<p>Fairly new to CC so thanks for your patience.</p>
<p>DS is a junior and we have started the college search process, trying to narrow down options. He visited some New England schools this summer and really liked Williams, Dartmouth and Middlebury. Closer to home, he is looking at Davidson, Washington & Lee and Furman. His current weighted GPA is 4.7 and will most likely graduate in top 5% of class at highly regarded public high school. He'll have plenty of community service. He plays the oboe in large metro youth orchestra. He has not taken SAT or ACT. Currently enrolled in 4 APs, 3 IBs. Looking to major in music and biology or chemistry (pre-dental). Would like a strong music program, but not so good that he cannot play.</p>
<p>Where else would you suggest he look considering above. There are SO many great schools. Hoping he could qualify for merit $$.</p>
<p>conn college offers free music lessons to all students, not just majors. Him being a male from the south with his scores would make him an extremely attractive candidate.</p>
<p>rom, are you looking for really good FA, or merit? In other words, will a merit award of $10K or so make college affordable for you, or do you need much more substantial assistance, such as $30K or more? Some of the schools listed here are need-only, some are merit and need.</p>
<p>I would suggest running some of the online calculators. The Amherst calculator is reputed to be one of the better ones. (Amherst is also a school your S should look into. Coincidentally, when we toured it our student guide was a premed concentrating in sciences and music.)</p>
<p>In our case, we knew that the typical merit award would not make college affordable for us. So we concentrated on need-blind, need-only schools with deep pockets. And in fact, although S got both merit $$ and some FA from his safety–not one of the deep pocket schools-- it wasn’t even faintly close to enough. Luckily he got into several of his reach schools and they gave him superb FA.</p>
<p>Pomona, although it obviously is not in New England, is a superb LAC with excellent FA, and reportedly a good orchestra. I would look into it.</p>
<p>Thanks, Consolation. Current financial situation is not good, but because of realistic business opportunities could be completely different in 2 years. This is why I am trying to figure out options early.</p>
<p>DS visited Amherst and did not like it, especially compared to Williams & Middlebury. Trying to get the answer to “Why?” out of somewhat reserved 16-year-old-boy is definitely a challenge! (we were not on the trip)</p>
<p>Do males from the South really have an adavantage in NE schools?</p>
<p>Have him take a look at Kenyon. They give merit money.</p>
<p>Regarding the males from south being favored: It is hard to pin down how much of an advantage geographic diversity is, but I do believe that coming from outside a school’s geographic region is a boost.</p>
<p>The male thing is easier to quantify. Recently there was a thread about gender imbalance and a link to a site where you look up a school. In the data the admissions rates for males and females was broken down. You need to look at each school as it varies. I remember that for Pomona the admissions rates were quite different.</p>
<p>Twomules - thanks for that webite - great info</p>
<p>kwu - he did not like Harvard on his visit, but thinks it had mostly to do with apathetic admissions staff. They mentioned on the tour how much Harvard loves the oboe, so your comment made us laugh! He’ll apply to see how true that is.</p>
<p>If he’s really interested in schools where music is very important and very popular, I’d also suggest Oberlin and Lawrence. While they both have strong conservatories, the musical vibe is felt in the non-conservatory students as well, many of whom pursue music as an extracurricular.</p>
<p>We didn’t qualify for FA, but S qualified for generous merit aid at Grinnell. Your son’s stats will probably be equally appealing. S is a science major, so we were especially interested in the quality of the science facilities and staff, the funding for research, and the size of the intro science classes. As a musician, the opportunities for performance also matter to him. Grinnell has exceeded all of our expectations,</p>
<p>Check out UNC-Chapel Hill. The Music Department now offers Kenan Music Scholarships - everything paid for plus additional money for travel, summer study, etc. - to students who are top musicians and very strong academically. There are only 4 per year but the 8 finalists all come away with great deals, too. They are actively looking for oboists this year.</p>
<p>Brandeis gives great merit aid in general and has one big scholarship from the Music Department every year.</p>