I am wondering if any of the aid is student work, if timeliness on acceptance is important to secure the student work slot (and earning amount).
As a parent, I would try to secure enough information now to see if there is a critical time to accept and not lose out.
I can understand a methodical thinker wanting to properly analyze it, but you may be able to secure enough information now on affordability - if you can find out from the other schools you haven’t heard from yet.
And yes, you do need to take into consideration that tuition rises every year, and if your out of pocket rises every year, if some choices are un-affordable.
Say your child is left with 2 or 3 affordable choices - if something needs to be decided by a specific date, you need to either go visit to ‘seal the deal’ or visit to eliminate that school. Or maybe your student has a gut feel which school is the right one and it is affordable.
i’ll just say that the top 2 schools we are looking (1 public/ 1 private LAC) have not responded yet with any aid options. We just keep waiting and checking.
I’ve not heard of a school that has an earlier deadline for accepting student aid than accepting admission to the school. There is so etime a preference for housing choice by when the deposit is received, but I’ve never heard of aid being dependent on accepting early.
Yes, that is what I meant too. It doesn’t seem to matter when you accept the work study, March or june, it is still going to be there. At my daughter’s school, they start a wait list for those whose want WS and didn’t get it, or get enough. If students who were awarded WS don’t accept it or don’t attend school by the first day of the term, it is re-awarded then, but not before, so students can accept it up to say August 20.
@ArtAngst - My daughter has also heard from most of her art schools (7 of 8). I assume you are waiting on RISD as well. All of the schools to which she applied came back with some level of scholarship/merit funds with the exception of RIT (obviously not a dedicated art school) which advised that merit awards will be sent out this week. Although I strongly concur with @twoinanddone, 4 of the 7 schools from which my daughter heard, also provided a financial aid package.Mass Art said that this will come out in March. MICA said they will notify admitted students during the first week of April, in advance of the May 1st acceptance deadline. @momm – Unfortunately the NPC as well as the FAFSA expected family contribution are deemed ‘guidelines’ rather than hard and fast rules. Schools with limited funds cannot meet 100% of need in the form of grants, in part for what towinanddone wrote above. One school for instance basically told us to borrow the lion’s share of the shortfall, more than $30k! We will both find out soon, but all information I get on RISD is that the school is not generous with either merit or financial aid. I pray this is not the case (for you too!), but am not optimistic. We too are weighing intangibles such as job placement, internship opportunities and reputation. As of now, she can attend University of the Arts for less than 1/3 of the all-in price of Pratt, or attend MICA or Mass Art for less than half the all-in costs at RISD. Tough decisions, but nice to have them to make…Good luck!
My daughter has applied and was accepted to 6 different Western State’s colleges. We completed FAFSA successfully by the 5th day it was available.
To date, she has only received FA award letters from 2 of the 6 schools. Her decision is really down to 3 of the schools and FA makes a big difference to her in the decision process. (we can afford to do each, but D if very fiscally conservative and refuses to spend more than necessary)
Is it customary for March 6th to roll around and still not see award letters? Is it acceptable to call admission counselors and ask if there is a hold-up that isn’t apparent via student portal?
Thanks for your kind directions, love this site and it has been invaluable.
@BrooklynRye - thank you for sharing all your experiences too, sounds like we’re in very similar situations and yep, RISD is the final one we’re waiting on too. And I’ve heard similar warnings that they’re not terribly generous with aid or merit/talent awards. So far MassArts and Syracuse has given generous merit, MICA has given art/talent $ plus said merit is forthcoming. As of now MICA is the forerunner and daughter’s going to accepted student days there and at Syracuse hoping to help finalize her decision. Thankfully she really does like all 3 of those schools and is fairly pragmatic about going to the one that’s makes the most sense financially.
Good luck! I saw on RISD’s facebook site that “3rd week in March” is when we’ll all finally know!
@ArtAngst - Nice to be in touch with a kindred spirit. Am curious, if you care to share, as to other art schools to which your daughter applied as well as her impressions of the ones you visited. My daughter did precollege summer programs at both MICA and at RISD. While she had a great time, learned a lot, and made great friends at both programs, she found the former to be a bit less intense and found the limited ‘safe’ area in Baltimore around the campus very claustrophobic. While Providence was nicer, she still found it somewhat limiting (Thayer Street probably gets old during a 4-year period), and the intensity of the work and of the students was off the charts. Although she is still waiting on RISD and not all awards/aid packages are complete, I would call it a very close race between Pratt and MICA.
Wants to double major in Illustration and Art Ed (although if she went to RISD she'd do masters somewhere in NYS)
Ruled out all NYC schools, so didn't look at Pratt - she knows the city pretty well and didn't want to go to school in a city that large, we live in a fairly rural area outside of a medium size city so to her Baltimore and Providence were plenty big; on the flip side schools like RIT and New Paltz and smaller art schools were too disconnected from "city" life & cultural events
Didn't want to be more than a day's drive from home, so MICA's at her farthest end geographically. Had interest from Chicago Art Institute and others but didn't follow up on that due to distance.
Re MICA and RISD: She’s a little nervous about RISD’s rep too BUT she’s an intense kid with a really rigorous academic & extracurricular load. She finally got a breather this year and is taking 4 art classes and is SO much happier so I feel like she’d do fine/thrive with that level of work/amount of studio time. I adjunct at an art department locally and know she’s ready for long days in the studio. We also have family who live in Providence (one’s at Brown) so that’s a plus for me mom-hovering wise!
If RISD doesn’t accept her or offer much money, I think she’s down to MICA and Syracuse. Syracuse has the benefit of getting NYS teacher credentials. But she really liked MICA and I think the only concern is the distance. And then there’s random things like creator Noelle Stevenson is a recent graduate (she’s won a ton of award for her book “Nimona”). She likes MassArts too (loves being down the street from 2 major art museums), but feels MICA and Syracuse offer more via being larger schools, alumni networking, etc
@stones3 - for my kid it didn’t have the combination of programs of study (ie no dedicated Illustration dept) and farther than she wants to be from home distance wise
Also, I don’t mind if folks want to move this discussion over to the Visual Arts majors thread since it’s sort of strayed from Financial Aid
@ArtAngst - Spoke with admissions rep for our region who told me that decisions will go out this week. Let me know if you hear and I will do the same. Good luck!
at accepted student day this past weekend they said package aren’t going out till 2nd week of april. ugh! Also just went to #2 (tied UCLA) grad program in the entire country! only school ranked higher was Yale.
@stones3 which school are you referring to? Just wondering since I’d asked about aid packages on RISD’s FB admissions site and their reply was if your child was accepted (decisions come out sometime ‘mid-week’ of this week, ie tomorrow or Thurs?), the financial info would be included in the admissions package that would come a few days later in the mail.
Just wondering since we’re anxiously waiting on the $ info from all these expensive art schools!
@BrooklynRye - My daughter applied to SAIC, Pratt, MICA, VCUarts, and Parsons. She has been accepted and received scholarships from all. We have received a scholarship award offer from MICA but don’t know about the Merit Scholarship yet from MICA. I would say Pratt and MICA and possibly SAIC are her top choices but we are having a difficult time ranking those 3. We are attending the accepted Students and Scholarship finalists brunch on Sunday April 3rd but would love any advice from anyone looking at these 3 schools or has made a decision and what went into their decision making process.
@SCartstudentmom - My daughter did not apply to SAIC, VCU or to Parsons. SAIC in Chicago was outside of her geographical limits. We researched and even visited VCU. It is a massive school in Richmond with a very large commuting population. While the school is large enough to sustain a resident population its commuter reputation kept coming up in our research and with people with whom we spoke. Parsons is largely a fashion design school. My daughter is currently looking at Fine Arts, particularly Drawing & Painting. Between MICA and Pratt it has come down mainly to location. My daughter did MICA’s precollege summer program and was very uncomfortable in the area. The students were largely restricted to the immediate MICA surroundings and for good reason as moving outside of this perimeter led to much less savory areas. John Hopkins is less than 2 miles away, but the area in between is very shady. I have heard that there is to be some major rejuvenation of Baltimore and the city limits, but this won’t do much by fall 2016. My daughter originally wrote-off MICA because they did not have an Industrial Design major (something else in which she might be interested). MICA has since added this major. We are not without our concerns about Pratt. The Clinton Hill area of Brooklyn has seen a major transformation, but it isn’t so far back that it was more like the area around MICA is now. Proximity to NYC can be a major plus or minus depending on your child’s comfort and willingness to take advantage of such a vast city. For us, possible career in NYC is high on the list and probably gives Pratt a substantial edge. Hope this is helpful. Good luck!!
my daughter really like VCUarts and its recent ranking as #2 overall behind Yale and ahead of RISD well its very very impressive. We talked at great length with students and dean and most at VCUarts are NOT commuters. In fact one housing choice in particular is a colony of all art students. And Richmond is just beautiful and very artsy.
I am curious when you heard about scholarship for VCU as we applied late and are awaiting the financial package.
Also , Brooklyn is NOTHING like it was even 5-7 years ago. It is very cool place to be these days.
