<p>This tread is very informative. I also have a D who is a Jr and we are planning a trip to NC in March. We have UNC-CH, Elon and Wake scheduled. She is concerned about size, under 3000, would be to small. Also does not want to be too isloated.
I think these would represent a mix of size, and location. Also, could these schools be considered a reach (UNC ) OOS , match (Wake) and safety (Elon)? D's soph gpa 3.88,SAT 2190.</p>
<p>Could someone elaborate on the greek scene importance? How does this impact students and how would a student evalute this?</p>
<p>We recently visited the University of Mary Washington. Yes, it is out of the way, in that it is not in a major city, but you are not stuck on campus either. They do have busing, called "The Fred" to malls and restaurants in Fredericksburg, Va. and UMW students just show an ID for their fare [url=<a href="http://www.ridefred.com/%5DRideFRED%5B/url">http://www.ridefred.com/]RideFRED[/url</a>]. They are about an hour's train ride from both Richmond and Washington DC. I would be more concerned about whether it is a suitcase school or not. Some posters on CC feel that a fair number of students do leave on weekends. UMW is about 30% out of state. North Carolina publics cap their out of state students to about 18%, I believe.</p>
<p>I cannot tell you about music and dance programs, but we did visit UNC-Wilmington, and we really liked that school. It is just a few minutes to the beach and the airport. The surrounding area was not much different than UMW, IMO. The school runs a shuttle to some of the immediate area.</p>
<p>I was told the city of Asheville has a Greenwich Village feel. My D and I will visit in Feb/March. I hope we get to Greensboro also. The plan is to visit 3 schools so my D can sit in on classes and get a general feel for the schools. </p>
<p>I looked up UNC-Greensboro in my "Best 366 Colleges," and it is described as being "about half" a commuter school, which is supported by the statistic that only 7% of students are from out of state.</p>
<p>So I think we would have to cross this one off our list (even without the private school only restriction).</p>
<p>Actually, Mary Washington is bigger than I thought (4000ish students). It's a public school. May be worth looking into more than I have so far.</p>
<p>There is a reasonably good chance that my daughter will attend a ballet program this summer that is housed at UNC-Wilmington. So she will have a chance to check it out.</p>
<p>mabel, for me the issue of Greek presence is one of assessing fit. It makes sense to me, as janieblue points out, that on a larger campus, with a large student body, Greek presence is not that big a deal. There is plenty to do, plenty of social circles, Greek or not.</p>
<p>I personally believe it is a bigger issue with a smaller student body in a more isolated campus setting. If it turns out to not be your daughter's cup of tea, she would have fewer options for socializing.</p>
<p>Everyone is doing a great job selling Elon, by the way.</p>
<p>mabel: I agree with fendrock on this. The size of UNC-CH (though comparatively small with most public universities) makes the Greek scene not so much of a presence. That is especially true when only ~14% of 17,000 undergraduates choose to go Greek. UNC-CH is a very lively campus, with lots to do. One can easily not join a sorority or fraternity and be fine there. The Greek scene does not control the social scene.</p>
<p>UNC-CH is a difficult admit from out-of-state, but this is a public university that does not admit solely on numbers. They are more concerned about the courseload you took in high school (how rigorous it was and how well you did in them) than SAT scores. That said, the SAT score for OOS has to be fairly high, just to compete with the ~11,000 out-of-state applications every year, as well as the applications of the top in-state students who apply. Those essays are also carefully read and weighed. They love community service, too. So, it's a process that's fairly holistic and absolutely does not go by the numbers. Certainly, she has as good a chance as anyone else applying, given the little information you've posted here.</p>
<p>Wake Forest's Greek scene is much more prevalent, with ~40%+ going Greek, on a much smaller campus. It's easier to gain OOS acceptance there than at UNC-CH, but still selective. Elon is definitely your safety school, of those 3.</p>
<p>My d also considered Wake, Richmond, and Mary Washington. Though she didn't want a dance major (as it sounds your d does not), she did want access to decent ballet classes. Mary Washington, though it is a wonderful school in many respects, was a very poor fit in the area of dance. I believe they may offer up to an intermediate level of ballet through the phys ed department - not what I suspect your d is looking for.</p>
<p>However, it's a very beautiful campus with a strong faculty, small enough to provide an intimate feel. It is a public school, but feels otherwise. It reminded me strongly of W & M. Fredericksburg is charming, and certainly historic, but undeniably suburban (and site of a real slowdown on I-95 - my pet peeve). My d did a lot of online looking, and corresponded with an adcom, but couldn't turn up a viable nearby ballet school where she could continue classes. (And we had a disastrous tour due to a horrendous guide, so MW came off the list.)</p>
<p>I wouldn't dismiss U of Richmond too quickly. Richmond is much more of a city than Fredericksburg, of course. The campus is stunning and, though it's undeniably expensive, the aid - need-based and merit - is generous. One out of 15 incoming freshmen is a Richmond Scholar, with a full-tuition scholarship. There are lesser merit aid awards, as well, including awards for dance; the average need award is something like $32K annually. I understand that the dance dept. offers a range of challenging classes, and of course Richmond Ballet is in the area. The Greek scene is somewhat important there - but there are many benefits to think about, too.</p>
<p>What about Loyola (Baltimore), Vanderbilt (Nashville), Muhlenburg (PA...maybe doesn't fulfil the "warm weather" criteria but it's warmer than Boston), Furman (SC), Southern Methodist University (Dallas), Trinity (San Antonio). Goucher is still on my list of suggestions. Elon would not be. You need to check whether non-majors at Elon are allowed to take those dance classes. I know that musicians that are not music majors are NOT permitted to take lessons or participate in ensembles...those are for music majors ONLY at Elon. </p>
<p>Just a question...why does the OP daughter want only private schools?</p>
<p>poi, I love Charleston, so I did check out the College of Charleston web site at one point.</p>
<p>I see now that the school has almost 10,000 students, so it is bigger than I had thought. Skewed towards women, with men making up only 34% of the student body. It is a public although apparently doesn't have that feel.</p>
<p>frazzled, thanks for the pointers in regard to dance at some of these schools. That info can be difficult to unearth. I do think it sounds as if it is more possible to get some dance in at Univ of Richmond in comparison to many other places.</p>
<p>thumper -- Loyola, Furman, SMU -- daughter will not consider religious schools, even if it is only in the school's name, also she doesn't like the idea of school in Baltimore -- Vanderbilt -- too selective (unfortunately, they seem to have a good arrangement for taking dance classes) -- Trinity (San Antonio) -- this one is on our list, and I do think it would be a good fit for her, although they do not have any dance at all.</p>
<p>Muhlenberg -- not a warm clime and town is not sufficiently appealing to make up for being in PA.</p>
<p>Elon does have a dance minor -- do you have objections to Elon other than the lack of ability of these classes for nonmajors?</p>
<p>Daughter does not have any good reason for only wanting private schools. Perhaps she will rethink this restriction if options currently under consideration do not work out.</p>
<p>Elon has a BFA Dance major, by audition. But it also has a dance minor with no audition requirement. My daughter, as an MT major, had requirements for Dance for the Musical Stage and one other dance class fall semester (most took ballet or modern). She chose to take two additional dance classes in order to keep dancing close to the number of hours she was used to at home. She had no problem registering for those classes and only had to talk to the head of the dance department to help decide what level to take. She obviously was not in the beginning levels of dance since she has been dancing her whole life. She was able to take Ballet III, Modern III and Jazz III. They offer 6 levels of ballet, six levels of modern and 4 levels of jazz at this time. With the new BFA (started this year--used to be a BA), they have been adding levels and classes. Each level can be repeated once for credit so that most kids can take a full year at a certain level. There are also classes in worship dance, African dance, tap, yoga, etc. I don't think being able to take dance classes will be a problem. There are also various dance performance opportunities through fall dance ensemble, spring dance ensemble, and senior dance recital. All of these are through audition, but are open to the whole university. My daughter has been cast in two upcoming senior pieces as well as the departmental spring dance show, although she is not a dance major. Sorry if I sound overly enthusiastic about Elon, but it has completely lived up to everything my daughter was hoping for.
Academically it is getting tougher to get into every year. My D was a good student in high school, but not brilliant (21/175 in class at a well regarded public, 29 ACT, a few AP/college level classes--school didn't offer many, 95+ average) and has been sufficiently challenged so far.</p>
<p>We visited many of the schools that have been mentioned as son initially wanted a "smaller" school. Well, he is now at the largest school he applied to, so go figure.
Not sure about the "warm climate" at many of these schools, atleast not today. I think we would have to be in Miami to hit 65 degrees today.<br>
Elon was a beautiful school, have a nephew who attends and absolutely loves it. They have a very active dance/theatre program too and have many visiting dance companies come to campus. Good luck to you.</p>
<p>My college student has enjoyed the North Carolina climate very much (okay, a cold spell right now, but for the most part-all good). Loves the school, is not into the Greek scene but has learned to co-exist with it very nicely; has friends who do belong to the Greek system. Has come to realize Greek is big at most colleges. Even made new friends with "Greeks" this year as a junior-go figure. Most of the friends to date for my child are OOS students (the NC students are more likely to head home on the weekends-probably a 50/50 mix of in state/out of state enrollment).</p>
<p>D and I are planning a trip to NC to visit Guilford, Elon, High Point and Greensboro (the college, not UNC). Any other LAC suggestions for student of more modest abilities (ie: not Duke, Davidson or Wake)?</p>
<p>D is also considering Eckerd (can't recall why she isn't interested in Rollins). Other warm weather schs on her list: Agnes Scott, Roanoke, McDaniels and Hendrix. If D would consider going farther from home I'd ant Trinity and S'western, both in Texas.</p>
<p>What about Furman? It's in SC but it's not all that far from NC. Also, as mentioned before...College of Charleston. It has a very LAC feel to it.</p>
<p>Queens University is a private school in the middle of Charlotte NC.
Most all of the other privates in NC are in small towns</p>
<p>If your D should decide to check out the big publics..NC State (Raleigh) has it's own dance company (by audition) <a href="mailto:danceprogram@ncsu.edu">danceprogram@ncsu.edu</a><br>
Also East Carolina University has a good dance program.</p>
<p>fendrock, Furman is not a religious school. It was once a Baptist school, but is no longer. There is a cross-section of students. Yes, it has a conservative flavor ... as do many southern schools. It isn't called the Bible Belt for nothing. However, it is 2800 students, so may be too small for her.</p>
<p>Tom, my D has spent lots of time in Ann Arbor (UMich) & says Asheville reminds her very much of Ann Arbor!</p>