<p>Hi All.</p>
<p>I'm wondering if people would be willing to post with some examples of what the difference would be between "generous" and "average" and "token" talent scholarships or merit awards? I feel a little silly asking but being so new to this world, I'm not sure what range people are suggesting when they refer to award amounts. I'm not asking for anyones specific award amounts, rather, a guideline for what most folks think those ranges would be.</p>
<p>thanks! </p>
<p>Good question. My D just got one and it seemed fairly significant but I too am in the dark about this stuff so I have nothing to compare it to. </p>
<p>There is no answer to your question. People use these terms liberally, but one parent’s idea of a “generous” award might be another person’s “token” award. SInce we don’t share actual amounts, it’s impossible to say. </p>
<p>Some schools have a financial aid page that outlines the possible amounts awarded. </p>
<p>It all depends on so many factors - a major one being how much “talent/artistic merit” funds a school can offer. If a school only has $50,000 total to give . . . do they give 10 kids $5,000 each, or 1 kid $25,000 and 5 kids $5,000 each? Impossible to truly know.</p>
<p>Our philosophy: just be so incredibly grateful for ANY talent/merit aid awarded!</p>
<p>My sense is that they mostly top out around $20,000, and many are much, much lower (or zero). </p>
<p>When my son was in the process last year, his awards, which were always talent based due to his crappy gpa, went from token (ie, would barely cover his McDonald’s habit) to Very Generous (made it possible for him to attend the school in NYC). I also found from talking to others that some are not annual, they are a one time award/scholarship/grant, so that is an important detail.</p>
<p>@entertainersmom, are you referring to the calculators or do some schools share what the range of merit awards are? If so, do you know of any specific schools? </p>
<p>I know some schools can offer a “free ride” which is basically free tuition and board right? Also, I’ve heard of some schools that throw in incentives, like iPads, etc. I guess this would be a good place to start with what the most generous offers could be. I’m assuming this is rare, but am not sure… when I hear people post about getting VERY generous offers, if this is what they are referring to?</p>
<p>I’m wondering if it’s also considered generous to offer aid that essentially cuts tuition and board in half? I wonder how often scholarships like that get offered?</p>
<p>Is it safe to say that a $5,000 award toward a total cost of 50k is a token offer? </p>
<p>Thanks @Jkellynh17, that’s helpful info! </p>
<p>octaviar - just an example, but if you look at PPU’s COPA website, they lay out the range of talent awards. But as far as merit based on academics, no clue. </p>
<p>Thanks @annelisesmom! I just fell in love with point park! I very much prefer transparency, and point park has the best FAQ I’ve seen yet. If this were my college experience, I’d be filling out the application there right now! I have a suspicion that they have good/great leadership. I wonder if they are representative of other conservatories?</p>
<p>From the FAQ:</p>
<p>FRESHMEN AND TRANSFER STUDENTS
CONSERVATORY OF PERFORMING ARTS
Artistic
Achievement $2,000- $14,000
Full-time, traditional undergraduate FRESHMEN or TRANSFER students
Candidates will have demonstrated high caliber of artistic ability through the artistic audition process and/or a personal interview.
Intended major must be dance, theatre arts, cinema production, animation and visual effects, or screenwriting.
Must maintain GPA 3.0 and full-time, COPA status
Merit aid is to be used to offset the cost of tuition and fees ONLY
Candidates are notified of award in the artistic decision letter.
Dean’s
Academic
Freshmen<br>
$ 5,000
Full-time, traditional undergraduate FRESHMEN
GPA 3.5 cumulative high school grade point average (on a 4.0 scale)
SAT 1760 total including the writing component OR ACT composite score of 26
Candidates are considered based on the artistic audition or interview.
Must maintain GPA 3.0 and full-time, COPA status
Merit aid is to be used to offset the cost of tuition and fees ONLY
Candidates are notified of award in the artistic decision letter.
Dean’s
Academic Transfer
$ 5,000
Full-time, TRANSFER students
GPA 3.5 cumulative grade point average
Candidates are considered based on the artistic audition or interview.
Must maintain GPA 3.0 and full-time, COPA status
Merit aid is to be used to offset the cost of tuition and fees ONLY
Candidates are notified of award in the artistic decision letter.</p>
<p>In the CC Parents Forum, there’s a big long thread entitled “Schools Known for Good Merit Aid”. Might be worth taking a look.</p>
<p>Octaviar - Both Otterbein and Coastal Carolina outline merit and talent award ranges. Otterbein allows you to “stack” your awards, Coastal Carolina does not allow stacking merit and talent, you must choose one or the other.</p>
<p>I feel like this has been the most difficult part of the process. To find the really detailed information, I’ve found I have to scour both the theatre department web pages and the school financial aid pages. Some sites are better than others in finding this information. </p>
<p>Rutgers is an interesting example because they have a standard merit award, but then a disclaimer that says the merit award standards maybe lowered for those who show exemplary talent. Not very specific. </p>
<p>I think in the world of higher education that finances and budgets and endowments and university priorities can fluctuate so much year to year that most schools hesitate to post a specific formula or specific aid options until the time of merit/talent offer. Kind of like in the corporate world where a director may have a bucket of money to hand out for raises and they have to decide how to split it among employees. This may vary from year to year and employee by employee. </p>
<p>I think it may be better to look at the percentage of tuition that can be granted through merit or talent. At my daughter’s school, merit is granted by the admissions office and talent by the theater department. The merit is on a chart and if your GPA is x and your ACT is Y, you get Z, ranging from $3000 to $6000. </p>
<p>She also applied for a talent scholarship, and was at first wait listed (which I thought was a ‘thanks for playing, but no money for you’) but actually did receive $2200 (max is $3000). She’s thrilled with that award. Tuition for OOS is only $14k, so I think that’s a pretty good start, about 40% of tuition between the two. If tuition was $40k, then her award wouldn’t be enough. There are also work study jobs available in the theater department.</p>
<p>Oh, the talent is just for one year, but you can re-audition every year. Some kids may not want to reapply as there are some meetings and jobs required to be in the scholarship program, and the max is only $3k. Kids may prefer to get a job, but my daughter was very excited to receive it as a freshman.</p>
<p>My D received the gamut from a $750 talent to $16,000 a year academic merit. But like the other posters said at a school that starts over $50K, $16K just brings it into reasonable territory. </p>
<p>^ our experiences are similar and agreed … I have also wanted to see this post for over a year now, and never have:) our situation is a little different in that my daughter applied for BAs, but she did audition for talent awards at 8 schools. The “talent” (acting/directing) merit awards (she received one at all schools at which she auditioned) have ranged from $1,500 to $10,000…but the majority were around the $3K mark.</p>
<p>The merit (academic) awards range from $8,000 to $22,000.</p>
<p>Again, these are not large auditioned BFA programs - they are BA/Theatre at LACs…but at least it will give you a range. As pointed out above, the total tuition/room/board at these schools all vary, also. But the median out-of-pocket for these eight schools is probably COA of about $45,000.</p>
<p>This is such helpful information. Thank you all for ‘paying it forward’ - literally . For us this is the first time applying to colleges, and every little bit of your shared experience helps!</p>
<p>My D was offered a merit and talent scholarship from both Rutgers and Pace last year for quite a bit of money. Rutgers would have cost us the same as a state school which would have been nice and Pace’s scholarship brought the cost down quite a bit. MMC gave some money I believe it was merit based, Hofstra gave a large merit based scholarship. I don’t think they give talent scholarships. I don’t believe Fordham gives talent or they don’t call it that, it was not enough to bring the cost down significantly. NYU nothing, London schools nothing, I think that is all we know of. The others we didn’t get to the point of finances. As far as merit goes, my D had a pretty good SAT score not out of the park and a 3.3 average from IB Curriculum. Hope this helps. Scholarships ranged in total from $10,000 to $30,000. </p>
<p>Fordham gives a full tuition scholarship to national merit finalists. That’s a good one to know about!</p>
<p>Actingmom18, Fordham does give talent money in addition to full scholarships for NMS finalists, as noted above. My daughter has a significant theater scholarship for Fordham, guaranteed over 4 years with a minimum GPA of 2.8. (Academic merit scholarships require a higher minimum GPA.) Fordham also gives one full-tuition theater scholarship per year to an incoming freshman. (Wish my daughter had that one!) Here is the info: <a href=“http://www.dotcomeis.tk/section6/section79/index.html”>http://www.dotcomeis.tk/section6/section79/index.html</a>. </p>
<p>Side note-- my daughter was also admitted to Rutgers but did not receive any scholarship, so we would have had to pay the OOS cost (which is still much lower than many private schools.)</p>