@mrsborle If you can afford NYU you can afford Hartt LOL
@actingmommy88 Iâm sorry, I donât really know, but with the numbers of acceptances at NYU, I would think thereâs quite a bit of movement. I canât imagine every student who applied will be able to afford it and will attend, especially if they have other offers that cost a lot less.We are grappling with deciding between a program that will cost us three times that of another offer. In the end, we are thinking a lot about what our D could do with the funds we donât use at the more expensive school after graduation and her other five siblings that we also have to send to college.
@type1mom - yikes - you might actually plunk down 3x the cost (of the other school)⊠and you have 5 more kids to go! Would you consider adopting my S? 
A note re financial aid at Emerson (or, to a significant extent, re FA at any school).
I apologize for the vagueness of this story (which personally leaves me with way more questions than answers, causing me some reluctance to post it here), but Iâve decided to share for whatever value it might hold as a cautionary tale. (Note, too, that my info is already second-hand, so take it for what you will.)
A young woman from our hometown (HS class of 2015) went to Emerson for one of their theatre programs right after HS. A trusted mutual friend recently told me that this girl loved it there but that she was shocked to learn at some point during or at the end of her 1st year that her FA was going to be drastically reduced for her 2nd year. (From what I understand, this was not linked to losing a merit scholarship or to an improvement in her familyâs financial situation.) I believe she ended up doing another semester or two there but then had to leave the school.
My personal takeaway, which should probably hold true for any college: Go over all FA paperwork with a fine toothed comb. Make sure the school and our family are both on the same page re expectations of FA for years 2-4. And ask the school to commit IN WRITING to that shared understanding.
I heard this story after my D had already applied to Emerson, and I told her that if she were to get in and if it were to end up on her short list, we would need to treat any FA offer with heightened skepticism/scrutiny.
It could obviously be that this was a one-off, or that there were extenuating circumstances of which Iâm not aware, or that Emersonâs FA office has changed its protocols in the intervening years such that this situation wouldnât be repeated again. Personally, though, it leaves me a little bit wary.
@Atreuh :)) Fortunately, they have generous grandparents who want to help, but we have one that wants to go to med school and a set of twins, so weighing all their needs is complicated. Thank God none of the others are planning on a BFA!
@mrsborle My daughter is a freshman MT BFA at Hartt. It is a well respected and rigorous conservatory program. The Hartt School is nearly 100 years old and is well known for its excellent music, theatre and dance programs. Lots of working alumni in all areas of the arts. The AT group is generally a small cohort - around 20. The degree is comprised of 137 units with only around 30 of those being general ed, so the majority of your classes relate to your art. All ATs spend 10 weeks during Junior year in London as part of your yearlong emphasis in Shakespearian training. As you progress your group works as a repertory company with numerous plays every year. I had the good fortune to see two while I visited my daughter at Thanksgiving and the quality of the acting was amazing. All ATs and MTs participate in a Senior Showcase in NYC toward the end of Senior year. I would encourage you to review the link below which shows the 4 year curriculum outline.
http://catalog.hartford.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=19&poid=4312&returnto=1743
The total cost with room and board is around $50,000 per year.
Please let me know if I can answer any other questions for you. And congratulations on your acceptances to Hartt and NYU!
@katew529 I, too, think about the 4 years for financial aid. I learned about the website collegedata. If you put in the name of the college, select that college, youâll see a âmoney mattersâ option. It breaks down the aid for freshman, and then all undergrads. This helps to understand the âtrendâ that can be expected for a school. If the âall undergradâ data is lower or higher than the freshman number, this can be discussed with the college directly.
Thanks, @DoinResearch. Also, a wealth of info on a variety of things can be found by searching for each schoolâs Common Data Set. Some schools go into more details than others, but thereâs a lot of factual info there.
My daughter got her acceptance to Tisch on the 28th for BFA Acting. Still nothing about the waitlist for Ball State. We are going this week and next to Coastal Carolina, Ball State, NYU and Marymount. Canât wait for a decision to be made!
@cassidysmom - Congratulations!
@momof2lefties Can I ask what a âblind studyâ means? Do you mean that she is printing out all the curriculums without any identifying information about the schools and then comparing/ordering which ones she prefers? If so, what a brilliant idea!
@MomofJ5
Other than âfollow the moneyâ I think the tie breaker FOR ME (one that I would suggest to my D but not require her to follow) is that the better academic schools leave MFA options for further training open, especially if the money at those BFA/BA schools is a lot better. I have already told our D that the 20k we would save for the first 2 years between Top Choice (less aid) and Second Choice (a lot more merit aid) would be able to continue generating interest and could be used by her for summer conservatory study at ACT (San Francisco) or NTI (Conn.) or elsewhere, study abroad in London, or summers doing unpaid internships that would help her career etc., and/or a nest egg coming out of her BFA to just travel and audition or spend a few months reflecting on what next.
@MomofJ5 Never mind. You did that already.
@Noreplays2018 see post # 3095.
I have a question about BFAs and MFAs. I can see that for training, there probably wouldnât be a need for an MFS degree after getting the BFA. But what about for teaching? I thought a college professor needed the MFA, but isnât it largely duplicative to the BFA? Not that my S is thinking of this now, but if there are limitations to the BFA, Iâd like for him to know about it.
@momofj5 â For college teaching a âterminal degreeâ MFA, PhD, etc⊠is most often required. There are some schools that do not require it as long as the teaching candidate has very high level professional experience, but many will require a terminal degree regardless of level of professional experience.
I would not think of it as a limitation of the BFA (since it is not like it is an either/ or⊠meaning either a masters degree or a bachelors degree⊠since in order to obtain a masters degree you must first have a bachelors degree).
I know quite a few BFA grads who indeed go on to MFA programs, and not just to teach, but to continue developing their training in a focused training environment after they have a greater depth of maturity. Of course quite a few decide not to pursue MFAs, but in my experience it is not a duplicate of the BFA training⊠different teachers, different classmates, different training focus of the program, adding an additional professional network, etcâŠ
@MomofJ5 a masters is needed to teach at the college level usually, but it doesnât have to be an MFA. My Dâs MT dance teacher was on broadway previously and wanted to teach dance. She got a masters (not sure in what, but it was not an MFA in dance or theater) and is now teaching at a 4 year university. So there are options. I think this particular person knew she would be able to get a teaching job with the masters she received - but I would definitely double check that before getting âanyâ masters degree (lol).
Iâm in NYC for the week. A while back people were talking about an App that helped you find same day tickets for broadway shows. Can someone refresh my memory on this? Thanks!
Today TixâŠ
Thank you!