I plan to join the Under-Grad program, but the fees for this is $70,000, and I can’t seem to find an appropriate solution to this. I plan on taking a Gap Year after IB, to plan ahead and explore other stuff in design. What can I do in this gap year that might allow me to afford RISD for the entire 3 year course period?
If you were one of my kids, the advice would be to find another school. There’s simply no way on earth that we could afford a price tag anywhere NEAR the one you mention… gap year or no gap year.
Agreed, if you ran the net price calculator and the school is unaffordable you need to move on to other options.
How does one get in? Have you been accepted? Any financial aid?
Most kids can’t earn 70k during a gap. Or the funds for the other 3 years. You need to run the NPC and be realistic.
If you can afford to apply, it doesn’t hurt to try. In general, private colleges have more aid to give out…however this does not always hold true for art schools. I researched online and warned our DD that RISD can be stingy about financial aid and that our family would decide the final college decision together based on finances. We got VERY lucky in that DD was accepted to RISD and given a large merit scholarship that made it do-able for our family’s finances (and actually less expensive than all the other acceptances, except our state school).
I’ve seen videos on YouTube of RISD students talking about the aid they’ve gotten, both financially and merit-wise? But what I’m confused about is that their website states that they don’t give scholarships based on merit.
Some schools have published #s and ranges - ie Pratt will tell you exactly what you’ll get based on test scores and GPA. RISD will NOT guarantee anything based on your grades, so it’s probably a combo of grades, portfolio, ECs etc that they award at their discretion. So when I used the term ‘merit’ above, it’s more loosely defined since RISD does not openly state what they base it on.
On our awards letter DD was given a generic “RISD Scholarship” of $28,200 per year. Terms say it’s could be adjusted based on FAFSA. But we have another kid headed to college next fall and our income sure isn’t going up! In addition, DDs grades have been high, so no academic issues or warnings. She’s entering junior year and aid amount and work study have remained the same.
MICA is lookin’ awfully good to us. And CCA. My D went to NPD and liked both of them. RISD is still on the table, but we like the possibility of more merit scholarship money and more flexibility in curriculum.