I’m looking for a school located in NYC or Chicago that is:
•Small
•Relatively Cheap
•Accepts 3.5-3.6 GPA
•1400 SAT
•Alternative approaches to education
•Located downtown
•Has an orchestra
•Liberal
Does anyone know of such a school?
Cheap is hard to find in NYC unless you look into the CUNYs.
CUNYs have excellent programs and they are indeed cheap. Some people call CUNY “the Harvard of the Proletariat” for the quality of the education, the number of Nobel Prize winners and world-class artists and designers who have passed through its many gates, and the cheap price.
For music, you may want to look at CUNY Queens Aaron Copland school of music. http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/music/
I think Brooklyn College may also have music and the buildings there are prettier. – http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/academics/schools/mediaarts/departments/music.php
http://www2.cuny.edu/about/colleges-schools/
Despite commonly thought and expressed, NYC is sort of a small town. The public transportation makes it fairly easy to get around. Also, you can attend events around the city at the other schools, the New School or NYU or Columbia.
You may find Wagner on Staten island appealing. – http://wagner.edu/majors/music/
What do you mean by “relatively cheap”?
How much is your family able and willing to pay per year?
Have you run the online net price calculators on any colleges to see if you qualify for need-based aid?
If you don’t qualify for n-b aid and want the lowest possible sticker price, then focus on public schools in either city (the CUNY schools or the University of Illinois at Chicago). Otherwise …
How small is “small”? Are you referring to small liberal arts colleges with enrollments of about 2000 students? Are you ok with small to mid-sized universities (~5K to ~7500 undergrads)?
Most colleges accept most students with 3.5-3.6 GPAs. Even the most selective schools in the country accept some students with GPAs in that range, but will look at grades in the context of course rigor, class rank, upward/downward trend, and the competitiveness of your high school.
Many if not most colleges have orchestras.
Possibilities:
NYC
- Columbia University (extremely selective, but possible within reach if you’ve taken many AP/IB courses and your class rank is in the top 10%; ~$70K sticker price, but possibly much cheaper if you qualify for need-based aid)
- Barnard College (women only)
- Sarah Lawrence College (in Yonkers, not downtown/Manhattan)
- Eugene Lang College (possibly a great fit … IF you qualify for n-b aid)
- CUNY schools
Chicago
- University of Chicago (extremely selective, but possible within reach if you’ve taken many AP/IB courses and your class rank is in the top 10%; ~$70K sticker price, but possibly much cheaper if you qualify for need-based aid)
- Illinois Institute of Technology
- University of Illinois at Chicago
I wouldn’t bother with Columbia or UChicago. But I think Eugene Lang would be a great fit; the CUNYs too. There’s also Pace in NYC.
- Sarah Lawrence is not cheap but is very arty
- CUNYs cheap and arty and in the City
- Pace cheapish and in the city and has some arts--also in Westchester
- The arty SUNY is Purchase--but you'd be paying OOS tuiton there.
- The New School (Eugene Lang) doesn't have fabulous FA, I understand
- Manhattan School of Music uptown might be interesting but I suspect has bad FA
- Hofstra is on LI and might suit you
- Bard College is much further north, but I"m telling you about it because its music is really wonderful. And they do events and have some limited facilities in the City
- Vassar has an orchestra and is on the commuter train line to NYC -- 90 minutes travel but it's an easy trip you can go in and out in a day.
- Fordham is in the Bronx and has a campus at midtown too. Easy subway access
- Marymount Manhattan -- http://www.mmm.edu/
- Manhattanville--https://www.mville.edu/
- Manhattan College -- on the 1 subway line in a nice area of the Bronx -- https://manhattan.edu/
Why the need to go to college in NYC or Chicago when you are on a tight budget? Those are two of the most expensive cities in the country. I’d look for the best possible affordable college education and you can move to one of those cities after graduation (or before that for an internship, or a semester away program).
It’s probably cheaper or the same price to attend CUNY than to attend many of the colleges closer to home. Plus there are the connections you can make in your field; exposure to world-class music and industry leaders; internships to be had; toeholds into apartments (a serious issue in NYC); and confidence facing the job market from at least knowing the city.
Gaining residency for CUNY is fairly easy, for in-state tuition. Here are the rules–
http://www2.cuny.edu/about/administration/offices/legal-affairs/university-tuition-fee-manual/iv-residency/
Taking a short break before college, living in NYC for 6 months before attending classes, can mean that OP can attend CUNY for in-state tution – the cost of that is $6500 per year.
$22,000 estimated living / fees/ books/ food for students living away from home for $28,500 base expenses per year.
Offset any of that with a job, and it just gets cheaper. http://www2.cuny.edu/admissions/undergraduate/explore/programs/
Columbia College Chicago. (No affiliation with the university in New York City, as far as I know.) https://www.colum.edu/
No, that’s not true.
First of all, to be a resident for tuition purposes at CUNY (as with most states) you must reside in the state for one year, not six months. But far more importantly, if you are a dependent student, where your parents live will be the primary factor taken into account.
There aren’t really any small cheap colleges in NYC.
The CUNY colleges are relatively inexpensive even for non-resident students, with a yearly tuition of $17,500 (although holy crap, they raised the tuition a whole lot since I lived there just a couple years ago. Non-resident tuition used to be around $11,000 a year.) City and Hunter Colleges are both in Manhattan, which what I assume you mean when you say “downtown” (although neither is strictly speaking in the actual “downtown” of Manhattan. Queens and Brooklyn Colleges are also good options to check out - Queens College is in the Kew Gardens neighborhood of Queens and Brooklyn College is in Flatbush/Midwood.
If you’re a young woman, you can check out Barnard College - small LAC for women. The affiliation with Columbia means you have access to their resources and activities, including their orchestra. Barnard also has pretty good financial aid. With a 3.5-3.6 and a 1400 SAT, you’re on the low end of their middle-50% band but I would try to apply anyway and see what happens!
Marymount Manhattan was also what popped into my head - it is a very small school and has an unconventional approach to education with a focus on the arts. Lots of famous actors/actresses and singers went there - Laverne Cox, Moira Kelly, Melissa Benoist, Alexander Skarsgaard, Annaleigh Ashford - but it’s expensive, with a total cost of attendance around $55K a year. Might be worth applying and seeing if they offer you some financial aid, but I wouldn’t count on it.
Eugene Lang also popped into my head as well, but it has the same issue as MMC - expensive, without good financial aid.
Bard was a good suggestion - it’s not in the city, but it’s close enough for day trips!
Another one is Marist College, which is in Poughkeepsie, same town as Vassar - with a Metro-North stop that will take you to the city in an hour and a half, if I recall correctly. Marist has pretty good music offerings with the Marist College Band (of which a string orchestra is an ensemble); I know it has some arts programs/relationships that grow into the city because of its proximity. Your SAT scores are in the top 25% of Marist’s applicants so if you’re otherwise competitive you may get some scholarship aid there.
SUNY Purchase College is an artsy school that’s about an hour north of the city as well - it’s small to medium-sized. SUNYs are public but are more affordable for nonresident students than public universities in many other states.
While not in either NYC or Chicago you might want to look at Temple University in Philly. Philly overall is a much cheaper place to live than either NYC or Chicago. Temple does have a music school, not sure however if non-majors can participate. That would be a question to ask at any school if not planning to major in music.