What schools are we missing? Strong Theater and Physics, In Big City, Gives Merit Scholarship, + Decently Prestigious - Unicorn? [4.0 UW GPA, 34 ACT, <$60k]

Ohio State? They opened some new theater buildings as they develop their arts district which is near the Physics department.

https://artsandsciences.osu.edu/arts-and-research/arts/arts-district

https://physics.osu.edu

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Northwestern

a lovely option, but alas Northwestern doesn’t give merit scholarships.

UCLA will likely be unaffordable for an OOS student.

Yes, all the UCs are expected to be above $70K - they are discussed extensively upthread. They are the only current exception to our desired ceiling (since they meet a lot of our other criteria), but if other strong schools come in with good merit, they would drop in our ranking.

I posted on the college visits thread about our recent visit to University of Arizona (thanks to @tsbna44 for persevering and getting it on our list.

For the sake of this thread I will add: The physics program is clearly much much stronger than the theater. As mentioned earlier, the theater program is in a state of upheaval and that was apparent in the admissions program. Theater was given short shrift in the Fine Arts presentation, almost like it was an afterthought. It could still provide decent performance opportunities, but definitely feels like it is in a state of flux. But if your kid wants to send something to space with NASA - UofA is tops!

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This may already have been mentioned, and you probably already know, but I think Whitman would likely give your daughter a nice merit award.

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Another update. All of the following schools have been removed from our current list, for various reasons, including the likelihood of receiving sufficient merit, or because the theater performance options were lacking, or other reasons. (some might not have appeared in previous posts - it is a fluid list. :rofl:

Since she is excited about St. Olaf and UofA, and those are both likely acceptances for her, we can be a bit more comfortable taking other schools off her list.

And adding - She has done a 180 on her preferred campus setting. No longer needs to be in a big city and likes distinct campuses without cars driving through them. :smile:

Connecticut College (too preppy, not sufficiently strong in areas of interest)
Davidson (unlikelihood of sufficient merit)
Duke University (merit very unlikely)
Lafayette College (too Greek-life oriented)
Northeastern (D wants to be out of college in 4 years)
Purdue (weather too grey, too big, low 4-year grad rate)
Vanderbilt University (low merit, not great fit)
Whitman College (theater options too limited)
William and Mary (merit unlikely)
University of Southern California (too SoCal)
Mount Holyoke (not right fit)
Lawrence University (disappointing in-person visit)

Thanks for the update!

So, these are the schools you’ve eliminated, but which ones are on the current (fluid) list?

Just wanted to mention that Purdue might be similar to Georgia Tech insofar it looks like they have a lower 4-year graduation rate, but in reality it’s because many of their students are getting paid co-ops.

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Since a city location is no longer a requirement, would you consider Kenyon? Strong physics and theater, tons of theater productions (although it’s quite competitive to get in, based on my daughter’s experience), beautiful distinct campus, and merit aid. Or is it too rural? Sorry if this was discussed above, it’s a long thread. My daughter liked St. Olaf, too (as well as other Midwestern LACs, such as Grinnell and Mac), so there’s an overlap there.

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In alphabetical order:

Bryn Mawr
CalPoly University-San Luis Obispo
Colorado State University (new addition, still looking into)
Macalester College
Santa Clara University
St. Olaf
UC Berkeley (all UCs might come off)
UC Irvine
UC San Diego
Univ of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
University of Arizona
University of Colorado, Boulder (might come off)
University of Massachusets, Amherst
University of San Diego (probably too Greek)
University of Utah
University of Wisconsin - Madison (might come off - she didn’t love it on our visit)
Washington University at St. Louis

Whereas before we had a way too long list, now I am a bit concerned because our list is pretty short. If I take off the “maybe” schools, we only have 11. That is likely plenty, but it feels odd having started off with 50+.

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re: Kenyon - It would be a perfect choice, but for the gloomy weather. She needs a lot more sunny days than there are in Gambier.

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There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a shorter list…less work and less money on app fees! So long as there is at least one (and preferably more than one) school where she is extremely likely to be accepted, that you would pay for, and that she’d happily attend for 4+ years, then she’s golden. CC and the college lists with 15-20+ applications is not the norm!

If, however, you’re trying to make sure you’ve looked in every nook and cranny and have turned over every stone, have you considered these schools?

  • Trinity U. in TX and its theatre page says all productions or open to students of all majors and years. Its physics department has also sent a lot of students on to earn PhDs in the field, and its department talks about some of its positives.

  • U. of Dallas in TX: Physics department, drama department, and has produced a fair number of physics PhDs, too.

  • Colorado College

  • Occidental in CA

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It doesn’t look short to me at all! We started with somewhere close to 100 schools on the original spreadsheet, and after whittling it down D24 only applied to 8.

There are some great schools on there. D24 loved St. Olaf when we visited (as did I), and they offered great merit!

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With UofU in-state as an affordable safety that meets all criteria pretty well, you can afford to have a short list. There’s no point applying anywhere you wouldn’t choose over Utah.

I’m curious what happened with the Lawrence visit, though! Must have been very disappointing for it to drop off the list altogether.

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I thought you had Oberlin on your list at some point, which is just an hour north from Gambier, so not sunnier I’d think. But maybe it has already come off the list, I don’t recall. In any case, best of luck!

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She just found it (Lawrence) to be a bit of a dud across the board. Didn’t love the campus, wasn’t super impressed with the students she encountered or the energy /vibe on campus, didn’t like the theater program, and didn’t love the facilities. Appleton was super cute though. :woman_shrugging: It was definitely a disappointment for her - She was really excited about it.

Yes indeed it was, and sadly came off due to lack of sunny days. Otherwise it would be near the top of the list.

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Wanted to second Trinity. Great STEM faculty and I don’t know about the major but the theater productions are great. Sunny all the time. Defined campus but right next to a big city :slight_smile: Not a conservative campus. Fabulous merit.

Editing to add a link to an announcement from Trinity I just got an email about.

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Trinity honestly seems great, and San Antonio is lovely, but we have a hard stop on all Texas schools due to abortion laws. Maybe we can keep it waiting in the wings and send an application if it looks like the situation there changes.

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Regarding U of Arizona and the “hot people” and party vibes, I know a current student who is very much neither of those things and is happy and thriving among new friends. She jumped into an awesome research opportunity her first year and has since traveled to present her research at conferences. Just anecdotal evidence, but I thought you might find it reassuring.

The budget issues are definitely something to keep an eye on, however.

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