<p>Hey, 5Boys!!! Long time no see. </p>
<p>Everything is going swimmingly. DS is still beyond happy at school. Doing very well and also keeping very busy with his sport, clubs, etc. Just landed a great on campus job in the Career Dev. Office. Can’t think of a better place to have a job. 
</p>
<p>How is your adventurer?</p>
<p>Thanks Vitrac, </p>
<p>I know the test scores are hugely important. DD’s SAT practice scores were what I would call low so we are not expecting the first SAT she took last week to be her final. She will try the ACT next and then we’ll go from there. She will decide which test she’ll focus on and retake it later this year as well as in the fall of the senior year most likely.</p>
<p>Given that, I am suggesting a wider range of schools to research and visit (using the current test scores as well as being realistic about potential future improvement) and then narrowing it down in the fall. If she waits till she is done with the tests, it’ll be too late.</p>
<p>Hi Shulamit and 5Boys, </p>
<p>We are planning to visit Muhlenberg sometime soon. I’ve never heard of it until reading about it on CC but now I am very aware of it’s ranking and popularity among Jewish students in the area. It seems to me it would be a high reach for a less than “A” student due to the number of applicants (if those stats are true). Is that right?
Regardless, if D likes it and has a chance, we’ll encourage her to apply. </p>
<p>We crossed off Goucher because of the male/female ratio, it is almost 70% girls which is another factor for a girl, would probably be great for a guy </p>
<p>I don’t know much about Adelphi, how are the academics there? While we do support D’s plan to go OOS but not if a local state college would give her a better education. </p>
<p>Regarding Elon, we haven’t considered any schools where she would need to take a plane ride. However, after learning about the “under-represented state” concept, I now think we should. CA would be too far, NC may not be too bad. I know D will be concerned because she would need a permission from us to visit instead of just coming over to see her friends or cousins. We’ll have to discuss this more with her to see how she would feel about it. Does anyone know how jewish life is at Elon? </p>
<p>Twogirls (I also have two girls), </p>
<p>We visited Binghamton because we were already in the area and they offered a Sunday tour which no other college had. I thought if she really liked it, perhaps it would be a motivating factor. Thanks for suggesting SUNY Buffalo, it has about 20K undegraduates, almost twice the size of our suburban town. Is there a community feel there? It may not be a size factor but how the campus is managed. What are the good things about Towson? </p>
<p>Emilybee,
Thanks for the information on Ithaca and HWS, do you know anyone who attended a public HS and went to HWS? All questions on the CC HWS forum are answered by a mom of one of the students. It is not like the other schools’ forums, almost no activity.</p>
<p>EmmyBet,
My daughter is not planning on majoring in Musical Theater, she takes voice lessons (and took piano for years) but she hasn’t auditioned or performed, only at teacher’s recitals. Perhaps she’ll try in the future. Thanks for suggesting Temple University. I know the rankings are not everything however it is rated very low and the 4-year graduation rate is only 36%. Shouldn’t this be a concern?</p>
<p>PlanB, you can search this thread for info on any school - look up at the top on the right and it will show you how. I think several of us are chuckling that you ask about Elon, since the thread’s founder’s son is there and it has been discussed here at enormous length!</p>
<p>If your D is planning on majoring in theatre, I imagine you’re aware that there are two kinds of theatre degrees - auditioned (usually BFA) and non-auditioned (usually BA). Many auditioned programs have a very different take on what kind of academic stats they are expecting. But that discussion is best found on the Theatre Major Forum. I hope we’ll see you over there! For example, of the schools you mentioned, Adelphi and Elon have auditioned theatre BFAs, and Muhlenberg and Goucher do not, although they are still terrific programs - and Muhlenberg holds auditions for talent scholarships. Of the SUNY schools, Purchase (auditioned BFA) is considered top notch for Acting. New Paltz is an auditioned BA program, and very highly regarded (also a good admissions bet for a B student).</p>
<p>My feelings on “local” (i.e. with large commuter population) and seemingly low graduation rates are this: We struggled with this issue, because many great theatre departments are in schools that might be seen this way (Adelphi, Temple, Montclair State). It can be an issue in terms of the general atmosphere around the university, with lots of non-traditional students and less social life on campus on weekends, etc. What we were told, and what is usually true, is that if you are involved in a very specific department and activity, like theatre, those characteristics really aren’t relevant. Focused kids graduate, and they are active and busy, socially and in their programs. You know your own kid, and whether people around her who are slower to graduate (which can be for many, many reasons) would affect her or not.</p>
<p>My D was a B+/A- student in the end, with an excellent ACT (fall of senior year she nailed it). She is very challenged at Adelphi in their Honors College. In addition, her stats got her a significant merit scholarship. At the time, she applied across the board - to small colleges, larger state Us, and both BA and BFA programs. In the end, her preference was the auditioned BFA, which led her in a definite direction when she decided where to go (being near NYC was a big plus, too).</p>
<p>There are so many different colleges, and so many ways to approach this. I think your D needs to look at the spectrum of theatre degrees and programs, and come up with her own most important criteria. The schools will start falling into place after that. Keep asking questions! You’ve found a great resource here.</p>
<p>Note - I would not say that Jewish life is strong at Adelphi. They have a small interfaith organization, but that’s it. My D has met almost no other Jewish students, which we find kind of humorous, since she went to Long Island from Wisconsin. But that’s not a priority for us, and being in New York she certainly knows where to find Jewish connections if she needs them.</p>
<p>A nice, not too large B student school with a non-auditioned theatre BFA is the University of Rhode Island. It has reasonable out of state tuition, too.</p>
<p>Vitrac, read your PM, thank you for the information</p>
<p>Plan B, DD is a freshman at SUNY Buffalo. In fact she just flew back today. She was home on spring break. She is having a great experience. SUNY Buffalo offers a BFA in voice, musical theater and dance. An audition is required. The campus is very manageable because it is divided between two campuses, North and South. Feel free to ask me any specific questions you might have.</p>
<p>NeedPlan, yes, I know many kids from my public school district (in upstate NY so HWS draws a lot of applicants from here,) who went or are now students at HWS. I’m sure the majority of students at HWS come from public schools - but there are preppy kids who go to public high schools (and non preppy types at private schools.) My kid went to prep school but is definitely not preppy.</p>
<p>EmmyBet, thanks for your thoughts, she is not planning on a theater major, at least not that I know of You are making a great point about schools with lower graduation rates, I am sure there are plenty of focused students who graduate in four years (36 out of 100 in this case) and we need to know our kids to tell whether they are likely to end up in that group.</p>
<p>NeedPlanB - Jewish life is thriving at Elon! In fact, I would guess some may be getting very tired of me mentioning it. (But I hope not) The incoming freshman class is 10% Jewish, they just dedicated a new Hillel House, Hillel has numerous events every week and a new Jewish fraternity just started this semester. My son is active in both Hillel and fraternity ZBT. He went on a trip over break to Florida with Hillel to do community service with Habitat for Humanity. He attends Shabbat programs and will be going to a Seder this week. Bagel brunches every Sunday. Last week, he helped bake challah for a fundraiser. Should I keep going? It has exceeded my expectations. Feel free to PM me with any Elon questions.</p>
<p>Ah - if she is not going to major in theatre and wants to be involved extra-curricularly, then you’ll have to check a few things with some of those schools. A school with a BFA training program often has very few theatre opportunities for non-majors (unless it’s a very big school, like Boston University). Adelphi, for example, will not allow non-majors to audition for shows, and there is very little - or nothing - by way of EC theatre. Elon might be the same way.</p>
<p>This is an important thing to check out for all performance students: dance, drama, music. What are the opportunities for non- majors? In the case where there is a graduate program- what are the opportunities for undergraduate majors and also undergraduate non-majors. There are only so many roles in a production, and so many seats in an orchestra, and its pretty hard for a non major to compete against students with more training. I know some schools have community orchestras for non-majors and perhaps there are community theater productions as well. Some music teachers restict their studio to majors, so ask about voice lessons. The same might go for the availablility of intramural sports to non-athletes.</p>
<p>tootiredtocare: Longtime lurker here, who wants to put in a good word for the U of I (and wants to bring this thread back from page 3!). As you know, U of I has a great computer engineering program, and there’s a thriving Jewish campus life here as well with an active Hillel, Chabad and lots of greek life if your kid is into that (and it’s fine if he’s not, too). I’m not sure why U of I is not on the radar of this CC group, other than it is expensive for out-of-state students. I don’t know much about Case, except that a couple of the kids from my D’s high school who went there didn’t seem happy and transferred out. Still, without being able to completely articulate my reasons, I will second your feeling that U of I is the better choice for your son. Do try to visit both schools to be sure, though.</p>
<p>applemath: I never thought U of I was a “B” student school, especially for OOS…always thought of it as a great school…</p>
<p>Rodney - it’s definitely an “A” school for engineering, business and a few other of its stronger departments, but certainly not everyone who gets in is an A student - at least, not from my D’s school.</p>
<p>Is U of I, Indiana, Iowa or Illinois?</p>
<p>I believe the U of I reference was for Illinois. Indiana is generally called Indiana University - or IU. It does get confusing!</p>
<p>Applemath: I completely agree with you. We had a great visit at Case last summer but I left there feeling that is wasn’t the right fit for S1. He is a pretty easy kid, all things considered, and would probably be happy anywhere. He really had his heart set on UT/Austin but when he got into CS and not Computer Engineering he was disappointed and realized he had to look at his other options again. We are taking him to a James Scholars program at U of Illinois in April. I will try to take him back to Case, too but it is more difficult. </p>
<p>In terms of the B student part at UIUC, he has a 3.6 GPA but a 35 ACT. I think Illinois still plays a big numbers game and you can compensate for GPA with test scores. On one visit in Champaign we were told by the Dean of the Colllege of Engineering that they were actively recruiting from OOS which in my cynical view is in direct correlation to the higher tuition from OOS students.</p>
<p>Agent99: My understanding is: U of I or UIUC is Illinois; IU is Indiana and Iowa is Iowa. It is confusing. I also get confused when cc’ers post about Miami - is that Florida or Ohio?
S1 got into Miami of Ohio with great merit aid and I can never tell if the posts I read are about the correct school…</p>
<p>tootiredtocare: You’re right about the numbers game at UIUC, my D was accepted to LAS with just a bit lower GPA and ACT scores than your son, but she chose to go to a LAC instead. I’ve also heard that UIUC is actively looking for out-of-state students for diversity and higher tuition. Anyway, congratulations to your son - James Scholar is a great honor.</p>
<p>tootiredtocare: I think we talked a little bit about Miami of OH on this thread a while ago… more recently the conversation has been about the University of Miami in FL.</p>
<p>I had considered Miami of OH for DS as more of a safety school for engineering, but he never made it onto his list. I’ve heard very positive things about the school, but it sounds difficult to get to from here so, as a safety, it wasn’t a good option. University of Miami is the one on top of his list and I’m hoping he can make that 100% commitment a week from today, after he has all his decisions in.</p>
<p>As a side note, I was always frustrated in my search for DD who was a B+ student with B student test scores (3.6 GPA like tootired’s S, but a 27 ACT). She had very different choices than a B student with great test scores would have.</p>