<p>I think you mentioned CCM as a top choice. The deadline for Cinncinnatus Scholarships (which are quite generous) is December 1. </p>
<p>Good luck. Your post brings back all the stress we had last year over cost/financial aid, but we ended up more or less okay. (We had to ask nicely and persistently for more.)</p>
<p>I agree with those who said not to wait before looking at the local scholarships! Our small town had about 50+ of them, and the deadlines were pretty early in their senior year. Don’t discount these. Although many of them were small ($200), several were thousands of dollars every year for 4 years. My D got 3 of the scholarships (applicable to any 4 year college), and when you add it all up, it’s a lifesaver!</p>
<p>Jkellynh17 - CCM is his first choice at this point. He’s applied, app is pending transcripts which we submitted by GC on 10/03 and recommendation which were mailed due to issues with Common App. I’ll read through that again, thanks for posting!</p>
<p>You have the time to get the money thing figured out . It would be the same pretty much regardless of what major he selects. Right now he should be making sure he gets whatever pre-screens in on time and that he has solid songs and monologues picked out and that he has a list of schools and specific audition requirements.</p>
<p>Many super-talented students from d’s high school have chosen audition-for-scholarship schools (that are rarely, if ever, mentioned on this forum) and audition-for-entry schools with low audition numbers over very famous, highly competitive audition-for-entry schools based on cost (or lack of it, some of them receive full rides, including free trips to visit). You may want to consider looking into one or two of those schools as a backup plan. Check the lists of schools that attend various regional Thespian auditions around the country and you will find some of them, and look through the “Big Lists” on this forum to find others.</p>
<p>D’s theatre program teachers, some of whom attended very famous schools and worked on and off Broadway, recommend attending the most affordable school vs. the most famous school when cost is a factor. They warn their students that this is a very tough business and student loans can be a bad plan for those considering a career as a professional actor.</p>
<p>Like many others, my D’s most generous offer came via academic scholarships. At CCU, the deadline for the most generous academic scholarships is earlier (January 1) than the deadline for the artistic scholarship (Match 1.) So just make sure you check on dates to apply for admission to be considered for scholarships. You don’t want to miss a deadline.</p>
<p>Pay attention to which schools allow you to “stack” scholarships. Some places we applied to allowed you to have both academic and performance scholarships if you qualified for them - but other places made you choose one or the other, keeping whichever is the better offer. At the schools who only allowed you to have one scholarship, this usually meant the scholarship offer was less overall than the schools who allowed us to “stack” scholarships. Also - make sure you check and see if the school you choose is part of an academic common market. We have friends receiving in-state tuition at out of state schools because their major is not offered in their home state (a good example of this is the physcial theatre degree offered at Coastal Carolina which is a degree not available in many states).</p>
<p>Those local scholarships do add up. In my D’s case, the amount was over $11,500 total. One award (for $5,000 from the NYS Lottery) doesn’t exist anymore, but other local awards still exist and were in the $500 to $1500 range. </p>
<p>D was so successful because some of her top competitors in terms of leadership, academics and talent, just didn’t bother to apply. The weekend before all the essays were due in guidance I placed my D under house arrest. I did not let her leave until every form and essay was complete. I thought that was a fair price for her to pay considering her first choices were all private (expensive) universities. To her credit, I heard very little grumbling. Her friends kept texting her to see if she was done and called me evil, I’m sure. (Their parents didn’t even know of the scholarships or impending deadline.) All those texts btw were from some of the brightest kids in the high school. Who do you think got the last laugh on Senior Award night? Many of those kids did win academic awards for highest grades in classes ( no application and no monetary award)…but guess who walked off with all the money?</p>
<p>That night I was approached somewhat hostilely by two sets of parents asking me for an explanation as to why my D won so many awards and their sons nada. I sweetly asked them if their sons had applied for these scholarships. You should have seen the look on their faces as they stormed off after their kids. :)</p>
<p>All good points here. We also encourage just staying on top of your research and keeping your son aware of the outside sources for financial assistance. Also, especially since the economic downturn of 2008, some schools have implemented a “special circumstances” type of approach to giving aide, assistance. Certain grant lump sums are afforded to schools for them to use as they choose. I know my son’s current school considers special financial needs for students considering recent unemployment, disability, etc which affects the family’s income. However, as with all of the process, the student and his family need to seek out the info, ask the questions, and be prepared to give documentation. It never hurts to ask if there are certain circumstances where more can be given, even if for a year. Keeping the figures and documentation in order and ready at a moment’s notice is very helpful. After an audition, we even went so far as to ask a parent of a college senior in line at the airport what she thought of the school over all. They had great things to say, but also mentioned the tuition went up $10K in the four years her daughter was there. This school and our son’s final choice were tied as his favorites. The financial component did make a difference.</p>
<p>I can say from experience that even with stellar grades and a reasonable ACT score, getting those artistic and academic admits and scholarships to line up is almost impossible. My D got tons of scholarship money, but did not get accepted artistically to the most affordable option schools. Look at residency requirements as well to see if your kid can gain residency during their time in school. My D ended up choosing to go to a school that wasn’t on our radar AT ALL after doing a walk in at Unifieds. Since she did not apply until February, all the scholarship money had already been given out. We are full OOS pay this year, but with one session this summer she will gain residency and the cost will drop by $15K+ making it in line with a state school. There is always the opportunity to gain scholarships later as well.</p>
<p>We had a parent a few years ago who liked to brag about her daughter getting awarded over $400,000.00 in scholarship money. Of course, she was only artistically accepted to a handful of those schools and managed to scoop up every little local scholarship around by discovering relatives who qualified her to be 1/1-something of this or that ethnicity or heritage. She even entered the talent contests at high schools she did not attend by arguing there was nothing in the application that said you actually had to go to that school to compete. Can you imagine? She won one before they discovered she was not a student Ugh!</p>
<p>Any particular websites you used or best places to search for local scholarships? I found 2 yesterday on scholarships dot com and I searched on musical theatre and performing arts. </p>
<p>walker - I would have never thought of the residency status thanks for that tip!</p>
<p>The local scholarships I’m referring to are ones that are awarded by the high school administration, guidance counselors or local committees representing banks, small businesses, local groups and families who set up memorial scholarships. They were available in a packet and on-line to all high school seniors. My daughter had a resume that included academics, leadership and talent. She did a bunch of fund raising through thespians and an acappella group she directed. So she won these awards indirectly through talent, not through an audition process. But they did total up to a significant amount.</p>
<p>I justed started working on the FAFSA… I am very new to this, so the application only allows you to input uo to 10 schools. As we know most our our kids (including mine) and applying/auditioning for more than 10 schools. How do we get the FAFSA to all the schools?</p>
<p>I appreciate any help with this matter… thanks :)</p>
<p>Inspired59, all your questions about Fafsa can be answered by Fafsa—they’re actually very helpful. You can just call them. Or you can find answers to pretty much any question online; there are FAQs and lots of answers. But as to your specific question, you apply for the 10 schools, submit, then add the additional schools: “Click Login on the home page and log in to FAFSA on the Web. You will be given the option to Make FAFSA Corrections. Remove some of the colleges listed on your FAFSA, add the additional school codes, and submit the corrections for processing…” </p>
<p>Don’t give up, but I would URGE your S to study, study, study for those exams. We did not qualify for ANY financial aid, yet of the 5 programs she got into, BoCo was the only school that didn’t give her a dime. Even NYU, which I had heard was notoriously stingy, gave her an extremely generous talent scholarship based on her audition. Other schools gave her very generous amounts b/c of her academics…from $12,000 per year to a full ride. So, good scores do help!</p>
<p>My S has a 3.8 and SAT of 1050 (with writing its 1660). He received academic scholarship from Rider of 16K. Most schools have that type of information posted on their website.</p>
<p>Although this “advice” is too late for this year’s seniors, and possibly even this year’s juniors, parents who have sophomores and younger who are good test takers take note. If your child’s 10th grade PSAT score is up around 200 (maybe even 180s) consider private tutoring over summer after sophomore year before October PSAT in junior year. We spent about $500 on tutoring for S which got him to “semi-finalist” standing for National Merit - 214 or above in Ohio this year (cut-off varies by state and from year to year). So far this has gotten him a “full ride” - tuition, books, room and board, and fees for 4 years - at WSU - as a SEMI-finalist (approximately a $100,000 return on our $500 investment). National Merit “Finalist” standings will be announced in February or March and several schools out there - Arizona and Alabama are two I can name off the top of my head - offer full rides to “finalists” who name that school as their top choice. Unfortunately National Merit does not carry that much weight at schools like UMich and CMU (S’s dream schools) - where ALL the applicants are smart. My S’s GPA will end up being around 3.5 and his class standing will probably end up in top 10-15%, which in combination with his good SAT/ACT scores are good enough to probably gain him “academic” acceptance to Theatre program at a top tier school, but probably NOT good enough to get a significant merit scholarship that would make those schools affordable for us. I think BW made it pretty clear that they don’t need to give talent-based scholarships because they have SO many talented applicants, and other top-tier schools are probably in the same boat.</p>
<p>Prepping for the PSAT/National Merit possibility was our “back door stage pass”. We refuse to cripple our future “Starving Artist” with the burden of student loan debt, nor do my husband and I plan to endanger our own “retirement egg” (Hah! We already spent it on voice lessons, acting and dance classes, summer intensives, shoulder surgery and rehabilitation, college visits, application and upload fees, audition travel, tights, dance belts and dance shoes, accompanist fees, video and sound equipment for pre-screens, sheet music and transposition fees, suitable audition attire. . .)</p>
<p>Our son had a similar PSAT as your son and SAT’s / ACT’s that were also high (high 2100s and 35), and he received significant merit awards from all of his acceptances, except BoCo. We did not fill out the FAFSA, but our experience is that high test scores (and solid grades) results in significant merit awards. We don’t believe it was a factor in admissions except perhaps with NYU that seems to weigh academics a little. In the end, he chose BoCo despite no merit awards, but he does know some very talented kids there who receive significant financial aid.</p>