@ClassicRockerDad I went to a concert of Lindsey Stirling, who happens to be a dancing violinist. Not as crazy as a swimming violinist though.
Another vote for U. of Puget Sound. Skidmore and St. Olaf were two of my son’s very favorite schools we considered, and he ended up at UPS. Their music is very strong (it’s one of their flagship departments, though not quite St. Olaf level), and it felt like a better cultural fit for him than St. Olaf, as he’s not religious and is very liberal. They just renovated the athletic facilities and the new pool is beautiful. I don’t know how strong their swim team is, but they definitely have one. They offer both merit aid and music scholarships (to majors and non-majors alike).
In the end, he didn’t apply to Skidmore on the rationale that UPS had everything he liked about Skidmore but, due to their more generous merit aid, would be far cheaper for us. St. Olaf was one of his final three he was weighing well into April.
I think a 29 ACT will be a challenge at Hamilton and Vassar as its below the bottom 25%
@Chembiodad definitely! Vassar does superscore so if she were to retake it and bring her score up in December, that would put those schools more in range. Hamilton allows you to submit which ever combination of 3 tests you want. So you can use AP test scores if you like or SAT subject tests instead of the standard tests. That could help her. My kids hate these tests and refuse to spend time preparing for them. Makes me nuts! I broke down and paid for two hours of tutoring before the last one and D2 brought her English score up to a 34 and her writing was scored 10/10. Well worth the $100. Wonder what would happen if she worked for 2 hours with an ACT math tutor???
@rayrick Nice to see you again! 
I’m glad your son is enjoying UPS!!! I have mentioned it to D2, but I think it’s too far away (also she’s quite afraid of flying although she did it this summer to perform in Mexico). St. Olaf is also quite far, but her sister being in the same town is a plus. She’s doing an overnight at Skidmore tonight. She’s getting a violin lesson tomorrow and observing a lesson and watching the chamber orchestra rehearse. If she loves the violin teacher, I think we’ll try to figure out if we can afford her applying ED. Then we’ll keep our fingers and toes crossed for the Filene scholarship.
when I saw the title of this discussion, a really weird image of a person swimming holding a violin came into my head.
lol
Good luck to your DD on the December tests as superscoring can be a great tool! Has your DD taken any SAT II tests as that would certainly be another path at the LAC’s that offer submission of alternative test results? Test optional is tricky as a path without a reason why.
I second the suggestion of Denison University. I went there as a psych major, music performance minor, and I received both academic and music scholarships. The music minor is great, because you can opt to do the Performance Certificate track, in which you do everything that performance majors would (including senior recital), but without the full sequence of coursework. Also, we’re division champs for swimming and diving!
Yes - take the ACT again to take advantage of the super scoring. Vassar will superscore the ACT. I agree with Vassar, Hamilton, Tufts and Skidmore suggestions. S2 swam all four years at Vassar and it is a great group of people. In fact at the championships last year, one of the officials saw I had a Vassar shirt on and stopped me to tell me that she thought the Vassar swimmers were the nicest, most supportive team and if there was a sportsmanship award, Vassar would get it! The Vassar coaches are great and Hamilton and Skidmore also have excellent coaches. S2 also played in the orchestra all four years. The music at Vassar is at a high level and every orchestra concert is attended by students, friends, families, community people, faculty and the college president! It is a community event. and so fun!
We have heard the Skidmore and Hamilton orchestras and they were very good also ( a few years back). So please visit as many schools as possible. Contact the coaches and sit in on the rehearsals. S1 also attended Vassar and swam and he knew immediately after meeting the team and listening in on a rehearsal that Vassar was for him. They had a great experience at Vassar so take the ACT one more time, it won’t take too much to get it up to a 30 or 31!
Also - always submit a music supplement to any school you apply to. Additionally, Vassar and Hamilton only have a few distribution requirements so it is ‘easier’ to double major.
Good luck to your daughter - I think she will find a place at Wooster should she attend. We also have an Irish dance group at Wooster and they may be in need of a great accompanist. The Sunday night Kauke bluegrass jam is an absolute gem under the Arch. There’s an emphasis on composition at Wooster, so students often ask for musicians to perform their work. Wooster’s psychology program has led to acceptances at Penn, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, and Harvard. The College is known for its generous financial aid and has added an LGBT scholarship including allies, but it is not awarded at admission. The women’s studies and English programs work well together and bring feminist authors to campus on a regular basis. Our swim team has improved in recent years and we’ve had individuals make nationals in Texas, but we’re not close to Denison at this point.
We visited St. Olaf and had bizarre tour of basically only the athletic facilities. Which were not nice. Also might be a claustrophobic fit for an atheist student. We did not at all get a good sense of music program from the tour or info session, which seemed odd. One place that was surprising with its music offerings and energy (walked through music school in evening and it was lively with practice room activity) was Rice in Houston. Loved Rice, and maybe a more holistic admit for a talented musician.
Sorry you had a bad St. Olaf tour, @treschicos. Just goes to show how a good tour guide can influence things. We toured at lest 30 schools between my kids and our best tour guide was at St. Olaf and the tour was very thorough and personalized. One of my kids who is an atheist wound up applying. The Lutheran element wasn’t a concern but child also went to an Episcopal high school.
We had a mixed experience at St. Olaf when we toured earlier this semester. It wasn’t “bad” per se, but it did little to light a fire for my S17 daughter, unlike several other schools. We didn’t do an info session, but we toured and she interviewed with an admissions officer (which I joined as well at the end). Both the touring student and AO were very nice, the tour was very nice, the campus is nice, everything was just nice. Just not terribly inspiring for her. She asked about music opportunities for a non-major and wasn’t too impressed with their responses. We didn’t see much in the way of athletic facilities or meet with the XC/track coaching staff like we have elsewhere (she wants to run in college and is being recruited by other schools). To be fair, we didn’t press the issue of getting such a meeting scheduled, though we had requested it prior to coming. Overall, she felt it was more “traditional” than she was seeking. And she didn’t buy their pitch about the wide variety of study one could do to meet the two-course religion requirements, one of which must be “biblical.” Not a great part of the package for my atheist daughter. Still, I know for a fact that others have ADORED their time at St. Olaf, including a dear friend of ours (current student) and a close family member (alum), so it’s a great place for some. Just not my kiddo.
“liberal, feminist,athiest” makes me think St. Olaf’s and Sewanee may not be the best fits.
OP, you should also post this query on both the Music Majors and FA threads- changing the title to Swimmer/ Violinist looking for merit $$.
‘We didn’t see much in the way of athletic facilities or meet with the XC/track coaching staff like we have elsewhere (she wants to run in college and is being recruited by other schools). To be fair, we didn’t press the issue of getting such a meeting scheduled, though we had requested it prior to coming.’
One of my kids was an athlete and contacted coaches directly to set up appointments once the schedule was confirmed. Did you do this or just mention the desire to meet coaches to admissions?
My kids - both atheists and very liberal and feminist- have no issue with religion classes. To our family, religion class is just treated like a history class. If anything, giving their nonreligious upbringing, it was helpful to them to have exposure to religious history and background. No class is aiming at conversion.
^^
Outstanding post!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/harvard-world-religions-online-class_us_56c76b55e4b041136f16dd0a
Not to hijack the thread, but a quick response to posts #37 and 38: I agree that classes about world religions can be incredibly useful to all people, including atheists, and I agree with CrewDad about his point about religious literacy. However, the gist we got at St. Olaf was that they were saying that the two-class religion requirement was all about world religions etc. But upon reading course requirements more closely when we were home, we saw that at least one of the classes must be specifically about the Christian bible, which is totally their right given they’re a Lutheran school, of course. It felt more “bait & switch” than straightforward to us, selling one version of a more liberal view of “world religions” than might be true. It wasn’t a giant turnoff for my kid – she is indeed interested in taking at least one course (if not more) about comparative world religions – but it was part of an overall vibe of it being not necessarily the right fit for her. Mostly I think that St. Olaf just felt somewhat like what she’s been part of so far in our Christian-majority, conservative, white area already and I think she’s just interested in something different. Like I said, St. Olaf is a great school – we left thinking it might be great for her best friend – just not for her.
Now back to your previously discussed thread