<p>DD (high school junior) got her PSAT scores today, and she's thrilled with a score much higher than she had expected. We'll have to wait until next year to know for sure, but based on past cutoff scores, it looks like she has a very good chance for National Merit Semi-finalist status.</p>
<p>Any input on schools with good theatre programs (either BA or BFA, auditioned or non-auditioned) that award merit aid for National Merit Semi-finalists or Finalists? She wants to focus on Acting, but is also very interested in Stage Management.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance for sharing your ideas and experience.</p>
<p>The University of Southern California offers a half tuition scholarship to National Merit Scholars who are admitted to the USC School of Dramatic Arts. In addition, those students admitted will receive a $1,000 per year scholarship from the NMFoundation.</p>
<p>In some cases students receive small scholarships through the school which may be funded by alumni, memorial scholarships or by USC support groups in addition to the National Merit Scholar Scholarship.</p>
<p>These are four year scholarships which are renewed providing students maintain a satisfactory academic record.</p>
<p>Pace University has the Pforzheimer (sp?) Honors College, which offers very attractive scholarships to students with strong grades and test scores. Many other colleges will award merit scholarships to students with excellent grades and test scores, even if they don’t specifically target National Merit finalists. Congratulations! High scores like that put her into a strong position, and increase her options considerably. Lots of selective liberal arts colleges have excellent theater programs, but the smaller ones tend to be stingy about aid, and will only award it to stand-outs. If money is a major consideration, my strongest recommendation (and one of the hardest ones to enforce with a teenager) is not to get your heart too set on any one school. Auditioned programs are unpredictable and have lower acceptance rates than the Ivy League. Even more heartbreaking can be the acceptance letter with no accompanying scholarship offer. Find a range of schools that have appealing programs, locations, and curricula, and one of them will undoubtedly come through. You should certainly start with the big names, where she has good prospects, but then add an assortment of BA programs and affordable (ie. public, usually) universities.</p>
<p>What you can do is look over a list like that and investigate ones that appeal to your D. Remember that some are a few thousand dollars, other are a full ride’ for just tuition, and others are for the whole shebang. A handful are for the whole shebang plus extra. As far as I can tell, it is unusual for a school that offers a strong acting program to also offer a scholarship for an NMF–Fordham is one of the rare schools that does this as far as I can see. </p>
<p>The rules for a full ride (of at least tuition) vary from school to school, but almost all of them require that you list that particular school (and only that school) as your preference by a certain date. And the date is pretty early. Make sure you start early. Also, of course, you have to be a Finalist and not ‘just’ a semi-finalist, which will take into account the grades as well. </p>
<p>Good luck with this! If you can find a school you like, it’s a huge money saver.</p>
<p>University of Alabama-Birmingham gives full tuition, dorm and money toward study away to NMF. The UAB Theatre program is a hidden gem, tech/stage management is very strong and acting is improving. They are also starting a MT BFA program. Non audition for entry to major, but they do hold auditions in February for new and returning students for their multiple department scholarships and stipend positions in the shops.<br>
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<p>Good advice above to start with researching schools that give automatic $ (of some variety) re NMF status alone, and then determine whether they’re the “good theatre school” of which you speak.</p>
<p>Do keep in mind that the “academic-side merit $” question to study theatre is a larger topic than just automatic NMF awards. Many students will combine NMF status with commensurate academic status in things like SAT/ACT, GPA/standing, AP’s, strong EC’s and so forth, to assemble an overall academic “package” that makes them competitive for “academic merit $” scholarships from any school that offers these kind of awards. For most scholarships and at most colleges, a student earning such an award can study whatever they choose – theater related areas included. Again, whether such a school is what you consider a “good theatre school” is largely subjective, but strong overall schools that also offer generous academic merit awards (at least they did at one time) include Wash U, Emory, Vanderbilt, Rice, CMU, Case, GW, BU, Michigan, Tulane, and USC. While none of these schools are necessarily thought of first and foremost for their theater offerings, many if not most have “strong” theater departments.</p>
<p>Thanks, all! This advice is very helpful. Any merit aid our DD can qualify for will be fantastic, and I see from the research that I’ve been doing that many colleges do not require a separate application for their larger merit awards, but consider applicants for merit aid when they submit their application. (They may require an interview, or have other competitive hurdles to clear down the road, but the initial application is automatic.)</p>
<p>Just as an FYI, the list changed from 2012 to 2013 understandably with some schools lessening their NMF scholarships, so take into account that the actual 2014 amounts won’t be available until January next year for many schools.</p>
<p>At USC it is not necessary to put SC first on the NMScholarship form until late April. This gives a student time, IF ADMITTED, to compare financial aid and scholarship amoumts before making a final choice of colleges.</p>