Anyone getting excited about admissions? General *squee* thread!

College Majors Visual Arts and Film Majors
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<p>So, this week we’ve tried to regroup after the bad awards situation. PNCA says that their award is final, no negotiation, so they’re out, even though they were one of daughter’s top choices. SMFA’s award is in now and is <em>almost</em> doable – if daughter had free housing in Boston. I have a lot of friends and friends of friends there, so we’re asking around. And SAIC, where daughter would love to end up, is going to look over her file again. Our hope is that if it were <em>almost</em> doable this year, she could try it, and then hope to get an RA position in the dorm for later years. If not, she will at least have a year. </p>

<p>We’re still waiting on SnowyPratt. Hope springs eternal, and it ain’t over 'till it’s over. :-)</p>

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<p>Yay, daughter is having her SAIC aid reevaluated by committee-- the FA office sent word today.</p>

<p>And SnowyPratt has sent out their award letter yesterday, so I guess we’ll know about that early next week!</p>

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<p>bears and dogs said there are a lot of MICA based questions here, and specifics someone wants answered?</p>

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<p>hey, thanks for coming
I go first though my kid might not do MICA any longer

  1. Are you decided on what, MAT, fine, illustration? Is there any differences in first year?
  2. how the returning students’ scholarships going? Did you apply? or you just get what you are promised when you started, no mater what ( inflation, family income, your grades etc)
  3. Are you in the Common? if so how is four guys/one shower, any trouble, who cleans how often?</p>
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<ol>
<li>I declared graphic design for my major. Mostly because I have a lot of interest, and graphic design is a hard major to change to after sophomore year because it has such a set schedule of classes (you must take certain classes sophomore year, junior year, etc.). So if I end up wanting to change my major, I would probably go to GFA so that I could dabble in everything. I am thinking about staying for the MAT program. I recently met with my adviser and we planned out my four years as if I were going to do the program. So next year I will take two classes required for the program as well as a studio elective that will go towards my GD major and the MAT degree.</li>
<li>The returning scholarships have been given out. All freshmen who apply are competing against each other. Upperclassmen are sorted by major. This scholarship is just added on to what you were offered when you came to MICA. Most Freshmen who received the scholarship got an award of 850 for next year. I’ve heard upperclassmen have gotten more.</li>
<li>I am in the Commons. The shower is no problem. The are some mornings when a couple of us have class so I may have to wait five to ten minutes to get in, but it’s never made me late. Our room started the year with a clean on Sunday chart, and one person would clean the apartment. That’s kind of died down, but the place is livable. I really enjoy the courtyard of the Commons, especially recently with the weather. I think it’s a great place to spend your first year.</li>
</ol>

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<p>thanks.

  1. you mean flat 850 dollars instead of chunks to few? for the most kids? like, how many out of how many?
  2. How are you doing, are your folks helping more or you have to work in /out of campus?
  3. How much soft wares you’d required to buy up front? How often needs upgrade? Own laptop needed how often how big?<br>
    gosh I can go on and on, it sounds you are very happy there, so it is the most important thing.</p>

<p>Anyone else?</p>

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<p>We are getting ready to head down to Baltimore for the MICA open house tomorrow. We are on pins and needles waiting to find out what financial aid/scholarships MICA will offer. MICA is kid’s first choice, but she failed to get scholarship applications for outside scholarships out as she should have. So I don’t know. MICA is not making things easy by taking so much time to make their awards. We won’t have much time to reach some sort of decision.</p>

<p>Brianm02 – do you know of anybody who took a gap year or took a deferment for their first year? </p>

<p>Are you saying that returning kid scholarships are on top of what they started with or is every year fresh and you have to compete for monies to go back to school?</p>

<p>thanks</p>

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<p>bears and dogs:

  1. I’m not sure what you mean by a few chunks. If you are asking what I think, then yes, I believe they give out smaller but more awards to return freshmen. I’m not sure how many people got awards, but I know a few and all got the said amount. I’ve forgotten the statistic that was given by the scholarship staff.
  2. My parents are helping me through the financial process, but we have taken out loans so I will have a large amount to pay once I end school. I do have workstudy, in which I make about fifty a week, so that goes more towards supplies, food, entertainment, etc. I plan to take responsibility for payment once I’m out though. I don’t fully understand the process as of now because my dad has been so helpful in aligning the financial stuff.
  3. You don’t have to buy any software. You aren’t even required to have a computer. But it is certainly helpful. There are numerous computer labs around the that have any program you may have to use in a class. Obviously they are not as accessible as a personal laptop. Foundation year students don’t need anything fancy. I have a pretty old gateway right now. I use it to write papers, and use photoshop or illustrator if needed for a project.</p>

<p>glutenmom
I personally don’t know people who took a gap year, but I have heard of some people who have. I’ve also met a couple people who took a couple years off just to figure out what purpose art had in their lives. I know MICA has some sort of process where you can take a leave of absence for up to four years and still return.
The returning students scholarships are on top of what we got when we first applied.</p>

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<p>To who asked about state help : Yes, I am waiting for VSAC (Vermont) to send me their decision for financial and merit aid. Should have it soon</p>

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<p>D2 finally got her acceptance letter to Mass ARt. A bit anticlimactic at this point but we’re glad it arrived.</p>

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<p>SAIC reevaluated daughter’s aid, added an additional $2000 in grants. So now, instead of $27000 in parent PLUS loans, it’s $25000. Yeah, not very doable. </p>

<p>It looks like it will be PrattMWP for my daughter, at least for this year. Still going to be very hard for us – 15K in loans – but the least awful of all the packages. I am trying to not be in mourning about the whole thing.</p>

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<p>How does your daughter feel about it? Is she in mourning too, or is it mostly you?</p>

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<p>redbug119: Oh, things have changed, in the past three hours. Now that all the aid awards are in, we did final giant spreadsheet things. The three schools with the least amount of loans are PrattMWP, Otis, and PNCA. PrattMWP has a problem – after two years you go to Pratt, which is 15K more per year. What if they don’t give her more aid? What if she spends 2 years at PrattMWP, but cannot afford to finish at Pratt? That would suck. </p>

<p>Otis is less than other schools because she has Calgrant money there, but she doesn’t like the idea of LA, and it’s not been a favorite school. (And in part, it’s because someone from her school who was not really into art got into it, and she feels like based on that, would she want to go there? Odd reason, but there you go.) </p>

<p>PNCA is, when we do the math, actually about the same as Otis. It <em>could</em> be less, depending on several factors that are things like “finding a cheap off campus place.” PNCA has the advantage of being one of the three schools she most wanted to attend (along with SAIC and Pratt), being in the same town with her brother for a year, being a cool town she really loves, being very affordable. She’s also a Dean’s Scholar there, which gives her priority registration and stuff like that. </p>

<p>PNCA is $5500 in student loans, and on paper, 16K in parent loans, but that includes no student summer work contribution, no work study, big standardized expenses for housing and personal expenses. She figures she could shave that down another 5K if we work together. In contrast, PrattMWP is $7500 in student loans, $750 in work/study and 10K in parent loans, with much more rigid expenses (dorm, meal plan) and much bigger travel expenses. We would probably save 1K a year just in travel, because Portland is much closer.</p>

<p>So, for her, PrattMWP feels like “settling” and PNCA, while it may not be as prestigious as some of the other schools she was accepted to, feels more like a choice she could love. PNCA is also much more interdisciplinary, which is one thing she really wants. They even have a new animation program, which is her newest infatuation. :slight_smile: </p>

<p>She and I are going to think on it for a day, consult our respective trusted third opinions – her brother, my partner, family friends, mentors – and then revisit it tomorrow. If she is still happy about it, she will probably go for PNCA, and we’ll start trying to close that gap.</p>

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<p>Portland is an amazing town with a real “art” feel. I think it would be a great place to be for school, not too big to be overwhelming and yet so much going on. Very supportive of the arts…</p>

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<p>artsmarts: Exactly. It’s a great town. It’s very accessible if you don’t have a car (neither of my children drive), and the weather, while a bit gray and rainy, isn’t all that extreme. My son loves going to school in Portland. And at least next year, they can take the train together, I can splurge on a sleeper accommodation like I like to, and they’ll be able to share it. :slight_smile: That makes me verrry happy.</p>

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<p>And it’s not such a bad thing to have a family member around to talk to if needed.
Personally if I were moving again I’d really consider Portland.</p>

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<p>Portland over Utica and LA any day!</p>

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<p>The Pratt transfer thing sounds like that could be a little scary. The spreadsheet thing really helps, and lets you see how it all falls out Sounds pretty much what we’re doing with the MCAD/KCAI decision. Even tho KC gave her 15K vs MCAD’s 8K, there are less built in expenses at MCAD. KC has a 19 meal/week plan that you have to have. We figured out that was like spending $100 wk on food at MCAD, and there’s no way she’s going to do that. We still haven’t gotten the FA packet from KC, but I doubt there will be more merit in it. I was surprised to get a Stafford from MCAD, as our EFC is almost $54K. We will probably take that for the first year at least, as I want D to have some stake in this too. I can understand about why your D turned down Otis for the reason she did. My D would have thought the same way.</p>

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<p>Haven’t Trin sayng her D is the only one doing art school from her HS ?
my guess is that, this kid somewhat gotten influenced by Trin’s D ?
In that case she should be forgiven. If the kid is a real nasty copy cat or back stabber or something, another story, but she have to deal with it another what, less than 2 month?
Then again if this kid can afford Otis with breeze and rubs that in their face…
I will come to CA and kick the butt and maybe give Yertle dad another word about being the turtle king of SoCal LA that all he could see.
woops I did say I will leave him alone, hope he weren’t listening.</p>

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<p>MICA scholarship packets are arriving today. I will sit on my hands and wait until D gets home to open it!</p>