HELP PLEASE

<p>I am planning on appealing to my dream schools financial aid soon and the school told me, they want to know what's knew. I've been taking vocal lessons for over two months now and was wondering would it be wrong to send them a video of myself singing and playing the piano? Could it help? I'm willing to do whatever, this is my dream school but I cannot afford it as of right now!</p>

<p>Um…what in the world do your vocal lessons have to do with your financial aid package? </p>

<ol>
<li><p>If you are a music major and received a performance award, it was based on the strength of your audition. A supplemental tape now won’t change a thing.</p></li>
<li><p>If you are not a music major, and just feel like this would strengthen your chance for a financial aid appeal, I would say…no it won’t. Most financial aid reconsiderations are based on NEW (not knew) FINANCIAL information…things like a job loss for a parent, something like income or assets reported incorrectly on your financial aid applications…that sort of thing.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>And how much more do you need? </p>

<p>The day for making a matriculation commitment was YESTERDAY. What did you do? Did you commit to attending this unaffordable school?</p>

<p>It appears from your previous posts, you were deciding between LMU and Pitzer–and that you’re a business major. You also mentioned that financing was not an issue. I agree with @thumper1: yesterday was THE day, so what on earth did you do and why not earlier, if FA became a concern? </p>

<p>On March 8th, just about 2 months ago, you wrote:</p>

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<p>Why did you say that money isnt an issue, and now it is??? </p>

<p>Did you accept to one of these schools yesterday and still dont have the means to pay?</p>

<p>While I appreciate your responses, I don’t appreciate your snarky way of replying hahaha I KNEW how to spell “new”; it’s called a mistype. Second of all, no I was no longer deciding between Pitzer and LMU. I already committed to Loyola Marymount prior to the SIR due date (I am not ■■■■■■■■.) And its was perfectly affordable as of last Monday. Another University (which I would like to remain anonymous) decided to make a rash decision and took my off the wait-list earlier than they should of and decided to treat me as a regularly admitted student, requiring me to commit to their school as of yesterday… HERE is the problem. The university decided it would be appropriate to pay half of my tuition for the four years through merit based scholarships. 30k/year. What I cannot afford is to turn down an offer that large. That is what I cannot afford and wouldn’t you agree? I need more money from LMU in order to have the options even out better and so I won’t have any remorse picking LMU even while this other university wants to pay half of my tuition.</p>

<p>Be sure the look at it in terms of COA, not how big the offer is. If the school is 60K a year and they give you 30K, but the other school is 25K with no help…the school with the big offer is still considerably more expensive. Tuition is only a part of the equation. Make sure you are looking at the entire cost.</p>

<p>How much is LMU costing you?</p>

<p>Is LMU still affordable? The implication of this thread is that it is NOT affordable. </p>

<p>What will your net cost be to the school that accepted you off of the waitlist? Is that total affordable?</p>

<p>To answer the question in your first post…NO, your voice and piano video will not increase your chances of getting more aid.</p>

<p>Talk to your voice and piano teachers and get an honest opinion as to whether or not your tape will wow them.
How the heck are we supposed to know from what you write as to how you sound and how well you play the piano? If you are a Christina Aguilera in voice and can knock somoene’s socks off or a prodigy on the piano, maybe, maybe , maybe they’ll scramble to get you more money and an agent to boot. If you are not what they consider good, and believe me admissions officers get all kinds of tapes from people who have trained for years and are quite good, it’s not going to make any difference. If you are downright bad compared to those tapes, they may get a good laugh and play it as a joke–yes, there are those who do that. So get a professional opinion on whether or not your music skills are worth it. You need a very good quality tape you realize to do this right. </p>

<p>It’s perfectly fine to send an update of things that enhance your resume, and yes, maybe, maybe it could make a difference. Also let the school you are interested in know, that a competing offer is right on the table and that it makes a difference and ask what they can do. That might make a bigger difference than a music tape, unless, as I said, you are really big time material.</p>

<p>Do look at your school choices. Doesn’t matter what a school gives you. IT’s the bottom line of what it costs you that counts. If a school costs $70K and gives you $40K, it still costs more than the $20K school that gives you nothing. Write down the official Cost of attendance and adjust for, say transportation, and then subtract out the GRANTS that each school gives you, and look at the bottom line. If it’s close and there some subsidized loans in there too, take the Subsidy into account which about a tenth of the face amount of the loan, because you do have to pay back loans–they are just a delay in payment that you are being offered and when subsidized, just the interest accruals are taken care of while you are in school. Make sure you are comparing apples with apples, and then talk to the admissions director that admitted you (thank him/her for admitting you and ask for advice in dealing with the discrepancy in costs between your top two choices) Ask if additional accomplishments and endeavors, an update on your resume would put you in contention for more merit money. Good luck.</p>

<p>I’ve never heard of a college that hires agents for aspiring performers. They might help connect someone to an agent…but hire them? Maybe, but it would certainly be the exception rather than the rule.</p>

<p>Plus, lots of folks sound like the next great success. But this student has NOT reached that pinnacle…yet. If he had released his own first music and it was well received, that would be one thing.</p>

<p>But he is not a performance major. He wants to major in business. I fail to see how a CD of his piano/singing will sway the folks awarding money. </p>

<p>But sure, send it in. Why not? </p>

<p>As I said earlier, the new info they are asking for is new info regarding family finances.</p>

<p>So LMU is still affordable but you’d like to use this new scholarship from another school to get that price down. You could have been more clear in your questions about the new situation but at least your update helped us understand. Good luck with that. At this point I doubt the FA needle will budge.</p>

<p>It sounds like you have been listed as attending two different schools. Hopefully you’ll be able to correct that quickly.</p>

<p>Sorry, I typed it out explaining everything initially but then it somehow got deleted and so annoyed and irritated, I just decided to ask a more condensed question and that was my mistake. Evaluating everything including the scholarship I received from LMU, the costs are 52k/year vs. 32/k year. When I called the financial aid office, the explicitly told me that they do not match scholarships from other colleges and that what they want is an update of us as an applicant which she said may include, but is not limited to, new test scores and semester grades. Obviously, not all singers and performing artists are singing majors/music majors etc… My vocal coach wanted me singing at her coffee shop concerts within a week of meeting me because she said I was ready and now people who have seen me perform there are asking me to come sing at their Fitness Center opening. I don’t know if I’m THAT good, I don’t think you ever know when you are self evaluating yourself, but I know LMU probably has a choir and student run concerts or anything and I’m willing to try and show LMU that I’d be willing to participate in all of that. I want LMU to be my alma mater… I want to do the best for LMU at this point. I understood the whole “when you know, you know” thing about love because I visited LMU and I knew from the moment that that was it. Not too big, not too small. Not too non-religious and not too overtly religious. It’s a perfect school and I could see myself doing great things there. It’s just how could you turn down 20k/year more from another, just as reputable, school? But I cannot say that I am in love with this other school, let alone like it a lot. I don’t love this others school set up and regulations. Reading their regulations and way of operating makes me depressed that they gave me so much money.</p>

<p>Are you saying your net cost at LMU will be $52,000 a year? If so, even if you appeal and are successful, you aren’t going to see a huge amount if money.</p>

<p>My daughter was a state ranked musician on an underrepresented orchestral instrument. She attended Santa Clara University which has much deeper pockets than LMU. She auditioned with the instrument teacher and had information sent to the orchestra director. She knew they had an orchestra and hoped for something. </p>

<p>She got $250 per term ($750 a year) and free instrument lessons as long as she played in the ensemble…which she did.</p>

<p>My point is…just because LMU has a choir, and you are a great singer…this will not necessarily translate into money from LMU, and likely not a significant amount…if any.</p>

<p>LMU is a great school…if you can afford to attend.</p>

<p>Very true and I thank all of you for your input. But now I just want opinions, would you turn down 20k more a year for somewhere you felt was going to be better for you?</p>

<p>Yes, I would turn down the $20,000 a year. It sounds like your net costs are too high to consider this offer.</p>

<p>If you actually have the resources to pay the balance, that is one thing. But unless I’m confused…that does not seem to be the case.</p>

<p>I’m sure my family could afford it, with a couple of loans and stuff like that but we are currently paying for one other college student and another one who is going to college in two years. Saving 80k over four years is a big thing.</p>

<p>You are not hearing me. What is your net cost to your family to attend LMU? Can your family pay THAT amount. As noted upstream…the amount of aid is meaningless. It’s the amount your family must pay each year that really matters.</p>

<p>And lastly, this financial discussion needs to take place with your family. If they say they cannot afford the costs for you to attend any college…then that college needs to come off the table.</p>

<p>My youngest DS transferred from Boston College to LMU this past year because he wanted to be in a School of Film and TV. He was admitted as a sophomore, but not in SFTV. He was admitted as an English major/film minor and had to make a separate application in the fall and compete with others who wanted one of the few coveted slots as a production major in SFTV. (Yes, he got in SFTV, but he had an incredible film resume!) My purpose in telling OP this is that a number of the majors at LMU require PRIOR audition or portfolios as a part of the admissions consideration, and music is an audition-based admission. So, if @SCCHguy no longer wants to be in the business program and wishes to switch into music, he may be able to do that once on campus. It will still be by some sort of competition, though. Then he MIGHT qualify for additional scholarships, which he can see listed here (along with the audition requirements for the music program: <a href=“http://cfa.lmu.edu/programs/music/admissions/grantsscholarships/”>http://cfa.lmu.edu/programs/music/admissions/grantsscholarships/&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>While none of us can read the tea leaves and tell you if LMU will give you any more money, especially since you presently matriculated at TWO universities, my hunch is that they will not. One, you don’t really have any bargaining power at this point since you agreed to go to LMU. You had bargaining power BEFORE you made a decision. </p>

<p>Two, @thumper1 and I agree on the music thing. You appear to be a business major. Why would a tape of your voice get you more money when anyone who got scholarships for voice, did so by the regular application process which included an audition and indication of THAT as the chosen major? (You may recall LMU only allowed you to indicate ONE major choice on the Common App–no back up majors. Those scholarships for music majors have likely all been given out by this point. </p>

<p>Three, universities do NOT look favorably on students who do what you did–namely accept two offers. I believe both institutions may have the right to rescind your admissions offers since you are not supposed to do this. So…if you disclose to LMU that you have matriculated at a second university and are now trying to pry more money out of them, you may face getting dumped by LMU. </p>

<p>So, overall, I am troubled by what you’ve done. You say LMU is aligned with your values. Well, let’s see you demonstrate some decision making in keeping with its Jesuit value of magis–the act of discerning the best choice in a given situation to better serve God. </p>

<p>You need to talk to your parents. Only they can decide if all of these things are affordable. </p>

<p>If you got no need-based aid from LMU with another in college, then your parents must have a very high income.</p>

<p>You can minimize costs at LMU by being thrifty, buying books online, working over the summers, singing during the school year at places that will pay, etc.</p>

<p>With regard to need based aid from LMU…the school might not have given any need based aid to this student. LMU does not guarantee to meet full need. The only guaranteed aid is the Direct Loan of $5500, and a Pell grant if the student is eligible.</p>

<p>The family might not have a “very high income”.</p>