Am I good enough?

College Majors Musical Theater Major
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<p>Exactly. My kid applied to 8 BFA’s and only knew she was accepted academically at one school prior to finding out her admissions results after auditions…AND that was only due to that school being Early Action…AND she had to audition first to even find that much out. The other schools did not have a separate admissions decision to the university from the BFA program. It was all ONE decision. </p>

<p>You really cannot know beforehand what the school will cost until you see the package you are offered. The sticker price is not necessarily the final cost. My D got money at 7 of the 8 schools (had one full denial) and it was significant at most schools. Ironically, her largest scholarship was at the most expensive school, which is where she ended up going (was her first choice). She got some additional smaller scholarships in her junior and senior years of college from them in addition to the substantial scholarship at admissions for the four years. She even got a scholarship AFTER she graduated for something her school nominated her for. So, you can’t know everything ahead of time.</p>

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<p>You are confusing ME because every program my daughter auditioned for REQUIRED that the student had at least already APPLIED to the University and usually they wanted the student to have been ACCEPTED to the university before they could audition! I have never heard of colleges or universities waiting until March to tell students whether they have been accepted unless they applied very late. And I personally have been through college apps with 2 other kids (not for MT) and they both found out about 4 weeks after they applied whether they got in a college or not. The same with this D (our 4th and last to go to college). She applied early enough at a couple of places that they were able to let her know in about 3 weeks. The longest probably let us know in about 6 weeks. Of course, this does not mean she is in the BFA program, only that she has been accepted to the college, but they were definitely able to tell us how much money she would be getting academically. As far as talent money, we really aren’t counting on that so much because it just doesn’t seem to be a whole lot compared to academic money. Of course, it would be nice to have. I can only assume you know the policies of the colleges where you have applied and I don’t profess to know the policies of every college in this country, but I know kids who plan to attend colleges all over who have already been accepted, sent in their letter of intent and applied for housing. I can’t imagine all colleges waiting until March to tell students whether they are in or not, but I assume from your post that the ones you applied to are doing just that. That just seems pretty late to me. And if that’s the case, it does put you in a difficult position.</p>

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<p>KABEE…I have had two kids of my own go to college and advise countless other applicants and their families. It is apparent to me that your children have applied to colleges that have ROLLING admissions. Many schools indeed accept on a rolling basis. However, please be aware that MANY colleges in the country do not accept on a rolling basis and in fact, notify ALL applicants at ONE time either on April 1 or in March. This is true, for example, at many very selective colleges. I have a child who applied to some of the top colleges in the country and ALL notified on April 1 or a few days before. She did not hear from any schools before that. This includes Ivy League colleges and the like. My other kid applied to BFA schools like I mentioned. You apparently are not aware that only SOME BFA schools have a bifurcated process (obviously the schools your child applied to) whereby there are TWO SEPARATE admissions processes…one to the university and one to the BFA and the student receives two decisions. The academic one may come in before the audition as you say. But MANY BFA programs have ONE joint decision (all my D’s BFA programs were of this type) whereby the student receives ONE decision…all or nothing, to attend the school. Some may tell on a rolling basis or many tell after all audition dates are completed and that is in late March or April 1. </p>

<p>As a point of reference, my D’s 8 BFA schools, who all had the latter process I described were: NYU/Tisch, UMich, CMU, BOCO, Syracuse, Ithaca, Penn State, Emerson. </p>

<p>So, the situation you describe where one can weigh the financial aid package and/or scholarship offers before auditioning, is NOT the case at many colleges. </p>

<p>Believe me, I’ve been there, done that. I sat out the long wait until spring for my kids’ college decisions and one of my kids’ graduate school decisions (mid to late March), and do so every year with all the applicants whom I advise. Very few students have any results so far, or just one or two results. The aid package came with acceptances in the spring. </p>

<p>To go even one step further (though this is not the main point), things can even change more down the line. For example, when D1, who attended Brown University, which has NO merit aid but only need based aid which she got, started her sophomore year, her package shot way up because D2 was entering college and so the “need” was greater on FAFSA with two kids in college. Also, when D2 was in her second year of grad school at MIT, after receiving no scholarships (they don’t have need based aid, only merit) for her first year (we let her attend even though five other grad schools all offered her scholarships), she was awarded a half tuition scholarship starting her second year.</p>

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<p>Soozie,
As I said in my previous post I don’t profess to know the policies of every college in this country, and that I assumed the ones stagemom had applied to did wait to let them know. I also said if that was the case, I understood it would put her in a difficult position. </p>

<p>But I still believe you can make some choices ahead to help narrow your list and talk to your kids too, about the fact that depending on financial aid, even if they get into a certain program, they may not be able to attend if it turns out to be too costly. I guess that’s about the best that you can do if you have to wait so long to find out your financial aid packages.</p>

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<p>Our experience has been the same as Soozievt. The first time around, my daughter applied to 6 MT programs and was accepted at 5. She did not get her talent-based scholarship offers until after she had auditioned and was accepted into the MT programs. She did get significant talent-based money after her auditions to make several of the schools extremely affordable. Many of the BFA programs don’t give out significant academic money, and while her academics were very good, most of her money came from the talent “pool of money” that the department, not the school handed out. The school she chose the first time around was around 50,000 w/ room and board and a significant portion of that was covered by the school. Our out of pocket cost ended up being very small. She knew when she auditioned that this is how the whole process works and that she would not be able to attend any of the higher priced schools unless she got a great offer. </p>

<p>She also did walk-ins both 2 years ago and this tiime. In those cases she had not even applied to the schools at the time of her audition. When you look at financial aid before an offer is made, you can only estimate what your need-based aid will be; not your talent based aid. We know too many kids who have gotten full tuition scholarships to some of the private schools to avoid auditioning because of the cost!</p>

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<p>KABee: Others already answered my question but I thought I should respond anyway. I auditioned for my dream school because they assured me that they would give me a pretty generous financial aid package based off of my grades. However, once I was accepted, my financial aid package fell through and it just did not work out for me. I needed a couple more thousand a year to attend but they refused to give me any more.
But that is all in the past and everything worked out fine. I love the school I am at now. I am getting more opportunities (performance and academic) at my current school than I would have gotten at my dream school. :)</p>

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<p>KABee- this is our 3rd of 4 to attend college and admittedly the process of applying to a MT program is entirely different than what my first 2 experienced. So much in Mt is dependent on the talent schools see at auditions. You can really be a so-so student, and still end up getting thousands of dollars of money because you a wonderful singer, actor, dancer, or all 3.</p>

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<p>Soozie…Thanks for the clarification…I was beginning to think I had missed something in this process. D knew of her academic admittance to Point Park well before her audition as the do indeed do rolling admissions…trouble was we didn’t get the academic scholarship notification until after the audition along with the talent scholarship notification and it isn’t nearly enough…who knew? So even some of the rolling admission schools send out everything at once after you’ve auditioned.</p>

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<p>My advice is to talk up front and honestly with your student about all financial matters, audition for as many schools as possible, wait for all the offers to come in, spend a day at all the schools your were accepted to and make the best decision possible for both parent and student. </p>

<p>We auditioned for 14 programs, were accepted into 8, spent a day and night at 5 of them and of course picked the most expensive. Even though she received a nice scholarship offer, I went to admissions in person, sat down and came away with a even better offer.</p>

<p>The two things I came away with during this process is:</p>

<p>There is little rhyme or reason to the admission process and you can’t possibly know what you can afford until all offers are explored.</p>

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<p>Well said BeenThere- exactly the way it goes! And you are right- If you talk you can often get even more money!</p>

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<p>Of the 5 MT BFA programs that my s applied/auditioned and was accepted to, 4 of the 5 sent his academic acceptance before his audition. Penn State holds all applications for MT BFA students until they are accepted into the program. At that time, the college application is sent to the office of admissions for acceptance. The only exception is if the student puts a different major (non audition) for Penn State and in that case, the application is sent earlier.</p>

<p>Being that all of my son’s auditions were in Jan and Feb, it was March and April before finanancial aid packages were sent. Once he made the decision and committed, the financial aid package changed 4 times before it was final. We did nothing to ask for more or apply for anything. </p>

<p>He is a dual major candidate in Engineering and MT BFA, so all of his money was on merit, but it was interesting to watch it change with no prompting from us.</p>

<p>The MT BFA process is indeed very different from anything that I have experienced with my older two.</p>

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<p>Just curious…what school offers a dual major candidate in Engineering and MT BFA?</p>

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<p>I dont know for sure, but i think she may be talking about UMich.</p>

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<p>Yes it is UMich. Please feel free to PM me if you are intersted in knowing more about the program</p>

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<p>I just have 2 things to add to this discussion. First, you can’t possibly know the amount of the talent scholarship you might be offered when you are considering where to apply and eliminating assuming you can’t afford it. Second, I know MANY MANY people at various colleges both private and public that after getting a financial aid “offer” have gone to the FA office and squeezed more money out of the college - and I don’t mean in all cases just a little. And yes I know several people that in the end the cost of attendance at the higher sticker price college ended up after all FA negotiations less expensive than the lower priced college.</p>