Grad School Financial Aid "Packages"

College Majors Music Major
1

<p>My son has received two Financial Aid packages so far. And by "packages" I actually mean single-page scholarship contracts that have been attached to one-page introductory, congratulatory emails. That's all the data he has so far with which to make his decisions.</p>

<p>This has been interesting to me because I'm used to seeing the big, detailed FA packages that used to arrive in the mail and that outlined the whole gamut of awarded scholarships, grants, loans, and COSTS for my undergraduate kids to take into consideration.</p>

<p>For grad school, it appears that prospective students are notified of scholarships ONLY -- no potential loans listed (though he surely qualifies) and no COSTS listed.</p>

<p>Without COSTS, it's impossible to compute a Cost of Attendance after scholarships, and the stated scholarship amounts are rendered kind of meaningless. How can he possibly compare various offers without the cost component? (Though I don't mean to pooh-pooh the scholarships themselves! Thank you, thank you for any and all scholarships! We are very grateful!) :)</p>

<p>What am I missing? Are grad students expected to make individual calls to get the full story on a school's costs? And if so, isn't that bothersome to the school to be repeatedly bombarded with the same question from several different students over the 2-3 week period in which these students are armed with their scholarship information prior to their National Decision Date of April 15? Wouldn't it just be easier for the schools to post their specific costs (by major or by department) on their websites or within their accepted students' FA "packages?"</p>

<p>We understand that tuition and fees can be found, in very general terms, on each university's website. But in looking at the ones we've examined so far, we've found that they each have a general, blanket number for ALL "University XYZ" Graduate Students. The university-wide FA websites also allude to the fact that fees will vary by department or major. (And we all know that Music is more expensive than most majors, right?) In fact, on a few university sites we've examined since the first 2 packages arrived, we've noticed that one CAN sometimes work his/her way over to some specific numbers for Music School graduate student fees... but it's still hard to decipher HOW or IF those specific numbers are added to or subtracted from the big, grand "University XYZ" Graduate Student Tuition and Fees number that's found on the University's MAIN financial assistance webpage, or if those fees were kind of included in the big, general student tuition and fees number that is supposed to be an 'average.'</p>

<p>For those who've gone before us: Your experience with this, please? </p>

<p>We're hoping to know the bottom-line Cost of Attendance for each of these schools. And we'd really LIKE these numbers to be in WRITING. It appears that this will require a phone call, followed by a special request for specific expected costs for 2013-2014. Are we weird to want to know these things? Doesn't EVERYBODY want to know these things??</p>

<p>I'm stumped ...</p>

2

<p>So far I’ve received two financial aid packages. One of them sent a letter, only with aid, including results from my FAFSA. I had to look online at the portal to see costs/tuition/etc. The 2nd was much easier to go through. It came in my official acceptance package with a pamphlet that described all the different types of aid. It also included tuition estimates/other potential costs so I could see how everything breaks down. If only all schools did it this way… The first package took me a little while to figure out since the site was a bit disorganized.</p>

<p>I don’t think they would mind if you called and asked. I called the 2nd school yesterday and they were super nice/friendly and answered all my questions. It was definitely more difficult to get any sort of response from them during the actual application process. I’ve found that I get a quick/direct response when I call instead of email. Maybe call the music graduate admissions department first to see if they can answer your questions, and if they can’t, have them direct/transfer you to whatever office that can?</p>

3

<p>@SimpleLife- I think we just need to put things aside and enjoy the chocolate bunnies this weekend! D is in the same boat as your S and I agree that it’s aggravating(not to mention that there are grad schools who are so late with their paperwork that their acceptances/rejections still haven’t give out…). The one answer my D has gotten re financial aid is to wait a bit to see what goes to the undergrads and then they’ll work on grad appeals. Not comforting in any way, so I’m off to hunt down a few boxes of those little, cordial-filled rabbits!</p>

4

<p>^Hahaaahaaa! Best advice EVER!! In fact, I JUST ran into the Easter Bunny a few hours ago and managed to acquire some supremely delicious goodies! If I eat enough of it, I’m bound to feel better!</p>

<p>[But, to be clear, the complaint is not that he hasn’t heard soon enough (though thats also true for some of his schools). The issue is that the information he’s heard is far too sparse! He’s called to inquire and discovered that, indeed, the info he got was intended to be the sum of the information available to him! Absurd. No summary of costs?? I don’t get it. :(]</p>

5

<p>If you have questions about SF cost message me…I assume grad is similar to undergrad in the cost ( except the tuition part…not sure if there is a difference there as DD decided to put off auditions a year)… I can at least tell you what the " extra" charges are that hit her bill every year…there’s a few but not that many)</p>

6

<p>DD found that grad schools charges were different from udergrad in terms of acruing costs. Some grad schools charge by the credit hour and do not allow their aid to be used for “remedial” music classes. For the same degree the cost of attendance could be very different for different students. Others do have it all included like undergrad. You just may have to dig in and find out the real details of the charges and run some sample math.</p>

7

<p>My S also received Grad School Financial Aid offers, both public and private. It seems like at the grad level they charge by credit hour. We thought that the public U would end up being less expensive but since he would be out of state it seems that the private packages ended up being the better deal. One school gave a detailed estimate of all expected expenses, the others we had to do online hunting to figure out the estimated costs. Living and travel expenses would be pretty equal. Does anyone have any experience in negotiating graduate offers? I am thinking the packages are as is, take it or leave it at this level.</p>

8

<p>DD’s freind negotiated her graduate package all the way up to the acceptance date. With comparable offers you can go back and ask if they can do more for your first choice. Especially if the studio professor wants him. I think it is expected that it will happen.</p>