<p>mica gave me $16,500 in scholarships per year, the pell grant which is $4,500, and the SEOG grant which is $1,000. that leaves me with over $10,000 in loans just for tuition. i’m not sure if it’ll work. i’d have to find a pretty awesome job in addition to my work study job and be able to pay rent and buy books and supplies from that income. if i can get help from my brother or something, it might work. i was really surprised with the amount of aid i got though. in a good way. last year i only got $5,000 a year.</p>
<p>susiem, that’s really awesome. You deserve this! $40K debt is scary, but it’s still quite possible (unlike $100K). I think you’re a very brave, determined, independent person. Did you take any art courses during your year ‘off,’ or did you do the art on your own? Besides doing a lot of art, what else did you do? My D will probably take the gap year, but is feeling pretty good about things. Do you have any advice to give her about stuff to do? She’s planning on taking a second job (she works 15 hours a week in the public library right now), taking a linguistics class at Temple, taking art classes at U Arts, and writing her novel (fourth draft).</p>
<p>I got around 12k a year in scholarships from MICA.
But 14k a year from Pratt.
I kind of see the two as equal emounts, so it’s a hard choice for me.</p>
<p>thanks, hovering mom! i am working with my counselor to find other loan options and scholarships to cover my living expenses. hopefully it will work out!</p>
<p>i didn’t take any classes during my year off because i was worried about getting “stuck” at the junior college and i was under the impression that in order to transfer any credit i got there to MICA or any other school this year, i would have to be applying as a transfer student and have all of that required credit under my belt. i’m not sure if that’s really true or not, but i do wish i would have taken at least one art class regardless of whether or not i could transfer the credit. i think that would have made me feel a lot better about my whole situation. </p>
<p>other than doing a lot of work on my own and preparing my portfolio for this round of applications, i worked full time at a museum. i had also just moved out on my own since my mother moved to portland a couple of months before i turned eighteen, so i had that new experience going on as well. i would strongly encourage your daughter to take a few college courses and keep pursuing her dreams in whatever way she can at the moment. during my year off, i would tell myself, “you don’t have to go to college!” (the title of a song i really like) it sounds strange, but to me it meant, “you don’t have to be in college to do great things right NOW!” it really helped me remember that it was still important to keep making new art and trying new things. </p>
<p>her year off will be what she makes it. i would just encourage her to keep moving, keep creating, and make the most of it. </p>
<p>i apologize for the late response. i actually wrote most of this out a while ago, but ended up saving it as an e-mail draft because i had to get off my computer!</p>