lorilynne

USC has both BA and BFA. Both are eligible for merit aid and both have many perfermance opportunities. For the BFa the audition is the most important thing. I suspect that if they want you for the BFA AND you have great grades/scores that you have an even better chance for merit money. If anyone has an opinion there, chime in. You must apply early to qualify for merit aid. It is definitely worth it!

skewlcounselor

Thank you for all of the great ideas. I always thought USC was financially out-of-reach but it sounds like it is worth putting under the category of "we are likely not be able to swing it, but we'll never know unless you apply!"

catlover2

USC have been very generous to my d , they look at te whole family fianace thing and you can submit an appeal etc we earn around $90000 and d gets a grant of about $36000 takes max Staffords and we pay rest that is left this year approx $9000.

atopthefence

Surprised no one has mentioned SUNY Purchase yet haha... If you want more info, let me know, but the things you're interested in are:
1. It's 30 mins from NYC (VERY easy to get in and out on weekends, or even school nights).
2. It has one of the best BFA programs in the country (Top 5 undergrad by most reputable lists).
3. The cost of tuition is ~22,000 Room and Board included. It's a state school, so once you've lived in NY for a year, you can establish residency and your tuition drops from 16k~ to 6k~ (room and board extra).

Just to be clear, it is a highly selective program, accepting 20 new students each year... If you're interested, let me know!

(Full disclosure, I am a current student so I am slightly biased, but I believe my bias is well founded and can be backed up!)

prezbucky

Have you considered Wisconsin? (UW-Madison)

It has a great global academic rep, features a world-renowned faculty generally, and offers a BFA.

UW has a long track record of academic genius in a vast array of departments. As a BFA your daughter will be an L&S (Literature and Sciences) student, so she'll be privy to a well-rounded education outside of her major.

UW is located on an isthmus (narrow strip of land between two lakes which also includes famous State Street and the capitol building...) in the capital city of Madison, WI. There is much fun to be enjoyed there, and many geniuses with/from whom to learn -- it's a great school.

CCer2014

i'm sure you're aware of tuition exchange here in minnesota....and i believe illinois residents qualify.
also to chime in...plenty of the bfa's here at the u are in the honors program if she's keen on the academics. and a good amount minor and major in the other areas if they're really good at time management.

EmmyBet

There is no BFA in Theatre at UW-Madison. The focus of the department is much stronger on grad students. Design, however, is very strong there.

UW-Lacrosse has a very strong undergraduate BA program, and we know several successful graduates (two of whom are in NYC getting work right now). UW-Stevens Point has a well-regarded auditioned BFA in MT.

A good quality, low cost program in the Wisconsin system is UW-Milwaukee. It is a BA-BFA program (audition in second year) and has terrific opportunities, including with the wonderful professional theatres in the city. A student with good grades, even without tuition reciprocity, would probably get a very good financial aid package.

ActingDad

PrezBucky -- Madison doesn't offer a BFA to my knowledge. Just checked website and just says BA. I won't argue with you about it being a great school having gone there. But I think only UW-Milwaukee offers a BFA program among the UW schools.

skewlcounselor

EmmyBet, those Wisconsin schools were not on our radar! Thanks for sharing. UW - Stevens Point is, though. Do you know anything about that program?

supportive

Stevens Point has a fine reputation and it's definitely worth looking into. One of my daughter's friends went to The Broadway Theatre Project for the summer and they told her that Stevens Point and Ohio Northern were among the schools with good MT programs. I believe Laura Osnes went to Stevens Point.

madbean

skewlcounselor, I'm late coming to your thread but I would strongly support the recommendations you've already received upthread about University of Southern California, where my S2 is a soph double major in Theatre & School of Cinema. In order to double major, he's getting the BA but the BFA program is also excellent.

We were in shoes similar to yours 2 years ago, looking for merit $$ and good academics + great theatre programs. What we found was that most colleges who offered significant merit money were often lower on the totem pole, either US New ranking, selectivity, or with less recognized theatre reputations. USC, which offers guaranteed 1/2 tuition scholarships to NMFs plus has hundreds of other 1/4, 1/2 and full tuition merit awards, is extremely rare for such a well regarded university. Other merit-giving schools my son applied to included Case Western (they have 5 theatre scholarships of $22K/year!), Tulane (merit is mostly academic based), U Miami (merit is mostly academic based), and George Washington (Presidential Scholar in the Arts 15K/year required supplement/audition/interview).

Your D must have an excellent GPA (congrats!) and if her test scores match, she may have good results at these and similar private U's.

connections

Great discussion. I think the OP mentioned they didn't have much money but felt they were in the 'no man's zone' of having too much money for most need based but not enough to write that check for $55,000/year :-)

Many top well endowed schools give a lot more aid than you'd think; many are committed to no loans or minimal loans. My own D is able to go to Northwestern for less than Rutgers and Suny for this reason. My D applied to a fair number of BA programs in select LACs and Ivies with strong theatre programs because their endowments and commitment to lower loans was really a deal breaker for us--if your kid is a strong academic student, this is one possible approach. You'd be surprised I think what some of the top schools can offer.

There is another thread of BFA programs that are good deals if you can get in, such as Texas State, Coastal Carolina and of course SUNY Purchase. I have to chime in about UW: we lived in Madison for a while and I can second how beautiful it is and it does have a great commitment to its arts programs (my friend's son is a music/math dual major there and loves it); a few UW branches do have BFAs in theatre, although not Madison. Madison does offer both a BM and a BA in theatre. It's not cheap for out of state though.

EmmyBet

A bit earlier you mentioned Adelphi. I highly recommend the program - the BFA is just what my D wanted, and with the Honors College she is getting academics that compare to Bard, Sarah Lawrence, and other highly intellectual BA schools. With high stats you can get nearly a full tuition scholarship. It was a great low-cost option where she can have the best of both worlds and be near NYC.

MTTwinsinCA

Look at Rider and Pace -- I have one son at each school. Generous merit aid for strong academics. Both schools have acting and MT.