<p>Another way we’ve saved now that NYC son is a soph is by insisting that we stay in his off-campus apt when we visit for performances – oh, he’s thrilled 
It’s kind of like “camping” – but there’s no way we’re paying for that apartment AND a hotel room. </p>
<p>Thanks halflokum. Our insurance doesn’t have us put them back on for visits of 30 days or less but they must live more than 150 miles away. We did this with our son who is in the Marines. We will save about $100 a month doing this. We will put her back on during the summer even if it goes up.</p>
<p>@myloves and @evilqueen we’re also in the same boat (does this boat have a bar?). Some of the best scholarships that D got were from smaller schools with lesser known (but good) programs. We also learned the hard way that the difference between a 3.4 GPA and a 3.7 GPA can mean thousands of dollars when it comes to “automatic” academic scholarships. </p>
<p>The thing about the automatic scholarships is that they seem to be driven more by pure numbers than by the strength of the curriculum. It also seems that in most cases admission decisions for MT kids are driven more by the quality of the audition than by the quality of the curriculum, as long as the kid’s educational history meets the minimum guidelines. </p>
<p>The bottom line for us is that D could have taken Foods and Underwater Basket Weaving and boosted her GPA enough to pick up additional thousands in scholarships. Instead she struggled through Calculus and Anatomy thinking that it was important to the colleges, and lost .3 of her GPA. </p>
<p>We even wrote all of the applied-to colleges when she was struggling to keep up with rehearsals, audition prep, and homework to ask if their admissions decision would be affected if she dropped Calc and A & P and 90% of them said “we don’t care - it won’t bother us.” </p>
<p>So my advice is to write the schools if your kid is struggling to keep up. They may not care if you drop demanding (and unnecessary for MT) courses, and you could boost your auto scholarships by thousands.</p>
<p>@cheeseheadmike, my D is at a 3.5 gpa and will have decent but not outstanding test scores. Is it worth her time to try to move from a 1600 to 1700 on her SATs? She isn’t a great test taker and is not going to get the 1900 that S did. I feel like her time is better spent working her audition pieces. What do you think??</p>
<p>Parents of Juniors, the list of schools son had was a result of reading the school websites and the school specific threads on CC. We did have a finite number we would pay, and fortunately all the school’s FA came in at or under budget. Thankfully the one wild card, CMU remained a non-issue because son was not accepted. As mentioned earlier about NYU, my husband and I worried that there would be a twist of fate and CMU would be the only audition school he was accepted to. Son didn’t apply to NYU or U of Michigan because his grades would not gain him much, if anything in merit (which pained me greatly because I’m originally from Ann Arbor and would have loved for him to have gone to U of M)</p>
<p>evilqueen (love that name!) good plan. (From your post a page ago!) My daughter wanted to apply to 12 schools …10 audition and 2 non audition. Very healthy. The list ended up at 10, because frankly she would have been happy at any of the schools that ended up on her list, including her non-auditioned safeties. You can always withdraw from some schools (and save $ travelling to auditions) if one of her dream schools gives an early acceptance. </p>
<p>@evilqueen you have to look at each individual school’s website for scholarship requirements. That way you’ll know which level of test scores and GPA provides an award increase, and plan accordingly. Most of the schools have different monetary awards based on a combination of the following:</p>
<p>SAT or ACT of X and GPA of Y = $Z
SAT or ACT of X or GPA of Y = $Z</p>
<p>Also, almost all of the schools list minimum academic requirements for acceptance such as “3 units of math, 3 units of foreign language, 4 units of English, etc, etc.” It seemed to us during this process that once you’ve met the minimum requirements they don’t factor the difficulty of the class load into their decision to make an MT BFA offer. My advice (and only mine) is to take it easy on your kid course-load wise. If they are destined for a career in the theater no one will care if they’ve taken AP Physics.</p>
<p>ONE MORE THING - we’ve heard all along that our D should take AP/honors classes because they can boost the GPA through weighting. We did not find this to be the case. We did not apply to a single school that didn’t ask for UNWEIGHTED GPA scores, rendering the boost from such classes moot. Again, you have to research each individual school on this front.</p>
<p>I’m not sure our experience relates to what you all are going through now, since it seems that tuition has gone way up and scholarships have become scarcer since my son graduated three years ago. But just to let you know, CMU gave him the best merit scholarship of the 6 places that accepted him, which at that time came to about half tuition. Also, most kids move off campus sophomore year, and rents in PIttsburgh are reasonable. My younger son is finishing an engineering degree at University of Pittsburgh, and pays about $350 a month for a small apartment he shares with a roommate. I understand why many might not apply to CMU because of the cost, and believe me, without that scholarship, my son would not have gone. One other point - it could pay to apply to a cheaper school with a decent theater department even if you don’t really want to go there, to use during negotiations. CMU used to say up front that they would negotiate with anyone who got a better offer at a similar school. I don’t know if they still do that.</p>
<p>I don’t want to sound like I am bragging so I debated on putting this out there. I hope it helps those coming up with actual cost figures. My daughter has a 4.0, is 5th out of 400, 32 ACT, lots of honors and APs. She got a presidential scholarship everywhere she applied or was in running for one that required an interview. These Presidential or honors scholarships ranged between 10,000 and 15,000 per year. Only one school gave her a substantial talent scholarship. For the schools she was academically accepted to, her part without loans still ranged from 18,000 to 50,000 a year! NYU has need based scholarships. Believe it or not, NYU is actually one of the best financial options with the need based scholarship she received, so don’t rule them out. Again I hope this puts things in perspective. I think I was living in a dream world and that colleges would just magically give my D a full ride because of her grades and talent and because of our middle class income. I couldn’t have been more wrong.</p>
<p>Drexel University Cost to Attend 68k and change - not kidding! Had to look twice to see if i misread it…</p>
<p>Someone should go back to the post before Utah’s out-of-state tuition dropped off to correct this list. The tuition posted is for in-state only. After one year in the state, if you stay for the summer between freshman and sophomore year, your child becomes a resident and you pay in-state. There are other requirements too, but it is a easy and a great deal! Also, nobody lives on-campus after freshman year, so the room & board numbers are not what they would seem. Apartments in Salt Lake City are very reasonable. </p>
<p>Were in the home stretch everyone. It will all work out!!!</p>
<p>University of Utah $23,554 (tc) in-state, $38,862 (tc) OOS, but residency acquired after 1 year</p>
<p>As you receive a 2014-15 Financial Aid Award Letter please cut and paste this section to your reply box and add your school based on costs as shown below.</p>
<p>As you add a new school please update the count to maintain the integrity of the list.</p>
<p>CURRENT COUNT = 34</p>
<p>(dc) = direct costs (tuition, room & board only)
(tc) = total costs (direct costs plus indirect costs as listed in the award letter)
(oos) = out of state (if applicable)
(is) = in state (if applicable)</p>
<p>Cost (by lowest cost… for state schools, by IS cost)…
Florida State 17,487 (dc/is); 32,480 (dc/oos)
JMU 17,695 (dc/is) 32,294 (dc/oos)
Texas State University 18,250 (dc); 21,260 (tc)
University of Utah $23,554 (tc) in-state; $38,862 (tc) OOS, but residency acquired after 1 year
Cal State Fullerton 24,320 (tc)
University of Northern Colorado 29,936 (dc/ oos)
Coastal Carolina University 18,040 (dc/is); 31,310 (dc/oos); 23,109 (tc/is); 36,379 (tc/oos)
Viterbo 31,730 (dc)
Temple 31,870 (tc)
Central Michigan 32,214 (dc)
Montclair 35,365 (dc/ oos)
Nebraska Wesleyan 36,570 (dc)
Ohio Northern 36,960 (dc)
CCM (U of Cincinnati) 37,688 (dc) (oos)*estimate - 2014/15 figures not yet released
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland: $24,196 tuition + $14,970 recommended COL = $39,166 (dc) ^
Webster 39,404 (dc)
Baldwin Wallace 40,720 (dc)
Shenandoah 41,116 (dc)
Marymount Manhattan 42,636 (dc)
Otterbein University 42,876 (dc)
Point Park 43,120 (dc), 44,430 (tc)
Long Island University 45,000 (dc)
Drake 46,385 (dc)
Baylor University 46,642 (tc)
Hartt (University of Hartford) 46,962 (dc)
Indiana 47,234 (tc/ oos)
Oklahoma City University. 49,256 (tc)
Rider 50,575
Wagner 52,880 (tc)
Pace University 56,042 (dc)
Ithaca 57,316 (tc)
Emerson 57,376 (tc)
Carnegie Mellon. 61,422 (dc)
NYU-Tisch 70,606 (tc)</p>
<p>Alphabetical…
Baldwin Wallace 40,720 (dc)
Baylor University 46,642 (tc)
Cal State Fullerton 24,320 (tc)
Carnegie Mellon. 61,422 (dc)
Central Michigan 32,214 (dc)
CCM (U of Cincinnati) 37688 (dc) (oos)*estimate - 2014/15 figures not yet released
Coastal Carolina University 18,040 (dc/is); 31,310 (dc/oos); 23,109 (tc/is); 36,379 (tc/oos)
Drake 46,385 (dc)
Emerson 57,376 (tc)
Florida State 17,487 (dc) 32,480 (dc/oos)
Indiana 47,234 (tc/ oos)
Ithaca 57,316 (tc)
JMU 17,695 (dc/is) 32,294 (dc/oos)
Long Island University 45,000 (dc)
Marymount Manhattan 42,636 (dc)
Montclair 35,365 (dc/ oos)
Nebraska Wesleyan 36,570 (dc)
NYU-Tisch 70,606 (tc)
Ohio Northern 36,960 (dc)
Oklahoma City University 49,256 (tc)
Pace University 56,042 (dc)
Point Park 43,120 (dc), 44,430 (tc)
Rider 50,575
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland: $24,196 tuition + $14,970 recommended COL = $39,166 (dc) ^
Shenandoah 41,116 (dc)
Temple 31,870 (tc)
Texas State University 18,250 (dc/is); 21,260 (tc/is)
Hartt (University of Hartford) 46,962 (dc)
University of Northern Colorado 29,936 (dc/oos)
University of Utah 23,554 (tc); $38,862 (tc) OOS, but residency acquired after 1 year
Viterbo 31,730 (dc)
Wagner 52,880 (tc)
Webster 39,404 (dc)</p>
<p>*CCU, TSU, JMU (IS), and FSU (OOS) figures are from school websites; hopefully someone with a FA award letter will update them
^ RCS: BA program is only 3 years. Figure does not include international travel costs.</p>
<p>I think the one questions I have which we have emailed the school about but thought I would throw it out there. When a school gives you a scholarship that is listed on your financial aid award is that something they will get for all four years? It doesnt say it is need based.</p>
<p>Most of the awards that D has received will say something like “$4.00, or $1.00 per year” or “$1.00 per year, for a total of $4.00”</p>
<p>If your letter doesn’t state this then you’ll of course have to ask…</p>
<p>NYSon, that’s a question that you should ask of the school and get clarification. Some scholarships are only for one year, some are renewable but require that the student maintain a certain gpa. </p>
<p>@cheeseheadmike, we discovered the same thing with respect to automatic scholarships and GPA etc. not taking rigor into account. It was eye opening and terribly frustrating. I can’t tell you the number of times I heard my daughter’s college counseling department head say, “the colleges KNOW our school” to calm fears about the fact that nobody, and I do mean nobody from my daughter’s school has ever gotten a 4.0. Sure, SOME schools know that school really well. Harvard, Duke, Stanford, Princeton, Penn, and all of their friends. You know, the schools that are famous for their MT programs (NOT!) Meanwhile Rider, Pace, U Miami, Otterbein, Emerson, Ithaca and all of their friends were just not on her high school’s speed dial. I get what you are saying about taking the easy road. That can be the more lucrative road.</p>
<p>BUT… on the other hand, there is real value in being a student that does chase the rigorous coursework both in terms of the quality of what they learn, and of the peer group they associate themselves with. It can create a work ethic that will serve your daughter so well in her MT program and in her career where the intensity of the work, just on the basis of the sheer volume and number of hours spent on it will make everything she did in high school look easy. You can’t unring that bell but I think you will find you really don’t want to either. I’d love to have had the scholarships, but I am so grateful, proud and impressed by the effort. </p>
<p>@halflokum I agree. Our D is a worker bee. I think back to who I was in high school and she makes me feel foolish. It’s not just the talent of our MT kids, it’s their work ethic, their drive, their ability to stand in the face of a huge challenge and say “I’m going for it”. If an MT career never pans out I have no doubt that our kids will still find success in anything that they do. People say that attitude is everything, and our MT kids have it in spades.</p>
<p>@halflokum, are you sure your kids aren’t in the same system mine are? Got the same story - “the colleges know our school.” I’m proud of my D and her work ethic, but she really does not need Calculus or Physics for MT. The AP classes did help, because she will get credit for some gen eds, but having to figure out child #3 now - not sure if she will do the audition thing for college or not. Not sure where to draw the line from too easy to challenging to too much busy work that we don’t need in real life… it’s hard! Back to STICKER SHOCK - someone should add Wright State if they have financial info from them for this year - it is much more affordable than some of the others and if you have above a 3.5 (D had a 3.4) and 27 (or 28?) on ACT you get in-state tuition. The school was very strict about the GPA, even though her ACT was considerably higher than their cutoff. </p>