<p>Okay...have a H.S. sophomore daughter. Interested in musical theatre for college, and we have been reading our eyes out in the forums here. She's doing the work to prepare, both school and theatre/fine arts. We're learning about what's needed as far as the audition process, college selection, etc...but what's a good "Financial Aid 101" source (book, website, etc?). What about scholarship information? There is basically no college savings for this kid, middle class parents. Academically, she's very sound, will take PSAT next month as sort of a dry run...but where do we start learning/researching...I don't want us to be panicked (or worse, her have to turn down a school where she's accepted) because the financial research just wasn't done. Can somebody point us toward some learning resources?</p>
<p>Your best place is honestly the individual colleges. The monies available for performing arts students are administered somewhat differently than academic merit (stat based) scholarships. In audition based programs, the most talent money tends to go to the top candidates.</p>
<p>Some schools may offer academic merit aid in addition to a talent award, some don’t. Federal (and state sponsored) need based aid is administered through submission of the FAFSA for publics. Privates may or may not require the CSS profile in addition, plus their own form in determining an award.</p>
<p>Check locally through your high school as they may also administer local programs for seniors entering college.</p>
<p>I’d suggest looking through and/or reposting your question directly on cc’s music theater forum. I’m sure many will have past and recent school specific experience and insights.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Do you want to know about need based aid? Or do you want to know about performance awards? Or do you want to know about academic merit aid? All have different criteria…and it wildly varies from school to school. </p>
<p>For performance awards…these are competitive and are based on your audition only (in most cases). Performance awards are usually given to the top candidates in a discipline, and/or to lure needed students to a program. In the case of MT, I’m going to only guess that these awards would be based on the audition as most MT programs have significantly more students who audition than they can possibly accept.</p>
<p>Re: Need based aid…you need to check with the colleges. Many folks would recommend that you look at the Common Data Set which will tell you the %age of need met, and the average amounts of need based aid awarded. In addition, you need to look carefully to see whether a performance award would reduce your need based aid (at many places it would). I haven’t ever done this myself…but folks have recommended the US News online edition (I think it’s $15) and it has the Common Data Set information easily available on it.</p>
<p>Re: academic merit aid (that is what is usually based on standardized test scores and grades, etc)…again, you can find most of this information on the websites. What you want to find out is if a MT student can have both performance aid AND academic scholarships. Again…sometimes yes, sometimes no. Look on the websites for any indication of awards that are automatic based on grades. I will say, many schools do NOT have this…merit aid is not guaranteed to all students with certain stats. Typically, a student would be best posed to get merit aid if they are at the top of the applicant pool for a school. </p>
<p>Another thing you can do is run the online financial aid calculators using your current income/asset information. I would suggest that you do both the federal methodology AND the institutional methodology. The reality is that many programs (and especially if you are looking for more significant aid) use institutional funds. Federal funds, even if your child qualifies for the maximum, would not cover much of the cost of a year of college at most places.</p>
<p>If you haven’t already posted your question on the Musical Theater forum, you should do that (it’s further down on this forum…under “majors”. You can ask “anyone have some good suggestions for MT programs with decent financial aid?” Those folks have been through or are going through the college hunt that you will be doing in a couple of years.</p>
<p>And I agree with Violadad.</p>
<p>Additionally, the sticky threads at the top of this forum good source of general info, but be aware that the
addition of an audition based admit can frequently readjust some parameters, and conventional wisdom in seeking schools with good academic stats based aid does not always apply to performing arts talent awards.</p>
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<p>For a general overview of how need based FA and merit aid works, I like finaid.org</p>
<p>And many people here have found “How to pay for college without going broke” helpful.</p>
<p>First of all, you need to know where you stand regarding financial aid and what you can afford. Get your tax forms and do a run with FAFSA and sample PROFILE. That gives you a good idea what the government and colleges expect you to pay. The EFC (expected family contribution) is a good number to know. However, be aware that most schools do not meet 100% of need, so you may want to collect names of schools that do meet need, and have the program your D wants. Also start looking for schools that have MT programs that your D likes. The MT forum here is the best source of this info I have found anywhere.</p>
<p>As a parent who has been through this, I can tell you that most colleges still look at the SAT scores and grades even with MT auditions needed for entry to the program. The competition is intense for these programs, and money scarce. If you are looking for financial aid, you need to look as all students do for where you are eligible for money. The amounts are limited when it comes to talent specific scholarships. Just so much talent out there and so little money. Look at your state schools for programs as that is a good place to get an affordable program.</p>