School suggestions for S - political science/international relations, with good theater programs?

Parents Forum
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<p>S is a junior in HS. Has taken the SAT and ACT once thus far and has good scores - might take the SAT again. Just got his PSAT scores back, might make NMSF. GPA should be good, has a pretty tough class schedule with 5-6 APs thus far.
Very active in music, band and theater.</p>

<p>He doesn't really know what he wants to do yet in college. Leaning towards political science/international relations or something along those lines. Would love to continue being involved in theater and music - has heard folks tell him he should try that as a major - not sure he wants that quite yet (his artistic side is at war with his practical side!).</p>

<p>We are in Mass. He wants to find a medium sized school in a suburban/urban area. Would prefer easy access to an airport to get home :) Mom and dad would like him to find a school that fits his criteria, but also provides chances at merit scholarships (we won't qualify for financial aid).</p>

<p>We did go down to DC this past summer and looked at Georgetown (he loved this), George Washington (didn't like) and American (maybe). He also looked at schools locally - Boston College (good possibility), Brandeis (maybe), Harvard (no-way!).</p>

<p>Suggestions?? CC folks were wonderful when we first came on board on this site searching for schools for D - a lot of the suggestions made then ended up on D's final list and the four schools she seriously considered going to, were all suggested here by CC folks. Not sure we would have even tried those schools if not.</p>

<p>Thanks!!</p>

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<p>My D was a double major Musical theatre and history at American. She absolutely loved it. She had internships in both fields, had a paid trip to perform in Russia, performed with a professional theatre company in DC and made excellent professional contacts. She is currently working in DC as a historical interpreter for two different organizations and has just applied to PhD programs to study performance history. I just can’t say enough good things about American. (One of her best friends was an international studies/theatre major). </p>

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<p>I thought of Tufts… until you said you’d be looking for merit scholarships. I know that American used to offer scholarships to NMSF. It’s a great location for doing DC internships. </p>

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<p>Yea, Tufts and Northwestern would meet the other criteria but not merit. Maybe Emory or Tulane? I suspect he would get more $$ outside the North East.</p>

<p>And take a look at Muhlenberg. He would get merit there. Lots of theater and music happening, tons of opportunities to perform combined with strength in pre-professional areas. </p>

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<p>NMSF would definitely get merit aid at American. They schedule classes to make internships easy.</p>

<p>I thought of Tufts too - my son did IR there - he didn’t do theater, but I remember our tour guide did. Vassar has nice theater, okay IR. I think Brandeis tends to be underrated. We visited the day before Passover and the campus was deserted - oops. My son couldn’t get past the office park architecture, but I liked it a lot.</p>

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<p>If he’s looking for a safety that will give him a full ride, consider the University of Oklahoma. David Boren, the current president was also an Oklahoma governor, and congressional senator. In the past twenty years he’s been president, the College of International Studies and the College of Fine Arts have received a great number of grants which dramatically boosted offerings as well as opportunities for majors. The music department is supposedly rather well developed, as is the theater department which is one of the strongest in that region of the country (according to one of my musical theater friends from NY who transferred here from another well regarded MT program).</p>

<p>As an added bonus, OU is only twenty minutes away from the Oklahoma City Airport. While I don’t believe there are direct flights to Boston, there are connecting flights via ATL. The school itself is in Norman, a city which is at once a college town and a suburb of Oklahoma City, a fast growing medium sized city. </p>

<p>However as a possible political science major, he should be aware that Oklahoma is one of the most conservative states in the nation, meaning that if he wants to work on a winning high level Democratic campaign, he’ll likely have to travel out of the state, or go with one of the Blue Dog Democrats whose philosophies are often considerably different than the more mainstream MA dems. </p>

<p>Emory has a merit scholarship known as Emory Scholars. In reading the previous reports on who typically gets accepted, it sounds as if the school heavily favors NMSF, or they just present the most compelling applications. When I was applying to college I looked at both Brandeis and Emory, and vastly preferred Emory (although I was mainly interested in its Oxford College, which I later attended).</p>

<p>The University of Rochester and Syracuse may be worth considering as they have strong performing arts departments, but also excellent political science offerings. However, they’re far from the main areas of political activity. Sure a student can intern at a local campaign during the school year, but IMO that’s a far cry from the opportunities available at a school like American or Willamette (smaller LAC across the street from the Oregon State capital).</p>

<p>If he’s open to smaller schools, consider Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR. Not the best music or theater department, but offers loads of opportunities for any student to participate in plays or ensembles. It’s a very liberal, hipster school which encourages interdisciplinary thinking. Not sure if there are any direct flights from Boston to Portland, but there will certainly be connecting ones. </p>

<p>I don’t know much about the University of Miami’s fine arts department, but it could be another contender. Strong political science and international relations (the Latin American programs are exceptionally well developed) with good merit aid and an fairly high achieving student body. I would be surprised if there weren’t direct flights from Boston to Miami. </p>

<p>Has he considered Fordham University?</p>

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<p>Sorry, I can’t tell you about merit aid, but Johns Hopkins has a good undergraduate IR program. It’s graduate program (SAIS–School of Advanced International Studies), which is housed in Washington, DC, is one of the top-grad programs in the country. My son-in-law was an undergraduate in IR at Tufts and SAIS for grad school.</p>

<p>Since your son isn’t sure about continuing in theater/music, he might just look for colleges that offered all students (not just theater majors) opportunities to be involved in productions. </p>

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<p>First school I thought of was American.</p>

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<p>Search the Musical Theatre and Theatre/Drama forums. Many threads about double major, minors, and BA programs that offer a variety of academic opportunities along with theatre and music.</p>

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<p>Interesting that several folks do recommend American. He liked it when we visited and will most likely apply. Fordham and Vassar had also come up in our conversations - we have to figure out if we can visit them sometime. Emory is another that we thought of - but most likely, won’t be able to visit. How about schools in NC? We were thinking of a spring break trip down that side, trying to visit Duke, UNC Chapel Hill, Wakeforest and Elon. Have heard good things about Elon - but don’t know how good the academic programs in IR/political sciences are.</p>

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<p>William and Mary was the southern school that came up most often when my youngest was looking at IR. He didn’t end up applying. (He thought it looked too preppy from their website and by then he’d gotten into U of Chicago and was happy to cut schools from his list.) But it might be worth looking into. He liked American better than GW (hated the lack of campus) or Georgetown (just a little too buttoned up), though we were all super impressed with our tour guide there.</p>

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<p>Look at Elon university in nc. </p>

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<p>William and Mary, as mathmom described above, is an option. It is especially strong in the political sciences and international relations fields. Not only are the faculty strong in those, students generally have a way to break into those fields if that is what they are interested in. There is the concert band and the pep band. There are many musical groups on campus, eleven a capella in particular. Many theater groups too, especially improv. There’s one famous for directing, producing, writing, and acting one in completely 24 hours. Anyone can participate in these activities even if not a major. However, the music department itself is small. Not bad per se, but small. They don’t have as many faculty compared to the other majors (which is not saying that much witht he 12:1 faculty student ratio). They also offer very limited merit scholarships, so you may want to look at other options if affordability is an issue. However, the last thing I would describe the school as is “preppy.” It is a public school, so you’ll find students from all sorts of backgrounds that intermingle, a very welcoming environment, I recommend visiting if you’re interested.</p>

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<p>If he wants to “be involved” in theatre and “possibly” double major then I highly recommend going to a college WITHOUT a theatre BFA program present. If a school has a BFA, then those students who auditioned in will be the priority. Some won’t even let non majors audition. Some of the schools recommended above are BFA schools like Elon and American. </p>

<p>My own D had the same war going on. She’d been in theatre since she was 3-years-old. Started working professionally at 8. Was writing, producing, directing shows in her teens and heavily involved administratively with two nationally recognized regional theatres. Spoke at last years Theatre Communications Group National Convention. Theatre was her life but she has always loved academics and knew she did not want a BFA. Growing up, her academic world could not offer the richness and challenge that her theatre world could. Once she started at U Richmond, that shifted and her academic passions took over immediately. She dropped the idea of a theatre major in a week. At this point, she’s not even considering a minor… too many academic minors she’s trying to fit in. U Richmond has a nice and atypical theatre BA sort of built to be a second major. Most theatre majors there double. Many kids involved in the program are NOT theatre majors or even minors but there are several kids like D who are involved and know there stuff, just not majoring. The staff support multiple interests (D’s journalism professor got her an internship interview with a big national regional theatre.) There are living and learning programs that combine theatre and an academic in rather interesting ways (like a sophomore program where they research and do a series of interviews on gentrification in several different states with the end product writing/producing a play on it.) Might be worth a look as they have excellent international relations type majors and programs.</p>

<p>The nice part about theatre, is that you don’t have to major in it to decide to work in it as an adult (outside teaching perhaps.) Time will tell how involved he’ll want to be but make sure the schools he’s looking at offer real opportunity to kids who would just BA or minor or just audition and take classes “for fun.”</p>

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<p>DD is a poly sci /IR double major at Tufts who has been in at least one drama production every semester and is also very active on the music scene. Passion for the arts and academics are pretty common at Tufts, and it seems like most drama and music majors have a double major in an academic subject. There are no merit scholarships, but your DS might find it to be a perfect fit (mid-size, urban). If you are chasing merit then Emory might be a good shot. Tulane gives a lot of merit aid. Good musical theatre, decent academics, urban location, mid-size. Not sure about poly sci, but the Latin American studies department is world class. Not sure about other IR areas. </p>

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<p>I’m not saying that William and Mary is preppy in the sense that it’s full of kids from prep school, but let’s just say there was no one in a photo who looked like my son did at the time - nerd t-shirts, shoulder length hair. I think it’s partly that kids dress a little more formally south of the Mason Dixon line and partly that whoever designed the website probably thought that’s what we wanted to see. Ironically my son chopped his hair off at the end of freshman year and now that’s he’s graduated and has an internship in NYC he wears a buttoned up shirt every day.</p>

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<p>My daughter is in a theater program at a flagship. The major isn’t huge, I think there are about 100 in theater and 75 in dance, but I don’t think there is a lot of possibility of those who aren’t at least minoring getting parts in the major productions. They are welcome to try out but the odds are against them. I agree that if it is just an interest, your son will be better off at a school for IR with a theater club or a smaller theater program.</p>

<p>University of Denver has a very good IR program, and a very good music program so the arts are well supported.</p>

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<p>The University of Washington has an admit rate of 55% and with the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, is very strong in both areas. However, just the thought of the kind of effort it would take to be a serious student in both is very daunting.</p>

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<p>DS is at DU (Denver) and is minoring in theater. They definitely encourage non-majors to audition (he’ll be auditioning for the winter term plays when he returns). He is a freshman and had his freshman seminar with the head of the theater department - who he raves about. Sounds like a great teacher and very supportive, even of a CS major wanting to minor in theater. As @twoinanddone said, DU is very strong in IR too. It is an expensive school, but they are fairly generous with merit scholarships; up to 21,000 per year, and you don’t need tippy-top scores. Also, you only need to keep a 2.0 gpa to keep the scholarship. (DS had a 32 ACT and got the second-tier scholarship, $18,000/ year IIRC.)</p>

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<p>@turtletime, good points! BTW, we saw UR’s production of “Rent” when we were college touring and were impressed. Noted at the time that a number of students with good parts were not listed as theatre majors or even minors.</p>