Help w/college choices

Parents Forum
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<p>I've been reading these forums for over and year and have not posted much because I feel so overwhelmed by the whole college search process. There's so much great information on here and wonderful parents willing to share their knowledge, hopefully I can tap into some of that. </p>

<p>My DD will graduate in 2012. We've visited over 20 colleges, most of which were recommended by her GC. She's got her list down to about 10 now, but the problem is she doesn't know what she wants to do. She definitely wants to do a Theater double major (or minor) with something else that is completely unknown to her at this time which makes it tough to select a college. She's traveled internationally a bit and enjoys that, as well as Mission work, Voice and Spanish. That's about it for interests outside of Musical theater.</p>

<p>She's got great stats:
NMSF (yay just found out today!)
35 ACT
2170 SAT (retaking in Nov to try for higher superscore, mostly because her GC recommends it)
working on her GS Gold Award now
some leadership (Church, GS)
absolutely no sports</p>

<p>We've narrowed her search down to (in no particular order):
UChicago
Ithaca College
U of Rochester
Butler (did not visit yet)
Cornell
Northwestern Univ
Haverford
Skidmore
College of Wooster
Denison</p>

<p>and after finding out about the NMSF, I'm going to try to talk her into looking at Alabama. College size doesn't seem to matter to her too much, as long as class sizes are mostly small. </p>

<p>My question is - is this a reasonable list? We'd really like to take advantage of the scholarships that are available for NMSF, but we can pay for some college. We are in Ohio, and initially wanted her to stay within 6 hour drive, but if she gets great scholarship further away, then flights would not be an issue financially. We may qualify for limited need based aid, but not expecting too much there. I guess since she just really doesn't know what she wants to do yet, its hard to justify spending a lot of money somewhere until she finds what her 2nd major would be and assuming at this point, that she will probably need to get a Masters.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>^^^
You probably should put in something about her grades to get better answers.</p>

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<p>Sorry - I meant to include that…</p>

<p>Her weighted GPA is 4.49, I don’t know what her unweighted is, but probably close to a 4.0. Her school does not rank, but its my guess she would be in the top 10% for sure. It’s a well-respected public school.</p>

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<p>Fordham University gives NMSF scholarships. Naturally, they have Theater, and where better to be than NYC?</p>

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<p>She could pass on retaking the SAT with that ACT score. Her SAT score is already high enough to validate the PSAT score. </p>

<p>Denison will give her a full tuition scholarship for being a NMF (Paschal Carter). You’ll have to fill out a separate scholarship app but it’s not very hard.</p>

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<p>would seem over-qualified for Ithaca college</p>

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<p>Ithaca college has one of the best small LAC theatre programs.</p>

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<p>She needs to add USC [ USNWR # 25]to her list. She’ll receive an automatic 1/2 tuition merit scholarship awarded to NMF’s if she’s accepted[ which she will be], AND they have a great theatre dept. Outside of NY, there is no better place for a young person interested in the performing arts than LA ! With her stats, GPA she could win one of 200 full tuition scholarships, but she must complete her application no later than Dec 1.
<a href=“http://www.usc.edu/admission/fa/private/docs/1112/uscScholarships1213.pdf[/url]”>http://www.usc.edu/admission/fa/private/docs/1112/uscScholarships1213.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
[url=&lt;a href=“http://theatre.usc.edu/admissions/]Admissions[/url”&gt;http://theatre.usc.edu/admissions/]Admissions[/url</a>]</p>

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<p>With a 35 ACT, she does not need to sit for the SATs again. The list looks fine.</p>

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<p>With a 35 Act she should apply to Yale Drama - or is that only a grad program? </p>

<p>No need at all for her to take the SAT again or submit those scores at all.</p>

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<p>Northwestern has more theatre / MT productions per year - institutional and student-run - than any university in the country.</p>

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<p>^ Hmm. Where can I see evidence of that? I know many schools have very active theater/MT depts.</p>

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<p>One of the most well balanced lists I’ve ever seen…for a new poster (even if you have been a lurker) on CC.</p>

<p>Should be merit money from Ithaca College, U of Rochester, Butler, College of Wooster, Denison. </p>

<p>Start to think about the top tier school with no money versus other school with money discussion. She has as good a shot as anyone at the top tier schools. But, be cautious about allowing her to develop a “love” for any of those schools if you won’t pay for it versus a significantly lower cost, due to merit, at one of the other schools.</p>

<p>You don’t need any more schools, but…has she considered any of the women’s colleges? Smith, Mount Holyoke and I think Bryn Mawr have some nice merit aid programs…</p>

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<p>University of Oklahoma has nice scholarship pkg for National Merit & has a strong Musical Theatre program.</p>

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<p>I often suggest Northeastern in Boston (full tuition scholarships for NMF). </p>

<p>I forgot about Oklahoma - it used to offer free ride (full tuition scholarship, room/board, more). I did a quick google, but can’t tell what the current deal is.
<a href=“http://www.ou.edu/go2/home/nationalmerit.html[/url]”>http://www.ou.edu/go2/home/nationalmerit.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Thanks for all the wonderful advice! We are looking into some of these other options this weekend. We appreciate your help!</p>

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<p>Also, come join us over on the thread for <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/658245-parents-high-school-class-2012-a-206.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/658245-parents-high-school-class-2012-a-206.html&lt;/a&gt;! Several of us have kids interested in theater and other performing art programs.</p>

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<p>I would make sure Northwestern is on the list. Great theatre.</p>

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<p>The musical theatre program at University of Oklahoma is audition-based, and takes 12 students into the major a year, after prescreening well over 3000. Their NM package is very good…but would have left (last year) about $8000/year gap, assuming tuition would be frozen. We are also in Ohio, and flights to Norman seem pretty painful. Beautiful campus, though. Agree with others about Northwestern – their theatre program is non-audition for acceptance, but very good. Academically a very strong school. If the musical theatre interest continues, your d could audition later for the MT certificate program.</p>