Voice & Piano Lessons, Dance Lessons, Volunteer in Classroom, Reading Mentor to Elem. student</p>

<p>College Prefs:
small, private, great music department, good financial aid--especially full ride scholarships
Midwest or Southeast preferred</p>

<p>I am looking at Stetson, Florida Southern, Lawrence U, Kenyon, and Cornell College.</p>

<p>Please let me know if you have any suggestions or know anything about the above colleges. Thank you.</p>

2

<p>I am also applying to cornell, and have looked at lawrence and kenyon. All are great schools. Here are a few more:</p>

<p>Oberlin College: Small, liberal arts, good aid, excellent academics, well known, world renowned music</p>

<p>St. Olaf College: Small, liberal arts, good aid, excellent academics, not as well known as oberlin, but becoming more well known. Top notch music program, nearly as good as Oberlins</p>

<p>Knox College: Small, liberal arts, good aid, excellent academics, good music, not as good as St Olaf/Oberlin. Similar to lawrence</p>

<p>Hope those help!</p>

3

<p>Thank you!</p>

<p>Do you know anything about the music department at Cornell College? I'm guessing that it must be decent if you looked into it as well.</p>

4

<p>Luther and St. Olaf's.</p>

5

<p>Great, thanks!</p>

6

<p>I also second luther, its music is definitely as good as St Olaf/Oberlin</p>

<p>It is academically a safety for your stats</p>

<p>Cornell has a pretty good music program, more along the lines of Knox. It does not churn out performance majors, but for hobby musicians it is very good.</p>

7

<p>Lawrence, St. Olaf and Oberlin</p>

8

<p>Depending on how much emphasis is required in the music area, some of the suggestions may not work. If the student has had formal training, serious additional study, some high level summer immersion experience and is fairly Muse driven, a few of those mentioned may be disappointing. They may be fine for an occassional or avocational participant.</p>

<p>Oberlin, St. Olaf, and Lawrence are strong suggestions. </p>

<p>Some prior threads from CC's Music Major forum:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/518020-music-liberal-arts-schools.html?highlight=music%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/518020-music-liberal-arts-schools.html?highlight=music&lt;/a>
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/468613-music-liberal-arts.html?highlight=music%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/468613-music-liberal-arts.html?highlight=music&lt;/a>
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/400593-best-music-liberal-arts-college-program.html?highlight=liberal+arts+college%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/400593-best-music-liberal-arts-college-program.html?highlight=liberal+arts+college&lt;/a>
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/6280-suggestions-colleges-music-majors.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/6280-suggestions-colleges-music-majors.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

9

<p>St. Olaf College Lions
Beloit College Buccaneers</p>

10

<p>St. Olaf is not in the same league as Oberlin with respect to music. It does have an excellent program- especially in choral music- but Oberlin is a conservatory and extremely selective.</p>

11

<p>of course but it is a nice alternative for those who either can't get into Oberlin or dislike the liberal culture at Oberlin.</p>

12

<p>SmallColleges posted above the St. Olaf's music program was "nearly as good as Oberlin's." They are not comparable, which doesn't mean St. Olaf isn't a wonderful school, but the two music schools are vastly different.</p>

13

<p>Seconding MOWC, the conservatory at Oberlin is auditioned based, and one of the country's top flight programs for professional performance development. Non conservatory Oberlin college undergrads can participate in a number of Oberlin programs, sometimes alongside, and sometimes seperate from Oberlin conservatory students.</p>

<p>St. Olaf's program, is solid, is also auditionbased, and their choral programs in particular are very well respected</p>

<p>To take nothing away from St. Olaf, it is not Oberlin. But again, what is right for one student is not right for all.</p>

14

<p>Thanks so much for the links and your comments. I am a serious voice and piano student. Actually, I forgot to add an activity in which I participate at the Orlando Opera.</p>

15

<p>Since you are a junior, you have lots of time to look around. THere are very good choices on this site. I would write to the schools and see what responses you get. I am aware of Lawrence and have visited some of their musical events, know the campus. I would highly recommend it to you. I know something of the music program at Luther since I just received a newsletter from another east coast music summer school extolling the virtues of what is going on at Luther in the music department. I know one of the profs there. These same people are also very much involved at Oberlin. There are links among these programs: graduates of small LACs eventually can become professors at other programs. :) And so it goes. They are linked. And they all flow through the hughly successful graduate music programs on the east coast. It is hard to say one is better than the other because they eventually are all trained by the same hands so to speak. You must find the place where you fit and that will vary.</p>

16

<p>Does anyone know about either of the Floridian colleges? How do they compare to Oberlin and Lawrence?</p>

<p>That would be Stetson University and Florida Southern College. I know both have solid music programs. Stetson has had singers at the Met and Chicago Lyric. Any information from you?</p>

<p>Please and thank you!</p>

17

<p>oh definitely not Florida Southern and Stetson</p>

<p>Oberlin and Lawrence are heads and shoulders above them</p>

18

<p>Cornell College in Iowa sounds perfect for you.</p>