<p>OP - if your son was 99th percentile for PSAT, is he a possible National Merit scholar? A couple excellent MT schools offer full tuition (OCU) or full rides (Alabama) for NM finalists.</p>
<p>First, its essential that you get a more accurate idea of whether you have need or not based on NYU’s criteria. Use their financial aid calculator to see whether you qualify for any aid at all. If you’ve done your fafsa and your EFC s above $60k you nw you won’t qualify for aid. </p>
<p>It’s important to know whether you qualify for need-based or merit aid scholarships at nyu, since they have different funding. There is much more need based based aid. This aid can be given for both talent or academics or both. The non-need based merit aid is for talent only and is in much shorter supply.</p>
<p>Older d got $10k/year in talent merit aid from Steinhardt in 2008. She graduated last year with her BM in vocal performance (musical theatre). She also had very high stats, but academic merit aid is not available. </p>
<p>For all their talent based programs, NYU considers talent for 50% and academics for the other 50%. The “academics” part includes gpa, test scores, ec’s, essays, letters of recommendation and recommendations, etc. Basically the vp dept sees your per-screening material and then audition and will then see if you met admissions standards for acceptance. The a cademic criteria may be slightly lower for talent based kids, but still within NYU’s range. </p>
<p>In terms of NYU, d was awarded a nice talent merit scholarship. She knew the dept head from attending their summer program and he encouraged her to apply without auditioning again (her work from the summer was her audition in his eyes.) I believe the number of merit aid and their amounts have dropped more recently.</p>
<p>When I revived this thread I probably should have reiterated the number one thing (I think) I understand about this process - talent gets you into a program, academic scores get you money to attend. Thus I appreciate everyone’s input but don’t want to turn this into a how to get in thread. It’s intended to be a show me the money thread with the ultimate goal of prioritizing the audition list.</p>
<p>What I’ve learned from your comments and those from a similar thread I started in the financial aid section are:</p>
<p>a) update my cost figures with the latest data from the common data set.<br>
b) NYU and CMU might offer talent aid; however, it’s not going to be “material” (i.e., cut the all-in cost of their programs in half and/or bring the cost within $5K/year of our in-state option)
c) the likelihood of material merit aid increases with how high our son ranks with his incoming freshman class (i.e., top quartile might need to be top 10%)
d) merit aid very well might top out at $10K - $15K, and be thankful
e) we parents need to re-examine our own budget. Is $30K a year our max burn or is it really $35K? Better to decide now than later when (or if) the offer letter looks so tempting. There’s another thread about hidden costs which we need to re-examine as well. </p>
<p>Finally, in my mind I have been prioritizing/paring his audition list based on decending ACT scores. Logic being I want him around kids that are of similar academic achievement. That might need to be inverted.</p>
<p>I started my college at the local tier IV school studying business and found myself thinking, “I’m one of the smarter people here, and there’s something wrong with that statement.” Transferred to Big State U. which was tier I and never had that thought again. Put another way I want him to have ownership and pride in the school he chooses and not view it as a lesser/default choice. Hopefully his talent and the 30 on the ACT can afford him a choice. </p>
<p>With that written my wife has done a good job of reminding me that entire class ACT average does not necessarily hold true for an incoming MT class, especially given the competitiveness of getting into MT programs. On top of that there are honors programs that can satisfy my wish that he be academically challenged as well which is something to consider as well. </p>
<p>Again, thanks everyone for helping me try to bring a logical order into this chaotic process.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that once you get past the most coveted programs, most MT schools are not all that academically challenging. People get merit money for 3.2 GPA.</p>
<p>If your S has CCU on his list, those stats would get him a President’s Scholar award and you would be looking at about $21,000 per year COA. If he got his ACT up to a 32, he would receive the Presidential Scholarship and you would be looking at COA of about $19,500. When my D applied she had very similar stats (except SAT rather than ACT) and CCU was around the middle in terms of COA for us. NYU was the most expensive, even with a nice scholarship offer. I think U Miami was the next most expensive option for us. You can at least run the net-price calculators at teh schools on his list and see what you might expect in terms of merit aid, then research further for talent aid information.</p>
<p>want to thank everyone again for this info. We are in the beginning of preparing audition list for D, and I’d like a range of places - both based on talent level and finances. It’s tough.</p>
<p>While I completely understand wanting to avoid financially-driven decision-day heartbreak, from what we’ve seen over the years you honestly can’t know what any school will cost until you are admitted and have an offer in hand. We have seen some schools listed here as only offering Need based aid make some VERY generous Merit and/or Talent offers over the years (usually to males).</p>
<p>It’s also worth remembering that if at some future date you will have multiple kids in college simultaneously the need-based aid picture can change radically, making the cost difference between the most and least expensive schools much less than you’d guess.</p>
<p>Best of luck to everyone!!</p>
<p>lcoulter32724, as mentioned above,my daughter just finished her sophomore year at Steinhardt. My Fafsa EFC was in the low 30’s. My daughter had AP’s and honors courses, and a 3.8 grade point average and did well on her SAT, though not aceing it! She also was a National Merit finalist. NYU awarded her a combined merit/talent/need scholarship (all loaded into one, so difficult to separate out) that actually made their cost cheaper than Hartt (nothing offered) and in line with UArts. In fact, our financial aid/application coach was quite surprised as rumor had it that NYU doesn’t give out much money. So, as long as your student is aware that in the end, one of the major factors that may aid in decision making is linked to finances, and he/she would be happy to attend any of the schools on the list, don’t mark off any dream schools early on. You just never know!</p>
<p>Hi Christie!</p>
<p>The primary issue that one needs to know about NYU is whether a student will qualify for any financial aid at all. I have now done the admissions process with 2 daughters, and I feel pretty familiar with the process.</p>
<p>If your EFC is above the cost of attendance (let’s say an EFC of $60k+), the resources from where merit $ comes is totally different than if you qualify for any financial aid at all. With an EFC of say $30K, admissions and the department head can request that the financial aid department grant a large total award package of up to $35K or so to potentially meet full need.</p>
<p>However, with a high EFC and no qualification for any need, the money is not awarded through the financial aid office per se; it is from a separate departmental budget for talent merit aid only. In my experience, the $10K my D got was as high as it generally gets. And it is for talent only. No departmental awards for academics without need.</p>
<p>In that sense, lcoulter would have a real idea of where they would stand if they do not qualify for aid. With a high EFC, they would have to expect to pay a minimum of $50K per year. With need, it would be a much more flexible situation, which could go either way.</p>
<p>Also, if a student hopes for merit aid, don’t consider applying ED. The department money is only awarded in the spring to RD students in the hope of increasing yield.</p>
<p>ED = education? RD = ? performance. We should qualify for some need aid, especially at the more expensive schools. Also, will have both D’s in school for at least the first year, maybe the first 2 years.
This info is so helpful - thanks again. We are trying to tell our D that finances will of course be an important factor in where she can attend, but it sounds as if crossing schools off the list early on because they seem expensive would be a mistake.</p>
<p>ED = Early Decision. RD = regular. :)</p>
<p>I agree that crossing schools off the list and choosing not to apply may not be the best idea. However, know going in, and make sure your student knows, that NYU is, generally speaking, not a generous school when it comes to financial aid. This isn’t just for Tisch, but a broad NYU generalization. Another consideration is that the aid that IS offered may not be in scholarship form, it may be largely in loans which will have to be repaid, with some in workstudy which your student may or may not be able or willing to take advantage of, especially in freshman year. I think it has always been the case that some, and I emphasize some, students will find that Tisch ends up being less expensive than some other options they may have but this isn’t the case for most students, which is why it’s not a good idea to get too attached to any one particular school.</p>
<p>1stTime, I don’t necessarily think that “talent gets you in, academic scores get you the money to attend.” That’s simply not the case at most MT/Acting programs. I think in most programs, it is “talent gets you in, talent gets you the money to attend.” </p>
<p>Let’s say two kids have the same financial aid need and the same EFC according to FAFSA. Kid A has great test scores, a bunch of AP classes under his belt, and does well enough on the audition to get accepted into the program. Let’s say he is in the middle of the pack of the accepted kids. Kid B is a very average student with very average test scores, but he kills it in the audition and by the way, he has those soap opera star looks. He is near the top of the ir list of accepted students. It is not shocking that Kid B will get a better financial aid package. Why? Because the programs have to do what they can to make the $$$ work so they can get the best kids into the program. If they were competing for a spot in the engineering school, or business school, or pre-med, kid A would get the better financial aid package. </p>
<p>I’m not saying test scores and high school academics don’t mean anything, I’m saying they aren’t the main criteria in MT programs even for financial aid packages.</p>
<p>“I think in most programs, it is ‘talent gets you in, talent gets you the money to attend.’”</p>
<hr>
<p>Based on my inexperience - my son, the first child, is a rising senior thus this is our first go around at this - using the word ‘most’ is wrong. In your example the candidate in question is Neo (i.e., THE One). Maybe the MT program director has some talent money to pass out which comes out of their program’s budget or (s)he can tug on the sleeve of the financial aid person to ensure an attractive package. For the remaining 90% of the candidates which get offer letters I think money comes from either need calculations or merit money. </p>
<p>I am surprised at all the comments about NYU offering talent money, though admittedly it’s not encouraging for our situation since: a) it still appears to be the exception - proud of our son though I don’t harbor illusions that he’s THE One - and, b) $10K to $15K in talent money feels like going to a sale at the Porche dealership - too expensive (for my budget) is still too expensive regardless if it is zero-percent financing.</p>
<p>Though we disagree I appreciate your comments nonetheless. One of the ways we all obtain greater understanding.</p>
<p>But in many schools offering musical theatre, the merit money is in fact merit TALENT money. This obviously needs to be researched for every school. The common data set will usually give an indication if merit money is for talent, athletics or academics. But again, your best source of finding out is speaking to both the financial aid department and the department head of the school you are applying to. Talk to both since money can potentially come from both sources.</p>
<p>{When speaking to NYU regarding my youngest D, I was told by the financial aid department that she did not know of any talent art scholarships for merit aid only. When I called the studio art department, I was told that awards are still given for merit aid in art (and music, theatre etc.) but that they are awarded by the department in the spring and that the financial aid department might not be familiar with the criteria for the award based on the award’s name.}</p>