My son is a junior in public school in Florida. He wants to study comp lit, english and or creative writing. He took his first ACT in the beginning of his junior year and got 36 on both english and reading, but 28 and 26 on science and math. He recently took it again and again, 36 on both english and reading and about the same on math and science despite studying LOL. He’s definitely not math-y. He is going to take it one more time as he really wants his superscore to be 34. He takes all AP and Honors and is ranked 3rd in his class of 800 kids.
He loves performing (first boy ever on his school’s basketball cheer), played lead in many musicals at an excellent local theater, volunteers teaching reading and writing to middle schoolers, works 3 nights a week at a local store, and is on the debate team and made it to state finals this weekend. He has started an online zine for student writers and attended the NYTimes writers workshop last summer and hopes to go to another one, maybe sarah lawrence’s this summer.
He is gay and VERY fashionable LOL, and very much wants to go to a school with a good social scene for gay kids. He really wants to go to a college in a big city like NYC (Columbia is his dream school and his dad went there so maybe? I went to Yale which is also on his radar but again, these schools are SO hard to get into) but I want to broaden his horizons to other schools that are more of a match rather than a reach. So far, we have the following schools and would like to trim them down to 15 total, with about 5 reach, 5 match and 5 safety. Can you tell me which of this schools we should DEFINITELY strike from the list, and any that we haven’t thought of?
Thank you!
harvard
princeton
yale
columbia
brown
upenn
vanderbilt
hamilton
Boston University
wesleyan
Boston College
Trinity
Bucknell
Sarah Lawrence
St Johns MD
Tufts
Macalester
unfortunately he needs financial aid. He is a finalist for a very competitive scholarship locally for $40,000 but even that won’t be enough to make it affordable as they’re very stingy.
Are you good with your NPCs for all these schools?
From here Bucknell looks like an outlier- he might consider swapping it for Vassar.
Why isn’t NYU on this list?
Is he a Core student for Columbia, or is it’s main attraction NYC + famous name?
Are HYP on there just b/c he is a star student and that’s where you/he/his teachers think he should be? Does he know the differences between them? Based on the very limited info here, I would think P > Y > H.
YEs!!! P>Y>H or maybe Y>P>H. I went to yale myself so I am biased.
NYU would be too expensive. We did NPC for his brother who is now a sophomore at Bard and have a good sense of what we will get and also have a sense of what schools are better with aid, but yes, that’s a step we will need to complete.
He wants to apply ED to Columbia (his dad went there and originally we are from NYC). I think it’s a long shot just becuase…it’s Columbia but we have done NPC for it and its doable.
Vassar’s town is not his style (he went with his older brother who visited, and both hated the town) although I do think as a school, it’s a fit–but the town is just a no-go for him. I don’t particularly like Bucknell, but I think that’s based on old data–when I was in college it was known as a frat school. I know its changed but my son thinks their english program is top notch. Unfortunately, they have had some anti LGBTQ on their campus so we will probably take it off his list.
Why not add a school you can afford that’s tops for writing ….Iowa. Yes, Iowa…one if the tops for writers in the country. On every top writing school rating. Affordable and rated highly for lgbtq friendly.
Or a school where you can get merit like Kenyon or Dickinson.
You have a lot of schools that give no merit and it sounds like you are full pay yet money is an issue.
If you want to afford college, applying to unaffordable colleges makes no sense, dream or otherwise. If you have need, your list is fine as many meet need.
How about Emerson in Boston as a very likely school? Good creative writing and very LBGTQ friendly. Not sure how generous they are with aid and/or merit but could be worth a look.
Among larger schools, Yale meets all of your son’s criteria. If New York City is the thing, then Columbia could edge out Yale. Harvard? In my opinion, it seems as if it should be further down the list from these schools, or, possibly, off it.
These sites would be worth reading for further ideas:
This may seem an odd suggestion- and if I didn’t know a student doing this right now I wouldn’t believe it, but Emory’s Joint Major in Playwriting (with Theatre Studies or Creative Writing) is a really dynamic program. It’s worth a look, as Emory would be a match for him, Atlanta counts as a city (don’t @ me!), and it meets need.
I would worry about Bucknell. This is all third hand, so large dose of salt please, but I think it skews conservative and Pennsylvania outside of Philly is pretty iffy.
He might like Skidmore as a Vassar-ish school but with more of a fun town. Conn College could be worth a look also.
Emerson might be too specialized but then again he might like the creative writing program (there’s a BFA, and also a Writing, Literature and Publishing BA), and it’s in Boston with consortium cross-registration options. The SUNY Purchase creative writing BFA program could be good too - close to NYC, and the campus has a long LGBTQ-friendly history. (Sticker price is relatively affordable, but whether that’s a win depends on your EFC at the need-met schools.)