<p>My daughter is beginning the process of college application/auditions and her first choice is an audition acting BFA but is realistic about including non-audition BAs. She has commendable stats (ACT 33, top 3% of her class of 700 students) with tons of leadership and ECs. She would like to attend an academically competitive school with a "real" campus. She would prefer to stay within reasonable driving distance (6 hours or so) of Chicago where we live, but she is also considering some East coast schools. </p>
<p>She is not interested in a stand-alone conservatory, but ideally a conservatory within a larger school setting in or near a happenin' town. My challenge is in finding schools we can afford that address her preferences. (We're in the forgotten zone where we make too much to qualify for need-based aid but still not enough to afford most price tags!) Any advice you can provide in directing us to schools we've missed would be most appreciated.</p>
<p>Here's her short list:
CMU (#1 dream school, but out of reach financially, no merit aid)
Minnesota (BFA preferred but would do BA; excellent merit aid for OOS, totally do-able)
Rutgers (BFA preferred but would do BA; excellent merit aid for OOS, totally do-able)
DePaul (not sure how finances would pan out)</p>
<p>She would love to look at Michigan, but I have heard they have terrible financial aid for OOS. University of Florida would be an option, but Tallahassee is very difficult ($) to get to. NYU is stingy with merit aid and the housing is pricey. We've visited Northern Illinois and the campus was not a good fit.</p>
<p>Next week we plan to visit Indiana (Bloomington), Evansville and Cincinnati. She will include Roosevelt on her audition list.</p>
<p>I could definitely see her at a Northwestern or Brown or Sarah Lawrence but my biggest fear would be that she be awarded a highly coveted spot and she would have to turn it down because of finances.</p>
<p>Can anyone help us identify a few hidden gems?</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>We’re from Florida and my daughter chose Northern Illinois University- for many of the same reasons as you stated. She wanted a good size school near a big city (it’s about an hour from Chicago), that had a great BFA Acting program. At NIU, in her junior year, she will train in Moscow for a semester. My daughter also has great grades and received many academic scholarships from the school based on her application. If you live in surrounding states, you can get really big scholarships (check the website to see which states). Kathryn Gately is the master acting professor at Northern Illinois and she has fantastic stats. Put her name in youtube and there is a great video about her and also a video from The Actor’s Studio in which James Gandolfini speaks very highly of her and the training he received from her. There are a couple of acting professors who came from Rutgers. Anyway, it’s a real campus with real college life and a great program. I would definitely call it a hidden gem! Oh- and after the first year, kids can get in-state tuition! Everyone we have worked with has been so nice and helpful- it’s the mid-west and the people are so warm! Good luck!</p>
<p>Supportive: Wow! Thank you! We obviously should take a closer look at NIU. We are in state. I thought it was a BA; not a BFA. Is it audition or non-audition? How many students are accepted?</p>
<p>First of all, I read your post this morning and did so too fast. I missed the part about you living in Chicago-lol! NIU IS an auditioned program and they are part of Unifieds. My daughter scheduled her audition in NY through the school. She had also visited the campus last fall and fell in love with the school, students, and the BFA program. I believe there are 21 students in her BFA class- that includes some transfer students. She has been in contact with them in the last couple of months and they come from all over. Last fall, she met a girl from Los Angeles and a girl from North Carolina. My daughter was a MT major at a performing arts school but really wanted to focus more on acting- even though she auditioned for some MT programs. Because of how she focused on the type of program she wanted, she only applied to 4 colleges (Florida State-safety school, Penn State- MT-waitlisted, Rutgers-got into BA program, and NIU). She also did MT walk-ins at Ohio Northern and Long Island University and had very positive results from both but neither were the type of school she was looking for- but both had great programs. Her brother goes to NYU and she did NOT want to be in so much debt. Your daughter’s grades and test scores will get her some nice scholarships. The BFA program is NIU is very strong. The semester in Moscow is part of the BFA. That was another thing that attracted my daughter. She loves to travel (she’s actually in Kenya right now teaching theatre at a orphanage- they have their own FB page- look up Theatre on a Mission). My daughter is also a very strong dancer and NIU offers a BFA in dance. She can still take classes and she can take private voice to keep her skills. She also used to be a competitive gymnast and she was so happy that NIU also has a women’s gymnastics team that she can support. So many kids get hung up on what they believe are the top schools that they fail to look at other very strong programs. My daughter almost applied to the University of Illinois- the big one- they also have a good BFA Acting program. My daughter really wanted to go to school out of state and she wants to see snow for the first time in her life! Anyway, hope this helps!</p>
<p>Supportive: Isn’t it crazy how sometimes we miss things that are right under our nose? My husband is an NIU alum and it is literally just an hour from where we live. I think because of those reasons my daughter was looking elsewhere. (Like your daughter, she is looking to spread her wings.) This summer, however, she has spent a lot of time in Chicago in a training program at The Goodman and has really fallen in love with the city. (We live in the suburbs.) You have been so helpful! I hope you don’t mind; I am sending you a PM as well.</p>
<p>:)! There’s even a scholarship for children of NIU alums! Thanks, and I already answered your PM- with pleasure! NIU is close enough to the city but far enough to stay focused on your studies. It’s a win-win situation!</p>
<p>I’m interested in this thread because I’ve asked the same type of question. </p>
<p>What I’ve found researching schools and reading old posts on this board is that schools that are more academically rigorous accept students with similar stats to your daughters and therefore standing out for academic merit aid is hard to do. </p>
<p>You might want to check out Yale. As an Ivy they report that they meet 100% of a students financial need. </p>
<p>The other avenue I found is to look at schools that award automatic merit aid and house honors colleges. That way a student could get the most challenging academics and the most stat related merit money at a school. </p>
<p>Check into each school scholarship listings as some of them will award merit for talent and leadership. Some schools will allow students to stack their aid awards others will not. The ability to stack is not always clear on websites so you should call and talk to someone at the schools. You might want to check to see if De Paul has a honors college that BFA acting students are allowed to be a part of. For some reason I feel I read that only certain majors allow for their honors college. </p>
<p>In New York City both Marymount Manhattan and Pace have automatic academic aid along with the ability to stack other merit aid. Pace has an honors college Marymount is instituting what they called an honors society this year. Adelphi on long island and about a 40 minute train ride into the city is another NY school that comes to mind that has an honors college and good stackable merit aid.</p>
<p>Sarah Lawrence actually has some excellent aid for highly qualified students. Even girls :-)</p>
<p>@shacherry…thanks for the heads up. We have yet to take a serious look at Pace or Adelphi.</p>
<p>@OneTough…ahh! That’s really good to know! btw Do you happen to know what the boy:girl ratio is there nowadays?</p>
<p>Bard College also has great merit aid for students with good academics. They are rebuilding their theater program this year (my daughter and I visited twice: before and after she was accepted, and considered it carefully.) The theater program is housed in a gorgeous Frank Gehry building, with great facilities. Everyone we talked to was very excited about the new program and incoming faculty. </p>
<p>I second the idea of looking into Sarah Lawrence. </p>
<p>Another hidden gem is Temple University in Philadelphia, a non-auditioned BA with a strong program. The university gives automatic merit aid to students based on their GPA and scores; there is an additional theater scholarship you can audition for later (after acceptance.) Temple is a quasi-state school with rolling admissions, so I would advise doing the application as soon as it comes out. I have seen otherwise-qualified students rejected because they applied too late. </p>
<p>Of course, my favorite BA school is now Fordham LC, but that’s an auditioned school. They do travel to Chicago for auditions, so you might want to look into it. Fordham seems to be much more rigorous academically than most BFA programs.</p>
<p>Glassharmonica how is Fordham with merit and talent aid?</p>
<p>That’s a good question-- I don’t have a clear sense of how they are, as a general rule. You might also want to look through the Fordham forum on CC: [Fordham</a> University - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/fordham-university/]Fordham”>Fordham University - College Confidential Forums)</p>
<p>I have learned that Fordham does not meet 100% of need, but they do give talent aid. In my daughter’s case, it was her first choice school because the program offered options she could not find elsewhere-- but she was awarded the lowest aid package there of all accepted schools, so we did not think she would be able to attend. We appealed her decision and got an answer very close to May 1, so she carefully considered her other options, and we spent much of April traveling and considering the other schools. In the end, Fordham came through with a talent grant than nearly matched her highest award, from a well-endowed Ivy, so she is able to attend. She is extremely excited (starts in 3 weeks!) Interestingly, her particular Fordham award is all “talent” grant, so it will not fluctuate with inflation (unlike need-based aid). She did receive some need-based aid at other schools (we will have 3 kids in college next year.) My advice would be to have your student apply to a number of schools in several ranges. When applying to schools we often assume that the goal is admission-- actually, unless cost is not a consideration, the goal should be to have a number of options, come April 1.</p>
<p>If she is willing to consider California USC has amazing merit aid! My daughter is starting this fall with a major in theatre and double minor in screenwriting and production. She got a 50% tuition Presidential scholarship. they also give 50% for national Merit finalists that are admitted.</p>
<p>Glassharmonica I sent you a pm but not sure I did it right so if you did not get it let me know and I will send one again.</p>
<p>@Glassharmonica…hadn’t even considered Bard and Temple. Will definitely look into them. </p>
<p>@Lorilynne…Fabulous to hear about USC and congratulations to your daughter! How exciting! Incidentally, I have friends who sent both sons to USC, four years apart. They had nearly identical (fabulous) stats; the first got very little merit aid and the second got tons. I think a lot had to do with when they applied. The first applied late; the second applied early. At USC it’s a BA, right? Are there many performance opportunities?</p>
<p>USC has both BA and BFA. Both are eligible for merit aid and both have many perfermance opportunities. For the BFa the audition is the most important thing. I suspect that if they want you for the BFA AND you have great grades/scores that you have an even better chance for merit money. If anyone has an opinion there, chime in. You must apply early to qualify for merit aid. It is definitely worth it!</p>
<p>Thank you for all of the great ideas. I always thought USC was financially out-of-reach but it sounds like it is worth putting under the category of “we are likely not be able to swing it, but we’ll never know unless you apply!”</p>
<p>USC have been very generous to my d , they look at te whole family fianace thing and you can submit an appeal etc we earn around $90000 and d gets a grant of about $36000 takes max Staffords and we pay rest that is left this year approx $9000.</p>
<p>Surprised no one has mentioned SUNY Purchase yet haha… If you want more info, let me know, but the things you’re interested in are:
- It’s 30 mins from NYC (VERY easy to get in and out on weekends, or even school nights).
- It has one of the best BFA programs in the country (Top 5 undergrad by most reputable lists).
- The cost of tuition is ~22,000 Room and Board included. It’s a state school, so once you’ve lived in NY for a year, you can establish residency and your tuition drops from 16k~ to 6k~ (room and board extra).</p>
<p>Just to be clear, it is a highly selective program, accepting 20 new students each year… If you’re interested, let me know!</p>
<p>(Full disclosure, I am a current student so I am slightly biased, but I believe my bias is well founded and can be backed up!)</p>
<p>Have you considered Wisconsin? (UW-Madison)</p>
<p>It has a great global academic rep, features a world-renowned faculty generally, and offers a BFA.</p>
<p>UW has a long track record of academic genius in a vast array of departments. As a BFA your daughter will be an L&S (Literature and Sciences) student, so she’ll be privy to a well-rounded education outside of her major. </p>
<p>UW is located on an isthmus (narrow strip of land between two lakes which also includes famous State Street and the capitol building…) in the capital city of Madison, WI. There is much fun to be enjoyed there, and many geniuses with/from whom to learn – it’s a great school.</p>