What other options should we consider? [MN resident, 3.77 GPA, 35 ACT, <$33k, divorced parents; film / media studies, political science, environmental studies]

Thanks for the perspective! You’re right that we haven’t added schools like AZ or Alabama to the list. I think we had been thinking of our flagship universities (UMN and Madison) as our safeties in the 35K range, but you’re right that Madison may be hard to get into. We’re hoping his high test scores will help given that his GPS is on the lower side comparatively. He had a harder freshman year but great sophomore and junior years. We did explain some of that in the Covid section of the Common App, but you never know how much that will be considered.

Appreciate the insights!

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Sorry - had a typo. Bama would be $20k ish. I put $30kish. You’d get $28k off $32k tuition - why it’s over half OOS including 1500+ from neighboring Illinois but 150 from MN. I put $30k. Other southern schools like Ms State and Ole Miss are aggressive too.

Miami Ohio would get aggressive…New Mexico, Wyoming, Ole Miss, Arkansas, U of SC and more. Purdue is about $40k ish and some (not many) get $10k merit.

Did you check the MSEP ? Schools like Kansas, Nebraska, and well respected Truman State are represented. TSU has just a film studies minor.

You can definitely achieve in state costs.

My student has similar interests - film but with a liberal arts base.

Some of my suggestions may be over your budget, but all do merit scholarships.

U Vermont
Loyola Chicago
DePaul
Indiana U - Bloomington (this one is a major in media but a concentration in film - and has many production classes available - I don’t think mine is going here, but it looked like a great program - there’s a video online somewhere (YouTube?) about it)

DePaul would most likely be affordable with merit. Top notch film program and facilities. They don’t require a portfolio and they offered both a BA and BFA. At least they did when S21 applied.

He ended up at FSU but not in their film school. Didn’t really matter. He’s always working on films anyway. Plenty of opportunities for non film school students. I think you can do film studies though. If you can get the OOS tuition waiver it’s very inexpensive. Beautiful campus too.

Pitt’s film program is new but should be good. Pittsburgh has a robust film community.

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We are also from the twin cities. UW Madison admissions from the twin cities gets less predictable every year. I saw somewhere Mn acceptance rate last year was something like in the 30-some percent rate and I suspect worse from some parts of the cities with lots of applicants as someone who has been watching for a few years. Applying for an off beat major in L&S might help. I’d spend some time with the why Uw essay if he hasn’t applied already. I have a high stat kid that attended Madison. It is fabulous, such a great student experience there.

He may get merit at the U of MN though? Especially if he is applying for CLA. My kid got 10k.

That high stat kid applied to like a dozen schools. I doubt any of your reaches will end up in affordable range. That kid’s offers ranged by 50k a year. Both my kids applied to Saint Olaf and came in about 4-5k over sticker for the U of Mn. I think they just don’t have to work that hard for twin cities students so aren’t necessarily super generous. Though maybe he will up for their largest academic scholarship. Lawrence was more generous and in range for both my kids.

If LACs are of interest you may want to look through college that change lives list. Many of those do well with merit money. Have you looked at Beloit? I know they can be very generous with merit.

My younger kid did get extremely generous merit from DePaul in Chicago and she is there now. They have a very popular film program that doesn’t require portfolio. So that might be a good one to check out. That kid’s roommate is in the film program.

Eta my oldest got the largest academic award at oberlin and I think that was still going to run 45k a year a few years ago.

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I was going to mention DePaul too. Top film school, no application fee or supplemental essays (at least for last year), and great merit. When my daughter was considering it, the biggest downside we felt was the traveling between the two campuses.

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Yep, the numbers released by Madison show the admit rate for MN students continues to drop. Was 39% last year. The admit rate for other OOS students is higher, which I suspect is because they bring in more tuition dollars (compared to MN residents due to the tuition reciprocity agreement.) I predict Madison admit rates will drop even further now that Madison is at #35 in the USNWR rankings (tied with NYU.) It has become a very attractive choice for strong students all over the US as well as internationally. I would put Madison in the “match” category for this student.

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Thanks for the thoughtful reply! His “why Madison” essay is very strong and has a lot of specific detail (meaning it couldn’t just be swapped out for some other “why this college” essay). His common app essay is strong too and connects to his radio/film/television interests. We’ll just have to see! I have no doubt it will be competitive! He’s already applied early action and we’re doing a second visit this month to see the radio/film/television facilities.

Our “ideal goal” is to achieve a “no loans” situation which is why we are trying to keep things around in-state costs. But it remains to be seen how things come back and what options we have.

Thanks again!

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We did visit DePaul this past summer, but the dual urban campus was a bit of a deterrent for him. Very cool studio facilities, though! I think if he were a sure bet on wanting to be a filmmaker he might think differently about it. But it’s possible he could end up in poli sci, enviro or something else.

For TRF, there’s so many low cost options - add Arizona State and the fabulous Cronkite School.

Anyone have thoughts on adding Lake Forest to the list? Was researching today and it appears they might give an automatic 34K scholarship based on high test scores. They do have a film/cinema major as well.

You have all been so helpful! Thank you!

I don’t know much about the school personally, but it gets generally good reviews on Niche and I like the idea of you adding a smaller school with good merit. I think that could potentially be a better fit for him academically.

Do you have a sense of the type of school she likes? If it’s a Wisconsin, then a Lake Forest makes zero sense.

Forget the money for a minute - what’s she really like - because schools can be found in all sizes.

Lake Forest is a religious school if that is an issue.

It appears that while Lake Forest College was founded as Presbyterian, it does not currently appear to have any religious affiliations.

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He’s honestly kind of flexible based on where he gets in and the package he gets. He really liked Madison AND St. Olaf AND Northwestern, for examples. All good schools with tight knit communities but different sizes. I know a lot of kids have firm opinions on small versus large or city versus small town. But he wants a quality school with a good package and the option to major in film.

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I think he’ll be more opinionated once we see where he’s accepted and he can weigh the differences between options that are realistic financially.

We found out tonight he’s been awarded 10K per year at Pitt, so that helps there a bit… but doesn’t get us to in-state levels. Still, nice to get!

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For Pitt, that’s actually exceptional!!! Few get…

Thank you! It was a fun surprise tonight!

What about Macalester? Too close to home? Kenyon?