<p>I think that perhaps you should reapply to a school like Smith. I know that it is a Womens College but they have excellent financial aid (meet 100% demonstrated need), they are SAT optional, they have a graphic design program that you can take through the 5 college exchange, study abroad etc.</p>
<p>YOu should also look at Hampshire major in digitall media (also part of Smith’s 5 college exchange). SAT optional, great finacnial aid (100% demonstrated need). Oxford college at Emory</p>
<p>Are there any local state options at all for you? WIth BF picking up some of that tuition, the PELL and loans could get you through a year, and you can give it another go next year with more information. But really, unless you and your family get a windfall either through a great aid/merit package or some other money dropping into the picture, you are better off communting for two years and then transfering to a state school. Even then you will have loans, but they’ll be more manageable. Your mother is in no shape to take out loans for you, and no student should take out loans for the amounts you need to go to a school like Pratt with the aid they have on the table for you.</p>
<p>say that perhaps i apply to these schools and they do not give me enough aid, could i reapply for spring semester or do they not really give out aid for spring semester freshman? and if i were to take extra classes, would i be able to graduate the same time if i had entered in the fall? i know with my ap scores (thus far) and at like UCF or other public schools, i’d be able to skip two semesters of english (like enc 1101 and enc 1102), two semesters of US history, a semester of statistics, and a semester of world history, so i’d be kind of ahead already, right?</p>
<p>also i won’t be on until saturday after today, i’m going over a friend’s house and going to try to make use of what’s left of my spring break (i spent the first few days in recovery after taking my wisdom teeth out, the other days stressing and crying about my future.) i can’t do much with my apps anyway until my mother comes home from work because i need her license # and tag # to certify that we are florida residents on these applications.</p>
<p>Franny, I don’t know what the situation is with the Florida school these days, but back in the days when my family lived there, a lot of the schools filled up fast. </p>
<p>You do need to sit with your guidance counselor and ask him/her to come up with some affordable, likely options in your situation with your stats. Most public high school counselors are well versed with local and state options. It’s when you get out of their comfort zones that they sometimes become useless.</p>
<p>It does not seem to me that you can afford the options you have right now. Pratt is not the school for you at $30K a year. Not for anyone who has to borrow that amount. If you don’t want to take off a year and reapply as a freshman , taking maybe a course or two to bolster your stats, definitely a state school is the way to go. With the Bright futures supplement, you might be able to get through with a minimal loan burden. </p>
<p>The problem with being a transfer student is that they often are not need blind for admissions and do not get 100% of need met even at schools that have these policies for first year kids. If your stats-grades and test scores, portfolio, etc are such that you are a viable candidate to schools some private schools and you have an EFC and need through profile where you could get most of your costs covered, applying to some of such schools that meet all or most of need is a realistic choice. Pratt is not such a school. THey do not meet full need, or most of it. You need to get a list of schools where that is a realistic outcome if you want to do this whole thing again as a freshman.</p>
<p>my counselor is not very helpful. when i was applying on common app and they have that counselor supplemental form, my counselor never filled it out nor messaged me back about it and it wasn’t until the day before the deadline that she told me that my high school doesn’t do it online anymore and i had to get the papers printed out for her. x_x </p>
<p>and yeah, other people have already told me what u just told me… D: i was asking about applying as a spring term freshman to the state schools, if they gave enough aid to spring applicants as they do with those who apply to enter in the fall</p>
<p>You will have to ask each school if there is as much spring aid as there is fall aid. For federal and state monies, that is the case, but in my experience the funds that a college has to give out in grants at their discretion are usually given in the fall for the entire year, so there will be less of that in the spring.</p>
<p>I know two young ladies who went through the same process you did. Applied to a bunch of private graphic arts and music programs. The one was accepted to NYU, Pratt , Parsons and Visual Arts. But the family could not pay what the schools asked of them and they did not qualify for any federal or state grants, just loans. I believe some of those schools did offer up some grant money, but no where near enough. The musician was accepted at the Manhattan School of Music, Westminster Choir COllege, and Hart School of Music, and was in the exact same situation. After much hair tearing and tears, they took a gap year, working and taking some community college courses part time and working on activities to enhance the resume. The second time around, one ended up at Buffalo with a $3500 Performing Arts award which with loans, work and living off campus instead in the dorms made it barely doable. I believe she also got an outside award,and parents did come up with some money too. The other one is going to a small private school and commuting. She got enough of an award to go nearly free, and the school has some exchange privileges with some art programs though it does not have a program that is the caliber she wanted in her college. But she’ll get the courses she wants at the price she and her family can afford. Both took two tries at the college app process to get here. They are both very talented,and could get into some great programs, but getting paid to go is a whole other story.</p>
<p>ould i reapply for spring semester or do they not really give out aid for spring semester freshman? and</p>
<p>No…do not try that.</p>
<p>Spring admit and transfer students (even for fall) get the worst aid. That’s why we’ve said that either get into a Florida public for fall or take a gap year and reapply for Fall 2013. And do not take any classes…you need to preserve your incoming frosh status.</p>
<p>my mom only says no if i don’t go to school. if i need to stay with her WHILST attending college, then i can, but if i take a gap year, it’s a negative. my mom is barely home because she’s always flying, so she hasn’t really looked into the realities of college.</p>
<p>Oh brother. Why do parents do this? When parents make silly rule like this, they just encourage their kids to lie. Some kids would just say, Ok mom, I’m going to college…and then leave the house each day for a job. And apply to other schools for the next year. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids: ■■■■■, i never even thought of lying to my mom like that if i were to take a gap year. you are smart… i’m going to apply to ucf and usf st. pete and see how that goes…it doesn’t hurt to try. there are some local (like only between 3 high schools) scholarships i’m applying to, for being a senior key club member, or having a high GPA in the school, etc, that i’m applying to so maybe i’ll win one or some of those (they’re $1k-$2k) and that could help me attend state if i can’t get a lot of money for applying so late. </p>
<p>i really just want to go college. school is my thing. i like to learn, i like going to class and taking notes and having assignments and complaining about assignments and having cool teachers i can talk to after class and finishing projects and feeling successful when i get an a and being surrounded by people and learning new things and discussing and debating and writing opinion essays and i’d just feel odd not going to school right away… education is my niche. D:</p>
<p>You can enroll in some courses in a community or other local state college, Just make sure you don’t get too many credits to lose your standing as applying as a freshman. YOu can also work and find other things to do. Do see if you can still get into a state school with the Bright futures allotment. That with the Pell and the Stafford could add up to enough to go locally, anyways, and if you can find work at the school maybe even swing it away. I don’t know the cost of instate FL colleges.</p>
<p>
If you do take a gap year, you can demonstrate that you’re not a “freeloader” by taking on the housecleaning, yard work, and laundry, making some evening meals, and paying a nominal sum out of your earnings for rent. You’d also be contributing by safeguarding the house while your mother is out of town. You just have to spin your presence as a net positive to her.</p>
<p>Take a look into the Wilkes Honors College (part of Florida Atlantic University - has its own residential campus in Jupiter.) Their official deadline has passed but the website states:</p>
<p>“Students applying after December 15 will be considered for admission until the freshman and transfer classes are filled. All admitted students receive academic scholarships.”</p>
<p>Seems like it could be an alternative to CC: [FAU</a> Honors College](<a href=“FAU | Wilkes Honors College - Homepage”>FAU | Wilkes Honors College - Homepage)</p>
<p>Tuition for state schools in Florida is about $6k for the major ones like Florida State or U FL. So a 75% award through Bright Futures means $4K of the tuition covered. You can work this summer or starting now even and come up with the remaining $2K. For room and board, you could probably get Work Study and outside jobs, plus borrow up to $5500 in Staffords without anyon cosigning. With your mother throwing in a little money, you could make a go of it, since you also have $3K of PELL. In state is your best bet.</p>
<p>Franny- you have done a good job calming down and starting to look at alternative options and opportunities. Keep it up! Something will work out for you, one way or another. It may not be what your dream has always been, but you can still make it right for you!</p>
<p>Having been the route of art major myself many years ago and having two musical children (both won scholarships to national festivals), the expense of a private art college just isn’t viable for a middle or lower middle class kid. Franny, you have great grades. Go ahead and go to a state university. Dive into the art program and explore other intellectual interests. Double degree or double major. At my community college, I have so many kids that went off to Berklee, SCAD or other music or arts programs. They are 30K or so in debt for their year or two away from home and back at square one taking university transfer courses so they can go to the state universities.</p>
<p>I hate to be a bubble burster. However,after arguments and tears, both of my kids have later thanked me. I too was admitted to Pratt and three other art schools as a high school senior. I won a little scholarship called Gold Key and was encouraged to apply to the art schools by my high school art teacher. While in high school, I attended Miami Dade Community College and took drawing, design and printmaking (too bad you are not in Miami-they had great art at MDCC 30 years ago). My parents refused to pay for the art schools and I went to UNC. I have no regrets! I wanted to be debt free, travel, own my own home and be financially stable. I enjoyed my art but also exited college with a degree that led to grad school.</p>
<p>I do think one should follow one’s heart but not if it has the potential to create financial disaster. I don’t think the gap year is a good idea. If you are just living at home and working, you will be no better off in terms of money in a year. If you land some amazing graphic arts assistant job, that could help. Joining Americorp for a year could be a plus (they also give you 4k toward college expenses when you finish). Raising your SAT a couple of hundred points alone won’t make much of a difference.</p>
<p>I have what may seem like a silly question. I am asking this to other parents. Will FAFSA allow you to modify your original input? I know you can input an estimate of yearly totals and then modify those when the actual tax return is complete. I wonder if it is worth a call to explain that the family situation has changed (i.e., there is not stepfather or his income).</p>
<p>You can call the colleges and they can change the info if they accept it as such. The problem is that the FAFSA is as of 12/31/11 and if he was there on that day and contributed to household income for 2011 that is what counts. That he left the next day is irrelevant. Had he left the day before, his input doesn’t belong on the form. Just the way it works, where the line is drawn. But on an individual basis, fianancial aid officers can take such things into consideration. I don’t know if it will fly for the federal aid, however, as the rules for those are more rigid. A college can do anything it wants with its own money but has to follow the rules for federal and state funds. </p>
<p>In the OP’s case, the colleges have not even come close to meeting her need with their own funds, and it is very doubtful that they will come up with enough to meet her gap even if her EFC becomes zero. Another $2500 in Pell Monies is not going to make a difference to her for a school like Pratt. However, she can discuss her situation with a state school financial aid office and see if she can snare that extra for that, which would make for a nice chunk out of the costs for such programs. A $5500 Pell award, along with a equal amount in loans will make the gap doable sxpecially with Bright Futures taking the 75% of the tutiion cost.</p>
<p>Not sure if this helps at this point, but two colleges that have outstanding aid are Northern Michigan U and New Hampshire Institute of Art. </p>
<p>NHIA’s tuition is about half - yes, half, of the “big name” schools. My D (also who hated Florida) went to pre-college there and loved it. It was my daughter’s 3rd choice school, and since she got into her two top choices, she chose not to attend. However, their aid was very generous. Even tho she is attending MCAD, she just got a letter from NHIA announcing " we have just opened a number of spaces in our BFA program, including in our new Graphic Design concentration." It does state that it is available only to transfer students, but I think they would definitely consider you, especially with Pratt level work. It says in the letter "In order to qualify for scholarships and consideration of acceptance, complete an application. You can contact them at admissions @nhia.edu or 603-836-2589.</p>
<p>We also visited NMU and they have a state of the art stand alone art building. Really nice, and she got good offers of aid from there as well.</p>
<p>Why don’t you pop over to the Visual Arts forum? You’ll find people are very knowledgeable and friendly there, and you may get some good ideas.</p>
<p>I do not know anything about U Florida’s program, but I have a friend whose 2 sons went to UCF and liked it. </p>
<p>Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.</p>
<p>@mommaj: I already do all that minus the rent part haha.</p>
<p>Some of my friends just received their UCF decisions yesterday even though they applied in December. Another friend applied in January and got their response beginning of February. Im applying but I don’t know if they will respond in time for me to turn in a deposit by may.</p>
<p>If I do end up taking a gap year, I’d probably work and take advantage of the benefits I get from my moms job (flying for free) and travel here and there. But that’s only if I have to take the gap year. I mean I’ve been working hard on my studies for 12 years, it’d be a nice break lol.</p>
<p>In regard to my financial situation, I can always call up UCF upon acceptance and isee if they will do anything</p>
<p>Check out this thread on the Visual Arts forum. Post #5 has a student who goes or went to UCF. Call them, call them, and then if you have a doubt, call them again. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visual-arts-film-majors/1307077-best-film-school-florida.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visual-arts-film-majors/1307077-best-film-school-florida.html</a></p>