<p>Ilovetoquilt, </p>
<p>I don’t think anyone is saying that location doesn’t matter. In selecting colleges, each candidate should establish personal selection criteria. One person’s list of criteria will not match the next person’s (and I ain’t talking qualifications here). For example, one kid may have as important criteria the setting, distance from home, size of college, school spirit and sports teams, Greek scene, diversity on campus, availability of extracurricular dance. Another person may have as their most important criteria availability of a certain major that not all colleges have, very challenging academics and selectivity, study abroad programs, internships, and size of school. Not everyone cares about the same criteria in choosing a college. For some location is very important and for others, not so. </p>
<p>As well, I don’t think you fully comprehend applying to SPECIALIZED DEGREE PROGRAMS, one example being a BFA degree in Musical Theater. This is NOT like picking a school that offers your major. It is not like doing a major in a BA degree. It is a FULL commitment to enter the program itself upon matriculation. It is not about changing majors later and deciding on majors later. It is not about only 30% of your coursework. It is an agreement to be accepted into a specific program that could entail anywhere from 65% to 85% (depending on the school) of one’s curriculum. In other words, for a BFA applicant, it is about picking the PROGRAM of primary consideration and picking the COLLEGE and all the usual selection criteria like location, etc. secondary (though it does count). </p>
<p>I will give you examples just within my own family of two kids. </p>
<p>D1: selection criteria was: a very selective and academically challenging learning environment of like minded motivated students; the availability of a BA major in Architecture since she was considering majoring in that (but not committing yet) and not all schools offer it; medium size; near a city or where you can walk to other things and other things are available off campus; either a varsity or club ski racing team (not recruited, but did do varsity team all four years of college); availability of her other EC interests (soccer club, tennis club, instrumental music, theater, dance); atmosphere on campus; in the Northeast. </p>
<p>D2: applied to specialized BFA in MT programs…selected which schools offered this degree (very small finite list do), strength of program in MT, curriculum for the MT program (balance of singing, acting, and dance), requiring some liberal arts, strength of liberal arts offerings, in the Northeast quarter of country, near a city preferably but could not be picky until she saw where she got in (acceptance rates to all her schools were in the single digits), and her first choice would be to have the BFA in MT program located within a university that itself was academically selective with strong liberal arts for the portion of her studies that would fall in that area and the types of students such schools attract. Thus, NYU/Tisch was her first choice and where she went. Being in NYC had many advantages to her in her field, I will admit. But it was not crucial that she attend college in NYC. She picked the program first, but definitely considered what school it was located within and also the location and setting. But she had to cast a net that included schools that did not match every criteria she had perfectly given the very chancy odds at the BFA in MT programs. Thus, she applied to Boston Conservatory, one of the top MT programs, but they have very few academics and that part was not ideal to her. She applied to Ithaca’s BFA in MT because it is also a top program in her field, even though the location was not appealing, the dance was weak, and she is well beyond the academic qualifications to get in there.</p>