That’s true, @BassTheatreMom! What I wish, though, is that the private schools merit aid was more “cut and dried” like the public ones, since you can only audition for a certain number of schools. I feel like in our case we were correct, but with a little higher scores I think many of the private schools would have come out better financially. (Also my daughter elected to not do any prescreen schools, and some of the schools requiring prescreens looked like they may be better with merit aid.She just couldn’t figure out how to manage to film and send decent prescreens since she is not currently in high school or involved in any theatre or dance.) She has gotten some very good scholarships at regional publics (I was very surprised how much, actually) and a “yes” at one of them so far.
How did you guys find out about financial aid possibilities BEFORE applying and auditioning? Are there quick and easy ways to do that?
@Notmath1 Most schools offer a Net Price Calculator where you can input your information and get a ballpark range of what you might receive. But honestly, we didn’t know for sure. That’s why we had financal safeties on the list. You just can’t know what the final numbers will be until you get the academic and artistic acceptances, their associated scholarships, and the financial aid package.
@Notmath1, for the freshman merit scholarships based on GPA/scores, usually there is some sort of a chart you can find. Sometimes it is in the admissions/new freshman page, sometimes it is the financial aid/types of financial aid/freshman scholarships area. But I found out that “financial aid” and “admissions/merit scholarships” are totally different animals, administered by different offices at the universities. Who knew, LOL.
That is kind of what I am getting at. There is really no easy way to know BEFORE your kid starts applying to a multitude of programs whether it is even a school that you can afford 
@Notmath1 - if no chart for merit aid awards is available, I believe that you can come up with a reasonable estimate for merit aid for a school by doing the following:
- Compare your student's stats to the admission stats for the school on College Data dot com or google to see if you can find the *Common Data Set Submission* for the school on their website. The degree to which your student is above the average stats for admission will give you a pretty good indicator that a merit aid award might be made.
- To see what merit aid awards typically look like, look under the "Money Matters" tab on the College Data website entry for the school and scroll down to the section that says "Profile of 2016-17 Financial Aid" and look at the entry for "Merit-based Gift." That will tell you the average merit award typically received. If your student is well above the average admission stats, then your amount will likely be higher, and vice-versa.
My d had a GPA of 3.71(u)/4.23(w) and an ACT of 30. She received scholarships from IWU totaling $26,000 per year, which brought the price way down.
My d received scholarships totaling $7,000, the average amount.
Hence, for a student like my d, Illinois Wesleyan was much more affordable than Belmont and we knew that going into the process based on the available data.
No doubt others received more or less money than my d, but I think these examples are indicative.
A “wild card” in all of this are Talent Awards. Some MT departments are able to award fairly significant amounts of Talent scholarships which can greatly increase merit awards above the average amounts. If your student has the right combination of talent and type, you might receive a nominal or perhaps a substantial talent award. Of course, this is pretty much a total crapshoot when you are trying to estimate school costs at the beginning of your school search. Talent awards are typically substantially less than academic merit awards, but not always.
If you want to see an indicative comparison of merit aid for MT program schools, see this thread:
Some private schools are competitive with OOS public schools if you can qualify for merit or talent awards. It is pretty tough to beat in-state public school tuition.
Need-based financial aid is entirely different matter. You can get info on that from College Data dot com as well. Our EFC was way too high to qualify for any need-based aid.
Common data set will also tell whether there is merit aid without need and what the average merit aid award is. The common data set will also show why this non-need aid is given—ie, academics, talent, athletics. Talent merit aid should be included in these stats.
For those with financial need, the common data set indicates what percent of need is met on average.
All this will help in determining what a student might realistically be awarded.
@Notmath1, we looked at what @EmsDad suggested above. We also looked at schools’ reputations for generosity here on CC and asked coaches and other professionals in the field who we thought might know. While the latter two ways of gleaning information were often subjective and second hand, we found that it really did paint a picture that jived with reality.
We had a certain (admittedly low) number we were looking to spend, and D knew going into this that a big part of the decision would be based on finances and was completely on board with that. (She’s frugal.) But, her list included a few/several financial reaches. Two of those ended up being really generous and, therefore, less expensive than we even hoped (IWU and UArts, where she landed).
I’d encourage people to include a few of the financial reaches on the list if you think your student can handle taking finances into consideration in the final decision. Also, keep in mind that you can try to negotiate with schools. We did this with success with a couple schools even with the original generous scholarship offers.
@EmsDad Thank you for once again sharing your wisdom and research. Amazing.
I didn’t see Missouri State on the list on that link to merit aid rankings. Maybe because it was from 2015? But I know that in many cases is can be even cheaper that Texas State which you have listed as #1 in merit aid. Just wanted to share that with current families looking for a good financial option with a strong MT program. Robert Westenberg is the new head as of a few years ago.
Reality is difficult sometimes, and the financial stresses of college are where parents need to be the parent and not the cheerleader. First, parents should be contributing to a 529 plan; anything you can put into that helps. Second, kids must be informed as to the importance of solid academic performance, as that can help with scholarship money. Third, kids need to be told up front that financial concerns are going to be a leading factor in where they can go to school. And that is regardless of major; it is simply unrealistic to take on mountains of student debt. Finally, it should be stressed that you do not have to go right to NYC or Chicago right after graduation to find work, and have to try and juggle numerous part time jobs to pay back student loans while also trying to figure out a way to do auditions, etc.
Our history: my D 5 years ago had three acceptances for MT or acting, and one was from an in state school. She took that one, and because of her academic record she had half her tuition paid for. With 529 savings, and her working some part time jobs while in college, she graduated debt free. She also decided not to move right to NYC or Chicago right away, and since graduation in May she has had three performance jobs, two paid gigs and one where she was a lead in a major community theater production. She works for a Performing Arts center, and has a summer contract that has been offered through her UPTA auditions. So she’s actually been on stage perfecting her craft since graduation and making out OK financially (although not as well as if she had been an engineer, which her father wanted, but I lost that argument - another story for another time…).
Hope our story gives some perspective. Wish all of you the best of luck.
@jeffandann - We are a doctor and an engineer. How we ended up with an instrumental performance and an mt major is beyond me. 
Sounds like you have a wise daughter.
We made a spreadsheet for each of our kids with the total cost of attendance for each school in one column, our budget in one column, and the difference in one column. They both knew/know this is the number their financial awards have to add up to in order to make a school feasible. This way they had/have a very concrete idea and we won’t get to the end and have to say “so sorry.” The spreadsheet does the talking.