Which colleges offer the most scholarships?

College Majors Musical Theater Major
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<p>It sounds as if you're on the right track. One thing I noticed when we were researching this 2 years ago was that although predicting a potential talent scholarship was impossible; predicting an academic/merit offer was fairly simple. All the schools d looked at listed (right on their scholarship page) what the stats were that were needed for the different academic scholarship levels. We made a big list of all the potential "schools of interest" for her with the total cost, potential top academic scholarship offer, even included a potential mid-range talent scholarship (if a $ range was given on the theatre info page). Some schools were almost immediately discarded (due to extremely high cost); she did not want the angst of an acceptance to a school we couldn't afford to send her to. </p>

<p>The unfortunate truth in college admissions is that unless you qualify for NEED BASED AID, most middle class folks wind up with a financial package full of loans. Everyone needs to decide for themselves if that's acceptable for their family. I still get irritated, when I think of all the "college counseling" sessions we parents sat through at my daughter's hs, listening to the gc's tell us that the kids should apply to their "top" schools, no matter the cost, because the financial aid packages would "cover" the cost. Some of her classmates were very disappointed when they discovered that "cover the cost" meant a lot of loans. I'm glad I took the gc advice with a "grain of salt".</p>

<p>Okay, back to scholarships. As you discovered already, with CMU, I think, there are NO academic scholarships available for theatre applicants. This is also the case with Hartt (and others, possibly), so be careful. </p>

<p>I think it's actually not that difficult to "predict" a MINIMUM scholarship offer (I "guessed" correctly 6 times, and trust me I'm no mathemation, so how hard could it be?? :) ) if you know your child's stats and you're confident they will remain stable throughout their senior year. MINIMUM in caps because (with any luck) there will be things you don't know about til they're offerred, so you can't count on them: leadership, honors and as mentioned before, talent. But you CAN get a pretty good idea of what you're in for, by doing some careful research. We definitely went the "pick and choose" route before, during and after the entire looooong process! LOL! It can be done. Good Luck!</p>

<p>Sorry this is so long, I got carried away; being careful with money: a subject near and dear to my heart, what can I say? :)</p>

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<p>Yes, CMU drama does only offer relatively few scholarships, which are based on talent. However, if an accepted student does have a demonstrated financial need, which is based on the FAFSA form, the school is likely to offer a certain amount of grant money to help meet some of that need. This amount is re-calculated every year, based on family income. Both scholarships and grants do not have to be repaid, i.e., it's free money.</p>

<p>The school will also look at scholarship offers from other schools, providing that they are comparable programs. They may not necessarily match those other offers (as some of the recent articles have indicated), but they will consider them, and often change their offer. </p>

<p>So, if a student is accepted, the school will indeed try to help out if there's an actual need. My D received a very nice grant, more than any other school that she was accepted to. It made accepting their offer much easier for our grateful family!</p>

<p>Note: the above is my unofficial understanding, as a parent, of the financial aid philosophy at CMU. If you want to know more about this, check with the school FA office for the official answers. They're very helpful. Hope this helps!</p>