Your son has made himself a strong candidate for any school in the country. Some of the schools are so popular that they have way more qualified students than they can take, so despite your son’s excellent qualifications, there are still a number of reaches on his list. This is a list of some other schools that he may want to consider, most of which will have likelier chances for admission. Some of the schools (American, Tulane, perhaps BU) don’t like to be a school’s “safety” and want to see a lot of demonstrated interest from students. If not, a strong applicant may still find themselves with a denial or waitlist. Also, both Georgia and Louisiana have growing film/tv industries, which seems to have influenced your son’s preferred geographies. Additionally, though your family expects to be full pay, the vast majority of the schools below provide merit aid as well, and I suspect your son would be a strong contender to receive generous merit aid packages, so please don’t get stuck on the sticker prices.
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U. of Arizona: About 37k undergrads and would provide very generous merit aid (which, though not a requirement for your family, is always a nice bonus). Its majors in Communication, Film and Television (the BA, not the BFA), and Professional and Technical Writing might be of interest. And depending on the culture of interest, there are many majors that focus on various cultures. It has a well-reputed honors college and will be in a warm climate.
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U. of Pittsburgh (PA ): About 24k undergrads, and an early application (like August) might net some merit aid, too. Some of the majors that might interest your son include Communication: Rhetoric & Communication, English Writing, Film & Media Studies, Media & Professional Communications, Public & Professional Writing (either a BA or a certificate), a general certificate in Writing that can be customized to fit his interests, or a certificate in Writing for the Professions. It seems that no matter what his interest in writing is that’s not creative writing, that there are options for him here. As with U. of Arizona, there are many different cultures to study and ways to study them here.
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Carnegie Mellon (PA ): This other Pittsburgh school would be a reach, but I don’t think it would be out of reach, and the fact that your kid is not a STEM kid might help in admissions. Size-wise it’s much closer to Brown, with about 6900 undergrads. Its English department might hold a lot of interest for your son, with majors in Film & Visual Media, Literature & Culture, Professional Writing, and Technical Writing. He may also be interested in the Humanities Scholars Program and should he decide he is interested in an application of the arts, he may be interested in the BXA program of Bachelor of Humanities and Arts.
Not going into as much depth with these next schools (time constraints, not their worthiness), but your son may also want to check out:
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American (D.C.): About 8500 undergrads
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Boston U. (MA): About 18k undergrads
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Chapman (CA): About 7700 undergrads
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Emory (GA): About 7100 undergrads
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Fordham (NY): About 9900 undergrads
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Ithaca (NY): About 4800 undergrads
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Loyola Marymount (CA): About 7100 undergrads
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Seattle (WA): About 4200 undergrads
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Tulane (LA): About 8700 undergrads
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U. of Cincinnati (OH): About 29k undergrads
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U. of Denver (CO): About 5900 undergrads
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U. of Georgia: About 30k undergrads