Looking some initial ideas for my 2027 son of where to start our search. He is a very good (but not great) runner (16:00 XC as a sophomore, 4:40 1600 m as a freshman) looking to run in college. He is also a pretty serious musician who plays two instruments and takes lessons on both, (cello and bass) has played in the local metro Youth Symphony as well as his very strong school Symphony orchestra, and done a lot of chamber music and summer music camps. My sense is he’d like to keep playing and taking lessons in college but doesn’t want to major in music. He is undecided about college major so far but is leaning toward science or engineering. I am thinking a small liberal arts college might be the best place for him to be able to do all of these, but he is skeptical! Thinking this Venn diagram might be a complicated one to figure out (particularly because at lots of places music rehearsals and sports practices happen at the same time of day!).
Demographics
US Citizen
Indiana resident
Large public suburban high school
Recruitable runner (low DI, DII, DIII)
Cello and double bass playe
Honors classes, AP Chemistry, taking 5 AP classes next year
Symphony Orchestra
Strength and Speed
Awards
Top 10 of 2027, numerous music awards, Varsity Letters for track and cross country as freshman and sophomore Extracurriculars
Indianapolis Youth Orchestra, Suzuki Academy chamber music, Star Scout (BSA)
Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability):
I think there is no chance of him running at IU unless he improves A LOT, and at least right now, I think that is super important to him. He’s also always been an IU hater lol (this from two parents who have IU graduate degrees)!
Based partly on your son’s variety of interests, he may benefit from looking into colleges with notably flexible curricula and strong available resources in the sciences, such as Amherst College, Hamilton and Grinnell. These schools do not offer direct engineering programs. However, Hamilton should be expected to be strong in electronics and robotics once its new computer science facility has been completed. Neuroscience may represent the strongest science program at Amherst.
Just based on personal experience, but I would recommend waiting another year before researching schools. Unless your son is really wanting to look at schools now.
My son at that age was similar in many ways. A good student, great musician and high level athlete. He spent much of his sophomore year striving to do all things well. By the end of sophomore year he decided to quit his sports, transfer to a performing arts school and focus almost exclusively on music.
All kids are different. But many realize at mid high school age that they cannot (or don’t want to) continue with everything as the level of competition around them ramps up. Not because they don’t love competition, but because it is hard for them not to give 100 percent to all pursuits.
Just saying that most adjust their path/priorities a lot at this time.
This is a profound post. And we should just repost it every time a parent of a 9th grader posts asking “What should she be doing to get in to Stanford?” or “My son is one of the rare 8th graders who knows he wants to be an investment banker, how can we help him achieve his goals?”
OP- your son sounds terrific. The world will not run out of great colleges for him if you put a pin in the college talk for now!!!
May want to consider what kind of science, and how strong the interest in engineering is. Those with interest in engineering may be more likely to favor the physical or mathematical sciences (e.g. physics and math) or computer science over biological sciences.
Interest in majors may influence which colleges (particularly smaller ones) are more or less suitable from the point of view of major and course offerings.
This may create significant constraints with smaller schools, particularly LACs. Many LACs do not have engineering (other than through 3+2 programs that are rarely completed through transfer to the “2” school). Many also have small physics departments which do not reliably offer all of the usual upper level physics core courses on a frequent-enough basis.
I imagine he’s planning to continue on with Scouting, as you probably wouldn’t have mentioned Star if it were an activity on the cut list, but I just wanted to encourage you/him to see it all the way through to Eagle. It’ll be a tremendous achievement, and worth the effort to get those last two ranks. In terms of how colleges see him, sure, but more important, in how he’ll see himself for the rest of his life. Not to mention all of the lessons in both service and leadership he’ll learn along the way.
Yes, Eagle is definitely the goal (I think still…). He was advancing a lot (and is basically done with Life too) but with athletics, music, and academics cutting into things, he hasn’t been getting much done on that lately! He did a 90 mile hike at Philmont last summer but is missing Scout Camp next summer for an orchestra trip, so he is going to need to be more proactive about working on some of his merit badges on his own!
Yes and no. Yes because there is enough of a HS track record (pardon the pun) to have a sense of the kid’s academic performance and interests. But the no because by the time you find the list of 8 schools that have the right combination of his academic interests, EC passions and athletic interests… one or more of those elements is likely to have changed!!! So letting the year play out for him might lead in a very different direction…
Male runners can change so much between fall sophomore and fall senior year. It is so hard to predict. And then the physical sciences vs engineering divide is such a big one (3-2 programs are far from ideal.) So recommending colleges is hard now.
But maybe begin by researching schools in conferences w less travel (e.g. MIAC for DIII) because physical sciences and/or engineering are rigorous!
I totally understand and appreciate that interests change and that this will be more productive next year (or the year after!). One of the reasons I am asking now rather than in a year is that I am concerned about finding times to visit schools (particularly if they are all over the place) with his crazy busy schedule and mine too–it is really difficult for me to take off during the academic year. Mainly I want to give him some early visits at different sized schools (and those with and without engineering) to let him see the kinds of academic, music and sports options he’d have at different places. I think I am actually hoping that he sees how difficult it would be to do all of them- particularly at a big school.
OK, how about a Minnesota trip? See UMN (high D1, all sciences + numerous engineering majors available), U of St Thomas (low D1, more LAC feel, a few engineering majors available), Macaleser (urban LAC, good sciences, no engineering, MIAC D3), Carleton (LAC, small town/rural 45 min from Mpls, rigorous, excellent sciences, no engineering, MIAC D3), Olaf (nearby Carleton, LAC, amazing music, good sciences, no engineering, MIAC D3.)
Minneapolis is an airport hub. Simple schedule visiting all 5
Take him to various schools - start close to home - it’s easier.
Urban, suburban, rural.
Small, medium, large.
Everything from a Rose Hulman to a Purdue or Ohio State and a Butler, Dayton, Miami in between. Or if you can get to Pittsburgh, Pitt, Carnegie Mellon, and Duqesne - all right there.
Or MN, UMN, Macalester, St. Olaf - all right there, etc.
Don’t direct based on your desires.
The canvas should be open.
Talk to students on campus - find out about his interests and the reality of doing so.
So many kids have all these ideas they’re going to do all this - and eventually they realize it’s not realistc.
For most college bound kids, I agree with this. For prospective student athletes, you have to get started earlier. Kids need to start reaching out to college coaches prior to junior year to get on their radar. Casting a wide net is critical early so build a big list. It will get narrower as the process goes along.
As you get into this process, you’ll see lots of people talking about the importance of having “likelies” on the list. In that vein, echoing others, I’d check out St. Olaf. Really excellent reputation for music, is one of the top feeder schools to science PhD programs, and is known for being full of really nice, smart kids. It also has an admit rate of just over 50%, so would make for a good “likely” school for him (those will be important). As @fiftyfifty1 noted, is in the MIAC for running. No engineering, so that would be a consideration, but, as others have mentioned, that’ll be hard to come by at a liberal arts college.
This is a great idea! Olaf was one of the ones already on my radar because I had some info about someone doing both running and music there, and I know that their orchestra program is excellent.