<p>How generous is MICA with financial aid? Do they give alot of scholarships? Grants?</p>
<p>My daughter, who is now a professional painter, had a friend from high school who decided to attend MICA. Both my daughter and her friend had won all of the regional Scholastic gold medals, between themselves, and had a few of the national gold keys, I believe that was the term. Her friend received zero scholarship money from MICA. Her father went to Afghanistan to pay for her schooling.</p>
<p>My daughter is currently a junior at MICA. They are quite generous with scholarships. Here is a link to one of their scholarship pages:</p>
<p>[Competitive</a> Scholarships for Entering Freshmen | MICA](<a href=“http://www.mica.edu/Admission_and_Financial_Aid/Undergraduate_Admission_and_Financial_Aid/Scholarships_and_Financial_Aid/Competitive_Scholarships/Competitive_Scholarships_for_Entering_Freshmen.html]Competitive”>MICA)</p>
<p>As you can see they have a special scholarship just for Scholastic winners, so the information by woodwinds is not correct. I found that MICA gave about the same amount as Pratt, more than Massarts, and much more than RISD. </p>
<p>Also, they offered small amounts several times, so it wouldn’t be so wise to accept them too early. They also offered AP credits from a special portfolio application to accepted students - this can help with all the credits you need and maybe save some money. They offer returning students extra scholarships - again based on portfolio submissions - but the amounts are not huge (up to $1200 or so).</p>
<p>Hi I wanted to say something here,
thank you for clarifying ahead.
That is how I remembered as well.
Also there is an automatic scholarship attached to Sharpe scholars.
MICA have been known as very generous in both merit and need based aids but as the way I understand it, only for the students who are also strong in academics: GPA and test scores.
I would like to ask,
How close are you to the family?
Had they readily disclose family finances and test scores of the student to you?
I somehow think that is not the only reason that student’s father had to serve? or work? in Afghanistan, and it sounded bit offensive to me of you to say the way you did.</p>
<p>My daughter and her friend went off to art studies about 8 years ago. Maybe there are more scholarships now; I don’t know. I have no idea what the friend’s grades or SAT scores were. I do know that she was an excellent artist, and that she was serious about art. When I asked her mother if her daughter has received a large scholarship (I assumed she had), her mother said no, that her husband had to take a job as a contractor in Afghanistan in order to pay for MICA. Her father was already retired ten years earlier from federal government service.</p>
<p>This is more a matter of what perceives as “generous”. Asking students to pay even 50% of a $40,000 a year tuition bill to study art is not generous in my opinion.</p>
<p>Thank you that made me feel slightly better.</p>
<p>However, you are then, not sure if amount was zero?
I don’t think it is nice to state something that is not correct.
I have known students went MICA from years ago and they have always awarded said scholarships if not more. There used to be full tuition and room and board after merit and need combined.</p>
<p>It is your opinion, exactly, You are entitle to have own opinion.
But in my opinion, many supportive parents would save or take out loans if needed to help their kids’ education.
If 20K out of 40K is awarded, I’d think most families would be thrilled and say it is generous.
You never know, the student will meet right instructors and peers because of that very choice to attend the school.
Later on, win huge award money form competition or something to pay it all off.
It happened for BP contest last year for mid 20s young lady.
You just never know.</p>
<p>Our experience…</p>
<p>My son is finishing up his second year at MICA and has been accepted into their 5 year MAT program. He attended a well respected magnet high school for the arts. He won Scholastics, Young Arts (including a top prize once he got to Miami), and Sharpe. He also did well on his SATs and had a GPA around 3.6.</p>
<p>We’re paying about $7,000 a year for him to attend MICA. So yes, they are very decent with merit scholarships. But, as someone else said, they like to give them out in small increments. He received one large scholarship and all of the others have been pretty small. But they all add up to a decent amount.</p>
<p>Wow - just $7K - does that include on campus housing and a meal plan? Do you mind sharing the names of the scholarships?</p>
<p>Greenwitch - couldn’t get into the link for scholarships :(</p>
<p>The link Greenwitch posted works for me. Sorry it isn’t working for you. My son has the following scholarships from the link:</p>
<p>Fanny Thalheimer (I think, not sure if it is this one or Meyerhoff, but this is the big one)
National Art Honor Society
Young Arts
Scholastics
Marie Walsh Sharpe</p>
<p>No, it doesn’t cover room and board. We live 20 minutes away (in heavy traffic), so he is living at home. He has applied for additional scholarships for his junior year. If he gets them, he will be living on campus.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting so promptly! You must be so proud of your son!</p>
<p>Personally, I see MICA as a toss up. Do they have a lot of scholarships? Yes. Do many people get them? Yes. But that can be a problem for some because it can mean you can get a large scholarship and still not have enough to attend. If your family doesn’t qualify for a lot of financial aid but does not have the flexible money to handle their EFC, then MICA is great because they offer huge dollars for simply merit. And you despite grades or portfolio should probably be able to qualify for some money. MICA is a great school and they offer a lot of scholarships, but if you need more money to attend try to fight them on it or see what you can do to attend. Financial aid is nice and will work with you despite your parents income. If you qualify for a lot of financial aid you might not get the money you need at first, but if you work with them you can see what is possible.</p>
<p>And when I applied to MICA they offered me 20k a year. There was no way I could afford that and when I got some offers from other schools it made theirs rather unappealing. Depends on your parents income but for me 20k was just a drop in the bucket.</p>
<p>Hi
I wanted to say something here.
I was talking to the parent poster who said MICA gave zero scholarships.
If the students are to be on their own, of course you’d want most of cost of attendance is covered by financial aid, after work study and possibly federal loan you could take on yourself. Is that still 5K or 6 limit per year?</p>
<p>Also thing to note is each school has its strength and pet majors as far as I have followed.
Top students would apply to every top schools and will be accepted to all to be able to compare their offers.
But for example, MICA seems to be liking more fine art, moderately conceptual portfolio, while RISD is still a prominent design school.
My guess is the poster who received better aid from RISD’s portfolio contained more graphite or such superb drafting or drawing and painting techniques, or of design oriented rather than more of conceptual or contemporary inclined works.
Unless students are transferring from other colleges, they would have not quite exposed to other than what they have seen or taught in high schools.
It is good to know your strength and narrow school choices according to your taste but I hope that young students to be more open minded and explore other than what they already know.
Most US art schools have foundation year for this purpose.
My hope is that more students could afford to take it on, hopefully their parents are supportive and schools being accommodating.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Is their aid based strictly on tuition? Will they factor in room and board costs? (over 12K per year).</p>
<p>Financial aid everywhere should factor in the total cost of attendance - they usually add an amount for travel and supplies too. If your merit aid award is inadequate, you should receive additional financial aid - hopefully enough so that you can attend. I agree with bowman that you should try to negotiate for more aid if you need it.</p>
<p>Beware of letters that say “you have 20K in a such and such scholarship!” Read the next sentence where it specifies that that is for a total of four years so it’s really 5K per year. It’s a typical move by most schools today to notify you that way and I guess if you take an extra semester to graduate, you need to take into consideration that your scholarship may need to be negotiated for.</p>