Looking for College Suggestions- Lower Ivy Leagues and Liberal Arts Schools

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm a junior, and will start applying to schools in the fall. I have a skewed interest in art, english, history, and theatre. My fallback is Gordon College-- I visited there earlier this year, where I had an admissions interview. They said that I would pretty much be accepted with my grades and whatnot, so that's that.
I still want to look into some "lower" ivy leagues, specifically U of C and Brown. I want to visit and apply, but I want to know if I'm wasting my time with any ivy league. I also wanted to know anyone's thoughts on going to an ivy league for an art/english double major. Do people do that? Would that be a waste of my time? I'm set on a school in a large city on the east coast, like Boston, New York, Philadelphia, or Chicago. I really like Chicago. Right now I'm just trying to narrow down options. I'm not going to be eligible for much financial aid via FAFSA, but hopefully I can find some merit scholarships or third party scholarships. For prices, I want to go to a really great school largely on scholarship. I'm looking at pretty much everything right now.
I think that a liberal arts school would be best for me, but I'm open to any suggestions. Thanks so much!</p>

<p>ACT Composite: 32 English: 35 Science:35 Writing: 34 Math: 24 (Do I need to retake to boost my math score?)</p>

<p>Weighted GPA: 4.17 Unweighted: 3.8</p>

<p>Important Courses Taken:
Freshman Year-
Honors English -A
French 2- A
Ceramics, Design Concepts</p>

<p>Sophomore-<br>
AP United States History- A (I scored a 4 on the AP test)
Ceramics 2, Photography, Drawing
Intermediate French 3- A
Honors English- A-</p>

<p>Junior (current)-
AP Art (Photography concentration, 2D studio)- A
AP English Language and Composition- A
AP European History- A
AP Government and Politics- A-
(AP test results aren't in yet)</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
Theatre/ International Thespian Society- Freshman to Current Year
-Thespian Treasurer Junior, Senior year
-Varsity Thespian
-International Honors Thespian (Over 1,200 hours put in over 4 years)
-Head Costumer for Eight Shows+
-Performed in 8+ Shows
-Superior Rating in Costume Construction at Thespian Festival 2013
-Superior Rating in Costume Construction at Thespian Festival 2012
-Superior Rating in Costume Design at Thespian Festival 2012</p>

<p>National Honors Society- Current Member
National Art Honors Society- Current Member
Art Club- Current Member
Teens in Action (Anti-Drug coalition thing) Member- Sophomore to Current
Writing Club- Founder and President
Varsity Swimmer- Freshman, Sophomore Year (Dropped to focus on academics),
Scholar Athlete Award- Swimming- Freshman, Sophomore Year
Junior Varsity Track and Field- Freshman year</p>

<p>135 Logged Service Hours (Out of required 40)
Honor Roll every semester since 6th Grade</p>

<p>Art Awards-
Scholastic Art Awards
-Gold Key- Photography
-Gold Key- Photography
-Silver Key- Photography
-Honorable Mentions x3 (Photography)
Michigan Art Education Association Award
Michigan Youth Arts Festival Distinguished Visual Arts Scholar</p>

<p>I've done week long mission trips to Haiti, Tennessee, Detroit (x3), and volunteer at a summer camp every year with elementary children,</p>

<p>I would be really happy for any school suggestions! Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Before you go any further, you need to get a clearer understanding of your financial options. There’s a difference between wanting merit aid and needing merit aid. If it’s just the former and you can scrape by with need based aid, then you can proceed with a wide list. If it’s the latter and you won’t be able to afford a private school without merit aid, then you need to concentrate on schools that offer it.</p>

<p>The Ivies and many selective colleges/universities in the Northeast do not offer merit aid, period. So if merit is a must, then scratch Brown and most of the Northeast selective liberal arts colleges off your list. I believe Chicago (which is not actually in the Ivy League) does offer merit, but that something that you’ll have to research.</p>

<p>Money aside, I’m sure you’ll be a person of interest to many colleges. Yes, double majoring in art and English is doable at a lot of colleges; however, if the art degree offered is a BFA (vs a BA in art) then you may be more restricted. </p>

<p>I can’t think of too many colleges that offer the combination of small college + urban + merit. Maybe Macalester, Rhodes? </p>

<p>If you’re willing to go for two out of three on your wish list look at Grinnell, Kenyon, Carleton. Some merit, but definitely not urban. Emory also offers good merit but it’s larger and out of your geographic zone.</p>

<p>Spend some time on the “Schools known for good merit aid” at the top of the Parents board for more ideas.</p>

<p>In the meantime ask your parents to run a few estimated financial aid calculators at schools like Brown, Haverford, Vassar, Wesleyan, Bard and see how the finances come out. Then have a serious heart to heart with your family about what’s workable and what isn’t. </p>

<p>If it turns out that you can get by without merit, then you might also want to look at Williams, Hamilton even though they are not urban. They have good art departments and would like someone with your profile, i.e., artist/athlete.</p>

<p>And lastly, you should plan to submit an art supplement with your application. Possibly a theater performance supplement as well if pertinent.</p>

3

<p>U of Chicago has merit, but it is pretty hard to get. One of my kids had a 35 ACT/2380 SAT (superscored) and was given $5,000 merit per year. You aren’t a strong candidate for merit there. As @momrath said, you need to look elsewhere besides the colleges you are considering if you need merit aid. Also, you need to be aware that 3rd party scholarships are very competitive and are usually only good for one year. You are much better off looking at schools that give good merit aid.</p>

<p>Even the schools listed above give less than 30% of the total cost in merit aid. You might get $15K from someplace like Macalester, but if the cost is $50K to start with you still have to pay $35K. If you really need your education close to fully paid for, you are going to have to look further down the rankings than that. Several public universities in the south offer very good merit for strong stats if you really need you costs covered.</p>

4

<p>There’s a list of schools that offer college scholarships to Scholastic art winners on their website, but I think they’re primarily art institutes. BU is a merit aid possibility in your areas of interest, perhaps Muehlenberg and Ohio State (honors program) since they both have strong theatre programs and merit aid. Ivies don’t offer merit aid, and I assume you’ve ruling out Northwestern, Connecticut College and Wesleyan U since they’re need - based? Wesleyan offers a 3 yr program now if willing to go year round.</p>

5

<p>Here’s one suggestion: Fordham-Lincoln Center. Most people associate it with performing arts, but it has a full liberal arts curriculum, and I think you might qualify for a generous scholarship. It’s smack in midtown Manhattan. Eugene Lang College at the New School might not have as much aid available,but they are a liberal arts college in Manhattan, as well, and you could almost certainly get in there (probably an academic safety). They are affiliated with Parsons School of Design, and you could take some courses jointly. They are quirky - sort of like Bennington or Hampshire, but on lower Fifth Avenue. Finally, it’s in a medium-sized, rather than a large city, but New College of Florida is very generous with scholarships. I don’t know what your family can pay, but they are proud of the fact that 70% of their students graduate with no debt. This year, they offered an automatic $15k scholarship to all accepted out-of-state students who submitted application materials by a deadline. That brought the maximum cost down to approximately $25k for tuition, room,and board, which is the same as in-state costs at most public universities. </p>

6

<p>A 32 isn’t high enough to be competitive for merit aid at BU.</p>

7

<p>This is all great advice, and your theatre/art accomplishments are impressive. I noticed one odd thing in your stats, though. You don’t list any math courses in your course list. I know that most very selective colleges -Ivies and top LACs- want to see 4 years of math up to at least pre-calc level, regardless of whether you’re strictly a humanities major or not… Did you not list them only because you did worse in them than you other classes? I imagine you were required to take them for HS graduation. If you actually did not take any high school math, that might be a problem.</p>

8

<p>The only merit aid Carleton offers is $2K for NMF. And retaking the ACT may not help since most colleges don’t superscore that. There is a good chance you’ll offset any increase in math with a decrease in another section. I assume UMich will be on your application list?</p>

9

<p>What about Johns Hopkins? It is in Baltimore, and thus arguably meets your “large city on the East Coast” criterion. Also, have you considered any of the schools in D.C. – Georgetown or George Washington?</p>

10

<p>Selective urban/suburban LACs that offer merit aid:
Agnes Scott (women)
Bryn Mawr (women)
Colorado College
Macalester
Occidental
Rhodes
URichmond</p>

<p>Selective (but not out-of-reach) urban/suburban universities that offer merit aid:
Brandeis
Case Western Reserve
Clark
Northeastern
Tulane
U Denver
U Miami
University of Rochester
University of Southern California
Wake Forest</p>

<p>Chicago, JHU, and Rice offer merit aid, but they are too selective to be able to count on much, if any.</p>

11

<p>Muhlenburg, Emerson, Vassar, Ithaca, and Wellsley are all worth looking at. Vassars local environment kinda sucks though</p>

12

<p>^Neither Vassar nor Wellesley offers merit aid.</p>

13

<p>Bowdoin, Holy Cross.</p>

14

<p>What is a “Lower Ivy League?” It’s hilarious how people just make things up in the pursuit of college admissions.</p>

15

<p>Neither Bowdoin nor HC offer much merit aid.</p>

<p>The Kiplinger site shows the percentage of students who receive merit aid and the average amounts for 100 “best value” LACs.
<a href=“http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php?table=lib_arts&state_code[]=ALL&id[]=none”>http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php?table=lib_arts&state_code[]=ALL&id[]=none&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

16

<p>Thanks very much for everyone’s advice! I’ve been taking everything everyone has said into consideration and I really appreciate it. To answer a few questions, we can afford about 30,000 a year, but less is always best.
I’ve taken Algebra 1, Geometry, and Advanced Algebra/Algebra 2 and 3. Next year I’ll be taking statistics. I got an A- average in all of them, and nothing worse than a B+ freshman year.
By “lower Ivy league”, I was attempting to remove myself from the original 8 ivies, because I know I don’t have much of a chance in most of them. I was specifically referring to “Little Ivies” and schools that take their academics very seriously.
I live in Michigan, so I’ll be applying to U of M or possibly Wayne State to see the kinds of scholarships I could get.
Thanks so much! I really appreciate all the advice!</p>

17

<p>So you aren’t going to have trigonometry in high school? That may hurt you at these schools, even though you want to major in the humanities.</p>

<p>I think you should be seeking liberal arts schools a little further down the food chain, where merit might be realistic. There are some very well known for theater and art, such as Illinois Wesleyan University. Schools in major cities on the East Coast know they don’t have to offer merit aid to fill their classes, so most will not.</p>

18

<p>Im with Lake Washington, lower ivies?? You want to remove yourself from the original 8 but ask about Brown? You really need to do some research first and determine what type of school you want before throwing out names. Brown and UChicago are completely different types of schools. What do you think the term “Little Ivies” mean? That term refers to Amherst, Williams and Swarthmore. You are all over the board with your schools. What are you looking for, big U’s or small LAC’s? You have good stats and EC’s, and with a 30k budget you are nicely set for many schools but you need to narrow down what want.</p>

19

<p>@finskythegreat‌ btw, chicago is harder to get into than many of the ivies. Idk why this is so hard to understand for some high school juniors, but if you’re looking at chicago, might as well look at columbia, duke, and penn as well. ??? </p>

<p>this chance thread is a bit of a mess. you should probably streamline your selection more. </p>