New here - D19 has a weird wish list for colleges and I don't know where to start

So I know there is a forum for College Search, but I’ve been lurking here for a while and thought maybe I would start with you guys - I am impressed by the range of knowledge you have about different schools (especially in PA). D19 is my oldest and this is all new to me so I’ve been hanging out on CC for a few months trying to get my bearings.

My daughter is a junior in a suburban public high school outside of Philadelphia. Her GPA is currently 4.1 uw/4.78 weighted (I think an A+ counts as a 4.3 in the unweighted gpa). She won’t take the SAT for 2 more weeks yet, but has a 30 on the ACT and IIRC, a 1390 on the PSAT. She will have AP Gov, Human, Chem, CalcAB, Comp, and Psych by the time she graduates. Pretty much everything else is honors except things that didn’t have honors (band, language). Her ECs are mostly music related - marching band and indoor drumline (captain for both), and a few clubs. She volunteered at the local ambulance for a bit but is having trouble fitting in those hours with her courseload and the demands of drumline season. She plans to get certified as an EMT over the summer and resume the ambulance next year.

Her ultimate career goal is to go to medical school. On CC, the prevailing wisdom for premeds seems to be to not concern yourself with prestige and just go for the cheapest undergrad education possible so as to not have too much debt going into medical school. Sounds great to me. But I also see a lot of threads warning of the dangers of “underreaching” - if you go to a school where your stats are well above the average, you may not be challenged enough, etc, etc. We have a good bit of money put away in a 529 but I’d love her to get as much undergraduate merit aid as possible so the 529 money can go towards med school instead. I don’t expect we’ll get any need-based financial aid, and, as we are PA residents, our in-state choices are not the greatest.

Adding to the complication is that she has specifically said she wants to go to a college that has a marching band and the marching band must have a pit/front ensemble (which, for non-marching band folks, is the collection of big xylophone-looking instruments that sit in front during the performance and don’t actually march). She plays the marimba and it is very important to her that she be able to continue it in college although she doesn’t want to major in music. After much research, I have managed to compile a list of schools that have marching bands with front ensembles and the choices are pretty limiting - most small liberal arts colleges don’t have marching bands at all, while larger football-type schools have bands that don’t have a front ensemble (too hard to travel to games with all those large instruments). That said, it is surprisingly hard to get specific detailed info about marching bands so I may not have all of them.

So, if you are still with me, the requirements are cheap/lots of merit aid, marching band with pit, within a reasonable distance of Philly, and a good enough pre-med program to get her into medical school.

Schools that check at least some of the boxes are West Chester, Towson University, and University of Delaware. None of these are super impressive schools (at least by College Confidential standards!) and all would probably be considered “underreaches” if you go by her stats. I’m also not sure about the premed program about any of them (though her guidance counselor says West Chester’s is decent). Moravian also fits the bill but I don’t know anything about it other than that it has a marching band with a pit. Oddly, most of the PASSHE schools also have marching bands with pits - Kutztown, Millersville, California U of PA, IUP, etc. I think West Chester is the best of the bunch there though (and also the closest to us). Other schools that fit the bill but are farther away are UMass Amherst, UConn, Boston University or Northeastern (Northeastern marches with BU’s band), and University of New Haven. In addition to the marching band pit, UMass Amherst actually has a marimba-only ensemble that interests her but I don’t relish paying out of state tuition for another state’s flagship (also a problem with UDel and UConn). BU and Northeastern I would imagine are going to be pretty pricey even if she manages to land some merit aid.

Even farther are Miami of Ohio, University of Cincinnati, Christopher Newport, and Coastal Carolina, and UAB (where they have a great medical program and she’d probably get good merit with her stats but she thinks it’s waaaayyyy too Southern – she doesn’t do well in the heat and after the whole Roy Moore thing, she has a bit of a fear of the political climate in Alabama as well…).

Ursinus is close to us and has a good premed program, but it is very small and has no band. It is another one we are thinking of though. I can’t imagine going to a college that is smaller than her high school though - that seems kind of crazy to me. And no band may be a dealbreaker. I hear they are generous with merit aid, but they have a high sticker price so it may still be expensive even with a good scholarship.

We haven’t actually toured anything yet (scheduled to see West Chester in about a month) so she doesn’t know what she likes as far as size, etc. I don’t think she has any interest in Greek life – her friends now are basically the nerdy band crowd and I will be very happy if that turns out to be her friend group in college as well. She has a friend who is currently attending West Chester and loves it and I honestly think my daughter would be happy to apply there and only there, and be done with it. (It would probably be our cheapest option as well.) I am the one who is forcing her to look at other schools.

So anyway, if anyone has any feedback on any of the schools on our list, or another school to suggest, or any advice on “underreaching” or whatever, I’d love to hear it. Like I said, she’s my oldest so I have no idea what I’m doing! Thanks!!!

“ll would probably be considered “underreaches” if you go by her stats.”

If you’re seeking merit aid, then that’s exactly what you’re looking for.

I think if she attends any of the Amherst Consortium schools she could participate in the UMass marching band. It might be a little hard to get to Amherst every day for practice, but if she’s that determined to play, I’m sure she’d do it. So look at Smith and Mt Holyoke. She might get more FA from the private schools than from UMass.

That’s kind of what I thought. I also don’t think that she would do well in a super competitive pressure-cooker type school so I think a school where she is in the top 25% or higher of admitted kids would be better for her mental health – more self confidence and less anxiety. But there are an awful lot of threads here that make it sound like a capital offense to go to any school that is even slightly under what your stats would merit. And of course, once she gets to med school there’s going to be no avoiding the pressure cooker competitive environment so I suppose there might be some merit to learning to deal with it as an undergrad.

Does it really have to be MB pit, or would she consider schools with other percussion options?

University of Pittsburgh?

Based on what I’ve read on CC, the most important things for med school hopefuls is getting in (highly dependent on grades, MCAT score, and health-care-related ECs in college) and paying.

I like Pitt, but there’s no pit (haha). It’s also surprisingly expensive. I haven’t looked at what merit she might get there. I do like Pittsburgh though - cool city, and I hear great things about Pitt from other parents with kids who go there.

She says she wants marching band with a pit, but I suppose the right school could win her over. She pretty much lives for the band though. And honestly, I find the sheer number of colleges out there really overwhelming and “marching band with a pit” seemed like a pretty good and specific criteria to start narrowing things down espeically since D19 doesn’t seem to have any other strong preferences as far as size or location.

Like I said, though, I’m definitely open to suggestions - her guidance counselor is overworked and has a gazillion students and hasn’t been much help at all and D19 isn’t super motivated for the college search either, so I feel like I’m flying blind.

IUP Cook Honors college might fit the bill.
https://www.iup.edu/honors

I know of a pre-chiropractic student there who is finishing in 3 years, although that might not be advisable for pre-med. But with study abroad and a discussion based honors core she should have fun discovering her interests in four years.

The marching band is supposed to be great, although I can’t help with the pit requirement.

And they have a percussion ensemble, music in general is great there.
https://www.iup.edu/music/ensembles/percussion/

You should definitely set up an honors tour for her there.

Yes, since you said you won’t qualify for need based aid and need merit, you will want her stats to be way above average.

If she is going to be Valedictorian or Salutatorian, some PASSHE schools give full tuition.

She might get some merit at Temple and U Cincinnati, U Toledo is good for health science/pharmacy and engineering too.

Some LACs she can get merit from would be Allegheny, Juniata, U Scranton.

I have seen performances by UMass marching band at several high school marching band competitions, where they come as guest performers. They are involved, enthusiastic and very good. I am willing to bet that they spend quite a bit of time honing their craft.

Ohio Wesleyan is starting a marching band (no idea if their plans include a pit), and she would likely qualify for high merit there. Nova Southeastern just launched a marching band - again, not sure about a pit - and has a DO program on campus and is about to open a hospital on campus and will start offering an MD program. Their undergrad pre-health options are strong…if Florida isn’t too far for you/her. (I would argue that it’s just as easy and maybe quicker to fly to Fort Lauderdale than to drive to UConn!)

Tulane? They have a front ensemble, and if she shows a lot of interest and maybe bumps her ACT score up a little, she could get a lot of merit, although they are pricey to begin with.

At Pitt as instate student it would be difficult to get the higher merit, and would need over 1500 SAT probably.

If med school is in the future you would probably want undergrad cost to be as low as possible with merit.

I don’t know much about pre-med programs you’ve listed, but I can offer that the pre-med program at UDel is very supportive. (http://www.bio.udel.edu/premedical-or-mdphd-programs) They have seats set aside at Jefferson Med. in PA since Delaware doesn’t have it’s own med school. I’ve had the opportunity to chat with one of the professors advising the pre-med program at UDel, and he was excellent - honest, realistic, compassionate, and truly had the student’s best interests as his priority.

Temple. No pit, but good drumline. Probably lots of merit if her stat are good.

haha! My younger son plays the marimba. I should bookmark this thread.

D17 was section leader of her pit in high school, and started out with the same requirement. She eventually broadened it to schools where she could continue marimba in some form, and ended up at UAH. No marching band, but she’s an aerospace major / communications minor who has taken percussion ensemble and private lessons just for the enjoyment. Maybe a similar compromise would work for your DC?

My niece went to Towson and LOVED it. For what it’s worth, she’s now working in management with Disney Imagineering in CA.

My neighbor’s son made marching band a major consideration in his choice of colleges, and then, after he arrived at a university with an excellent marching band, he auditioned and didn’t get in.

This is something to consider. It sounds like the OP’s daughter is looking at schools that she wouldn’t consider if it wasn’t for their band programs. What if she ends up at one of them and doesn’t get into the band? It’s something to think about.

Towson is the school where the largest percentage of the kids from our high school end up. It’s a decent university, I haven’t heard anything good or bad about the pre-med program. There are several nearby hospitals and my doctor has occasional pre-med students from Towson shadow him, so I know they have good placement for work-study.

The big negative I hear about Towson is that they don’t have enough dorm space. Housing is not guaranteed and Towson Town is somewhat expensive. That’s not a drawback for our local kids, they just live with their parents and commute in, but if you’re coming from far away that may be something that you need to seriously consider.