<p>@alafae – the public universities charge a premium for tuition for students who are not residents of the states where they are located, usually $10,000 or $15,000 more than whatever they are charging the state residents. Even with that premium, the tuition at the public universities is usually still somewhat less than a private college. However, the parents of most US residents are not willing to pay extra to send their kids to attend universities in other states – so international students become an important source of revenue for the universities. </p>
<p>The very top and best known public universities (such as Berkeley) also get applications from top students — so competition is still very steep – but there are many excellent public universities that are not quite as well known which might be good prospects for you.</p>
<p>Also, among private universities – you might want to take a look at Syracuse-- which has an excellent music school and an excellent journalism school. I don’t know whether it is possible for students to apply to more than one school there or double major – but I think it would be worth checking out for you, as the overall admissions rate for the school is higher – though you definitely need to check on audition requirements for the music school. I think you are running up against deadlines for music auditions at US school, and so you really need to prioritize tracking those dates and specific requirements for audition tapes- or you could get shut out of that avenue. If you wait until you hear back ED from Northwestern, you might find that it’s tool late to audition anywhere else. </p>