Hi, I’m deciding between a range of schools, and I have 3 liberal arts colleges on the list that I’d like to narrow down to one. I’m interesting in improving in music enough to do gigs in my spare time throughout my career (pretty new to piano rn), but as a career, one of my primary interests is film (VFX, Stunt work, Production, etc.). Another potential interest is architecture. The prices of these schools are within 10k of each other and from cheapest to most expensive are Davidson College<DePauw University<Lake Forest College. What input do you all have? Thank you.
DePauw’s music program is highly regarded, I believe. You may want to consider this in the context of your other criteria.
Davidson is the strongest of these three schools.
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I like DePauw for your interests I a number of ways. Distribution requirements are minimal which provides a lot of room to explore your varied interests. Music is first rate. Film Studies looks like a potential major which will introduce you to what you’re interested in. I really like their extensive internship programs which can take you even beyond what you can get on campus and which can be as long as a full semester. DePauw also describes a specific track of preparation for architecture - Design Career Track - DePauw University
As an added bonus, Indianapolis has a surprisingly good music scene if you want to sneak away from campus to supplement the acts that the college brings in campus.
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In case the OP is not aware of it, he got into a school with a 17% acceptance rate.
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Just to provide a little financial clarity (unless, OP, things have changed from your previous thread) DePauw and Davidson are within $400/year of each other. Lake Forest is about $2k/year higher than the other two. So when OP was referring to a $10k spread between them, I believe OP meant over a span of 4 years.
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If you haven’t already, I would reach to each of the 3 colleges and ask them some of these questions. For schools where students are creating films, how do you get on the production or doing stunt work? Check in the film or computer science departments and see what kind of training is available for doing special effects, or what internship possibilities they can link you up with.
If you’re interested in things like parkour/free running, is there already a club there? If not, how easy is it to form one, including support from the university? Or is there a parkour organization in the nearby community or at a nearby college? Talk with the rec department or other students to see if they think there would be enough student interest to form a club or league or if people are usually only interested in team sports or yoga.
You have very specific interests and your best answers are probably going to come from the colleges themselves. Reach out to them soon.
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I wrote that very late at night, so actually don’t really know what I meant by that. Thanks clarifying for me. I was actually wrong about the order of Davidson and DePauw as well.
Davidson is $24,955
DePauw is $24,620
Lake Forest is $26,800
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Please clarify….are these your net costs per year AFTER or before your parent contribution.
You said your parents could contribute $25,000 a year, right? Does this mean that ALL of these colleges are affordable?
Re anything in the performing arts…you need to see what opportunities YOU will have to do the things you want to do. At a smaller school, there are likely less folks vying for the same opportunities. You want to maximize your ability to gain experience.
Yes, all of these are within the range of affordability. Cost isn’t too much of a factor here unless two places are otherwise tied. It seems I would be able to participate in the performing arts at any of these three colleges. One note is that these aren’t my final three choices. I’m trying to narrow down my LAC options to one and then I’ll be deciding between one LAC, Webster University (full ride), KU (for architecture), and BU or Loyola Chicago.
I can’t remember if BU or Loyola are affordable, are they?
Regarding architecture, either you want to major in that or you don’t. Of course if you chose KU I assume you could easily switch to any major. KU is affordable, correct?
BU and Loyola are both a bit of a stretch in terms of affordability, but they’re about $20k cheaper than UCLA would be per year. I like both options because they’re larger schools with more class and major options. For BU I was accepted into their film program that does organized internships in LA. I’ll try to make another thread about this once I’ve narrowed down the LAC as well, but I’m so short on time.
KU is affordable, yes, but I’m not 100% certain if I want to major in architecture or not yet. KU is also a really large school, so in terms of stuff like theater and ensembles, it will be hard to participate in that. It will also be hard to explore different fields if I’m in an architecture program.
Does this mean you have chosen from these three schools on this thread…as Davidson is most definitely a LAC
I’m not sure what you mean, but I’m trying to decide which LAC I should keep on my list of schools I’m considering. Right now I have those 3, but I’d like to rule out 2.
Just to be clear…how much debt (after your $27K student loans) would your parents have to take out for Loyola and BU? BU definitely has a good film program. I probably don’t see much of a reason to keep Loyola on the list over the 3 LACs, especially as they are significantly less expensive.
After my 27k student loans, the cost would be $130,856 for BU. My parents are willing to contribute 25k per year, so in the long run, they would co-sign on 30k loans. A lot of people were mentioning how loans could affect my parents getting a job, but I will say that my mom is one year from retiring and my dad is self-employed if that matters.
After mom retiring, will your family really have the extra resources to help you?
That’s maybe not life altering, but if their income will decrease next year that will make it harder to pay off that loan. I wouldn’t wait to start paying on the parent piece of the loan because the parent plus loans (if that’s what they will take) start accruing interest right away. It’s best if they can make the minimum payment every month while you are in school…will they be able to do that if mom retires? Do they have enough retirement savings?
I assume with an EFC of $18K or so that you received need based aid from BU. If your mom retires next year, and her income is reduced that could result in getting more need based aid your senior year. Your freshman year award is set with your parents’ 2020 earnings, 2021 is done and soph year FA will be based on that, 2022 income - junior year, 2023 retirement year - senior year FA.
She’s a teacher, so our financial circumstances will be no different. She will be receiving the same income. This has all been considered by my parents before telling me what they’re willing to contribute.
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That’s good!
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