@ashmomhk – what sort of $$ amount is the maximum you’d like to spend? There are many liberal arts colleges where your D19 could study those subjects. Does she want a big school (like Temple or DePaul) or a smaller school?
Thanks OrangeFish, My D19 is a city girl and a quite sociable people. Being a new immigrant in USA, she doesn’t know or care about the size of college. Roughly, we can afford 40k (all included) each year for her college. It might be better if she can do partime job or have some scholarship. Besides, we are not familiar with the financial aid system, even we might be below average income family. Btw, what is the difference between liberal arts school with other state college? Sorry for so many questions!
NY public universities for OOS are below $40k a year, I believe.
@ashmomhk did you say which state you are in? Generally, you want to go as cheap as possible for social sciences because they typically don’t end with very high paying jobs, which makes paying back too many loans difficult.
@ashmomhk - you say you’re from the West Coast and might be below average income family? If so, $40k a year is extremely high to set aside for college. Do you have other kids that you’ll need to put through school later? Be aware that equity and fairness will matter a lot to your other kids 
There are several public flagship schools that would come in below $40k for out of state. Some might also be in urban areas. But I would definitely check out all the options in your home state first, especially if grad school is in your D’s future.
Question for drama people - is there ever a time when you think it’s acceptable to include in a college app in some way a video of your kid doing some acting when you’re not applying for an acting major in college?
@Gatormama, it depends on the college. There are some that encourage it (and even some that even award scholarships for non-fine arts majors off of fine arts supplements).
@Gatormama I would look at the admissions pages on the schools’ websites. S19 will have an art portfolio to attach to his apps. Some schools say on their websites that they have merit scholarships for art talent and the student is not required to major or minor in studio art. Others say that they expect the student to be an active participant in the school’s art scene. And some others say minoring or majoring in art is required for the merit. I bet it’s the same for a drama supplement.
I don’t see any downside, though, as long as the supplement is strong. It will flush out who the student is and how they spend their time. I have read, though, that if the art isn’t high quality then it’s not a good idea to send it. Assuming the same goes for acting.
Thanks, guys.
Thanks Gatormama, orangefish and mom2twogirls. My affordability is just a rough estimation for what we have been saved in past years before emigration. We only have one kid. We just start our living in Washington, the college planning of my D19 is also a financial planning of our (the parent) new life in US. With so many uncertainty, we might need to scarify our choice of house and car for supporting her college tuition and her living expenses in next four years. My D19 actually does not have specific career path plan. With her oversea HS academic records (B students) and ACT/SAT, there is limited choice for her now. We have little knowledge on her choice, the parent did not study in US education system! Probably, she will figure out her career path and boost up her GPA, then work hard for her target during graduate school. At the meantime, she aims at big city, like NYC, but its expensive in living there. Also, California might be a good choice for our family startup as there is more choice of state college, but it needs at least two years of staying for establishing residency. Hopefully, we can persuade her for staying at state college of Washington!
BTW, being a newcommer of the forum, I cannot figure out how to add “@” in replying your advice.
@ashmomhk Just type the “@” sign and the name.
Thanks @SwimmingDad :)>-
@Gatormama I have a son who is currently a sophomore at Ohio University. We live in MA, so he is OOS.
We can’t say enough about OU–and our son is absolutely thrilled with all aspects of the school (he even brought two MA friends out this year with him as transfers). What is your child interested in studying? My son is a journalism major (actually a Strategic Communication major which is in reality Advertising but part of the J school). He had a 3.5 WGPA and a 1250 SAT. He was awarded about $8000 per year in merit, and will likely pick up additional scholarships from the J school for next year (his current GPA is, you guessed it, 3.5).
Please feel free to message me with any questions!
Thanks, @zipstermom! I am angling for her to put OU at the top of her list; it’s near the top, but right now WVU has captured her attention. I think that could change, though.
She wants to study env. studies/env. sci.-type things. She says she wants to be a park ranger, with teaching about the environment as her backup. I think that’d make a great career - working for the NPS, in some kind of education role, maybe with a science background but likely not.
She’s very very good at the verbal/artsy side of things, and loves theater tech, though she says she doesn’t want to do it for a living (I can’t figure that one out - WHY NOT? SUCH A GREAT JOB. No danger of Broadway going bust, job security, union gig, etc…). That said, she is exploring scholarships in theater tech, just by virtue of it getting her into a school she might not otherwise be able to attend.
So the two interests are very far apart. And there are many schools on our list that are strong in one, but not the other. I’m at my wits’ end. The list is 40-odd schools because of this, plus finances…
We need to hit a budget target that might keep OU out of the mix, so I’m looking for all the advice I can get for merit!
Theatre tech helps for more than Broadway, though. I have several friends in the business who have very steady paychecks. If you want to travel it’s great for that, if you want to live in a city it’s great for that. It’s not so great in small towns or rural areas, but it’s a decent living for a lot of people.
@Gatormama, not to add another school, but have you checked out Allegheny? It’s one of the top environmental programs in the country. I’m not sure about art–they offer it but not sure how strong it is. They offer very good merit. And it seems to be in the geographic area you’re looking at.
Chiming in from the 2017 thread. If you’re looking at a major in the Arts be sure to check out the weight each school puts on portfolio. There are many universities out there who put more weight on the portfolio and passion for art reflected in ECs and recommendations than to grades and scores.
Being that art is so objective, it’s a roll of the dice but there’s always a chance that the portfolio can open the door for them.
My son got into his ED with an 85 gpa and 1240 SAT. The school very clearly states that the portfolio carries the most weight for art students.
You may have more options than you think.
Good luck
That was supposed to say “subjective” not “objective”
Hey everyone, so I guess I fall into this category. I am not a parent, per say, I hope that is okay.
Just wondering if any of you could recommend any colleges for me, I have a 3.4/3.7 uw/w GPA , 23 on the ACT, and a 1150 on the SAT.
I live in North Carolina, parents say they can pay OOS up to 38k?ish
I hope to study journalism, marketing, or sports management.
I never knew that this thread existed. I always felt sort of worthless because of my grades and this is a fresh of breath air.
My step sister was in this range just a year ago and managed to get into NC State.
@Titan431: I’ll note that your grades aren’t actually horrible. Your ACT and SAT are lowish, but still both above average—remember (and this is important!) that what gets expressed as norms on CC aren’t necessarily the norms everywhere.
First idea, though: Look at your in-state public options, and don’t limit yourself to the flagships. They’ll be more affordable for someone with your profile than most other possibilities, and the vast majority of them have journalism and marketing programs. (Sports management majors are distributed less widely, but there’s lots of options there, too.)
This isn’t necessarily a great forum for you to get specific advice, though—there’s a pretty low opinion of chancing-type practices on this thread. Anyone else here have a good idea where to point our guest?