<p>And I'm afraid that I will have to sell my kidney to make sure that DD can go! If accepted, of course.</p>
<p>We got into NC on Thursday evening and did a drive-by (in the rain) and even from the van, she loved it! The next day, we came back to walk around and see what the students were up to on a Friday night. Well, we lucked out and discovered that it was the MT students' Grand Night - their showcase (I presume). Good grief was it freakin' awesome! DD just had to go up to the head of the MT department and touch the hem of her garment! Well, almost.</p>
<p>Did the open house today and we are both sold on it. Love the new residential areas that they're building, as well as everything else on the campus!</p>
<p>If she doesn't get in for MT or acting (we all know the stats), she'll just have to change her major to............Anthropology, just to get in there! HAHAHAHAHA!</p>
<p>Ok, I'm done. Back in Jersey, dreaming of Elon.</p>
<p>(Oh, and the director of the program pointed out the two students in the audience who would be MT freshmen in the fall. A guy from California, and a gal. She said that over 500 auditioned for 20 spots.)</p>
<p>My son’s girlfriend is going to Elon in the fall. She applied EA and got in before Christmas. She’ll be a music education major. She visited only a few schools last spring and knew she wanted to go to Elon the minute she stepped foot on campus. Good thing she got in! (She had to audition, too.)</p>
<p>Is your smitten DD a student who would apply for the honors program there? Although merit scholarships seem to be few and far between, Elon has their Fellows program (requires an application, interview, some other hoops if invited to compete) that can offer some additional financial resources to very high-stats kids.</p>
<p>For which fellows program? When my D attended, honors fellows plus Presidential scholarship (stacked) was worth about $13000 per year if I’m remembering correctly.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, she is a tad short of Fellows caliber, and even if she did get $13000, she would still need a lot more in order to make it affordable for us!</p>
<p>One of my son’s most heartbreaking moments in this process was making the call to let Elon know he had decided he needed both of his kidneys…Good news, he is so very happy with his current program. </p>
<p>One of the threads (or maybe several) discuss the benefit/cost of graduating with a lot of debt as an actor. Good arguments on both sides. I commented on that thread, as I will here, that we often only think in terms of what we can GIVE our kids for college. We told our son he wouldn’t be the first kid to graduate with a bunch of debt, but we could only GIVE him “in state” money, and he would be responsible for the rest if he chose. We left it up to him. Good luck to you in whatever you decide.</p>
<p>glee4life, if your D is accepted at Elon, don’t give up the ship! In the end maybe Elon won’t be doable, and that would be a bummer, but don’t be afraid to call the financial aid office as well as the head of the department and try to get a better deal. All they can say is “no.” As I recall, Elon’s initial financial aid package was not very good. Their theater department is at a disadvantage in some ways. University wide, the school is competing for kids with schools with a sticker price that is 15-20K more expensive than Elon. Hence the seemingly paltry initial aid package. Problem for the theater department is, THEY are not competing for kids with the same schools. They are competing with all the ones we talk about here, and most of those start with the same tuition/room/board as Elon, or less. BUT after some phone calls, and adjustments to the package, it was fair, not as good as a couple of others, but at least fair enough to keep them on the table until the very end of my son’s decision making process and not off the table due to finances.</p>
<p>It is one of the most beautiful campuses I’ve seen. Nice facilities. The people were very cool. I know a couple of kids who went there (not for theater or MT) and they loved it. </p>
<p>glee4life, I don’t know what will end up being affordable, but my D’s package ended up being about $11K/yr, which included her Fellows Scholarship, Presidential Scholarship and some random work study. Our EFC was too high for her to qualify for any aid. It would have rang in at just about $32K/yr to attend and that wasn’t including the travel costs for breaks/holidays. In the end, she found a school she actually liked better where her entire debt will be under $20K and hasn’t looked back. Things have a way of working themselves out. Good luck!</p>