<p>My junior D is interested in SUNY New Paltz for theater as well as a general liberal-arts education and college experience, and it's on our spring-break tour route. It sounds like a real find of a school. But I wonder about the SUNYs, and that one in particular, for out-of-state kids. Questions for you New Yorkers:
-- Is is a help or a hindrance to be a Californian? Do they want geographic diversity or want to give in-state students preference?
-- Would a West Coast girl who can't go home on weekends feel stranded by all the local kids?</p>
<p>Thanks for your input. Good luck to all of you waiting on ED!</p>
<p>I think it might be a help to be OOS. New Paltz has many OOS kids and Internationals too, I think they like the diversity.
I don’t think your D will feel stranded at all. It’s not a commuter school at all, kids stick around on the weekends.
If you have any more questions about NP, I’d be happy to answer…my son is a student there.</p>
<p>Technomancer, yes, there are many good programs in California, but she’s had a powerful longing to go to college back east for years. She figures she’ll be back and live in L.A., so she wants to experience college somewhere else, and be within striking distance of NY, Boston, DC or some great city.</p>
<p>Lilymoon, thanks for the input. We’ll definitely visit it on our tour.</p>
<p>Where else are you visiting on your tour? When you go to New Paltz don’t miss walking around the town. It’s about a 5 minute walk up from the university and is a fun town to visit. Lots of restaurants and shops and Huguenot Street which is America’s oldest street. The Bakery is great for sweet treats, Groovy Blueberry for tie dye and hip accessories, The Muddy Cup for coffee/tea, Karma Road for vegan, Breakfast at Main Street Bistro, The Guilded Otter for a nice lunch/brewery plus so much more as you wander down side streets.
If you are staying over in the area…check out The Mohonk Mountain House - it’s quite a place. There is so much to do and see in the area. I think it’s great that your D wants to experience something different. The theater program has a top rate reputation.</p>
<p>We’re going to Connecticut College, Vassar (a big reach but conceivable for her, although financially nightmarish for us) and SUNY New Paltz, then south to Muhlenberg, maybe Dickinson and, finally, American University in DC.</p>
<p>What she wants is surprisingly hard to find-- Eastern seaboard, larger LAC or small university, good theater program (and theater club) but not audition-in conservatory only, quality liberal-arts education, proper fantasy college campus, within reasonable train/bus distances to NY, Boston, DC or maybe Philly (so no to Colby, Skidmore, Ithaca, etc.). Wants a smart and diverse student body, not a major drinking/Greek scene. Co-ed, with a ratio not too much worse than the normal 60/40.</p>
<p>She’s had a thing for Emerson but is now down on it because it doesn’t have a traditional campus and doesn’t have a well-rounded liberal-arts curriculum. </p>
<p>I thought there’d be a lot of schools that fit her bill, but there really aren’t! Wesleyan and Vassar seem the closest, but despite her very good grades, she’s highly unlikely to get in at either place… they get the national cream of the crop. I wish she’d liked Brandeis better, because it fits the bill in many ways, but she really disliked the modern campus. And she found Boston College too full of itself. NYU and BU too urban, the Ivies out of reach, Trinity too preppy, Hampshire too hippie… I guess she’s picky, but we all should be at these prices!</p>
<p>Have you considered Barnard for your daughter? It liberal arts but she can major in theatre or anything else she wants and still take advantage of all of Columbia/Barnard theatre and music programs. It’s in NYC, but it’s an actual campus in the middle of an urban setting. And don’t let the “all female” thing scare you off – despite the fact that it’s got a separate admissions office and different academic requirements, she will not feel like she’s at an all girls’ school, as students take classes at both schools. As long as you are coming East, you really should check it out.</p>
<p>Isn’t Barnard as hard to get into as Wesleyan and Vassar? I figured it would be out of reach for another Catholic-school girl with a 3.8uw, 4.25w, only 3-4 APs and 5 honors, average test scores and deep but limited ECs (mostly heavy theater and class retreat leader, with your basic volunteering and non-active club membership). From what it seems, as special as we think she is, girls like her are in plentiful supply and get passed over at those schools for the big stars. But we can certainly check it out while we’re in NYC.</p>
<p>She also wasn’t interested in women’s colleges, but that’s a good point about classes at Columbia. She actually fell in love with the Columbia campus when she was 13 and we visited NYC and happened to walk through the campus.</p>
<p>SUNY Geneseo may be worth a look. Highly respected LAC college in NY. Not as close to NYC as New Paltz but 30 minutes from Rochester, NY and 1.5 hours from Niagara Falls.</p>
<p>Take a look at Montclair in NJ…her grades qualify her for a scholarship…great theater, dance, musical theater, and music…several train station on campus…about 15 miles from NYC.</p>
<p>D’s list 2 years ago was very similar…she got accepted to all the schools she applied to:</p>
<p>Barnard, NYU, American, GW, Muhlenberg, Brandeis and Binghamton.</p>
<p>Also on our list originally was Vassar, Wesleyan and Skidmore…but since none give merit aid, we crossed them off and figured she’d take a shot at Barnard if we were paying full fare.</p>
<p>I also agree that Barnard may work for her. You are in the city but you have just enough campus that you feel slightly removed from city life.</p>
<p>In reality, on many of the other campuses, the actual number of trips she will take into the city may be less than she hopes for. And they would be inconvenient if she wanted to take advantage of NYC internships.</p>
<p>That’s why Barnard may offer what she wants. I must say, though, that D is thrilled to be at NYU and she is totally part of a community there. She has the advantage of being in a small program (VP–musical theatre) and has taken advantage of internship opportunities in the music/theatre field because the flexiblity of being so close to her office allows her to go in for a few hours twice a week.</p>
<p>As for the SUNY’s, I think you are on the right track with New Paltz. Younger D will probably apply there for art. It is reasonably close to the city, but far enough away so that it is not a commuter school, although I am sure some kids will travel home to the NYC metro area on some weekends.</p>
<p>I would not go there expecting to have a real connection to the city, though. Yes, occassionally, but not on a weekly basis by any means. I think the kids will go in for a specific concert or special event, but it is too far to just hang out there every weekend.</p>
<p>You may want to look into SUNY Purchase. It is even closer to the city, although I think it has more of a commuter reputation.</p>
<p>All of the other SUNy’s are much farther upstate and away form NYC. Geneseo is pretty remote.</p>
<p>Thanks, uskoolfish. Don’t know her test scores yet, but her soph PSATs weren’t great; for some reason we still don’t have her junior PSATs. She’s motivated to prep, though, and has started Xiggi-style SAT prep. She’ll take it in May, and subject tests and ACT in June, then retake in the fall if need be. She won’t be a 2300 girl… my girls went to a non-testing progressive grade school and never had a standardized test in their life until high school, so they are behind that curve (but it was worth it). </p>
<p>She’s currently in DC for a school trip and has fallen in love with that city and is now very hot to see American, so that might be a great fit. </p>
<p>As for SUNY Purchase, one of her best friends is applying right now. My D doesn’t want that b/c it’s audition-only and incredibly intense. Not so New Paltz.</p>
<p>American was up there on D’s list. I really liked it’s proximity to DC and the fact that it had a campus. Personally I liked the vibe it gave even more than GW.</p>
<p>If yoiur daughter does apply there, check to see if the theatre department has auditions for merit scholarships. D rec’d a music scholarship that she auditioned for. She also got $20K in merit aid…the highest of any school she applied to. Their theatre productions are supposedly excellent.</p>
<p>Might be visiting again with our younger D because they do have a BFA program in art. A cousin’s son is there and is absolutely loving it!</p>
<p>That’s inspirational, uskookfish! She’s going to tour the theatre department when we’re there and hopefully interview with someone. I dream of merit aid… she has a strong GPA, just has to get those test scores up!</p>
<p>When you go on the info session for American, you will hear all about test scores and how in order to get into their honors program you need something ridiculously high (1420+). </p>
<p>Don’t let it scare you. D had top 5% grades, great leadership and talent. But her SAT’s were 2130/1350. So in the end, she did not make honor’s (although we were told we could appeal it if she were attending.)</p>
<p>However, they did give her $22,500/year in merit aid (with the music scholarship). It was a hard package to walk away from!</p>