<p>Note that with small schools, the social fit may be a more important consideration than at a large school.</p>
<p>For example, some small schools have no fraternities and sororities (e.g. Oberlin, Reed, Harvey Mudd, Amherst*), while others have a majority of eligible students in fraternities and sororities (e.g. DePauw, Dartmouth, and Bucknell). Many other schools have a more “moderate” fraternity and sorority presence where they exist and can easily be joined by those interested, but do not dominate the social scene and are easily avoided by those who are not interested.</p>
<p>*At Amherst, there are unrecognized off-campus fraternities that about 10% of the male students join, but Amherst will soon have a rule prohibiting students from joining them.</p>
<p>Wow, I left for a few hours and come back to see all these replies!</p>
<p>@BrownParent Thanks for all your input, you were very helpful!</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids Yeah sorry I forgot to mention that I’m a resident of Tennessee because my father is military and my parents own a house there. </p>
<p>@Jay2631 Thanks! </p>
<p>@ucbalumnus Thanks for the info! I wasn’t actually worried about a fraternity because I don’t really like the idea of being in one. The only social things that I’d like are that there be a nice level of diversity and cultural respect. Living overseas I’ve come into contact with a lot of European culture and it’s really broadened my views. There are some Americans over here that literally never leave the base or do anything remotely Italian and it’s very sad to me they don’t enjoy living here. </p>
<p>@juillet You guessed right! I am a military brat haha. I’ve moved like 5 times in my life, twice overseas. But yeah we’re residents of TN. Anyway, I was actually looking at Lawrence University. I saw that it was less selective but still had many of the main features I liked at Oberlin. On the topic of public schools I was thinking about applying to University of Tennessee as a safe school for aeronautics. Very reluctant though because I don’t like Tennessee. </p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your recommendations! I’ll be sure to check out every one of these! So far I think Oberlin, Lawrence, BU, and Syracuse are headed to an official list. I’m looking to apply to 6 colleges. 2 safe, 2 regular (or moderate, I can’t think of the word), and 2 reach schools. </p>
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<p>In this case, you probably want to avoid those schools where fraternities and sororities are the biggest aspects of social life (e.g. DePauw, Dartmouth, and Bucknell as mentioned above).</p>
<p>Did you run the NPC for the other schools? The ones you listed may expect you to pay a lot more than the meets need school you ran the calculator for so you may have schools on your list you get into but are unaffordable. </p>
<p>@BrownParent Not yet, but I will be doing so probably today. I also asked my Dad to help me with filling out the FAFSA so I can better get an idea of how much money I can receive in federal loans. </p>
<p>Also, I emailed Oberlin asking a few questions about the auditions process especially since I’m overseas. One of the things I forgot to ask was if one of my music teacher recommendations could be in a language other than English. To apply, it’s required you have two music teacher recommendations. I can most likely get one from the music teacher who hosts jazz band whom I’ve known for about two years now; this one would be in English. The second one would need to be from my piano teacher and she doesn’t speak English so the letter would be in Italian. Do you think this would be a problem?</p>
<p>EDIT: I took the AP Physics C exam today and I think I might’ve passed the mechanics section. I don’t think I passed the E&M section unfortunately. I’m most likely going to be retaking physics in college but I’m glad I took the course because it can serve as my introduction, that way I’m not going in blind. Just thought I’d share that. :)</p>
<p>@BrownParent Never mind about the FAFSA. I just realized that you fill it out for the year you want financial aid. 
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<p>You may want to ask the school about the recommendation letters.</p>
<p>Perhaps she can write it in Italian, and send both that and a translation into English?</p>
<p>Oberlin AP credit is listed at <a href=“http://new.oberlin.edu/office/registrar/ap-ib-credit/chart.dot”>http://new.oberlin.edu/office/registrar/ap-ib-credit/chart.dot</a> . Most other colleges have similar listings.</p>
<p>For any AP credit for which the college allows you to skip an introductory course, it would be a good idea to try the college’s old final exams for the course. Then you can see if you (a) know the material well (i.e. go ahead and skip), (b) know the material well with a few minor gaps (i.e. skip, but self-study the minor gaps), or (c) do not know the material well or have major gaps (i.e. retake the course if you will be taking more advanced courses for which this course is a prerequisite).</p>
<p>Yeah they responded to my email pretty quickly and I asked them about having my piano teacher submit a recommendation in Italian. They said it was fine and that they would get it translated. One thing I’ll have to figure out is how she’ll send it because no doubt the email with instructions on submitting the recommendation will be in English. Thanks for the link!</p>
<p>^I second checking into Oberlin, URochester, and Lawrence, but be aware that outside Lawrence where it’s slightly more likely, students are actually discouraged by the conservatory profs to pursue BM and BA. Double BA (Music and something else) is okay. Go to the Music forum on this website. Check out also threads by a student named MathFlute. St Olaf (match), Luther (safety) may also be of interest. </p>
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</p>
<p>You can have her paste the English instructions into an email to you, so that you can reply with a translation. Or she can paste it into an automated translation web site and see what it spits out.</p>
<p>You will be allowed the same loans as every other undergrad. Right now for dependent students it is by each year: starting freshman 5,500/6,500/7,500/7,500
<a href=“http://www.direct.ed.gov/applying.html”>http://www.direct.ed.gov/applying.html</a></p>
<p>Ideally you’d like to avoid them, so don’t neglect to keep searching. </p>
<p>@BrownParent Oh I see, earlier I was wondering where you got the $27.000 figure from but that clears it up. Thanks! </p>
<p>@spaceboy1996 Did you look really closely at the NPC results from Oberlin? i.e. are you sure that the $10k EFC isn’t the cost AFTER your federal loans, work/study/etc are factored in? It sounds like you are in the same income range as our family, and we found that usually those things go in the “aid” side, not in the family contribution side. Just read it closely, that’s all, so you won’t be in for surprises later.</p>
<p>Another thing we found helpful was to do Estimated Family Contribution (EFC) calculator. You can choose whether to do the federal methodology (FAFSA) or institutional, which will more closely match the schools that require the CSS Profile, I think. You can do that here: <a href=“Expected Family Contribution (EFC) Calculator - Finaid”>Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid;
<p>Going through this exercise is helpful because you have to pull together all the various numbers, which you can then re-enter into the NPCs to get more accurate results.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>@staceyneil Yes the $10k is after the student loans. So it’s actually around $16k that I’ll be paying to the school. I want to avoid loans unless it’s absolutely necessary because of the interest aspect. There are some local scholarships that I’ll be applying to so that might help. We have a Naples Overseas Support Club (NOSC) merit scholarship given to students of my high school and one of my friends, who I’d say I’m comparable to academically, received like $3700 from them. I’m not sure if the scholarship is renewable or one time but it certainly was a good amount. Thanks for the link! </p>
<p>Great! Sounds like you are on top of it. Good luck!</p>
<p>Okay so far, I’ve got these places down. I think they’re on my official list as of right now.</p>
<p>Reaches
Boston University ($$$)
Syracuse University ($$$)
Oberlin College & Conservatory (Double Degree) ($) (really love this school so far)</p>
<p>Matches
Lawrence University (Double Degree) ($)
maybe URochester? still looking at that one…</p>
<p>Safety
University of Tennessee ($?)</p>
<p>I ran the NPC for all but URochester and they came the cheapest one was Oberlin. For the record though, the NPC for UTennessee was probably incorrect. The estimate isn’t based on a lot of information and I wasn’t able to put that I was a resident of Tennessee. There were three “where do you live” sort of questions and they all included graduating from a Tennessee High School so I answered no to them. BU came and Syracuse came out really expensive but of course these were estimates. </p>
<p>I think Lawrence is a good match for me but I’m also leaning on categorizing it as a safety. I’ve been emailing Oberlin asking questions about the auditions and admissions for the Conservatory and I emailed two of the professors asking if the repertoire I had chosen would suffice for the auditions. I’ll be doing the same for Lawrence. </p>
<p>For Lawrence and Oberlin, I would want to apply to the double degree program. I think I would do mathematics and piano performance. I think mathematics would be better for me than engineering or physics at these double degree schools because I get along better with math. I enjoy physics and science but it’s very hard for me. I think the workload of physics and piano performance might be too great because of my love-hate relationship with the science. The math would be more manageable and I’d still enjoy it. </p>
<p>Boston, Syracuse, and UTennessee would be for aeronautics, physics, or math. Again these schools came out very pricey, with the exception of UTennessee which was most likely a wrong estimate. </p>
<p>Let me know what you think! I’m still deciding, and there’s still time for me to make any changes. </p>
<p>BM + BA is almost undoable even in 5 years. BM + B.Eng is impossible.
(Double BA is possible.)
Head to the music forum as this is a topic that’s frequently discussed and the parents
there are more knowledgeable than I am.
<a href=“Music Major - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/</a>
I’m not trying to make you feel bad about your plan but to help you keep your plans realistic before you
choose a “dream school” and are all “set up” in your mind.
The way you’re working on your list is sound and you’re doing a good job so far, especially seeing how you’re abroad, but there’s still a long way to go before the list is done - which is good, because the person you are now is likely to change and grow in the upcoming 7-9 months. (Let us hope so).</p>
<p>You should see if Amazon (or a local library) can deliver one or two among Fiske Guide,
Insider’s Guide to Colleges, Princeton review’s best colleges.</p>
<p>These two threads would be useful reading:
<p>I sent an email to a professor at Oberlin Conservatory. I was kind of irritated though. I sent a nice long letter describing myself briefly and then asking about repertoire for the audition and if what I had planned would suffice. I got a reply yesterday. The professor said my choices were “wonderful” and “[they] will look forward to hearing [me]”. Kind of short but at least it was something. I emailed BoCo a few months ago and I’m still waiting for an email. I emailed a second professor from Oberlin so we’ll see what she has to say. </p>
<p>I also emailed a professor from Lawrence. She was much nicer. I was worried I might not be ready for the auditions and asked her if the piano professors offered lessons to non-conservatory students. She said they did but it wasn’t guaranteed since they had to service the conservatory students first. She encouraged me to go ahead and audition and the worst thing that could happen is they say no and I’m out a few dollars. I can always apply again my second year of university, wherever I go. </p>