@HappyCello thank you for your advice, I am assuming since your name is happy cello that cim was a good fit? Any pro tips to pass along? S loved Cleveland and felt very comfortable with Jason at his audition, thought his feedback was helpful. S was also accepted to Case on its own and in dual degree through cim so happy there as well, although we heard not many are able to do the dual degree due to time constraints. So any advice/info is very appreciated!
@pianomom74 Greetings! Conrats on your child’s admission to Mannes
FWIW: My S was accepted to New School Jazz (different division, same financial aid office), and we just got the financial aid package this morning. There was a minor snafu with them needing an updated (aka “corrected”) FAFSA, but once we did that, they came back pretty quickly. Hope you hear back soon.
@WestOfPCH thank you for the info. Congrats to your kid too!!
I cant wait to get all answers and know where we standing at:)
@pianomom74 - I tagged her in my message to you, so she may have some tips to offer. However, in the meantime, another source of information in these anxious April days is last year’s thread. In March, I went back and reread last year’s post from late March and April. It didn’t answer every question I’ve had, but it did give me a lot of information about the process. In particular, @SpartanDrew described in real time, so to speak, their process of appealing merit aid at New School and making decisions.
Thank you again @coloraturadad for your insight about the Michigan process. It provided perspective, and it also gave me some information that I was able to use to help D’s dad calm down after hearing about D’s no-merit merit award.
@3bobosmom sending you a PM
This ended up in last year’s thread so putting it in the right place : )
@WestOfPCH Your son was notified of admission on 3/29 for New School, right? So that’s a good sign that financial aid info is starting to come out. Hoping we hear by tomorrow (Friday) not that we are expecting much.
The people I spoke to at New School were very helpful and friendly but if anyone is getting a cranky response, I can kind of understand. I’m sure they are getting the same questions from a ton of people. I wish that Admissions would be more clear in the acceptance letter of the process and timeframe for financial aid to come out. That would save a lot of unnecessary phone calls!
Hello fellow journeyers! As you may have seen from another thread on scholarships, I am compiling a spreadsheet of scholarship offers by school and instrument/major as a guide for future students. If you’d like to have your or your child’s information included and haven’t already provided the info in the Merit Scholarships thread or by DM to @tripletmama please DM me with your award information. I am looking to collect information only on merit awards (both music and academic). So, to extent you are willing to share your information, please exclude any need based awards.
Caveat: I think we all understand that some merit awards are “need informed”. As such, there will be personal family circumstances that may affect the size of the awards. But, the hope is that the information will still prove useful as a general guide to future applicants.
Thanks!
Good morning! Quiet morning around here and I am enjoying reading all the 5 pages of posts I missed while my username issue was being resolved - formerly appeared as: Meryem Ouhirra; should be VibistMom now, let’s see…
Congratulations on the great news from schools!! and hang in there all of you still waiting, and good luck to those (like us) dealing with angst in decision!
@tripletmama Yay and Congratulations to your D on joining Berklee!!! S is very likely to follow.
The Frost Vs. Berklee dilemma has got me worn down and in reality it may be just me. Both great programs but opposites on the final COA plan for us. The engineer in me has a clear and obvious outcome to it, but this just does not work that way; plus it is not MY decision after all. The reality is S has been clear and set on Berklee ever since he got that acceptance letter back in Dec, if not before. We have discussed deep and long and I can’t say I don’t see his point or understand his extremely valid arguments, and this is not even thinking about fit and heart. So @Britmom5 I hear you!
Conclusion: we are investigating student loans and trying to navigate that world we are not familiar with. S is pro-actively looking for info too - Ha when they want to lol… I have loads of questions here, but to start: what are the chances of federal loans if you are not considered ‘high need’? Can we ask to increase the amount of Stafford loan that appears on S’s FA document? I would appreciate feedback from those of you on the know.
Oops, apparently no update in username although I did email admin and thought it got sorted out…
@Meryna123 the Stafford loans they are offer to students are the maximum allowed so there isn’t much you can do there. My understanding is that it is very easy to get a government “Parent Plus” loan which is currently at a 7.6% interest rate. As long as you have not filed for bankruptcy recently, it’s an easy application and parents may borrow up to the full amount of attendance (I believe this includes room & board) and you don’t need to start paying it back until after they graduate (you might even get a 6 month window.) However, it is highly recommended you at least pay interest from the start of the loan as that interest can accrue quickly. You would have up to 10 years to repay I believe. There are many red flags out there on parent plus loans, especially if the monthly payment will be really difficult, postpone your retirement or force you to dip into a TSA account, etc. Not to mention the college price tag goes up when you realize the high cost of taking that loan. However, it DOES pretty much allow you to send your child to any school of your choice. Is it wise? Is it responsible? Is it worth it? Those are questions each family has to answer personally.
Here is a Parent Plus loan calculator that might give you an idea of numbers you are looking at.
https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/loans/student-loans/parent-plus-loan-calculator/
I currently have a ParentsPlus loan for a 2017 grad so I feel I can speak to this.
The process for getting these loans is very easy and the interest is reasonable. You don’t have to start paying until six months after the student graduates, which is both a blessing and a curse, especially if you haven’t kept up with the interest. Once the payments begin, you can choose from a lower amount/longer payoff/more interest to a very aggressive payment plan. For $100,000 in debt, payments will range from $600-$1,400 a month for up to ten years.
It’s certainly not ideal. Only you can determine how much of a hardship it will be to pay that much for 10 years after graduation (I’ll be 67 by the time I pay it off unless I prepay.) Luckily, there is no prepayment penalty, so if you stand to inherit money or you are in a temporary bind that will be resolved over time, it may be worth it.
In our case, circumstances were such that it was the best choice for our family. I don’t regret doing it, although I am deliriously happy that it won’t be necessary for music S.
*I should note that we (parents) are paying this off, rather than our D. I would not saddle a new graduate with $100k in debt. She has a Perkins loan that she is paying herself, and in fact has almost paid off, which was her “skin in the game.”
Meryem - the Stafford student loans max are: $5,500 the first year, $6,500 the second year and $7,500 in years 3 and 4.
I have a question about student loans. So, the Parent Plus loans are at 7.6% - are other loans options (e.g. Sallie Mae, Discover, etc.) much lower than that? My mother’s credit union (that my father help to start) has offered her a secured loan (based on my mother’s savings) which I hope to be at a lower interest rate. What’s the lowest that one can expect for student loans?
I’m hoping that our music daughter will only have to take a loan for the first year or two of room/board (and then either become an RA or get a less expensive housing and room option including ramen noodles).
@lkbux64 I would like to DM you our merits awards, but I haven’t posted enough times to be able to do so. Perhaps you can DM me and then I can respond to you?
I think I now understand @GoForth’s 40% rule. I experienced that today in trying to log into the New School Financial Aid portal. 
Took me awhile and I was ready to give up (since I’m not expecting a miracle).
Just fyi - you use the NetID Username, NOT the NetID “N” number to log into the financial aid portal. And I had to create a password. Talk about confusing!!! And no information is there yet.
@AmyIzzy Yes, S got admissions letter from NS on 3/29.
I’ll say that there wasn’t really anything we didn’t already know in their FA package. It was simply the merit that was offered in the original letter plus the max federal loans. It didn’t even include Work Study (which every other school included ). Net net, I wasn’t particularly surprised. Of course, other people’s situation could be different – aka “Your Mileage May Vary”
Tripletmama——— Real ramen noodles near Berklee campus are $14 & up…So, just say “Cup or packaged noodles” to make sure your D stays away from the ramen place to save money…
@tripletmama - at my son’s high school financial aid seminar the financial aid person recommended looking at other sources (credit union, etc.) than parent-PLUS loans because of the high interest rate.
About EFC——— We all know our own EFC by FAFSA. I am finding out that EFC in “our mind” (by FAFSA) isn’t same as private schools calculate for our EFC (by institutions) based on FAFSA and CSS Profile. Because those private schools look overall financials in each families, saving, assets (even including one home where we live), cars, savings, debts and even retirement saving…No schools seem to make a big effort to meet “our” EFC. They might be expecting us to borrow from home equity or retirement saving. Or they think that we are capable to come up with difference $$$ with or without magic.
Does anyone have thoughts about this?