OK, before I start this post, I would like to say that I am a rising Junior- this post is HYPOTHETICAL.
What’s not hypothetical: I have a 31 on the ACT. Sophomores can take it a year early at my high school.
What IS hypothetical: If I get straight A’s next year, I could finish with a 3.6 unweighted and a 3.9 weighted GPA.
What’s not hypothetical: I was recently diagnosed with ADHD, hurting my grades. I can now get some accommodations for next year.
What IS hypothetical: I could bump up my ACT to a 32, possibly.
So, assuming I get these stats, what Big Ten schools could I be competitive for? Reach, match, safety?
Thanks.
Edit: I should add that my major of interest would likely be music related- however, considering that I want to go into health (maybe), I would be more likely to just pursue a BA in music (not a conservatory).
Do you mean “Big 10” as in the Big 10 Athletic Conference, or do you mean the Top 10 ranked colleges and universities (a list which is somewhat vague, and depends on a person’s preferences)?
Why Big10 only? The 14 schools in the big 10 have different strengths, vibes, settings, etc.
At all of the big 10 schools (with the exception of NU) OOS students pay more and generally receive little financial aid. U Michigan does meet full need, but that (and NU) are high reaches for you.
For music majors you will have to see if you can find out what the acceptance rate is for that major (or school) because it may be lower than the college’s overall acceptance rate. That information is what you need to appropriately classify the rest of the Big 10 schools.
The best match for you seems to be Indiana university. By stats you are a match/high match, and, depending how strong you are in music, they have Jacob’s School of Music. Nebraska, Iowa, and MSU may be safeties, but you need to check your Naviance (they may be low matches). UMN, UIUC, Penn State, Rutgers, UMD, Purdue, and OSU are anywhere between matches and low reaches (look at your high school’s Naviance). UMichigan is a high reach, and I don’t think that you are competitive for Northwestern.
I agree with the above, except for UIUC which may be more of a reachable reach than a match due to your GPA.
Purdue is not a good fit for your interests.
You want to check which of these schools offers a music BA and what the requirements are, especially if your goal is to be premed - large universities with music schools have very “professional” majors. You may want to look into a public health major with a music minor?
Thanks for the responses. I did the smart thing and checked Naviance. For my school:
HIGH reach: Northwestern
Reach: Michigan
Match: Wisconsin, OSU, Rutgers, UMD, UIUC, Penn State, Purdue (although not considering), Minnesota, Indiana.
Safeties: MSU, Nebraska, Iowa.
Although, my (school) music teacher is encouraging me to look at full conservatory programs (NU, Mich, Indiana, OSU?). I’ll consider it, although it might put me on a WHOLE different admissions scale.
Michigan is a high reach. 3.9 with 32 - 35 Act. It is also extremely competitive with the arts. If your talent is there and you can get in front of them, that might help. Not sure what the stats are for the music program but most likely less. They also don’t weight grades but expect you to have a rigorous course load. They will look at your senior grades and that might help.
I know it varies by major but I would think Madison would be more of a reach for an OOS applicant. I see lots of kids upset about not getting in there every year. But, I am not that knowledgeable about their music program and requirements.
If you were in-state it would definitely be a match.
I want to add on to @PrdMomto1 and say that U Wisconsin Madison has gotten much harder to get into this year. I know a lot of high stat kids that were waitlisted, despite what naviance said about previous years. The rest of your list looks right for general admits, not sure how that changes for music. IU has a very strong music/arts program. Best of luck to you.
Full disclosure before you read: non-music NU alum and Ohio State law grad. Buckeye born and bred.
If you are interested in marching band, the Big Ten bands are exceptional. Of course, TBDBITL (which stands for The Best Damn Band in the Land) at Ohio State is amazing. But all of the Big 10 bands are really, really good so if that is your interest, you can’t beat a Big 10 school.
Iowa would be a really good place to look. I have a music major there (BM performance & BA Music Ed). Iowa has an excellent music school, less than 500 music students, offers a BA, has public health school, medical school, pharmacy school. UI Hospital is right on campus next to stadium so accessible for UGs in health fields. (Google the Iowa Wave–very cool tradition.) You do have to audition. We are OOS and received good financial aid from both music school and the University, but our kiddo was a NMF and heavily recruited by music school.
NU and Michigan would be very, very, very high reaches for you. NU is private so no OOS penalty but COA is more than $75,000 and all aid at NU is based on need not merit. Ohio State’s music school is not a conservatory program, but is excellent. It is getting more and more difficult to get in to Ohio State, even in-state, so I wouldn’t consider it a safety, maybe more of a match. Indiana Jacobs is basically a conservatory and extremely fine music school, so it won’t be a safety if you are going to major in music. UW Madison has an excellent music school as well. We have been hearing good things about MSU and Nebraska music programs too, and they might be matches.
Finally, if you are looking at majoring in music, admissions is a whole different ball game than grades and test scores. The audition is most important in admissions. The most important thing in choosing a school is whether or not you click with your studio teacher. There is a really good music major forum on this site that has much good information.
@NYC2018nyc@PrdMomto1@Knowsstuff
Thanks for the responses. I looked into the schools more, not even interested in NU or UMich. Plus, even if I got in, they both seem to have very competitive atmospheres which I would be not as happy in. Seems like some other big tens have that, but not as much.
On top of that, these are state schools (I’ve heard admissions is heavily based on stats), so it might be better to stick to the schools with similar GPA’s like mine, so cya later NU and UMich (hey, maybe I’ll see them for grad school).
Madison is getting more competitive, but Naviance shows a bunch of students with 3.3-3.6 getting in, so I’ll be wary, but I’ll keep it as a match (high match).
Rutgers and Penn State are known to give good aid to students from my school, as my instate school is UConn, and I think Penn State, Rutgers, and UConn compete for applicants (?). They’re on par with each other, right?
@ohnooboe
Another reason for Big Ten is the marching bands, like said. Problem is, I have a sibling (who is in the arts, for their grades didn’t even look good for UConn) who is at Michigan…so Ohio State would be…ironic. Although excellent music, and I think their band is better then Michigan. Still though, I want to go to grad school, and I don’t know how much aid I would get, so that might be the bigger issue.
Penn State doesn’t give much aid, if any, to OOS applicants.
If you need financial aid, start there: ask your parents what their budget from income and any savings (college fund) is. Then run the NPC with them, college by college, and see which big10 universities fall within that budget.
Michigan undergrad, Minnesota grad here…why only the Big 10 schools? There are a lot of great state schools outside the conference. Even a school like Miami of Ohio is a pretty good value if you consider their merit aid which you are close to qualifying for. There are good marching bands at a lot of schools.
As for Michigan being extremely competitive, it is what you make of it. I had friends that studied a ton and others not, just like many other schools. It would appear to be a bit of a reach, but my daughter was admitted OOS with a 3.7 UW/4.2 W and 34 ACT (also legacy). But she is passing it up for an honors college out west. You will likely have to raise your ACT another 3-4 points to be competitive there, but who knows with the uncertainty of college admissions these days.
To me, it seems that Indiana (great music school) and Wisconsin are very good matches, along with the others you mention. But music is much more than just GPA and test scores as others have said.