<p>My friend is looking for a list of prospective colleges. Here are her requirements:</p>
<p>-located in the Midwest
-strong theater program
-public or private
-offers both merit- and need-based scholarships
-nonreligious
-medium to large size (5,000 and up)</p>
<p>Thanks for any suggestions!</p>
<p>Northwestern sounds like a perfect fit. Indiana-Bloomington is also awesome. Michigan-Ann Arbor, Wisconsin-Madison, Iowa and Michigan State are all good too.</p>
<p>Cornell and Carnegie Mellon are not Midwestern perse, but they are also excellent in Drama.</p>
<p>What are her grades and test scores like? Hard to give possible names for merit money without an idea of her stats.</p>
<p>Case Western Reserve is:
-located in the Midwest (Cleveland, OH)
-strong theater program
-private
-offers both merit- and need-based scholarships
-nonreligious
-medium to large size (5,000 and up)
-one of the best in the midwest</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cwru.edu%5B/url%5D">www.cwru.edu</a>
Expect merit aid with above 1350 SAT.
It's best known in the sciences, but like CMU, it offers strong programs in the arts as well. And its in a part of town with lots of theaters, etc.</p>
<p>Actually, Case only has 3,500 or so students. Otherwise I would certainly recommend it.</p>
<p>i would recommend your friend not limit her search to "nonreligious" schools just yet. I know a lot of people who go or have gone or are going to Notre Dame, and they certainly are just like students at any secular or public school. Catholic colleges are great schools, and they are not overly religious at all. </p>
<p>With that said, Norhtwestern is obviously the best theatre school, in the midwest, if not the US.. its private, has about 8000 undergrads, a beautiful campus, great location.. it doesnt give any merit aid (it would be hard to get, everyone there is so smart anyways) but they gave me some very generious need-aid grants. </p>
<p>I too would recommend Iowa. its a very underrated school in one of the best college towns (also look at ann arbor).. i dont know too much about theatre there tho.</p>
<p>Iowa, OSU (OSU is HUGE, but amazing for everything).</p>
<p>Does your friend plan on majoring in theatre? If so, is she interested in a training program (BFA) or just liberal arts major theatre (BA)?</p>
<p>And TheCity - most, if not all, would disagree with your comment about Northwestern being the best theatre school in the midwest and they would definitely disagree with it being the best in the US. It's a great school, and if you want to get a liberal arts degree in theatre, Northwestern is a great place for that. But in terms of training in acting or any other theatre speciality, there are much better schools as close as downtown Chicago for that.</p>
<p>really? they seem to be slipping my mind right now. I dont know too much about theatre, but i do know this</p>
<p>steven colbert, zach braff, warren beatty and charlton heston are all NU theatre grads. those are just the ones whos names i recognize, im not big on broadway. </p>
<p>perhaps you are referring to the second city theatre, and its training school. Second city was founded by Uchicago grads, and uchicago does have a very good improv comedy troupe and small theatre program ( i think )... but second city today is full of NU grads, the show I saw when I was there just happened to be written, produced and starring three female recent NU theatre grads. </p>
<p>NU is known for business, journalism, theatre, music, communication, and for being a great liberal arts university which just happens to offer all tehse</p>
<p>Yes, that is true. Perhaps Northwestern is the kind of school that this person wants, but if she wants a BFA program, Northwestern does not offer one. Northwestern does not audition potential candidates for its theatre program, and does not offer a showcase of senior talent to agents and directors on either of the coasts. I'm not putting down Northwestern's theatre program, but if the original poster's friend is set on being an actor (or director, or designer) on screen or stage, there are other schools which provide much more intensive training, and provide many more resources (such as prestige of degree) to its graduating seniors.</p>
<p>The school I was referring to was the Theatre School of DePaul Univ. (formerly The Goodman Theatre School), which is considered a top 10 acting program.</p>
<p>CMU has excellent drama program. It only allows 40 people in the program and most of them end up going to Broadway or of similar.</p>
<p>I second that!</p>
<p>But maybe I'm biased because I'm going to the CMU School of Drama next year</p>
<p>I don't like doing this, but OSU is not "amazing" in everything. It is a subpar state school.</p>
<p>Briarbrad, I have ever only seen two rankings of Drama/Theater programs and Northwestern was ranked in among the top 3 in both...#1 in one of them.</p>
<p>Second the suggstion of DePaul. . .good school for theatre and music.</p>
<p>In conjunction with the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre, the University of Minnesota has a newish B.F.A. program that is starting to get national recognition.</p>
<p>Transfer, I hate doing this too (because I abominate and abhore and detest and hate OSU), but OSU is not "subpar". It is excellent in Business (top 20) strong in Engineering (top 30), good in Political Science and excellent in the Sciences in general. </p>
<p>However, I agree that it is not a great university and it is certainly not "amazing" in any way.</p>
<p>OSU also has quite possibly the most disgusting campus in the country. I hated being there for 10 minutes.</p>
<p>I agree Slipper. OSU is nasty and Columbus isn't much nicer! LOL</p>
<p>Thank you for all of the responses!</p>
<p>carolyn- She has a 3.7 GPA, is ranked in the top 10% of her class, and takes core honor classes (the highest our school offers for students her age). Her ECs are theater (3 productions/year), Speech team, newspaper A&E editor, and future NHS member. </p>
<p>briarbard- She plans to double-major in Theater and an undecided liberal arts area. She's looking for merit aid based off of both academics and the arts (specifically acting). </p>
<p>She's also looking at UMD, a close school with an excellent theater department.</p>
<p>She has a 3.7 GPA, is ranked in the top 10% of her class,>></p>
<p>Thanks Ainsley. It would be helpful to have test scores but I'll work with just the GPA and class rank. Since merit scholarships are important to her, I'll focus on schools where she would have strong chances of getting merit money. (All of these schools, including Carnegie Mellon and Northwestern, also give nice need-based financial aid, so I will only focus on merit money opportunities, not need-based aid)</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Northwestern is not one of those schools - no merit aid there so it would be important to have an idea upfront of the amount of need based aid her family would qualify for (see the financial aid section for help on this) Carnegie Mellon does have some merit awards that she might qualify for but they are quite competitive. Both schools do have terrific drama departments but from what you say, she would need merit money to attend school so neither is a good bet for her.</p>
<p>Case Western Reserve would be a more likely prospect for merit money. They do have a good theater department and offer awards specifically for talent in theater. A bit reachy for someone with a GPA of 3.7 however.</p>
<p>So, let's look at some other possibilities. I like the suggestion of DePaul - she would have an excellent chance of merit $$ there, plus they do have a strong theater program. Otterbein in Ohio has a surprisingly strong theater program and can be very generous with merit money. Ditto for Butler University and the University of Evansville, both in Indiana. Another Indidana possiblity would be DePauw -they have an online calculator where she can see what she would be offered. Only drawback with DePauw is that it is heavily Greek, a turn off for some kids.</p>
<p>Moving into larger schools, she could take a look at the U of Wisconsin, U of Michigan, and Indiana U.</p>
<p>Smaller schools with good theater programs where she might get some merit money: College of Wooster, Beloit, Wittenberg, and possibly Kenyon.</p>
<p>On the east coast, she shouldn't ignore smaller schools if she wants merit money. Some to look at where she pretty much would automatically get substantial merit and that have great theater programs include: Goucher College, Susquehanna, Muhlenberg. </p>
<p>There are other ones as well --- but since you asked specifically about schools in the midwest offering good theater programs and merit money, I'll leave the list as it is. I would suggest that you (or your friend) also post this question in the musical theater thread (see the specific majors area) where there are many people more knowledgable about theater programs in the midwest and across the nation than I am. </p>
<p>I am sure this post will be followed by flames saying I am not encouraging her to look high enough, but the fact is if she needs significant merit money, the above schools will be where she is most likely to find a decent theater department and merit money based on her grades. Good luck to her.</p>