Hey guys, I applied to vcuarts before the scholarship deadline, and was accepted! I was wondering when everyone else got their scholarship packets?
(Also, is it true that merit scholarships only cover in-state tuition? Or do some of the scholarships double-up / does admissions find way to cover the rest of out-of-state?)
Last year my D applied to VCU arts and was offered $14,500 per year. That amount was broken down as folllows: $6500 Deans scholarship and $8000 “Funded” scholarship award. She received a notification letter about the scholarships in mid February.
Receipt of the $8000 “funded” scholarship was contingent upon remaining an out of state student and would disappear if student residency status changed to in state. She would still be eligible to receive the $6500 deans scholarship as long she took a minimum of 28 credits per year and maintained a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.3.
Infortunately, this was not enough merit aid for my D to attend VCU. From the VCU website, for freshman merit scholarships:
“Merit-based scholarships are awarded only during the fall semester and cover in-state costs only.”
The total merit aid offered to my D still fell short of meeting the total difference between IS and OOS tuition cost at VCU, so I do not know whether it is possible to for an OOS student to get merit which gets costs below IS rates. The presidential and provost merit awards are larger than the deans award received by my D, but I do not know if the extra $8k my D received would still be offered if those higher merit awards were received.
mamag2855, that’s a very high award your D received for vcuarts. Since even the OOS tuition for vcuarts starts at approx. 33% less than the other top elite design schools , the net effect is very generous. Hoperfully you can find a way to make it work, its a great opportunity. Also keep in mind that VA in state tuitions are amongst the lowest in the nation, so getting in below that is exceptional.
I am a graduate of VCU art school. Your student must be good to get a nice grant for OOS. As you have looked around I am sure you noticed that most art schools are private and very expensive, with the exception of Temple and VCU. So if you want a fine arts education, you either need a scholarship of to have plenty of extra money (sorry). You might be better off at the privates as they give out more money overall. Art is a wonderful and very rewarding field, but unfortunately the pay scale is low when you get out. Forbes rates it right along with preschool teacher in payscale.
@stones3 compared to most private art schools VCU’s OOS costs are lower, but at $45k per year including Room, board etc., still expensive. Virginia definitely has many excellent public universities and I completely understand the need to focus finances on supporting IS students.
Although D’s $14,500 scholarship offer last year was a sizable discount, the $30k still left to pay was still too much for our family (3 kids close in age leading to 4 years with 2 in college at the same time) and there would likely have been annual increases to absorb also, guessing that our costs would have been up to $35k+ by year 4.
My D was looking to major in fashion merchandising and/ or marketing, so had applied to schools with both. VCU was the only Arts program she applied to. Her scholarship offer was most likely for highish GPA and test scores. We were all really impressed with VCU and love the Richmond area (I have 2 kids at the University of Richmond). Since D had several other colleges she liked which fit the the bill much bettet financially, including several full tuition offers, she chose one of those. She is attending Temple University with a full tuition scholarship, majoring in marketing with an art minor. She loves it so far. Temple turned out to cost even less than our IS public U, which offered our D $5k in merit. In the end, she preferred an urban setting and really felt like Temple fit her best.
Temple used to have a great art school – Cranbrook. The fashion industry is a very large field with many jobs. GL!
Congrats on the full ride!! all the best.
@mamag2855 - It sounds as if you did great research and made a well-informed decision for your daughter as well as for your family. We are currently in the midst of year 1 of 4 in which we will have 3 kids in undergrad at the same time. Financial Aid under those circumstances can be very generous. If, as it sounds like, you have gifted children (academically, artistically or otherwise), you may get even more including merit aid at some schools. As an example, we took total COA of more than $180k at 3 schools – 1 Ivy, 1 top Public, and 1 dedicated Art - and parlayed FA and merit aid to a total COA of under $75k for all 3. FAFSA, CSS and the whole process are extremely opaque and, I would argue, designed to get prospective grantees to give up or just plain fail. Stick to the process, focus, and you can certainly get results.
@Charlotte44 - Temple has a stellar art school, Tyler. The school used to be based in the Philly suburbs but moved within the last 10 years to the Temple downtown campus. It is a stellar 6,000 square foot facility with metal and jewelry studios designed in affiliation with Tiffany. They give nice merit as well as FA. @veehee - Has written about this on various art school threads. His daughter is a freshman at Tyler and extremely happy.
Again, observation is that COA at art schools affiliated with public schools is that the OOS cost, even if lower than private school tuition, is made up, often even lower, by the greater merit aid increasingly available from private schools. RISD, Pratt, Mica, Tyler and others all came in with lower COA than VCU Arts where money was much scarcer and not necessarily guaranteed for 4 years.
@mamag2855 @BrooklynRye is correct, my D is at Temple Tyler and loves it. She was able to get merit aid for her grades for all 4 years and FA grants that made the COA lower than our in-state NJ schools. Tyler’s facilities are top-notch and they are well known in the Philly area as an excellent art school with all the perks of a large university. They also have a few other scholarships available that Tyler students can apply for every year. She’s in her foundation year but thinks she’ll go for the interactive media and graphic design major.
In our case and at least 6 others we know, after all aid and merit OOS net REAL cost with room and board was all within 5-7k of each other . Not enough (in our case to matter) also MICA and SVA were still net highest costs.
@veehee I have seen your posts on the Temple threads also. We all loved VCU, but in the end it was just too expensive for us.
@artfarts I am not sure if VCU will end up being affordable for you, but I wish you luck!
@stones3 that’s remarkable that VCU was affordable for you! Maybe it was an unlucky year last year, but we had the exact opposite experience with only a pittance of scholarship money and no grants at all.
Nevertheless, my D wasn’t interested in them and once she visited Temple Tyler her decision was made. Luckily they were more than generous and the COA is something we can afford.
I don’t know that it was remarkable. As I mentioned all the schools net real costs of attending where within 5-7k of each other so she went where she felt was the best fit for her. So far its been working out extremely well.