Definitely consider Bard. It seems like it would meet everything your daughter is looking for. Very strong studio art program tightly connected to the art world in New York City, and a great language department. In addition, the English department is as good as any in the world, IMHO, and the student interaction with professors is phenomenal.
The NESCAC schools – Williams, Tufts, Amherst, Wesleyan, Conn – do not give merit awards. Vassar and Haverford also do not give merit awards. Bard is confusing on merit, but best we could tell, only gives merit when there is also financial need. An important question is whether the EFC is manageable, and realistic, for the OP. If the NPC at the NESCAC schools, for instance, generates an EFC the family can live with, then the lack of merit aid at those schools is not an obstacle. I have generally understood that, if a family is eligible for financial aid and merit award, then the merit award does not reduce the EFC, the family is still expected to contribute that much, but the merit will reduce, for instance, work study, summer earnings or loan portions of the financial aid package.
Oberlin, Kenyon and Grinnell do give merit, but more sparingly than the midwest schools a notch below them. A girl from western NY with mid-range test scores is probably not a high priority for merit at those three, unless there is something else extra special in the package (and that could be artistic ability). Also, depending on whether she has any interest in ceramics, Oberlin, Kenyon (and Vassar) do not have ceramics as part of the Studio Art curriculum.
I’d suggest another look at Denison – the fine arts facility is gorgeous, a multi-story converted gym, with very engaged faculty. I’d describe the student body as more of a blend across the spectrum of student “types”, from conservative preppie lacrosse players, to middle of the road kids, to nerdy gamers, social justice activists, and artists and musicians. The school actively recruits for racial/ethnic/socio-economic diversity, using financial aid and merit aid to accomplish it. And, Denison is generous with merit awards, with ranges of $16k to $24 k a year, with the possibility of full tuition for the super starts (at an admitted student event at Denison, we met a student choosing between Stanford and full-tuition merit at Denison).
Bryn Mawr also gives merit, and with combined opportunities with Haverford, plus access to Philly, could give her the opportunities she wants. Dickinson also gives merit and has gorgeous art facilities in a converted shoe factory. For someone in western NY, St Lawrence in up-up-upstate NY might be an option. Both Dickinson and St Lawrence have student bodies which are somewhat less diverse than at the top NESCACs as well as Denison and Bryn Mawr, but a kid can still find their people at those schools.
Consider Earlham.
They are pretty generous with merit aid, something in the mid $20k range is very possible and their COA is lower than many colleges. Lots of art offerings, lots of language offerings, super duper emphasis on study abroad including semester, year, and May term offerings. One of the most diverse student bodies including domestic students of color and 20% international and not just from China. They award FinAid to international students which helps with diversity.
Art courses are open to and actually accessible to both majors and nonmajors. Student taking art classes have 24/7 access to studios.
They have an amazing range of majors and courses for a school of their size. Geology anyone? Japanese?
Yes they do not have the most ideal location…but they have a lot to offer and should be considered as something of a admission and financial safety and they just might grow on you/your D.
My D got a very personal full page letter/email from an Earlham faculty member in response to her art supplement/portfolio. She submitted it to multiple schools but only Earlham sent a personal reply. My D also was/is not sure she wants to major in Art but it’s an important part of her life. We felt she needed to submit a portfolio to document what she does with her time, and that she has serious ability as she was short on more traditional ECs.
A lot of the schools that have been mentioned above are highly selective. While they might be suitable reaches for your D, the admission rates for some of them are miniscule, so keep them in perspective.
Also, take a look at Lawrence University in WI. Generous with merit aid, pretty campus, nice small city, nice students. I remember some good art facilities.
What a wealth of personalized information. It’s truly appreciated.
I feel the time clock ticking as October 1 approaches. A month ago D17 was set on applying to Oberlin ED and we all looked forward to having things set by Christmas!
@Oregon2016 - thanks for making me dig into what’s required for entrance to Carnegie Mellon humanities school. Yes, a SAT II level 1 test at least is required, so crossing that off the list. I doubt she’s be applying to only the fine arts program (which does not require SAT II tests). As much as I think she’d love being in Pittsburgh, taking that math subject test is not happening. 
But who knows if she changes her mind on this - her ideas about what she wants to do change on a weekly basis. Wish her pre-frontal cortex would get its act together! This is also why we can’t commit to a five-year program such as Tufts’ right now.
She doesn’t want to go to an all-girls school - flat out, no.
Lawrence and Earlham sound good but the distance is what feels like a deal-breaker. I don’t know if that’s rational but it is what it is. When I first read CTCL they both sounded great - thanks for the reminder. Will take another look at Earlham. Williams also sounds great, which has never been on our radar, but it is so selective.
Now, Bard looks a real contender for my daughter, dependent on how the money tree shakes out if she’s accepted. The very artsy feel and having ties to NYC is a huge plus, as she has expressed interest in being near it again, though not in the thick of it. (We lived in the area until she was 10.) Will look further into it. Thanks @SpiritManager for the strong recommendation. I wonder at how Vassar compares to Bard studio art-wise. Although being twice as difficult to get into, it seems to offer better aid.
@Midwestmomofboys - how comprehensive you are - thank you! I agree on Denison and will encourage her to reconsider as I think it could be great. We got a very preppy vibe during the presentation and tour but it is definitely worth taking another look. No ceramics interest here, or we’d be considering nearby Alfred as an option. Dickinson has always been on the list due to the strength of their languages program (correct me if I’m wrong) but we’ve not been able to visit. Not sure about the vibe there.
Throwing this out for anyone lurking who is in the same situation. A good fast way to sort out which programs are accredited or not:
https://nasad.arts-accredit.org/directory-lists/accredited-institutions/
Ohio State is on the list! Just to confuse this more, lol.
Anybody want to chime in about The College of Wooster?
Thank you!!
We went pretty deep into recruiting at Wooster with my kid, and were on campus 3-4 times over a year or so. There is a lot to love about Wooster – the capstone research project, strong music program, great merit aid (with an online predictor which is then reviewed by a person and leads to a letter several weeks later-- my kid’s actual merit award was a little higher than predicted). Wooster has a lovely museum, the tge studio facilities on the lower levels (I think, as we never actually toured the studio space). Student body at Wooster is pretty broad range, from preppie to blue hair and capes. There is a few block stretch in town which has terrific restaurants and food, a little bit of Brooklyn dropped into Wooster, Ohio.
My kid ultimately passed on Wooster, largely for fit/culture, but he was a recruited athlete as well so had an additional overlay on the whole process.
Good luck!
Hello @MurphyBrown - and thanks for interest! I thought this thread would have been swept away and forgotten by now since CC is such a populated and fast-moving place.
Her list is now, not in any particular order:
Oberlin
College of Wooster
Denison
Hamilton
Skidmore
Dickinson
Hobart and William Smith
Bard
Vassar
Yale
To keep it to 10 schools she has taken WIlliams and SUNY Purchase off the list (I wish we could visit both) but I’d like her to keep Purchase on as an in-state safety and also put WIlliams or Haverford on. Think Yale should go which is a highly unlikely prospect (but she visited it during a track meet and liked the vibe).
Just decided that Bard is going to be taken off the list for multiple reasons. NPC shows financial aid doesn’t look like it will work. Also I’m not convinced it feels like the place for her (access to NYC not as easy as I thought plus campus culture not quite right). Hard to say without visiting.
D doesn’t LOVE HWS. It may get the axe soon even though I liked that it is within 2 hours drive from home.
I really really liked Haverford after reading up on it. Easy to get to Philadelphia and the honor code “feels” like my daughter. Would love to know more about it and its studio arts facilities and program if anyone has personal knowledge.
CMU, Bates and Tufts are officially no longer of interest. Too selective and/or too large and too far away…
Does this list look balanced? Parchment says she’d most likely get into more than 50% of the schools on this list but there’s no safety unless we put Purchase back on.
Getting the list together and fine-tuning takes SO MUCH time and thought! She is my eldest so I had no idea, and I thought we were pretty okay and on top of things until recently. I started to read the class of 2017 thread and feel so behind compared to the folks there. Yikes. Overwhelmed parent here.
D20 will benefit from this experience and get a good head start, at least.
While Vassar is a great school, the studio art dept isn’t as nice as I wish it could be . . . you should check it out, though on your own. It may offer the facilities that your daughter needs. Bard may be a better fit. I know that you’ve eliminated Tufts but I want to echo that people I’ve known who’ve gone there for their combined program speak highly of it. You may want to take a closer look. Another school that’s in your geographic region and that has a great arts program is Syracuse. That might be a great choice for her. I’ve known people who have gone there too and they speak highly of it and are successful.
Late in responding, but I just logged on to see what the issues were. Thought I would chime in about our experience with Denison. My daughter is a freshman: studio art/asian studies (at least for now) and a swimmer. She loves the place. She finds all of her instructors very engaged and focused on student learning. She said that Greek life is there, but they do not have a greater presence then other non-greek organizations on campus. According to her the art building to well designed and appointed. She values how available the faculty. Her art professor is very available and nurturing. She loves her Chinese instructor. In her opinion, athletics is valued on campus.
Thanks @Dustyfeathers for your input. I’m really glad you chimed in on the strength of the Syracuse visual arts program. SU is a no-brainer to us as it is only 2 hours from home, and her father, both aunts, grandmother and grandfather are alums! Her grandfather (class of '47) also set up an endowed scholarship fund, which has been awarded since 1989. Do all these alums in the family give her an admissions boost? I need to find a way to get her to take another serious look at it. I ran the NPC on it a while ago and as I recall the financial aid didn’t seem very good. I’ll take another stab at it. It could be a safety at the very least.
I just don’t know about Tufts. Not in any doubt it’s a terrific school but I feel she’s got enough reaches on her list and that would make it even more top heavy.
Visiting Vassar. Ugh! We’re running out of time. We should have started this when she was a sophomore!
@MurphyBrown we just got the latest transcript and ranking and she’s now officially squeaked into the top 15% of her 383 student class. She dropped her sport after fall of last year and so is not recruitable (and wouldn’t want to be).
I am making her put Purchase back on the list. There’s no reason not to.
The ironic thing about all this is that my daughter is not concerned with prestige in the least. She wants to go somewhere she fits in. She’s an artist, yes, but she also has other aptitudes that she wants to pursue and develop. She desperately wants to find her people and follow her passions. Hopefully, she’ll also mature a whole lot along the way!
As I continue to read this site a new fabulous school appears on my radar every hour on the hour, and now the problem is too many options and order of application strategizing so she doesn’t waste her ED or REA (aren’t they essentially the same?) on the “wrong” school.
There’s no reason she can’t apply to more than 10 schools, of course. It’s more a matter of whether she can juggle it all without having a breakdown (senior year loaded with AP classes) and whether it really makes sense to apply to so many. We need a plan and stat.
What would be a wise course of action for her? Apply ED to favorite reachy school first, then wait for reply and if rejected try EDII for next reach favorite? Then if rejected from both ED/REA and EDII schools apply RD to the rest?? (This should probably be a new thread. On second thought I’m sure it’s been asked before and I’ll search for an answer.)
You can wait until after ED but not until after ED2. ED2 notification is usually well after most school’s RD admission deadline.
So essentially we’d only utilize the ED 1 or REA option and if that failed move to RD for all?
Thanks @JimboW - just saw your message about Denison. Very helpful, thank you!!
@eyes2future Yes, to your #33. You would apply ED or REA to the first choice school. If you go the RD route, you could also apply to any schools offering EA or rolling. Most ED schools respond in mid December or the week right before Christmas. Then you hustle to get your other application done and in, choosing to make one of hem ED2 if you like. ED2 is done not for a timing benefit and “one and done” like ED1 but more just for a hopeful boost in chances.
@eyes2future, Since finances are a significant issue for your family, I don’t know that I would recommend ED 1 or 2. In locking herself into an ED school, you would loose the opportunity to compare offers and to negotiate for additional funds. NPCs are good indicators but actual need based aid can come out higher or lower than anticipated. And merit aid is difficult to predict.
If you decide that the ED boost is important for her, then my advice would be to complete all of the RD applications before the ED results come in. ED can be a very effective strategy if successful, but a deferral or rejection can have emotional repercussions as well and no one wants to be writing Why College #2? essays, when they’ve just been turned down by College #1.
If your daughter wants to apply to Yale, then leave it on the list. My understanding is that SCEA doesn’t give much of a boost in admissions (and may eliminate a more realistic ED option); however, I think the difference between 10 and 11 – or 10 and 12 – applications is negligible.
Has your daughter visited Hamilton? As I mentioned, Hamilton was one of my son’s top choices, but then he also favored Williams and Kenyon which are similar in character and environment.
If you do decide to ED, some colleges’ financial aid offices will give you an FA estimate beforehand if you ask. It would probably be worth asking if they do that.
Have you considered Goucher?
They are generous with merit and have a solid Studio Art major, along with many other solid academic options.
Bryn Mawr College (and Smith and Mount Holyoke) as suggested earlier. Would encourage you and your DD to visit a women’s college before ruling it out, if you have not done so already. My daughter thought “no way” until we walked onto BMC campus and she fell in love. And your DD could most likely play her sport at the club level, if she wished.
The way I defined safety for my D16 was:
• confident she would be admitted (admit rate 50% or more, her stats well above college’s average, Naviance says college admits 85% of applicants from her school and she has stats obviously in the admit zone, etc.)
• confident we could afford it (automatic scholarship, affordable in state tuition, etc.)
• she was willing to go there if push came to shove
Would your daughter willingly go to Purchase if that turns out to be the only affordable option?
Denison and Wooster have high enough admit rates to be admission safeties, if your D’s stats compare favorably, but are they financial safeties by your standards? (I didn’t check the admit rates for all the schools on the list, so maybe there are more admission safeties, also I didn’t analyze your D’s stats compared to each college)
My D had one total safety: state flagship EA, no question that she would be admitted, with very affordable COA.
It’s been a while but I wanted to update this, for myself and for others at some point who may be facing the same issues. Thanks @doschicos and @momrath for the ED tactics and thank you to everyone else for chiming in. All this application strategy plus the financial aid stuff - wow, first time around this block is tough! Applying ED anywhere is off the table for us now. Thank goodness because her common app essay is not even completed yet!
Daughter went to the National Portfolio Day in Syracuse and got enthusiastic praise for her portfolio and advanced skills. SU:VPA did a final review and is recommending her for a merit scholarship so she is going back to see the arts facilities there soon and will apply. SU professor said she was the best she’d seen that day. MICA says with her grades she could receive an academic scholarship (not sure how much $$ this translates into). FIT, School of the Art Institute of Chicago and SUNY Purchase also favorably reviewed her work. So that part feels good.
Based on the praise and confidence boost from the portfolio reviews she will be casting a wide net and applying to schools RD. We need to see all financial aid offers before we can make a decision. She doesn’t have her heart set on any one school anymore, and knows she will be good at any of them. Yale will be RD. Hobart and William Smith has fallen off the list. SUNY Purchase, Denison and Wooster are all academic and financial safeties. It’s weird that she’s considering Syracuse now because it is so large compared to everything we’ve looked at but who knows? She likes the city feel of it. Because I am enamored of Pittsburgh, I am wondering if I should encourage her to apply to Carnegie Mellon even though it would be a reach - and also since she didn’t take that SAT II math test I don’t think she’d be able to get a BXA degree? I need to look into that more.
Another confidence boost: her AP Eng Lit teacher told her that her essay from last summer was one of the top three she’s seen and that she could get a job helping other kids edit their essays! So, to feed the excellent writer in her, Hamilton is still a strong contender and we’ll be visiting this upcoming weekend again to get a better look at their studio arts facilities.
Earlier this fall we contacted Oberlin expressing an interest in ED as well as a more detailed idea of financial aid they’d offer. If she were to apply ED we’d have to submit the CSS and other forms by Oct. 31 then they send out the early estimate in early November (a week before the rest of the materials are due for ED). Daughter decided, based on her talent and interest in incorporating art into her career, that applying early there doesn’t make sense anymore but it’s still on the RD apply list. I’m not feeling the love for Oberlin I once did and am so glad she’s not as invested in it either.
I found this link as I was researching the SU:VPA scholarships available and it could help someone else in the future construct their own list!
www.positionu4college.com/colleges-with-arts-merit-scholarships/
Thanks again!