Drumroll Please . . .

We have a list!  Boo has what is likely her final list of colleges to which she plans to apply.  She’s happy with it. I’m happy with it, and Boo’s college counselor is happy with it.  All good.  So here it is:

Bard
Bennington
Denison
Lawrence
Lewis & Clark
Mount Holyoke
Puget Sound
Sarah Lawrence
Wellesley
Wesleyan
Whitman

5 thoughts on “Drumroll Please . . .”

  1. Great looking list! A couple of comments based on my own experience and the searches we did for my two kids, both of whom looked almost exclusively at LACs and both of whom had music and theater as priorities. By the way, I’m the guy on CC whose son is currently a freshman at UPS.

    Wesleyan: My alma mater. Super strong student theater (their 2nd Stage student group puts on a TON of shows). Plenty of lefty-activist types. Lots of music going on, but classical is not a particular strength (what kind of stuff does Boo like to sing?)

    Whitman: Love this school, though, in the end, neither of my kids applied. Terrific student theater, though I don’t think they put on many musicals. Music in general not a particular strength, which ended up being a deal-killer for my son, but I don’t know about their vocal offerings.

    UPS: Already expounded on CC, so I won’t reiterate here. Would seem to have all the elements you’re looking for, though not quite as academically high-powered as the Wesleyans and Wellesleys of the world.

    Bard and Lawrence: Both of these schools have true conservatories. I get the sense of that the boundaries between the Con and the rest of the campus are more porous at Lawrence, but I’ve also heard some scuttlebutt that even there, it’s tough for non-Con kids to get into the best ensembles. I think that would be worth looking into a bit more if that’s a concern for you guys. At Bard, for instance, my son couldn’t study with the conservatory faculty on his instrument without actually being in the conservatory. It could be different for voice, or they may have good vocal instructors at the regular college.

    Bennington: Have a good friend whose daughter is a freshman there. Would be happy to report her experiences if you’re interested. My cousin went there many years ago and studied vocal performance. She didn’t end up pursuing it professionally, but she does have a lovely voice!

    1. Thanks for the comments! Boo does both MT and classical. She has also done both MT and straight plays. (In fact, her first paying job in theater was a straight play.) I think she’d like to go to a place where they have the odd MT shows, but I think she’d be fine with a place where she could do interesting straight theater as long as she could continue to sing in some capacity — an a cappella might do the trick.

      I would so love to see her at Wesleyan. I think she’d love it.

      On Lawrence — if she went there she would probably try to audition into the conservatory so that she could get the joint degree,

      And on Bard — their conservatory doesn’t offer undergrad voice. Voice is only part of the grad program.

      Would love to hear your friend’s impressions of Bennington. Boo has a couple of school friends who go there. They have had mixed experiences.

  2. Wesleyan’s a terrific place, and we would have been faced with a real dilemma had my son gotten in, since it’s an excellent school with most everything he was looking for (a top-notch orchestra excepted) and is barely over an hour from our house, rather than clear across the country. But it also would have cost us nearly $30K/year more than UPS, which would have been a major owie.

    As the fates would have it, he was rejected (legacy, shmegacy, but hey, he knew it was a reach), and UPS emerged as his clear favorite. I think UPS would have remained a very serious contender even if he had gotten into Wes, actually.

    I’ll ask my friend how her daughter’s year at Bennington is going and pass along anything of interest.

  3. Loved your posts on your daughter’s college journey. I laughed so hard I cried at your Ivy League post (it was the Princeton description that sent me over the edge).
    As for Boo’s list, make sure she has a school or two that you are almost assured your D will get in, and urge her to apply to them early action. College admission, as you know, is a crap shoot. As an example, our D was deferred from her safety. She was devastated. But she got into her first choice, which was much more competitive than the safety and happens to be one of the schools high on your list. Did I mention how random this can be? Even though your daughter should be in shoo-in to every school on this list, they all seem pretty competitive, and we all know shit happens.
    Good luck!

    1. I’m happy you’ve enjoyed my writing. My favorite on the Ivy list was Cornell. Boo has a fabulous and very experienced college counselor at her school who has blessed the list. Barring a very big surprise (like your D at her safety), there are at least three schools on this list that she should be able to get into without difficulty. And in the unlikely event she gets completely shut out . . . Gap Year!

Comments are closed.