I am having a very difficult time chosing, and I figured that a lot of you have probably gone to college. This is your opportunity to brag about your alma mater and my opportunity to narrow the field a bit.
Some of my criteria for a college:
-Co-ed
-Non religious
-Highly selective
-In the midwest
-Theatre major
-Cost IS an issue, but I’m up for the National Merit Scholarship and crossing my fingers
Personal experiences should be infinitely more helpful than searching through the loads of mail I get everyday.
I went to the University of California, Davis, so this isn’t much help. However, I would say go somewhere “fun” and “not too close to home” whatever that might mean. I mean, you’re going to spend at least 4 years there, so pick a place you want to live in for a while.
Good luck on the nat merit scholarship and with your choice.
I went to The Evergreen State College, which is the alma mater of The Simpson’s creator Matt Groening and a few other famous folks. It’s small, extremely liberal-minded, and has been rated one of the top 10 liberal arts colleges in the country by US News. Any other Greeners out there?
Isn’t Tarkio college in Missouri really good for theatre?
Here are a few other good midwestern schools (I can’t speak for their theatre programs, though):
Earlham
Kenyon
Macalaster
Oberlin
Grinnell
Albion
Lake Forest
Transylvania
Hendrix (both of these last two are more Southern than Midwest, admittedly)
Bigger schools include Northwestern and Miami of Ohio…
This list is by no means exhaustive…it’s what I could remember off the top of my head
By the way, don’t scratch all religiously-affiliated schools off your list. Certainly it depends on the denomination, but many of them don’t cram the religion down your throat. I went to a Methodist college, but no chapel was required, our campus chaplain was a unitarian, and frankly I think the most common affiliation on campus was Episcopalian. Isn’t Duke Methodist, for example?
Well, apart from that whole midwest bit, Colby College fits all of those things. How set are you on the midwest issue? Well, the cost factor(currently around $34,000 a year-it was $25,000 when I was there) could be another one. I paid for it through parent loans, student loans, grants and work-study, and it was worth it.
Colby is a small liberal arts school in Waterville, Maine. It’s a beautiful campus. When I was there, the students partied a good deal, but by senior year it was going more underground, meaning that there weren’t parties in the student center where the beer flowed freely.
I was there from 91-95. I showed up for freshman year never having visited the campus(I literally picked it out of the college book) and fell in love with it. It was a fantastic 4 years. Colby offers semesters abroad through the Colby in London, Cork, and Salamanca programs. The London program is associated with the theater department, and everyone I talked to on that program loved it.
Another benefit to Colby is that it’s very easy to change majors if you change your mind about what you want. I went through 3 majors in 4 years. Because of core curriculum requirements, you get a broad base in different areas. And there are different levels that fit the requirements. For my “analytical” requirement(read: Math) I took Introduction to Mathematics, in which I wrote a fiction story using math for the final exam.
What about the University of Wisconsin? It may not be as selective as you want, but it is well respected in many fields. Also, with the reciprocity deal we have with Minnesota, you will get a good deal on tuition.
Cranky[ mentioned it already, but Northwestern would be a good choice. Also, I’ll add Washington University in St. Louis (who offer several merit scholarships and, if they’re like they used to be, have probably already flooded you with mail) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (might be pretty tough to get into if you’re out-of-state).
If your definition of “midwest” reaches as far over as Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon had the first drama program in the country and still has one of the best (don’t let the techie reputation fool you).
Eh…yes, they are still that way. I was a senior last year(University freshman this fall), and I remember their packages and letters…sometimes 3 a day!!! After February, I was expecting a letter of admission, even though I didn’t fill their applications.
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PD. I hope you get selected a National Merit Scholar, that was the reason I got my scholarship to go to UFL. (Actually, it was National Hispanic Scholar…works the same way though)
Unfortunately, very set. While I could save up enough money to visit eastern colleges myself, my parents wouldn’t let me. And they don’t have enough to make a family vacation out of it. This sucks because I think that Ithaca sounds absolutely amazing, but I will not go to a school that I haven’t visited first.
CrankyAsAnOldMan listed Grinnell and Macalester, among others. These are both on my list of places to visit, along with Carleton and Butler University. Have any of you gone to these schools?
Also, did anyone major in film studies or cinema or anything else movie-related? I’ve found that there are very few schools that offer this as a major, and I’d be interested to know what it’s like.
I should rephrase my initial “highly selective.” What I mean is that I want a school that is not easy to get into, but that also isn’t filled with a bunch of rich snoots. I kind of get the feeling, for example, that Northwestern may be a bit too far on the elitest side for me (of course, I could be totally off on that assumption).
I am currently a student at Macalester, and I think it’s awesome. A good friend of mine is hardcore into the theater program there (set and costume designing, though, not acting) and she loves it. It takes up a lot of her time, but the school is very responsive to thing that campus groups do. Meaning that when Mac Players put on a play, everyone goes and sees it.
I can’t think of much else to say about it, but if have any questions, please email me!
I don’t know about their theater majors, but just for being a National Merit Finalist you can get a full scholarship at University of Houston and a full tuition scholarship at Bradley University in Peoria, IL.
Next fall I’ll be a senior at Northland College in Ashland, WI. It’s a small (enrollment around 800 students) environmental liberal arts school on the shores of Lake Superior. Tuition is around $15,000 a year, I think. The school’s main emphasis is in the natural sciences, but they are working on expanding the Arts program. They’ve been putting up new buildings like crazy the past couple years, and next on the list is a new Fine Arts Center, including a big theatre. I don’t think they have a drama major right now, but like I said, they are reworking the Arts program right now, so in might be on its way. I’m working on a double major in Fine Arts (visual arts emphasis) and Writing. We’ve got a pretty fine Writing program, if you’re interested in that (a lot of the drama people I know are Writing majors) I think that I am getting an EXCELLENT education at Northland, and I would DEFINITELY recommend looking into liberal arts schools. The students at Northland are not the get-a-degree-and-get-out types that you’ll find at a lot of universities; we are here for a REAL, well-rounded education, and REAL life experience. And, of course, a lot of hippy-type fun. The attitude here is comfortable and casual–I can go to class barefoot if I want, and not get any weird comments, and I call nearly all my professors by their first names. Northland people are some of the most genuine, sincere, and tolerant people I’ve ever met–we have remarkable few assholes–and I’m not looking forward to having to leave next year.
Anyway, enough random boasting about my school; Northland’s super-keen. If you have any questions feel free to ask.
If cost won’t be a problem, you might want to look into Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio (suburb of Cleveland). I majored in English there, but I hear it is THE place to go (in Ohio, anyway) for a Theatre major. Or that was the case when I was there (we won’t go into how long ago).
My fiance is a rising senior at Carleton, so I’ve spent a fair bit of time there. While one can perhaps put together a “theater studies” emphasis on a degree in another department, there is no theater/drama major, making it probably a pretty poor choice if you’re interested in pursuing the area professionally.
Yes, you are. I have a couple of friends in med school there (who also did their bachelor’s at NU), and I spent a summer working for a research group there and meeting several undergrads, and there wasn’t a “rich snoot” among them. Believe ye not school stereotypes.
If cost is an issue, don’t go to UNH. I got a wonderful education, but I now have the distintion of having graduated from the state university that now has the highest in-state tuition in the US. We’re #1! We’re #1! And to think, when I graduated in 99’ we were only #2, behind U Maine. Whooo hooo! <shakes head>
The attitude here is comfortable and casual–I can go to class barefoot if I want, and not get any weird comments, and I call nearly all my professors by their first names. Northland people are some of the most genuine, sincere, and tolerant people I’ve ever met–we have remarkable few assholes–and I’m not looking forward to having to leave next year.