Amherst debuted their new dining facility this year modeled after UMass. Nice first year dorms. The NESCAC is a great place for college foodies. Too bad my kid has a simple palate.
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I think she’s going to need to be very realistic about what she’d like her college experience to look like and where she’s willing to compromise. Dance was extremely important to my daughter and drove a lot of the fit discussion regarding schools. It was a different discipline (ballet) but the decision points aren’t all that different. Does she want to perform, major, minor etc. My daughter also started in premed, although ultimately decided on the PhD path and double majored, but academics were still very heavy. My son was also a recruited athlete, so we spent a whole lot of time looking at how athletics differed depending on level and how schools helped student athletes balance life.
Trying to combine all three is going to be as much about being very realistic at priorities as anything else. Is she okay with a club sport and how far is the school from appropriate skiing which will dramatically impact how realistic it is to continue with other commitments. Does she want to major, minor or just club dance? Is she willing to take 2-3 gap years before applying to medical school as she will not be able to fit the medical extracurricular needs into her schedule with heavy dance and skiing commitments. And honestly, she needs to really set priorities on what is the most important fit. Just because a school has a team whether dance or skiing, doesn’t mean it’s an actual good fit. There were A TON of schools that came up as great for dance, but offered little pointe work. Obviously not an issue for your daughter, but I’m sure there are other particulars in what’s important to HER for dance that will vary tremendously between schools.
I know it was mentioned above and it didn’t seem to resonate with you, but I’ll mention University of Utah for very strong dance and very close proximity to excellent skiing.
Best of luck in your search, she sounds like an amazing woman.
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Can you please elaborate a little more about what your daughter wants? Does she intend to major in dance? Join a dance team? Dance for fun?
Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Midd, Williams are all D3. But you are right that at many (possibly all?) events, D1 and D3 compete together. Guessing that the logistics are such that it doesn’t make sense to separate them. My sense is that the biggest difference isn’t in the quality of the athletes but in whether they can be receive scholarships.
I think that some time ago, they might have all been D1.
S24 is a 3rd year at UVA where he has raced with VASST. It’s a fun and social group - the races are a mixed bag in terms of quality of competition but there are always a few very good kids. I can’t speak to the dance team there but did want to weigh in on the skiing (which, frankly, I was surprised they had - we are from MA).
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Has she considered Rutgers?
It has a competitive dance program, alpine skiing, and is very strong in the sciences and pre-health.
It is hard to say what a safety would be, as dance is very competitive. Honors is also very, very competitive at Rutgers.
We don’t know scores….but I do think Rutgers is a solid acceptance (academically) for your daughter, who sounds wonderful.
She can also take a look at Pitt. Very strong in pre-health, has dance and skiing.
Lehigh is another (not a safety).
Reach schools are easy to find. Safeties and sometimes targets can be tricky.
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I don’t think this is correct. Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Midd and Williams are all D3, but their ski teams are D1. Skiers at those schools are D1 athletes. It’s the same with their squash teams.
There are only 29 NCAA ski teams - everything else is USCSA. Colby, Middlebury etc are Div III for skiing but there isn’t a separate championship by division - skiers from all divisions compete against one another in a single championship event.
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And although the D3 and D1 schools are shown in their respective categories, I see that Colby, on its “about the program” page, says their program is D1. Perhaps as they all compete side by side and there aren’t that many teams? So I may have mislead. It looks like Bowdoin has only Nordic skiing. They had Alpine decades ago, but it’s club now.
I DO know that it’s hard to end up on the Colby team; one of DS’ close friends was a skier and had done high school at one of the ski academies (which was of great interest to me!)
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Both of my kids continued their education after college. I was thankful to have some money left to help with these degrees.
I would seriously consider costs, as med school is very, very expensive and is shocking to look at.
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100%.
Even an MBA is, btw, or law school. Most grad schools are.
I’m so fortunate to have money left in the 529 - because my kids chose, not for financial savings but for desire, schools that came in far under budget. Just luck. But it will pay off if they decide upon further schooling.
If someone wants to go to grad school today and the costs are mostly on them, they will be so far indebted that they may not have the flexibility to make choices in life., assuming they attend right after college and they have no/little savings,
People can debate upon is the perceived prestigious better than not, etc. but if parents have a way to save to help kids with further schooling, at least from a personal finances for the kids (and maybe parents) POV, it’s so far a superior option.
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A chunk of their salary will be used to pay back loans. Unless the student comes from wealth, I would pay attention to costs for a student interested in medicine/dentistry/health care.
Many/most students are paying a lot more now on a monthly basis than they did a year ago due to changes in student loans.
For pre-health it will not matter whether a student attends Buffalo or Dartmouth. What matters are grades, test scores, medical volunteering, shadowing, working in underserved communities, letters of recommendation, interviews, what the student accomplished during gap years, etc.
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Good planning was most likely involved here. I think that having the student pay or borrow for the entire cost of graduate school might be feasible for someone taking on a one year master’s degree or a fully funded PhD. For anything else that I am aware of I do not think that this is a good plan (for students in the USA).
The amount of debt associated with getting an MD entirely on loans, loans, and more loans is quite terrifying to me.
Right now I think when first looking at options for a bachelor’s degree is the time to try to save some money, which should go into a fund to be used for medical school. There are lots and lots and lots of universities that are very good for an undergraduate premed student. Four or five or six years from now when applying to MD programs even a very strong student is doing well if they can get one single acceptance to one MD program, which suggests that comparing costs is unlikely to be feasible.
And given the huge commitment that is involved in being a premed student, I think either that has to either be the one goal or just forget about it. Yes a bit of skiing on the side or dancing on the side may also be possible for a premed student, but it can’t be an equal commitment or the student will just be spread too thin to do either well.
And premed classes are going to be plenty challenging even at a solid safety.
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Dartmouth, Brown, Williams etc are also reachy, imo.
As amazing as your daughter is, keep in mind that there are superstars all over the country applying to the same schools. This does not take anything away from your daughter.
I remember when my daughter was interviewing for a competitive scholarship. There was a student who had his pilot’s license- he cooked meals and flew around the country delivering meals to food pantries.
We attended an info session at a highly rejective college. One parent asked the admissions counselor how the school expects applicants to have perfect (or near perfect) grades, top rigor, top scores, and outstanding ECs. The response was….”that’s what we expect.” This was a while ago.
With that in mind, I would try to find a safety or 2 that your very talented daughter would be happy attending. This doesn’t mean she won’t be accepted to Dartmouth (her top choice), but it may help…just a little…if she doesn’t.
Adding: premed and everything that goes with it is very time consuming. While I do think that students could certainly find time to ski or dance, trying to do these things on a regular basis in addition to classes, studying, volunteering, etc…might be hard.
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Flying around the country to deliver meals seems like a terrible idea.
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Well it worked for this student while also helping others. He packed his plane with food and took off!
He obviously had the means to do this, but that’s a whole other discussion.
I know of two students who have done this, and both stayed relatively local. One was focused on getting food to rural and/or hard to access areas, think inhabited islands in the Great Lakes.
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The point I was trying to make is that there are a lot of amazing students out there. It’s hard to fathom until you visit these schools and start talking to them.
The OPs daughter sounds amazing as well and any school would lucky to have her.
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I am focusing on safeties and targets because I think you have already identified reaches.
Pitt is an amazing school that I mentioned briefly earlier. It is very strong in the sciences and pre-health, has dance on and off campus, has a dance minor, and has alpine skiing about an hour away. Student groups often take trips. There is also a lot of research offered (even now) if interested.
I think it is going to be hard to ski frequently, given classes, studying, labs, papers, volunteering, clubs, etc..but she can figure out a schedule that works for her.
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