<p>My D wants to major in neuroscience, but also wants to either double major or minor in music composition. </p>
<p>Here are her stats:
SAT I -2280, SAT II (math 2 -800, Bio- 800, and Chem - 780), ACT-35 - all in one sitting
5 AP completed - Calc AB (5), Chem(5), Bio (5), APLAC (5) and APUSH(4)
Senior year course load- includes APCalc BC, AP Physics, AP Lit, AP Spanish, AP Pych
She has more than 200 hours of community service- hospital, elderly home, goodwill store and music store.
Tutor since 10th grade
NHS- 2 years (VP) and Spanish honor society - 3 years- (secretary)
All State and Regional band participation (3 years- flute)
3 all school musical production (Flute and Pic)
2 community theater production (Flute and Pic)
Writing Club president (4 years)
National merit commended and AP Scholar with distinction
Great essays, and should get good recommendations
Asian and will not qualify for any need based aid.
We can pay max $25K/yr - she knows this.</p>
<p>Here are her list of schools so far:
Columbia ED (reach)
Brandeis
Smith
Wesleyan- (maybe, because they don't give any merit aid)
Fordham
UConn (safety)</p>
<p>I would really appreciate if anyone could suggest any other school (that will be a match) in the northeast and mid- atlantic states that we should look into. Also, any other school who could offer merit aid will be of great help. We will not be able to pay sticker price for college without any loans.</p>
<p>@DreamSchlDropout Johns Hopkins would have been a great school to have in her list (still a reach), but a little further than where my D wants to be at (almost 6 hr drive). I will look into BU more to see if it is a good match for her.</p>
<p>@bopper- Same deal with Oberlin. D wants to be within 6 hours driving distance from home, so Oberlin is a little too far for her. </p>
<p>Distance from home is very important in her list of criteria. She also would love it if the school has a marching band band, (but not a deal breaker). She did marching band for 4 years, and was section leader for 2 years, and woodwind captain this year. </p>
<p>Just so I understand, you’re willing to take out loans to go to Columbia? If your maximum pre-loan contribution is only $25K, you could be looking at upward toward $140K in loans, which seems a bit steep for undergraduate, even for Columbia. </p>
<p>If you really don’t qualify for any need-based aid, then I think your daughter needs to widen her scope of schools that offer merit. Ideally, she should reconsider her distance restriction, but if that’s non-negotiable, she should increase her odds by applying to more merit schools with reasonably solid academics. I’d look at Northeastern, Holyoke, Colby, Skidmore.</p>
<p>If your daughter would consider the midwest or south, she’d be in a good position for merit aid at several academically excellent colleges, especially as an Asian female. As she matures, the traveling time from home may become less significant to her, so I’d keep an open mind on this criterion.</p>
<p>Don’t count on much help from BU; it is not known for its merit aid. Oberlin might be more than you can pay.</p>
<p>there’s a thread just for music majors–lots of students have in mind what your D might want to do. It’s not always easy to accomplish because music majors are a lot of work, maybe more than neuroscience.</p>
<p>My D was interested in neuroscience schools and had nearly identical stats without the commitment to music, which I think gives your D an edge. Given your ability to pay, I’d suggest Pitt, Rochester, Tulane, Vandy, WashU, Bard, URichmond, Rhodes, Mount Holyoke, Temple, and Ohio State are some places to keep in mind.</p>
<p>With Pitt you have a good chance at some merit and it has low costs and one of the best neuro programs in the nation. Rochester wasn’t all that generous to us but they might really like the music element. At URichmond, Tulane, Vandy, and WashU you’re shooting for full tuition or it’s no go, so don’t hang all your hopes there. At Temple your D is an auto full tuition, I believe; great music school. At Ohio State, she’s win enough merit to bring your costs within range; great neuro opps and facilities.</p>
<p>How important is the quality of the music composition program to your daughter? If she’s into marching bands you should be looking at large state schools like Indiana and Michigan, and large athletic privates like Northwestern, Vanderbilt and USC. If you take marching band out of the equation I would recommend MIT - surprisingly good composition dept. Bard, too, of course (my son is a composition grad :)) but definitely no marching band. What is your daughter’s musical aesthetic? It makes a difference in what schools one would recommend. Columbia ED? Has she explored what it’s like for undergrads in composition there?</p>
<p>Thank you @momrath for your advice. The 25K is something we feel comfortable paying, but for Columbia, we will be willing to pay more. Columbia is a reach for her anyway, but if she gets accepted, we can make it happen. We are willing to make some sacrifice. I guess it is indeed a good idea to expand her college search.</p>
<p>@jkiel911 My D was just looking at BU’s neuroscience program, and she said that it looked good. She did not get a chance to look at scholarships available though. I will tell her to look into that today. Also, we have been reading up on Mt. Holyoke, and it looks like we should put Holyoke in our list. Thank you for the wealth of information regarding colleges where my D could possibly get scholarship at. </p>
<p>@SpiritManager MIT always comes up 100% match when we do a search. MIT (or JHU) could very well be our second reach school. As far as her music is concerned, she is one of the best flute player in our state, where she plays a lot of classical pieces. Naturally, she wants to have a chance to be in a performing ensemble. She also like to compose marching band music ( she completed a couple of full arrangement, but she said she could use some lesson on writing for percussion), and also wrote music to different video game themes and about certain characters (she had paid requests to write music for certain characters that people wrote in their stories). She already sold some of her original composition, but she said that it paid her peanuts. Composing music is what she does for fun, and maybe something she might pursue later as a career. For now, I think music comes second to neuroscience.</p>
<p>@ nmctmom-
A teacher my son used has a daughter who is a cellist, who went to Bard and one of her degree programs was in neuroscience, and she really liked it, so I second applying there, given that Bard has music and neuroscience. The other place I might suggest, not from personal experience, but because of the department, might be McGill in Canada. What might make that interesting (and I have no way of knowing if this translates into the UG area), is that they have done a lot of work on neuroscience as it relates to music, last I checked that is where Daniel Lativin is based (he wrote a wonderful book called 'Your brain on music" that your D might want to read), so I might be of interest to her (it could also be that it would have nothing to do with the undergraduate teaching of neuroscience, so it is just a suggestion to check into). </p>
<p>@Nmctmom - do know that Bard Conservatory is one of the most competitive admits for music composition - on a par with Curtis. (I don’t think they’ve ever admitted more than 3 students.) It doesn’t sound like your daughter has the background experience in composition they expect (but, of course, I could be wrong!) HOWEVER, Bard College also offers composition, with the same professors and she could do a double major in the college with two BA’s, rather than a BA and BM in the conservatory.</p>
<p>There are academic scholarships at BU - I think you can look them up online - they’re automatic and based on scores/stats. I know my older son was offered half tuition - but it still ended up being too expensive for us.</p>
<p>MIT has plenty of top performers, and, as I said, it has one of the top composition departments. My son would have seriously considered it except he didn’t want to take all the required science classes.</p>
<p>It sounds like music is secondary for your daughter - and that the neuroscience matters the most, as well as some good ensembles to play in, and a composition class or two to take. So I would advise researching those programs first, then checking out the ensembles offered, and the composition faculty and courses. There are some threads on this forum regarding schools with good orchestras.</p>
<p>What about Tufts? They have a strong neuroscience program, and a very good composition/music department, too. Brandeis might be worth looking at, as well. Again - that marching band requirement does rule out a lot of schools! </p>
<p>University of Pennsylvania. Actually scratch that. They are great for music comp and neuroscience, but if you won’t pay more than 25K and are sure you are not going to qualify for aid, you’re better off with a school like Fordham that will give merit aid to someone with stats like your daughter. If she gets in ED to Columbia and they give you no aid, do you still plan to send her?</p>
<p>Marching band is not a requirement, but the ensemble is. She just wants to keep playing her flute. I don’t even think she needs to major in music composition, but a good music composition program is definitely a plus. She has written music for woodwinds even before she started high school. During the last couple of years, she learned how to write parts for brass. Now she wants to learn how to write percussion parts. Since fourth grade, she taught herself how to play more than a dozen woodwind, brass, and string (cello and violin), instruments. She even learned how to play tenor drums. It will be sad if she has to give up music all together in college. Anyway, she has all her written music in her computer, so if a school requires a sample, I am sure she could give them something.
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Music was secondary from the very beginning. Music composition is a hobby for her. She has always been serious about her academics, particularly Math, English, and of course Science (she is a big history fan). She does her music to change pace, and to relax and clear her head. </p>
<p>We only looked at schools with good neuroscience programs before, and only schools within driving distance from home. That is why Columbia is on top of our list. Now that merit aid is becoming a bigger factor (except for Columbia), we needed to expand our list. Her Columbia ED application is ready to go, but there are many other schools where she needs to get her application ready before December 1st to qualify for scholarships. </p>
<p>@musician34 thank you, I will look at the neuroscience program in Tufts.</p>
<p>@glassharmonica if she gets in Columbia ED, we are willing to sacrifice (no new car and less expensive vacations) to give her more money for college. Maybe we have to take a loan against our retirement savings, or even take a second mortgage. Columbia is her dream school, and her father made a deal with her that if she gets in, he will finance it. Columbia is a reach, and even with her stats, we are not really expecting for her to get in. </p>
<p>On a side note, she will definitely apply to Fordham. She got an email that she does not have to pay to apply. </p>
<p>If you are considering schools that are need only, then your daughter should look at Williams. Excellent academics – especially sciences, with ample research opportunities and strong graduate school acceptance. Neuroscience is a concentration not a major, but it draws on a foundation of strong biology and psychology departments. </p>
<p>Excellent music: multiple performance opportunities, even for non-majors, including orchestras, ensembles and a very good marching band. Double majoring is common. Less competition among high achieving Asians than at other urban or big name schools of similar caliber.</p>
<p>She should be sure to submit a music performance supplement with her application, especially at smaller liberal arts colleges.</p>
<p>You might want to get this thread transferred back to the general College Search board.</p>
<p>I saw that jkeill911 mentioned Mount Holyoke… just thought I’d add that 3 out of my D’s 7 closest friends at MHC are studying neuroscience. I think it’s a good program there.</p>
<p>@nmctmom: My son is a student at Columbia and has been very happy both academically and musically (and makes extensive use of the music resources in NYC outside of Columbia too). His music focus is jazz but he says there are many excellent classical musicians there as well. Although it’s right to view Columbia as a reach for anyone, and I’m not much on “chancing”, I do think your daughter should certainly be a competitive applicant based on the description in your first post.</p>
<p>I was going to say Tufts, nice music department, great science. We liked Clark University in Worcester Mass., one of the Colleges that Change Lives. They have merit aid there. Tufts has financial aid to some extent but not like the Ivies.</p>