Good merit aid for academic schools (small-mid) with dance minor not in NE and not in small rural area

Continuing the discussion from Highly selective academic schools with dance companies – not interested in dance major:

Hello! I incorrectly titled my last thread as being for “highly selective” academic schools. Upon further reflection, I realize what we want is academic schools with good merit aid. Selectivity is not important. What is important is the ability to get a lot of merit aid, study biology and possibly Spanish, in a school with social and economic diversity, preferably in a small to medium size school, be able to have a dance minor or join a dance company, and not be in the NorthEast or a small rural area. My DD is number 1 out of 150; 4.0 gpa; 4.8 weighted; concurrent enrollment in Spanish; Suzuki violin through Book 8; very involved in all forms of dance. No test scores as of yet but think they may fall in 1400s rather than 1500s. I would love your thoughts on this newly titled thread! Thanks so very much for your valuable input!

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What is the budget? More helpful for you to get granular- we want to pay X, rather than have us all spin our wheels coming up with merit schools that won’t come near to your budget.

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There is no magic number. We are looking for a “good fit” at lowest cost possible. If I had to give a number, it would be between $30-55k a year all-in if possible.

We will not qualify for any need-based aid.

All of the big Southern schools—U Arizona, FSU, UF, Alabama, Most SEC schools, maybe Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Macalaster, St.Olaf(? Too rural).
Maybe even U.Oklahoma, Indiana.

Thanks. We are looking for a medium size school preferably but will check out your ideas.

Indiana U. U of Oregon. UNC-G. U of South Cali. Mercyhurst. Western Michigan. Ohio State. SDSU. Chapman. TCU. SMU. Butler. Lindenwood.

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These schools are sorted by my guesses as to what your D’s chances for admission might be. This does not include any auditions that may be required for dance programs, nor does it include the likelihood of getting sufficient merit aid (though the schools listed will offer enough merit aid to bring the price within budget).

Extremely Likely (80-99+%)

  • Belhaven (MS): About 1500 undergrads

  • Butler (IN): About 4400 undergrads

  • Chapman (CA): About 7900 undergrads

  • College of Charleston (SC): About 10k undergrads

  • Elon (NC): About 6300 undergrads

  • Hollins (VA): Women’s college of about 700 undergrads

  • Hope (MI): About 3300 undergrads

  • Jacksonville (FL): About 2600 undergrads

  • Oklahoma City (OK): About 1400 undergrads

  • Shenandoah (VA): About 2500 undergrads

  • U. of Montana: About 7200 undergrads

  • U. of Wisconsin – Stevens Point: About 7300 undergrads

  • Webster (MO): About 2200 undergrads

  • Winthrop (SC): About 3700 undergrads

Likely (60-79%)

  • Ohio Wesleyan: About 1400 undergrads

  • St. Olaf (MN): About 3k undergrads

Toss-Up (40-59%)

  • Loyola Marymount (CA): About 7300 undergrads

  • Oberlin (OH): About 3k undergrads

  • Southern Methodist (TX): About 7100 undergrads

Lower Probability (20-39%)

  • Case Western (OH): About 6k undergrads

Low Probability (less than 20%)

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SDSU has over 30,000 students. I don’t think it’s considered midsize.

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I would add U of Richmond to those already mentioned. Dance-specific scholarships are available to dance minors as well as majors. Seems like your daughter could be competitive there. The campus is not right in the city of Richmond, but close enough to have access. There’s also cross-registration with VCUArts. The college isn’t as diverse as some, but may be diverse enough for your criteria Student Profile - Undergraduate Admission - University of Richmond (The city of Richmond is quite diverse.) The Spanish department emphasizes community engagement. Community-Based Learning - Latin American and Iberian Studies LALIS - School of Arts

https://financialaid.richmond.edu/types-of-aid/merit-based/index.html

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My daughter’s freshman roommate was a dance major and in the honors college (so had a second major but I don’t remember what it was) at the U of Wyoming. It has about 10k undergrads and a few grad schools too. Ten years ago they added a gorgeous new building for theater, music and dance. Each year they do a combined theater and dance show, like the Nutcracker. Roommate really liked the dance program and had a lot of opportunities to be in shows.

Definitely has bio majors and offers Spanish. It is a really nice sized school.

A friend went to Montana (Montana state?) for theater and dance.

If you are in a Western state, she’d be eligible for WUE, but it isn’t always automatic (it is at Wyoming, called Brown and Gold scholarship).

I can also put in a plug for UW-Stevens Point mentioned in AustenNut’s post. It has a lot of STEM majors like forestry, Water and Soil, and an engineering program for paper products, but it also has a very selective theater and music program. The college and the city have joint bands and orchestra and the city supports some productions. It is not a big city, but it has a lot of things to do especially outdoor activities. There are a lot of scholarships available.

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We are from Colorado so WUE money is an option but few of those schools seem to have a strong dance program. Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

Hi. Thanks for your comprehensive listings. Did you intend to list any low probability schools? That section was empty. Thanks!

Hi. Thanks for your comprehensive list. Did you intend to list any low probability schools? That section was empty. Thanks again

Did you look at U of AZ? It’s a huge school so I get it’s not ideal, but their minor is audition only, so you definitely have high level of dance. If your daughter is triple track (jazz/modern/ballet) it could be something to consider. They have an honors program that would at least make the school smaller.

You asked about California schools. Did you consider Loyola Marymount?

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Those are both great ideas we will consider. Thanks.

I didn’t have any suggestions for that category. Your kid is obviously a strong student and most schools would love to have her. The schools that would be low probability, because they receive far more competitive applications than they can accept, usually don’t offer any merit aid. Those that do offer sufficient merit aid would have extremely low odds of any applicant getting the merit aid (a Duke or WashU type), and although your D could be competitive for admission to the schools themselves, the odds of being competitive for one of their very small number of merit scholarships would be quite small.

That said, however, other members of the forum tend to be quite good at suggesting schools in the low probability category, so they may have some suggestions.

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Yeah, my two cents is it is actually good news this kid is so well-qualified that pretty much all the colleges with robust merit programs are going to be too likely to count as “Low Probability”.

Like I don’t know if Rochester counts as Northeast, but I would otherwise suggest it as a good fit with a Dance minor:

Rochester is an academicky school, it is particularly good if you like to combine different interests, it is pretty diverse (particularly in terms of Internationals), it is located in a nice mid-sized city, and it has robust merit.

But it is going to be roughly in the Case Western range in terms of admissions probabilities, which I think is good not bad.

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The higher the probability, the higher the merit. My higher stats students really only applied to safeties because they needed merit.

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I just mentioned Rochester in another post. Some other ideas.

Muhlenberg? Again, if that counts as a reasonable setting, they have a Dance minor and robust, GPA-based merit:

Even more of stretch in terms of setting but otherwise one I would suggest checking out for the same reasons is Dickinson. It is not as apparent but I believe they do have a Dance Minor as indicated on this page: