<p>My daughter is a junior in high school, very bright I think. She loves math, music, writing and has no clue what she wants to do (which I try to tell her is OK at this stage). She loves classical guitar, but realizes it is difficult to make a career in music performance so she wants to continue her guitar in college and perhaps major in either engineering, math/physics (to teach at the high school level), music education, or writing. Penn State is in our backyard, but because she’s so familiar with it, she’s not showing much excitement for it, though I’m sure she could get into the Honors program. Personally, I’d like to see her go to a small liberal arts school, but not sure we have the $$$. She’ll likely qualify for some merit aid. Do any of you know of a good liberal (but not too liberal) arts school where any of the above would be an option that also offers merit aid??? We’d prefer the eastern US.</p>
<p>Her stats are as follows:</p>
<p>SAT I - 1600 (first attempt - think we’ll stop)
SAT II - Writing - 770
SAT II - Math IIc - 780
SAT II - Literature - 790
PSAT selection - 221
PA Gov. School for the Arts - guitar, 2004
All State vocalist - 2004
All Eastern vocalist - 2005
GPA 4.7 weighted</p>
<p>The starting point would probably be to sign up with usnews.com for their college information - a minimal amount, but lots of facts to spend hours with. But the BEST place to seek info is collegeconfidential.com - ESPECIALLY the parents forum, where much of the best info is available. You’ll find people that have been through the process, people with kids like yours, and people that have EXCELLENT advice. So get into some conversations (like this one) and continue to use this site.</p>
<p>MusicMom3–if your D might be interested in music ed, then an LAC would not necessarily be a good fit. I majored in music/English at an LAC and later got my master’s in music ed but had to take a lot of UG courses that I was lacking. Believe it or not but MIT has a very good humanities department. I knew at least a couple who majored in music at MIT, and of course, the 'tute’s reputation for the sciences and engineering doesn’t need an explanation. There’s also cross-registration at Wellesley for music courses there.</p>
<p>One challenge you might face is identifying schools that provide engineering and music instruction and allow you to participate in both. Universities do provide both but may have separate schools that do not allow cross-registration. LAC’s will have guitar instruction but may not provide the engineering.</p>
<p>I chuckled when you qualified your daughter’s intelligence: “very bright I think.” It sounds like she’s a very well-rounded young lady who’s bordering on genius level. You must be very proud of her.</p>
<p>Check out University of Rochester. ( I am soon going to start sounding like I work for them as I have recommended the school several times) They have an engineering division and they are affiliated with Eastman School of Music. Friend’s son attends U of Rochester and was able to take classes at Eastman. He also plays classical guitar. U of R is also pretty generous with merit aid and it is that time of year that participating HS’s can nominate an 11th grade student for the U of R -Bosch and Lomb Award or the Humanities and Social Sciences award. The award $ is only good at U of R and can’t be used at another school. But besides the $, this school really has many of the programs your daughter may be interested in. I’ll also suggest Oberlin. Though it doesn’t have engineering, I believe her other interests in the sciences, music, & writing - etc. will be met. Though U of R is not a LAC, it is a small university of about 5000 students . Good luck searching. I have to admit, Univ of Roch. was one of my favorite campuses when we were looking for my older d.</p>
<p>My first son was a Bausch and Lomb recipient (not much $$$, but additional aid is available) at UofR. It’s a great sized school with a lot of variety and diverse students. His major problem with the school was the COLD Rochester Winter!</p>
<p>Thanks for all the info. How does one go about getting our high school to submit her for the Bausch & Lomb award? Sounds like a school we should look at, especially if it is associated with Eastman.</p>
<p>Go to a book store and buy a good college guide book (we used Barrons I think, but there are many). Take some time to sort of get some basic information from that. Make sure your daughter looks at it more than you do. Have her start getting together a list of schools she’d like to visit this summer. Let her know the parameters - geographical and financial. </p>
<p>She could go anywhere! At Indiana University she would be in the honors college and would get some nice merit money. Their music school is absolutely tops- no engineering though.</p>
<p>Participating HS’s can nominate student’s for these awards. As we are in NYS, my guess is that just about all our schools nominate. So I suggest your daughter check it out with her guidance counselor. FYI- the B & L winner at our school was also awarded the Renaissance award (?) which is full tuition. Not that one award leads to another, but showing a strong and early interest in U of R may be beneficial. And yes Garland is right, most students with high SAT’s do get a $10,000 reduction in tuition. Also check their financial aid page, as they give info re: awards.</p>
<p>Congratulations, what a wonderful daughter you have!
Your job is to learn all you can about college financing. Use some of the online calculators and figure out what your EFC is and whether or not you will be willing to pay it. If you cannot meet the EFC, then you should concentrate on schools that give merit aid, including large state universities (folks whose incomes are in the 50-60K up to 150K have the most choices to make). If you can meet the EFC or if you are “low income” for college purposes, which may be about 40-50K and less then both need based and merit aid schools become more realistic. There’s a lot to learn, and this forum is a great place to begin, much of college financing is counter-intuitive, like it is easier for a 1600 student whose parents make 25K a year to go to Harvard than it is for a 1600 kid whose parents make 100K to go to Harvard.</p>
<p>2) Your daughter should try to prioritize her interests - do research into college with formal guitar instruction. Little Mother is probably correct, outside large unis it may be hard to find an institution that covers all those bases well, and it is always difficult to combine engineering with anything else. She can always do education courses later if she decides to teach, or transfer if she really feels drawn to music education. It is probably going to come down to a choice of engineering available - yes or no.</p>
<p>Besides MIT, another school that immediately comes to mind is Rice, I don’t know about guitar, and I don’t know about registration, (again engineering and anything else will tough, music being one of the hardest disciplines of all to combine) but it has both a good music school and a good engineering program.</p>
<p>I think University of Michigan would be a good choice for your D academically (not sure if financial aid would be enough but she is such a strong candidate, perhaps it would). UM has everything she is interested in: strong engineering, strong music, strong writing, and education as well. That way any direction she decides to take would be possible. I don’t know about classical guitar, but there are so many talented people at the university, there would be someone she could study with privately.</p>
<p>For mucho merit money look at Lawrence in Wisconsin (music conservatory + LAC) (not on east coast, but excellent school, “not too liberal,” that would probably be thrilled to get your D.) Great safety for her; also strong in math, etc.</p>
<p>From your post it sounds like you don’t qualify for need-based aid. There are other great LACs that give merit aid but I don’t know that much about the music depts at the others.</p>
<p>Back to the East Coast guys! : ) I really don’t know much about college music programs but I know my geography. College Board has a searchable database thats easy to use. If you can narrow down what you want I bet you can get lots of suggestions from this board. You’ve given us the stats, if you add the stuff like size of school, city or country, kind of school - preppy, big sports, price, you’ll get even better response. With your daughters stats Musicmom, the doors are wide open.</p>
<p>Actually finding a university with both music education and engineering is the easy part. BUT both majors have very significant required courses beginning freshman year. It would be VERY difficult to double major in these two fields…my guess is that it would be impossible to graduate in four years doing so. There are some programs that have engineering and music technology (not education). Two programs I am aware of are the Tufts/New England Conservatory Program (engineering and music), and Johns Hopkins/Peabody Conservatory (same). However to complete the education piece at each place would require additional time if for no other reason to complete observation requirements and student teaching.</p>
<p>If you want to consider some LAC’s, I agree with SBmom about Lawrence as a possibility. Not only do they have an excellent music and music ed. program, but they are very strong in the sciences. Unlike some schools, many students are able to double major in music and another field. Another suggestion worth looking at would be St. Olaf in Minnesota which has a stellar music program, a great math program, great writing programs. She’d get lots of merit aid there as well. If it’s not too liberal for her tastes, she might take a visit to Oberlin in Ohio. Kenyon would be another good LAC possibility. Closer to home, Bucknell has engineering, music, math and science programs that might interest her. Again, she’d probably be offered some good merit money there.</p>
<p>I also think Weenie’s suggestion is the place to start - buy a guidebook (I like the Fiske Guide myself) and have her look through for schools that sound interesting. I’d try to do at least some of the visits over spring break so she can see what various schools are like when students are on campus. Try to fit in one LAC, one mid-sized university, and maybe one technical school. She’ll have a better grasp of what she’s looking for then.</p>
<p>I would also suggest looking into Lawrence. My son is applying there because of both the conservatory of music and their strong science program. Although my son’s stats are quite a bit below those of your daughter–SAT 1410, for example, they have already offered him financial aid (even before he turned his application in), so I am sure they would love to have your daughter there! We talked with an admissions person who came to our city, and it seems like a very accepting place. The admissions person gave an example of the day the Iraq War started. She said there were two demonstrations on campus–one for the war, one against the war. Both were about equal in size, and there were no confrontations between the two. Sounds like an interesting place to me!</p>
<p>Oh, forgot–Oberlin in Ohio also has a music conservatory and a strong science program. They are probably a bit more liberal than Lawrence, but it might be another place to consider. I am not sure how good their merit aid is, but I know they offer it.</p>
<p>Gosh, with stats like that your daughter can go anywhere. Why don’t you try some ivy schools like YALE and BROWN.Iam sure the offers will come flooding in.Try to decide where you want to go, like stay in the Northeast or if you are inclined to travel far.I have also heard great things about Sarah Lawrence, Oberlin. If I were you think it would be important to start visiting colleges. I’m sure your daughter will have alot to say about which place suits her best.</p>