Suggestions for STEM/music-oriented high stats S

College Search & Selection
1

All
I’ve enjoyed reading so many of your posts. You are a knowledgeable bunch!

I’m concerned that my son, a HS jr, needs to diversify his list of potential colleges. I hope you can suggest some other programs he should consider closely.

Some background on him:
Attends high-achieving, large public high school in Silicon Valley
GPA: 4.0 UW, 4.7W (most difficult schedule possible)
ACT: 35, one sitting
APs – just Euro so far – made a 4 last year – taking 4 more tests this year, including physics and calc AB.
School awards every year in music leadership and Japanese (he will be in AP Japanese next year)

ECs
Freshman football, basketbal, golf
JV golf (soph-jr)
High school orchestra-- serves as principal cellist or violist, depending on what they need
City Youth Symphony – cello #5
Teaches cello to elementary and middle school kids --they LOVE him
Student to student
Selected to serve on hiring committees at high school
Doing research this summer in university lab

Hasn’t started a charity or a company; nor has has he performed open-heart surgery. He’s a really nice white boy.

Intellectual interests? He’s a sports savant. He says he might like to major in bio-mechanical engineering and minor in music. His reasons for selecting these fields are not yet well articulated.

I learned from #1 that you need to start early and apply widely (she ended up getting a lot of what she wanted at a match school, but faced A LOT of rejections). Would like to find him as many matches as possible. Here’s his list (he’s visited most, but not all):

Stanford (we are alumni)
Yale (Yale a surprise #2 – LOVED the house system and the emphasis on exploration)
Vanderbilt/Duke/USC (USC moved up after he learned how much more flexible privates can be)
UCLA
BU (solid engineering + music + his sister is in Boston)
Cal/UCSD/UCSB/Davis

Vanderbilt is a close #3 – his cousins live there and he loves the Ivy in the SEC/all students are happy messaging.

Ideally he’d have some D1 sports. I can’t talk him in to LACs. Frustrated about this. Pomona felt like a less spirited version of his high school.

We do not qualify for FA. Merit money would be nice. Geography is pretty open, but he prefers CA and the NE.

Thanks for reading, and for any suggestions you may have!

2

Hi OP, I just came across your thread and thought I would give it a bump.

Rice (sorry, neither CA or Northeast)

For a less competitive admit, URochester

3

Tufts has a great program with the New England Conservatory. Sports are D3 but they usually have a team or two vying for a national championship. Not like the Nerd Nation, though, if he likes that.

4

St Olaf, also not CA or NE

5

Would you be able to pay up to list price (minus a small student contribution) at the more expensive schools, or is there a parental contribution limit that will make many of the more expensive schools unaffordable without significant scholarships? If the latter, be sure to tell him before he makes his application list so that he knows that he has to aim for scholarships when applying to more expensive schools.

Yale and Stanford do not offer merit scholarships (although their need based financial aid is more generous than that at most schools; try their net price calculators.

What particular STEM fields? If he is not quite decided, pay attention to how difficult it can be to change major (particularly if he is interested in engineering majors). The more popular UCs can be rather difficult to change into engineering majors, so adding some more where it may not be as difficult to change (e.g. [UCI[/url], [url=Major Changes | Engineering Student Affairs]UCR[/url], and [url=http://engineering.ucmerced.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/majors]UCM](http://www.changeofmajor.uci.edu/CoM_Engr.html)) may be worth considering. It can be very difficult to change into an engineering major at [url=http://engineering.berkeley.edu/academics/majors-minors/change-major]UCB[/url] and [url=https://students.ucsd.edu/academics/advising/majors-minors/capped-majors.html]UCSD[/url], but [url=http://engineering.ucdavis.edu/undergraduate/advising-q-a/#a1]UCD[/url] does not appear to be that difficult for most engineering majors. [url=http://engineering.ucsb.edu/prospective_undergraduates/changing_your_major]UCSB[/url] appears to be moderately difficult.

6

Thank you, all! Very helpful.

@momcinco Rice was definitely on his list initially. It fell off as he’s excited about two other “southerns” – Vanderbilt and Duke, which have more of a sports culture. I’d love to be able to talk him into adding it back onto the list, as I know it’s a great size and outstanding academically. Can you speak to the school spirit of Rice? As for Rochester, I’m pretty sure he’d say it’s too remote (alas).

@gardenstatelegal re: Tufts . . . he’s more excited about BU (and perhaps, Harvard), which seemed to cover Boston in his mind – but I didn’t know about it’s relationship w NE Conservatory – will have him look into it. Thank you. And, yes, NerdNation is pretty much his ideal

@“Erin’s Dad” St Olaf – have never looked at it closely! Thank you. Will investigate now.

@ucbalumnus scholarships in the near term would help us fund graduate school – he’s aware of this . . . Thank you for the insight into the various UCs, all news to me. At this point, I’m guessing he’ll apply to the engineering schools, since it’s easier to switch out of them than it is into them.

I’ve done a lot of reading on this list the last week, and I’m worried his list is reach heavy. He’s not that excited about either UCSB or UCSD. He needs a few more matches, to my mind. Lately, he’s been talking about U of Miami . . . don’t know anything about it!

7

For graduate school, PhD programs worth attending should be funded (tuition waiver and living expense stipend), usually in exchange for being a research assistant and/or teaching assistant. But professional school like MD, JD, MBA, etc. programs cost money.

Well endowed private schools are often each to change major in. But this is not true of all private schools, some of which do have capacity limitations for some of their majors (e.g. CS at CMU can be very difficult to get into if not directly admitted as frosh).

8

Your son is similar to mine - very high stats, wants stem and music. Mine also likes sports, but it was not as important. This was his final list -
Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Duke, Penn, Cornell, Vanderbilt, WashU, USC, Michigan, UVA, BU, Rutgers, ASU

For the best combo, including top sports- Stanford, Duke, USC, Vanderbilt, etc.

In the end, he chose Yale because non-sports elements were most important for him. But Duke was very tempting for the rah rah spirit. If he really wants top music without a conservatory, Yale is fantastic.

9

I’d put U Mich on the list. For someone from Cali it’s NE.

10

@Musicmom2015 Thank you!! Your son’s list looks a lot like my son’s for sure. Interesting that you have Michigan and UVA there bc I’m thinking those could both be good for him. Will see if I can get him to look at those.

Can I ask if your son applied EA or ED anywhere? My son is considering applying early to Yale. Stanford admissions told him their early round is actually their most competitive . . .

11

As a reach he could check out Northwestern. They have an engineering/music dual major.

12

@Curiousermama He applied EA to Yale, UVA and Michigan. Yale SCEA doesn’t allow u to apply early to any other private schools. Turns out he was deferred at Yale and accepted in March. But I still think it was the right decision because he really put a lot of effort into that early application and maybe that ultimately helped.

UVA and Michigan didn’t meet all of his criteria, but he had to include some somewhat less selective schools and he felt he could be happy there. Regarding music, at Michigan you compete with the music majors and at UVA the top orchestra seats are typically faculty or community members. This seemed odd to us, but they explained why they feel it’s a positive.

13

Hi again, sorry - I don’t have any info on Rice other than the fact that it is on our long list. S #2 is a STEM and music (and chess) guy who also loves philosophy and int’l studies so we are on a similar search. I personally think smaller to medium sized universities are ideal for kids who are not yet set on a specific major (my liberal arts kids would get lost in a cast of thousands). I like Rice’s residential colleges which are like Yale and its rival, the school-that-must-not-be-named. S #1 did EA and is doing a Math and Philosophy major. S #1’s other thing is not music but painting and Yale definitely has it all goin’ on. And then some :slight_smile:

For S #2 at this point others we are thinking of are Oberlin, Carleton, Wesleyan, Case Western, Tufts and the Claremont schools. An experienced poster also suggested St Olaf. Most of these sound small for your son, however.

14

@qialah I’ve also thought U Mich might be a good fit. Thanks. S is already familiar with Harbaugh’s coaching …

@lvvcsf I didn’t know Northwestern had an engineering/music dual major. Thank you!

@momcinco thank you!

15

Rice has a conservatory. Things may have changed since my ds applied (and was accepted with merit), but music through the conservatory was not very accessible to non-majors. We all loved Rice, but I am not sure that it has much of the rah rah you are looking for. It does have a residential college system. Ds chose Stanford. There are many high-level musicians there. And plenty of rah rah - can you say Rose Bowl??? :wink:

16

Oberlin and Case Western Reserve University

17

My son did not apply to Rice for the reasons mentioned above. Northwestern was similar. If your son wants to double major in music performance, he should consider these as well as places like Hopkins. If he wants to participate in high level ensembles but not as a major, these schools are not the best options.

18

@Curiousermama

http://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/academics/undergraduate/programs/honors-and-combined-degrees/music-and-engineering-program.html

19

Unless there is more that we don’t know, the very competitive music programs are probably out of reach for the OP. That means no for Rice, USC, Rochester (Eastman), Hopkins (Peabody), Vanderbilt, Michigan, etc.

Yale, Stanford, etc. don’t have undergraduate music schools with performance majors.

You desire merit and are full pay. High academic stat kid.

Temple he can study with a performer from the Philadelphia Orchestra and earn free tuition and be in Philadelphia.

SMU he can study with a performer from the Dallas Symphony and has a shot at half tuition scholarship.

Emory he can study with a performer from the Atlanta symphony and there are merit opportunities.

Check out UCLA in state

20

Ref music. My D1 is a music ed major. At her school they offer open auditions to any student. They have several ensembles that students can be placed in. Top ensembles rehearse 2-3x/week for 2-3 hrs per session. Lower ensembles 1-2x/week for 1-2hrs per session. Because ensembles are registered classes, students get credit hours. Her school does not charge extra tuition once a student is full-time. Music lessons are separate and do have extra add-on fees. Now D1 also had couple of non-music majors in her studio. Those students paid the extra School of Music $$$$ fee for lessons from the professor. It would have been a much lower fee if they took the classes (lessons) from the grad students.

My questions to the OP is 1) does your son really want to minor in music or just be in an ensemble to play? 2) If he wants a “rah,rah” experience does he play another instrument so he can audition for the college marching band/pep band? If the team does well, some athletic dept pay for the marching/pep band to go to play-offs/bowl games.