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Okay. My Mom has limited my college search to only schools where my stats will put me in the running for a full ride. This has cut me down to six choices and two of them are in the same size range as the public high school I used to attend - between 1000 and 2000 students. I'm a very extroverted person and I tend to be a little on the flamboyant side. Actually, I've been told my personality is like a "neon foghorn" and everybody seems to either love me or hate me with very little in-between. I'm just wondering if some of you have some opinions about the pluses and minuses this might hold for me at a very small college. The two small schools I'm looking at are The University of Evansville and Catawba College. Thanks!

By Matth (Matth) on Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 10:35 am: Edit

Your personality sounds a lot like a good friend of mine who went to a very small college and absolutely hated it. She then transferred to a much larger school for sophomore year and was much happier. Who knows if it would be the same for you but she found that the small-ness stifled her and certainly the numbers of people available with which to develop good relationships and friendships was so limited that she found it worse than high school. I can understand when there are such financial concerns that you need a full ride but you have to remember that you'll be spending four years of your life there so it's important to be happy. Not only that but the first consideration should be, and I'm sure you've thought about this, where can I get the best education for the program I want. Even if it means taking out some loans each year, even small ones, it might be worth it if you find a school that you would be more happy with and that has the department you want.

By Uknowwho42 (Uknowwho42) on Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 10:39 am: Edit

Just don't go to Catawba...you definitely won't like it there. Try a larger public school that gives a fair amount of aid.

By Carolyn (Carolyn) on Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 12:41 pm: Edit

Give us an idea of your stats - there ARE some smaller colleges where flamboyant personalities would fit better that have good fiancial and merit money available. For example, Hendrix in Arkansas, Knox in Il. With an idea of your stats, I might be able to make some more recommendations for you.

By Hsseniorpa (Hsseniorpa) on Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 01:38 pm: Edit

i have the same mom, and the exact same personality as you and i actually ended up getting one of those scholarships both at a small school and at a large school...

Basic Stats:

Homeschooled - no GPA
SAT I - 770M, 770V
SAT II's - about 8 of them with scores slightly lower than my SAT I scores
EC's: HS state champion in soccer, piano competeition winner, State Chairman of Republican party (teenagers)

ok, my personality was actually a major plus in terms of getting scholarships, you see, in the scholarship competeitions, most of the interviews are done over 1 or 2 days, this gives them only a couple times to evaluate you, they are looking for someone to jump out at them with opinions and to tell them what they are about... sounds like you will have no problem with this, just don't be tooooo arrogant, a little is ok since they know that b/c you have been invited to interview for the scholarship, then you are pretty darn good

in ended up getting the top scholarships, full tuition, at NYU, USC and Furman and several others, so i had both the little school and the huge school to choose from, i ended up picking USC b/c i love college football, the weather, and it had a great math and history department

i am going to be an entering freshamn so i wnet through this whole process less than 4 months ago, if you have any questions, please e-mail me, i would be happy yo answer them

By Thesbohemian (Thesbohemian) on Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 04:35 pm: Edit

Thanks! My main requirement in looking at a college is that it have a very good to great BFA in Acting program. My mom doesn’t want me going out-of-state to major in theatre. Actually, she refers to my intended degree as a “BFA in Table Waiting” or a “Get a Sugar Daddy Degree.” So, I’m pretty much stuck to the ones that offer full rides because my home state doesn’t have any such programs worth considering. Making the matter more complicated is that I’ll have to audition to get accepted to most of these programs PLUS get a full academic ride and a lot of colleges discriminate against arts majors in awarding the big money. Basically, I don't have as much flexibility as some people in where I'll go. I'm mainly just trying to prioritize the schools. Previously, I hadn't really thought much about size until somebody at work mentioned that I might be a little too flamboyant for some small colleges.

I’m not comfortable giving my exact stats because they could positively identify me and I’m paranoid there may be some admissions reps lurking. I’ve asked some controversial questions on the Theatre/Drama Colleges thread and I want to approach my auditions with a completely clean slate. I don’t even want to say which state I’m from or which arts high school I attend. However, I will go so far as to say that I'm in a three-way tie for first in my class, my SAT I score is over 1500, I’ve only made one B in my entire high school career which was during my sophomore year, I’ll have enough AP credit to enter most colleges at or close to sophomore level in the general education requirments, and I have a long list of ECs besides all my theatre activities including honor societies, community service groups, and athletics. I don’t intend to take any SAT IIs because none of the schools that interest me require it and it could only hurt me. The schools I’m looking at are SMU, FSU, University of Miami, University of Evansville, Catawba College, and The College of Charleston. FSU and CoC don’t offer full rides through the actual schools, but there are local memorial scholarships available to me which would cover tuition combined with a small talent scholarship. There’s only one person in my home town who could seriously compete with me for those and his folks have money plus he’s most likely Ivy League bound.

Hsseniorpa,
Congrats on the Trustee Scholarship at USC! I hear those are really hard to get. Do you know what their reasoning is for not allowing students to use AP credit to cover GE requirements? That's part of what got them scratched off my list. Just curious.

By Uknowwho42 (Uknowwho42) on Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 04:46 pm: Edit

I'm almost positive you could get a full ride (or almost) at Miami, and you'd fit in there better than the other places. That's my recommendation - two friends of mine got full rides there, one goes there and loves it, the other is going there next year.

By Carolyn (Carolyn) on Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 06:30 pm: Edit

Good gosh, you're aiming way too low. I can't believe there aren't other choices where you could get a full ride or close to it.

By Carolyn (Carolyn) on Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 06:48 pm: Edit

Have you looked into Southern Methodist University (full presidential scholarships available, very good theater/performance major) or
Emory (Emory scholar's program gives full tuition, good theater department)? Southwestern U in Texas (smaller but VERY good LAC, good theater program, where youd have a shot a full scholarship) With your stats, you should look at all options for full merit awards...I'd hate to see you limit yourself to a third tier school.

By Blaineko (Blaineko) on Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 06:59 pm: Edit

Grinnell College...Reed, Evergreen, Hampshire...Oberlin.

By Thesbohemian (Thesbohemian) on Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 08:39 pm: Edit

Carolyn,
Thanks. As far as aiming too low and going to third tier schools, the theatre schools have a bit of a different pecking order than the rest. Southern Methodist (SMU) is actually my first choice at this point. They recently edged out Florida State (FSU)due to a hard sell from an alumnus who's working with me on voice and speech this summer. Both schools have elite BFA in Acting programs that are just below the theatre "Ivies" like Juilliard and Carnegie-Mellon. Miami is borderline in the same league. Catawba and CoC are my second tier safeties. Emory is a BA program. I've checked them out thoroughly and they really aren't for me. While overall, Emory is an elite school, the theatre program is pretty much third tier. I've never heard of Southwestern, but I'll give them a look. I looked really closely at Rutgers and came away with the impression that they don't have full rides for out-of-state students. I was kind of taken aback hearing about the "RU Screw," too.

Blaineko,
I believe all of those are tiny little colleges with BA programs except for Oberlin which is also BA. Here's a link to the difference between BFA and BA programs as they relate to musical theatre. Just drop the "musical" part off and it's the same. http://www.geocities.com/musicaltheatercolleges/babfa.html I want the professional training that comes with the BFA.

Most of the really good theatre schools have been discussed on the Theatre/Drama Colleges thread. I'm mainly interested in the flamboyant personality at a small college question. Thanks!

By Carolyn (Carolyn) on Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 10:01 pm: Edit

OK, gotcha. I did want to tell you a story as an example, however. Someone I know had a daughter who, like you, was very interested in drama and had what would certainly be called a flamboyant personality.

Her mother assumed she would apply to schools like UCLA or USC where she wouldn't "stick out" so much. To her mother's surprise, she fell in love with Davidson College.
Her mother said that when they went to visit all she (the mother) could think of was that not only was her daughter going to be the most dramatic/artsy person on campus, she was also going to be the only person from Calif. (this was about 10-15 years ago).

Anyhow, her daughter was very stubborn and applied ED to Davidson, got accepted and was off. Her mother thought she'd be home before Christmas once she realized how different she was from most of the students at Davidson.

Instead, she :LOVED: being the one person on campus that stood out in a crowd - she loved having people think she was wild and flamboyant - and she was also loved by many people on campus for the spark she bought to the school. She ended up doing just fine because of who she was not in spite of it. I suspect that you may find the same. Good luck!

By Musicalthtrmom (Musicalthtrmom) on Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 10:19 pm: Edit

Great story, Carolyn.

By Thesbohemian (Thesbohemian) on Thursday, July 15, 2004 - 04:22 pm: Edit

Cool story, Carolyn. Hopefully, that'll happen with me if I only get a full ride at one of the small ones. Thanks!

By Carolyn (Carolyn) on Thursday, July 15, 2004 - 09:13 pm: Edit

Thesbohemian - Just pick your schools carefully - look at how people react to you when you visit. I do know we had someone here on CC this year who decided to attend CC. Her name is Winterfresh and we "talked" quite a bit via email. She is a very out going and unique individual and she seemed to really like the campus culture at Catawba. But again, try to visit.