<p>So I go an $11,500 scholarship plus $5,500 in loans for MICA making it cost me $34,670 with tuition and housing. I ended up choosing MICA in the end and me and my family have already accepted MICA and were getting ready for me to go there. Earlier this week PAFA called me and told me that the scholarship that I had received from them has now become a full tuition. I have until the end of the week to decide if I should go to PAFA and accept the scholarship or stay with MICA. The offer from PAFA made me think a little bit more between the two colleges.</p>
<p>If it helps I plan to major in painting and I wanted to go to an art college that is partnered with a normal college in order to study education and psychology.</p>
<p>I’d spend the week doing a lot of research. Turning down a full scholarship is not to be taken lightly. I assume that then you will just have to cover the housing costs. Is PAFA about the same cost otherwise as MICA. So you would be dropping your $34,670 down to what? Which school fits your criteria better and/or felt like someplace you really liked? You have a lot to weigh. How easily can your family carry that $34,670 or would you be doing loans? Good luck.</p>
<p>Flam, I guess I have a question about wanting a school that partners with a regular college, as I did not think this was the case at MICA. I don’t know if you can partner at PAFA, but I vaguely remember the tie-in to Penn. I have no idea if that means you can take liberal arts classes there with the expectation of a minor or something–definitely look into this. Also, since you want to paint, PAFA could be a great choice, but the school as a whole does not have the breadth of MICA. A full tuition scholarship is a big deal Congrats and good luck.</p>
<p>Looking at the PAFA website, it shows that they have a joint program with Penn that you would start during your sophomore year. But you have to apply for it (has that deadline passed, or would it be during next year?). You would take 16 classes at Penn, of which at least 4 must be in art history, so plenty of room for education and psychology.</p>
<p>It says, “offered at a significantly discounted tuition rate by the university of Pennsylvania”… Does this mean your full tuition scholarship from PAFA would cover this, or not? These are all questions you should ask. Ask also if there are any other schools in Philly or nearby that you can take classes at if PAFA doesn’t have the electives you’re looking for.</p>
<p>Baltimore has a 15 school consortium and MICA has a special relationship with JHU but it isn’t always easy to find a class that you want that will fit into your schedule. My D goes to MICA and took a class in environmental science at JHU without any problems, even considering their different schedules (she ended up with no spring break). </p>
<p>Do the math, all the math. How much more would MICA be for four years? For us, tuition went up about $1600 between freshman and sophomore year. Housing costs went down a little since D moved into an apartment (MICA always runs out of housing for sophomores but there’s lots nearby). It would be really, really, hard to turn down a full tuition scholarship when you have so much to pay out of pocket. If you decide to go into art therapy later down the road, you don’t want to be drowning in loans. In fact, you never want to be drowning in loans! </p>
<p>My D has loved MICA but my bias in your situation would be to go to PAFA unless your parents can afford the difference without too much pain.</p>
<p>A thought just occured to me. Why not contact the admission office at MICA and tell them out your full tuition scholarship offer from PAFA? Who knows? MICA might come up in their offer.</p>