<p>It is possible, however, to get a “dependency overide” even if you do not meet the specific criteria for “independent” status on the FAFSA form. There have been prior postings in depth on this so I won’t repeat the info here. In a nutshell, you must show a schism in the parent-child relationship arising out of facts demenstarting defacto abandonement or abuse/neglect that compels a student to live “independently”. About this time last year, I assisted a student in obtaining independent status through an overide. The problem, however, is that once you exhaust available grant and scholarship money, you may still be left with the need to take out loans and all the overide gets you is the ability to get the loans without providing the parents’ financials. It is not a panacea for someone who will be overwhelmed with loan debt.</p>
<p>Just wandering through, as I occasionally do. I’ll defer the financial aid specifics to those more knowledgable, and they’ve been spot on so far. I do want to make a few points. Son was an '07 Hartt grad, albeit in viola performance. </p>
<p>UHartford is a FAFSA only school, no profile required.</p>
<p>a $5000 Hartt performing arts scholarship is about 1/6th tuition, give or take. Last time I looked, the annual tuition was about $28-29k.</p>
<p>I can’t speak to the level of that award within the BFA MT program as being “low”, “high” or otherwise. From another angle, my son was awarded a half tuition scholarship as an entering freshman in '01, which was good for the duration of his five year double major. Years 2 & 3, his performing arts scholarship was increased by a couple of grand a year, through the (automatic) awarding of departmental, instrumental specific or alumni named scholarships, none of which he applied for or sought after. He ended up the last 2 years as a full tuition scholar by virtue of the Performance 20/20 program, an audition based highly competitive chamber program.</p>
<p>UHartford policies do not allow the combination of an academic award with a Hartt PA scholarship, so even though son was eligible for some UH academic merit by virtue of gpa, rank and test scores, they could not be applied because of his Hartt talent based award. It’s important for anyone contemplating schools to know what is, isn’t, and could be available.</p>
<p>Other than the Hartt PA talent award, there were no institutional grants (his efc was in the 4000 range), although he did receive subsidized Staffords, Perkins loans, a Pell for two years and an SEOG one year.</p>
<p>ace, talk to the department head. There MAY be some departmental money available automatically for upperclassmen, there may not. There may be a similar talent based program comparable to Performance 20/20 within MT, there may not be; I don’t have the program specific knowledge. There should be (there was) a list of the endowed/alumni scholarships in the Hartt section of the undergrad handbook; it will depend on if they are endowed or named scholarships, and if they are specific criteria/discipline based. You should also be able to get this through the financial aid office. </p>
<p>Quite frankly, the pa money is awarded on the basis of talent, potential, and institutional need, but it does not hurt to ask. There MAY be disparities and different resource allocations between the different performance concentrations. My son was at the top of the heap on his instrument, and academically graduated summa cum laude.</p>
<p>I can’t fault the training and experiences, and the assistance Hartt provided financially in our case, but honestly we could not have done it if we/he had to accumulate that much debt. He personally has maxed his Staffords, but they are at a comfortable monthly amount that are not a financial burden. </p>
<p>It’s important for all, particularly those in a performance based field to be wary of debt load. </p>
<p>Hope some of this helps.</p>
<p>Good luck to you.</p>
<p>I’m not familiar with the limits of the government loans. However, if you are maxing those out, I can assure you that the other loans are being collateralized somehow by your mother or someone else. In other words, you are not legally responsible for paying those back (whomever signed off on them is liable).</p>
<p>I’m sure your mother qualified for any and all loans used for your education. It also appears that you have told her that you will take responsibilty for the payment of those loans in due time. Hand shake type of deal with your mother.</p>
<p>If she is like most mothers, she wants to do whatever she can to allow her kid to chase his/her dream.</p>
<p>The problem in your situation is that she will expect payment at some point, which could lead to a million issues.</p>
<p>Try to get clarification from your mother. If she won’t talk about it with you, then you can assume that she knows the ultimate responisibilty is hers. The conflicts between family members may be unavoidable. You likely are not going to be able to solve those concerns, so do your best to hang on in school and let the “adults” figure things out.</p>
<p>What a sad story . . .</p>
<p>Ace, your mother may be in a very difficult situation also. It is probably very painful to her that her husband will not support her child. I’m wondering if she thinks she’ll write the loan payment checks after you graduate as part of her monthly expenses, but is unable to write a big tuition check today.</p>