@PercussionMama what do you mean by filing her own FAFSA? It was always hers. Do you mean physically fill it out?
Did your daughter apply to any fully funded programs? Then financial aid is irrelevant of course for those schools
FAFSA is merely an application for multiple different financial aid programs, not the aid itself. A FAFSA on its own grants nothing.
The federal student loan programs, for which FAFSA is the application, are applicable to graduate study. The Pell Grant is not. Federal Work-Study is not.
In general, PhD students should be getting a fee waiver and a stipend from their programs (making financial aid redundant); masters students are mostly self-funding. Professional students (medicine and law) should mostly be self-financing.
I understand the nature of the FAFSA/CSS (after these many years of filling it out). And yes, it’s always been “her” FAFSA, but it’s been our money that had to get reported. So I’ve filled it out for her and her sign it when completed. However, no more. I don’t know if her programs of choice are fully funded or not, but even a program that covers tuition can still cost a lot if it’s in a city with a high cost of living. I am just curious about the process when she is at the point where we no longer want to report on our income, but she is still our dependent (with no money). Am I wrong about parents not needing to report income for their grad school children?
My daughter just got a email that she passed for Vocal Performance at Thornton. However, we are withdrawing her application because she was accepted ED elsewhere.
Your D can do the FAFSA, of course. The parents should be out of the picture as far as income info for grad school (although I think one conservatory did ask about parent income…fishing around for dollars…but I can’t remember fully). So if a grad program meets full need that would be great. In reality, for performance degrees, our experience was that even through my D was poor and needy, the schools still expected a chunk of change. I don’t think music programs have deep pockets so most MM seem to expect some amount of tuition. This was the experience for most of my D’s friends.
The money portion for a performance graduate degree often comes from the school in the form of scholarships, fellowships, TA opportunities etc. So while scholarships are important in UG, other assistance is available to grad students. Sometimes you can get a few awards so it can bring tuition down a great deal…but sometimes it may be only half, for example. No support can happen too. My D did get one acceptance with nothing.
So, she will need to go through the process and see the offers from the schools. Of course she can do a FAFSA as well to see if that will help.
As for timing, I known the decision day for grad school for her was mid-
April. I did a quick google search and for 2 grad music schools saw 4/15. So just be aware it could be earlier.
And…Composition programs seem to be fully-funded and often PhD programs (at least that is what @compmom often states). However “performance” grad degrees are often MM degrees and not fully funded (exception schools like Curtis).
Therefore, to be considered an independent on the FAFSA, you need to meet at least one of these criteria:
Be born before January 1, 1998.
Be married as of the day you apply.
Be enrolled in a master’s or doctorate program at the beginning of the 2021–2022 school year.
Be an active-duty member or veteran of the U.S. military.
Have children who get more than half their support from you between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022.
Your daughter does not have to report your income therefore (I know kids who wait to be 23 to go to college! Sorry about the misunderstanding…
@bridgenail most composition master’s are not fully funded and some are not funded at all. I have commented on the past that if you get a master’s on the way to a doctorate, it might be funded (often with TA work).
@bridgenail@compmom Thanks to both of you for your helpful info. I always zipped through these questions on the FAFSA and didn’t remember that grad school = automatic independent status. We know that this is not the channel for real money, but she may need some federal loans.
My daughter is applying MM. She knows that she needs fellowships, TA-ships, etc. to attend (after hearing me say this, oh maybe, 100 times). She has applied to schools where she has heard there might be some funding available for next year as well as some that are probably a reach. I’m not too worried that she’ll be able to find a school that works for her, but I do get anxious about her finding a school she can afford.
BTW @bridgenail, I would also have happily gone to NYC with D for auditions, and even bought her a dress, but now she has friends to stay with. Oh well.
I am very grateful for this community. As a parent who is experiencing this process for the first time, I value the feedback and opinions from other parents who’ve traveled this road before!
DD has 3 auditions (Oberlin, CIM, Rice) so far with 9 schools remaining. How are you keeping your children calm and yourselves sane? This is all so intense. I cannot begin to imagine the actual audition!
Any suggestions for Houston hotels?
I am 100% in the same boat as you. This process is quite overwhelming and it seems like the next few months will be even crazier.
My voice D has auditions so far for Jacobs, Ithaca, Syracuse, MSM, and UT Knoxville. She is still waiting to hear from three more. Not sure how the schedule is going to work. Yikes.
My kid went through this process a few years ago and is now joyously in his third year in conservatory. He is by nature very calm in high pressure situations. And I stress enough for both of us. Every student/parent is different, but here are a few thoughts.
Because this process is so long, at times random and unpredictable and with many variables out of your control, ask your student what you can do to keep them as calm and focused as possible. For my son, I stayed very much in the background but did all of his travel planning because that is the stressful part for him.
Stay as level headed with your celebrations and disappointments as possible. Think of every prescreen passed (or not) as just another step in the road. It helped us to smooth out the emotional roller coaster.
Try to avoid thinking about how many applicants there are for how few spots. Unless you need to decide whether or not to take an audition, just move forward with confidence. It is terrifying and counterproductive to look at the odds. But many times the same few top students rank highest at several schools and they can only attend at one. And know that your kid will indeed find a place that is a good fit.
While waiting for the next audition or decision, we opted to make an effort to not talk about auditions/schools as much as possible. Likewise once auditions were over, we avoided second guessing or reading into the comments from the panel.
This process is crazy and challenging, but really will be part of their lives as musicians. So if you can, use it as an opportunity for them to figure out how to handle pressure, uncertainty and competition in a positive way. They will surprise you with their ability and resilience!
Denied USC Thornton second Round. Onwards and Upwards. Waiting on one more prescreen. And results of one Live audition and another one set up for January! What a grueling process!
I agree with #anotheroboemom that you need to find the right path for you and your kid. I also remember a parent’s post from the year my daughter was applying UG talking about how exciting it was to travel around the country for auditions and meet interesting people. So for my family, we embraced the adventure.
The other thing is that once you know the results of all your prescreens, you don’t have to take all of the live auditions. Just take the ones that matter the most and maybe a safety or two. My daughter applied UG for 12 schools (too many, but we didn’t know how prescreens would go). She didn’t pass one prescreen and she chose to not audition at 4 schools, either because she knew by then that she had better choices or she finally ran out of room in the schedule (spring musical pit orchestra you know). She did 2 trips with 3 schools each and 1 regional university. I made travel arrangements and went on the road with her as her support team, so all she had to do was pack and then play. Yes, it was a little bit crazy, but we still talk about memories from those trips.
Someone posted about Oberlin above^, but we haven’t heard yet. We’re wait waiting on four prescreens, and one EA where auditioned virtually but did all the stuff one would do - theory exam, aural skills, faculty interview, etc.
I know not all the audition dates are the same, so possibly. Or they might be rolling… Some of the other conservatories said that if you submitted closer to the Dec 1st deadline you wouldn’t necessarily hear quite as quickly.
