I want to go somewhere that I can get into after scholarships that costs about $15-20. Here are my stats as of beginning of junior year:
4.0 GPA, 4.2 weighted
1st in class of 296
31 ACT sophomore year, taking again junior year
PaY leader, dance, church, FCCLA, band council
Clarinet- all-state, honor bands, FMAYS
That is the basics. I live in Fargo, ND and would prefer to stay around the area but not too close. I would go up to 12 hours away for good college and if it was a great college I would go just about anywhere. I am Catholic, so it would be nice if I could go to a somewhat religious school. I have been thinking about smaller schools for the most part. It would be great if there was an option to party but not the whole campus does party. I want to be at a good school with academically motivated students where I am not the smartest but not the dumbest either.
After college, I am thinking about going to get a grad degree in psychology to practice clinical psychology. The school I go to needs to have a good graduate acceptance rate. Also, I have considered double majoring and getting a major in clarinet performance as well. I love music, so a good music program would be great. Creative writing is another area that I would love to go into, but it doesn’t seem very practical.
Alright. Well. That’s about it. If you have any advice to help me out, that would be great!
Have you given some thought to the kind of academic environment you want? A small liberal arts college-type environment vs. a big state U experience vs. a mid-sized school. Urban vs. suburban vs. small town?
As a start, take a look at this list for the LACs: http://www.online-psychology-degrees.org/best/top-liberal-arts-colleges/ I’d check out Carleton, St. Olafs, Macalester and Grinnell. All very strong academically with greater or lesser selectivity. I know Grinnell best since D-in-law is a Grinnell graduate in psych, finishing her PsyD in clinical psych this year. Grinnell offers generous merit aid if that’s important - your grades and test scores may qualify. They also have sub-free housing, so you can both party outside the dorm and then leave the party behind. (Other LACs probably have this as well.) And a strong music dept. I’m sure all these schools also have active Catholic communities that you could join. (St. Olaf’s is probably among the most conservative of these schools with a strongest religious life. Excellent music dept.)
There is nowhere in the country that you can’t get to in 12 hours so that’s not a constraint. Unless you insist on driving? In that case, Carleton, St Olafs and Macalester are about 4hrs + or - a bit.
Psych is a very popular major and most reputable schools will have a strong psych dept. Look at the course offerings at each school you are interested in and then check the faculty research interests to see if they match up with your own. To chance yourself, look at the Common Data Set for that school, section C, for the stats of the admitted students. And run the NPC for each school so you know which ones are affordable. Good luck!
You might look at Hope College, in Holland, Michigan: http://www.hope.edu/index.html. About 10% of the students are psychology majors, which suggests a robust psychology department.
Also, Calvin College, in Grand Rapids, Michigan: http://www.calvin.edu/. About 5% of the students are psychology majors, and the psychology department appears to be decently sized for a LAC.
Neither of these schools are Catholic in ownership or affiliation (Hope is affiliated with the Reformed Church in America; Calvin is affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church), but both have a religious “flavor” to them.
Hope could be a good choice. Driving time from Fargo is about 14-16 hours, depending on construction through Chicago. As a Calvin alum who currently lives in Fargo & has a family member employed at Concordia, in terms of music, Concordia is far stronger than Calvin. Calvin is in a world of financial hurt right now, and the humanities departments have borne the brunt of the budget cuts.
I realize it might be boring to attend college right across the river, and you might well be looking for a change of scene. If you’ve already been taking lessons from Prof. Wakefield and need to discover what new things you could learn from a different perspective on your playing, that is a completely reasonable choice.
Drake & Creighton are a couple of other regional possibilities that come to mind.
@bekp2018, post #5: I had seen your previous posts on Calvin on another forum. I didn’t know whether Calvin had turned the corner, so to speak, on its financial issues; or how much the psychology/music programs would be affected by the financial issues.
I think that psych might still be okay; nursing is one of the most popular majors and has some mandatory psych classes even if the number of psych majors isn’t huge. Music took quite a hit, however, with losing three full-time professors at the end of the spring semester with the round of buyouts (Chimes, print edition 9/11/2015).
Debt load is down to $90 million from $117 million, but student numbers did not increase over last year.
Are you only looking at driving, or are you willing to fly? Fargo has a decent airport with multiple flights each day to Chicago and Minneapolis. This means you can easily get just about anywhere in the continental US within 12 hours.
For your safeties, are your grades and test scores good enough to guarantee you any money through the ND state scholarships at UND or NDSU?
For the costs, are we talking merit aid or financial (need-based) aid or both? Makes a huge difference as to where you can afford to attend.
Having said that, St. Olaf would be a dynamite fit if you can make it work on the money. World-class music program, very strong academics, terrific grad school placement. The second I read your interests, that was the school that lept to mind. And it is in neighboring state for decent geographic proximity.
But you will not be able to drive the tuition to $15-20K per year on merit aid alone…
Just to answer a few questions:
For scholarships I am thinking mostly merit aid, because I don’t think I will qualify for financial aid
I have been thinking smaller liberal arts for the most part. The trouble I am running into is finding a reputable school to get into grad school that is liberal arts but that I will be able to afford as well.
I was thinking driving distance when I said 12 hours
Thank you all for the input! I have thought about St. Olaf a lot, but they are more selective with AP credit transfer than most schools. If I could get into the college for an affordable price, though, I would love to go there! I am touring it this fall, but it sounds amazing. I have looked into a lot of the others colleges mentioned as well e.g. Concordia, Carleton, etc, but it is so hard to find what schools are worth the price. It really helps to get all of your opinions!
Getting into graduate school is more a matter of good grades, good test scores (GRE, etc.) and good teacher recommendations, and not the “name” of the undergraduate institution. If graduate school (and, more to the point, paying for graduate school) is going to be important for you, then don’t worry so much about the prestige factor of your undergraduate institution; I assure you that your graduate school admissions committee will not.
Instead, pick a good undergraduate school that you can afford and where you will be happy, do your best, and concentrate on building a resume that will get you into a good graduate school.
