Check out Drew University…very close to NYC, great theatre department and they give great merit monies.
I’m not sure you read through the thread. Even if I were to pay for my own schooling (which I keep on mentioning is virtually impossible with tuition costs today, even at my local community college) my dad would still be unsupportive. I am not entitled. You would know this if you knew I didn’t apply to NYU. I applied to Pace because my stats are well above the average and I am hoping to get merit aid to make it affordable. I have been working at the same job since my freshman year of high school, If I could afford to pay for college with this job I would, but I am glad my dad can and is willing to.
That’s not correct. Students have to include parent information on the FAFSA until they’re 24 unless they’re married or in the military.
As far as I know, there are no rules on CC that require positive posts. If these young actors can’t take honest commentary, they’re in the wrong profession.
We are very supportive… don’t let some of the people on here get to you. I think college tuition is ridiculously expensive and I believe it IS a parents’ responsibility to pay for college, just like they pay to house, clothe and feed their children. My daughter will come out of college debt free on my single teacher’s salary because I believe this is one of my gifts to her as her parent. You do not sound like a kid who feels entitled and good luck and hope we can help you through this journey. It’s a hard one 
If parents are not going to pay for college then they need to teach and encourage their child to come up with alternative ways to come up with $100,000. Leaving a kid high and dry at age 18 seems heartless. And telling a kid that they can’t pursue the career of their choice just because you don’t see the value in it seems awful. Children have no way of feasibly earring the kind of monies college requires. Holding their career hostage because it’s the “parents’” money seems cruel.
Seriously - is there a sign somewhere directing people who have NEVER posted in the theater forum to this thread?
No @austinmshauri- the negative posters on this thread are not violating any rules- it’s just not how we generally play the game over here. And yet, if a poster don’t have direct experience in the BFA or professional performance world- their version of an “honest opinion” may not carry a great deal of weight.
I’m sorry I didn’t read all posts. I’ve nothing against theater or pursuing your dreams but NYU is a very expensive school and any parent, unless he is a multimillionaire, would have a serious financial set back. If he is skeptic then it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t want to support you or sponsor you. There are so many parents who wouldn’t pay a tuition this high for any major, at least he saved and is willing to invest in your future if you go in a profession where you can actually earn it back. I know that every other kid nowadays wants to be a singer or an actor, it doesn’t mean that they’ll make it. I know it sounds bitter but it is a reality.
As far as you not being able to pay on your own, that’s why kids work hard in school to get merit scholarships. Our local school’s valedictorian got accepted at 4 Ivy schools but he is going to local state school just because he is getting a free ride that would cover his undergrad and grad degrees. I know that it sucks but tuition in popular colleges is insane and until we change that, kids and parents would have to make compromises. Best of luck to you, hope you find ways to make your dream come true.
No. Parents are quoted a pricetag based on what they can afford. Their paying for it is not an entitlement.
But aren’t you asking your father to be financially responsible for it? You keep using the word “support” and seem to be in denial that u are asking for “financial support”, not moral support. You can’t rack “tons of debt” in unsecured loans w/o a cosigner.
If my education at Pace is comparable to one of the state schools my dad is willing to send to me due to getting scholarships, then the problem is obviously the moral support and not the financial support I am worried about. It was my mistake to mention “tons of debt.” I should have just said “average amount of debt” which can be hard to pay back with a job in acting, which is why my dad is worried.
May I ask, do you have any experience in pursuing the performing arts in college? I am perplexed as to why you would even take the time to comment if your advice is not helpful in the slightest.
Who the heck is talking about NYU? This kid did not bring up NYU at all.
Feel like there should be an appropriate, “a squirrel and a guinea pig walk into a bar” joke somewhere. People have the right to decide where they want to go to college and what if anything they are willing and able to pay more for if it comes down to that. What is with the shaming? The OP is on his/her game and figuring out how to make it work. Some people advocate paying extra if they can for a religious education as an example because they see value in it. Ring any bells? Glass houses and stones people.
If you did know anything about this field (and many posters above do but there some kamikaze pilots flying by here who do not), @40yearoldvirgin is actually playing the college tuition game very intelligently. A school like Pace, as an example, does have strong training in his/her field and indeed provides very lucrative merit money and for all anyone knows, he/she is a top student they will roll out the financial red carpet for. Nobody asked that question. He/she has already demonstrated the maturity to know that same approach does not work for NYU.
This is not a thread about money for college. It’s about dealing with a parent’s concern for future financial security for a field that is known to provide little and whether or not that has a role in I guess picking a major more than a college. I feel your father’s pain. I have a daughter about to graduate in this field and yes, I worry for her too and she already lives in NYC. One could say the same about so many fields/majors and to be honest, tons of people don’t end up working in the field they majored in. (I didn’t.) Not sure that is a reason to force you to become a dentist and not sure you even could if you wanted to. Sounds like your dad, like the rest of us bumbling parents, really wants the best for you. Hard to argue with that. Meanwhile you are being so smart to think about finding a way to make your case for studying what you want by securing as many opportunities that neutralize the up front investment. I applaud you. I hope you have other schools on your list that are also known to be generous with merit. Well played!
Just because your dad is willing to commit funds doesn’t mean he’s willing to spend it indiscriminately. Just because I can afford to buy a Ferrari doesn’t mean I think it’s worth it.
Your dad is prudent to have concerns about the credit worthiness of an acting career. Unlike accounting or engineering, acting is a high Gini-coefficient occupation-- Harrison Ford earns 8 figures and everyone else is lucky to earn 5 figures when they’re not bartending or waiting tables to pay their bills.
My neighbor joined an acting company outside of his daytime job as a pediatrician. So it’s clearly possible to engage in the activity without committing oneself exclusively to it.
I’m perplexed about the objective of your thread.
Do you want honest opinions here, or do you only want people to tell you you are right and your dad is wrong?
Apologies again for confusing NYU and NYC. Multitasking and making assumption rather than reading whole post is my crime. It’s just that my nephew caught the acting bug and threw away his STEM potential at the alter of NYU theater. He is a middle school theater teacher now and obviously doesn’t have means to pay back his student debt for at least another decade.
Thanks for the sunshine in this forum @GMTplus7. You have been around in CC 3 months less time than I have and have about 7.5 times the posts. Most of us here are good about knowing what we know and don’t know.
So to that end, I have limited my participation CC to schools I personally know about and majors I personally know about. I’m always perplexed when I run into posters like you in forums where specific expertise is really what the forum is about. This forum in particular and the MT forum is full of seasoned veterans who can carry the day. There certainly are forums for more general discussion where your kind of contribution is more appropriate, welcome and valuable. Not sure what compelled you to show up here but it isn’t coming across at all like a commitment to being helpful to people in the theatre drama world. It’s a tough field. The questions are better served by people who really do know the answers.
We’ve got this far better than you ever will. You are coming across like you are just in this for sport. There has been a lot of that going around lately and I’m not sure why.
@halflokum
What drew me to this thread was the OP’s thread’s loaded title:
"Unsupportive parents and pursuing a professional acting career? Thoughts."
If OP’s thread’s title was
"Advice on attending audition w/o parents",
then I (and other non theater parents) probably wouldn’t have clicked on it.
@WorryHurry411 you did wade into a forum that well… you didn’t exactly have perspective on. Nobody is guarding the gate and welcome. And as long as you are also open to know that your nephew is a data point of 1… and does not a condemnation of pursuing what one loves make… and maybe he is the best middle school teacher ever…it’s all good. My daughter is brilliant at math. Could have been a STEM major. And YIKES… she is about to graduate from “gulp” NYU in GULP in all CAPS and a ton of exclamation points!!!.. drama. And yeah. Will probably be broke and YES I’m worried about it.
But can you see why I feel a little better about commenting in THIS forum about THIS subject than some of the other folks here who just waded in here for sport should be? Too many generalizations that really do require specifics of this field. I think CC should be about helping. Know when to hold 'em.
@GMTplus7 , I think his thread title was actually what he/she was asking and it wasn’t about auditioning without parents and again, not sure why it would garner so much attention but apparently it did. But once it was clear where it was going, there comes a time to realize that the help he/she needed was really specific to the theatre/drama world and people who can comment on that. One should not beat a dead horse and well, I think some people showed up just to do that. People whom otherwise can give good advice but need to know when they are out. That’s my point.
You really don’t get to protect “your” forum from the financial realities of college and the working world. The OP admitted he has not even looked at his in-state options. I give him credit for looking for merit aid, but who is to say that the dad isn’t right? Many, many kids with acting ambition don’t have the talent to make a living at it. Who is to say that the OP’s dad hasn’t taken a clear-eyed look and decided that his kid isn’t one who is likely to make it? The OP’s “New York or bust” mentality seems really immature.
I have a friend whose kid wanted to act, but clearly didn’t have the talent. He decided to attend CMU (gasp… Philadelphia, not NY) and now manages a theater in New York. Another friend has a kid who talked her parents into NYU for theater – they are now struggling mightily to pay the bill, and honestly the kid is floundering in the program as well. The parents now think they made a mistake in letting the kid go in this direction. There are multiple paths IF the kid has talent, and it sounds like the dad might be open to a dual major or theater minor. That isn’t chopped liver.
If you are talking to me @intparent, it’s not my forum and I don’t need to protect it. I’m just saying that this forum is full of people that can comment more accurately on the financial realities of this field than people like you can. Gosh I’ve seen you show up in my son’s individual school forum too. I really don’t understand the motivation but OK. I guess you have the time and the inclination. Doesn’t mean I won’t ask what the heck you are doing because yeah… your participation here is and well, pretty much everywhere else is curious.
The OP did not have a NYC or bust mentality. You are fabricating and extrapolating that. He/she is a kid and very quickly dispensed with naming cities and was just asking a question. What’s your point?
CMU is in Pittsburgh, not Philadelphia and it is arguably one of the if not the top theatre programs in the country and EVERY person who really follows this forum knows that. Now you are sounding silly and making my point way too easy to prove. Oh and for the record… CMU costs almost as much as NYU does with the only difference being housing because yeah… NYC is more expensive than Pittsburgh.
Is it possible that I know something about your son’s school, and that is why I was on that forum? You no more own that forum than this one. And yes, sorry, Pittsburgh, not Philadelphia. But the point stands that maybe this kid doesn’t have the talent, and maybe his dad is open to some intermediate options that aren’t full on “go to New Yok to act”. The poster’s first comment is that his dad doesn’t want him going to NY and racking up a bunch of college debt with very low odds of being able to pay it back. Sorry, but that seems like a very reasonable position to most of the parents on CC. Oh, and the CMU kid got good need based aid, something that is lacking from many of the NY schools.
Have you looked at Montclair State? They offer instate tuition to BFA candidates often combined with generous merit aid. It’s a well respected program, close to NYC.