@NewEngMTMom – If you are appealing to the financial aid office for more need based aid from the institution you will want to focus on your FAFSA EFC and the difference between aid offered and your EFC. I do not believe that LIU meets full need, so you may want to include information that may not be captured by the FAFSA. The hard thing about FAFSA EFC is that it really should be called MFC (minimum family contribution), since many/ most schools do not meet full need, and even schools that use the Profile AND say that they meet full need, meet the need they calculate using their own formula.
I think you mentioned two in school at the same time next year or the year after… was this already indicated on the FAFSA? If not, you could include this in an appeal, as well as unreimbursed medical expenses, one-year spikes in income because of a bonus, etc…
If you are asking for a reconsideration of merit/ talent aid to the admissions office and the Theatre program you may want to try to talk to people directly in those areas, and/ or email to ask if your D could still be in consideration for any merit/ talent scholarships. Also ask if there are merit/ talent scholarships that she can apply for as a continuing student for future years.
I encourage you to also post questions on the financial aid forum on CC if you have not already – http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/ – people who post regularly there may better be able to offer advice on loans, eligibility, etc… and there is a wealth of information if you search through past threads.
Many, many thanks to @SpchTchr57 , @MuddlingThru22 , @bisouu , @MTdreamz, @KatMT , @Ducky312 , @stagedoormama , @CaMom13 , @MTmom2017 , @Fergie978 ! All of you gave great advice, or wonderful encouragement. I found my fighting spirit again and have contacted multiple departments, written an appeal letter, found additional links for more scholarship applications and so on. I don’t know the outcome, yet, but I am feeling more hopeful. This has been a wonderful place to have freak out moments and get my bearings. Also, I have to add that I’m really sorry LIU isn’t one of the MT colleges pinned to the top of this forum. While I, like others, have noticed that sometimes things at LIU aren’t quite as well organized as we would like, the MT department is already promising to be an amazing piece of good luck for us. And every time I have called ANY department at LIU for any reason, I have only had the best experiences with the kindest, most considerate, most professional people I have ever encountered. In a world where just trying to get a human to answer a phone is sometimes impossible, I have to raise a toast to the LIU people for making me feel like a real person and taking a personal interest in every question or concern.
So, marching on to Moving In Day. Good luck to everyone! You’re the best!
I know I have asked before but has anyone still not heard back from Texas state? Rejection emails were sent and my son never got one. He got an email stating if he would still like to be under consideration. Anyone else on this slow boat ride? It’s driving us insane!
@MTMOM17 thank you for that! I got a reply from someone in enrollment who said he had read my appeal. He asked for a couple of other small pieces of information and said the committee would review our request. The theater department called me and left a message to say that as far as their director knew, all artistic scholarship money was used up for this year, but that I should call the dean and see if anything could be done. I still have hope…
@NewEngMTMom Hi! My D was accepted to LIU last year but ended up at Point Park. We had a financial situation at LIU as well – not saying anything against LIU - they were wonderful to us, but just couldn’t come up with the financial package we needed. What caught my attention was that you said your D has college credits she hopes LIU will accept, but then you say she’s not a transfer student. I’m curious if she was enrolled in a college last year and is planning to start over as a Freshman at LIU. My D was in that position. She wasn’t a “transfer” but she also didn’t qualify for high level scholarships because she had previously attended college after graduation high school. Maybe that’s what’s going on with your D?
We are elated about our DS’s Acceptance to PPU for the MT BFA program! He had 7 options but felt the PPU program was the place to be for him! He accepted and is practically packing his bags now! LOL!
Hold your horses buddy…we need to go through graduation and one more final yet! Exciting chapter to come and watch these kids of ours spread their wings and fly! (I’ll keep the tissue handy!) XO
Congratulations on all the acceptances! For all of you that are new to the college experience I recommend a fine/fun/wise book, recommended by the University of San Francisco when our first born went to college:
“Don’t tell me what to do, just send money”.
It is a great guide and very appropriate for the time most of you are about to start
@daughtersdreams. My daughter attended a local community college as a high school senior. They call it “dual enrollment”. A lot of kids here will do this to get a jump on college or to get classes they can’t get in their high schools. They have to take classes that will meet their high school graduation requirements but can take anything else beyond that. We did this so she could get some music classes, but we also thought she could start out at an inexpensive school and then transfer to a dream school for musical theater. Just another example of how much we were in the dark about this! In her case she didn’t end up with enough college credits to complete a freshman year anyway because she still did a couple of her classes at the high school. So she’s going to LIU as a freshman. It seems you really have to do the 4 years in most of those programs anyway. She did take AP English as a junior and got a good score so I’m hoping LIU will take that. I also want to persuade them to take a couple of other academic classes if possible so that we can open up as much of her schedule as possible for extra dance.
@NewEngMTMom you might have already considered it and the benefits vary depending on the school, but she could also apply to be an RA next year. Many schools give you free room and board in exchange. That is often at least $10000. Hope that helps
@NewEngMTMom My D did the same thing with dual enrollment to knock out as many gen eds (or core requirements) as possible. AP and CLEP are also helpful. LIU has a list of AP Tests they will accept and what score you need to qualify for credits. You can find it if you go to the LIU Post website and use the search option - search “AP Credit” it will take you to a page with link to a PDF of the AP Credit list. If your daughter got a 4 or 5 on the AP English, then she’ll get 6 credits and knock TWO 3-credit English classes! Another benefit of doing credit by exam s that those credits are awarded based on a predetermined list - not by evaluation like other transfer courses. My D even took CLEP biology test the summer AFTER she graduated high school so she didn’t have to take the gen ed science core course.
The other dual enrollment courses will be evaluated individually. By the way, if you get something turned down that you feel should qualify, you can appeal and offer further documentation. My D did that and it worked for her. She found a very similar course in the LIU college catalog and then had her previous professor write a letter on her behalf and submit the actual course syllabus and textbook info (which was the same textbook used by LIU course) and the evaluator ended up awarding her credit for the course.
One thing we liked about LIU is that we were told that BFA students could take more than 18 credits for no additional charge – so you can add in as many dance classes as you wanted. Apparently a lot of them are offered in the evenings so they don’t conflict with your traditional classes. Not sure if that’s the case, but that is what we were told last year.
Hope your D has a fantastic journey at LIU. It is definitely one of those “hidden gems”!
@daughtersdreams Good to know! Thank you. The college has just put an 18 credit CAP in place. We heard that on Accepted Students Day from the MT director. The theater kids are in an uproar about this and a petition has been circulated in protest. I’m praying the school comes to its senses!
@Noreplays2018 Hi, I was wondering if you could share the colleges that you found that have crossover between acting and MT. My son will be applying this Fall for MT programs but really wants to do some straight acting too. We do not know where to start on the college list and thought since you mentioned this crossover in your pattern post, you might be willing to share the names of the colleges that allow this crossover (i.e. MT students can audition for plays too). Thank you so much!
Exciting chapter to come and watch these kids of ours spread their wings and fly! (I’ll keep the tissue handy!) XO