OK about NEC, DD persuaded a friend to check with her prospective studio teacher about the timing, and they said “Should have been yesterday or today; so probably later today or tomorrow.”
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Anyone have any experience with Merit Based Awards at NYU/Steinhardt? DD received nothing in that regard on her Financial Aid Offer. I wondered if any merit will be issued separately in the context of her department, or if what I see is what I get.
I live at the paradoxical intersection of “Won’t Qualify for Need-Based Aid” and “Man, This Tuition is Really, Really Going to Hurt”.
Furthermore, my understanding is they are very frugal in giving merit to UG students to begin with, so further appeal may be futile.
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NYU typically doesn’t give merit.
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Suspicion confirmed.
Frankly, I’m a little embarrassed to fully realize this so far along in the game! It’s been the program probably lowest on her list, so our attitude has been to take care of the numbers if/when admission ever became a reality. I guess the dog caught the car on this one!
Thank You for making me better informed on this moving forward.
Do not feel bad about it at all. We stupidly flew to LA to go audition at USC knowing that they don’t give much if anything either. I guess I was hopeful they would see that there is no way I can afford 99k a year lol but nope I guess somehow they think I can make that work. Maybe they expect me to sell my house or cash in on my retirement accounts to fund my son’s college education. SMH
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Closing the loop- NYU Financial Aid Office did call me back. Any merit money has been offered, and there is no appeal process. So the number is the number.
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Sooner the better!!
I spoke with the SMTD Financial Aid Office today.
Merit based scholarship notifications will go out on April 1, and the representative said, “Probably late in the afternoon”.
Maybe someone can educate me on appeals. We are down to Jacobs and SMTD. IU is in-state for us. I assume (and maybe wrongly) any merit we will be offered will be informed by our residency. If I lived in South Carolina, my daughter might receive a larger merit offer than she would living in Indiana like she does- if only to make the COA equitable across these hypothetical residencies. In this scenario, the COA is the school’s target, not the merit amount itself.
Since “Indiana Daughter” would then receive a lower merit award than “South Carolina Daughter” from Jacobs, “Indiana Dad” would have a lower comparable to use in negotiation with SMTD.
So my question is this- Is it normal to use COA as the measurable in negotiations instead of the merit amount itself? For example, in speaking to SMTD I might say, “It will cost us $XXX per year to go to IU. I know matching that will be hard as an OOS student, but she really likes your program and the daylight between the two COA’s would really need to shrink.” As opposed to “IU is offering $XXX, can you make an equitable offer?” Where in the latter scenario, the lower offer to “Indiana Daughter” would lessen her leverage with SMTD.
The closer I get to the finish line, the more I realize I’m not that bright, and it’s a wonder they let me have children at all!
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I’m glomming on to the above questions, and adding, should the student be the one to ask / advocate? Or is this something a parent can do?
I think it’s actually preferred that you look at it from a COA standpoint. That’s how we are currently comparing our top 2 offers between UM Frost and Berklee. Overall Frost gave my son more scholarship money than Berklee but in the end Frost still is about 3k cheaper than Berklee even with a full tuition offer from Berklee. The key here is that usually the programs have to be comparable. I do think if you can mention any new awards or ensembles that may have happened since they auditioned or even applied that could show their dedication to their level of playing. I actually have a letter that I put together thanks to AI that I have ready to go to whichever school I need to send it to. Once we have our last 2 schools back of course.
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I think either can do it. I do not know if it’s better coming from one or the other. I do feel like if its appealing merit then that would be an admissions question and should come from the student. If it’s a need-based aid question then that would go to financial aid and that could come from the student or parent.
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My understanding is that financial aid questions are pretty much the only time it’s acceptable for the parent to be the one communicating
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Just adding what may be an obvious point with respect to negotiating the COA at your musician’s top choice. It is fine to do this even if you do not have a better acceptance from a financial standpoint elsewhere.
You would need to be realistic, but it is absolutely ok to work with the school and let them know that your musician really wants to attend their amazing program and you are oh so close to making this work from a financial standpoint. And that you would like to request some additional funding to make it happen.
Agree that this should come from the parent. Unless you have a grad student responsible for their own funds.
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Can a parent appeal for merit, do you think? Or should that be a student ask? He has an achievement he could share as something shiny that is new since his application.
We don’t qualify on paper for need based aid. But we were definitely hoping for some merit, and I want to make sure we know who should be asking (him or us parents).
I still think that needs to come from the student. They are the ones doing the applying and everything. I think the only time we should step in is when it’s something need-based and involving the Financial Aid office. But again this is my first rodeo so I may not even know what I’m doing
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@FSUSammy Im definitely paying attention. Some we wouldn’t have attempted, but some we were considering.
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The list will refine a lot and let it lol looking back I probably would have said let’s dwindle this list a bit because just the travel part of it all was EXHAUSTING. Then comes the wait for EVERY school to come back. Like I do wish we cut USC off the list instead of traveling out there. Sure it was an adventure for us and I know I’ll never forget it, but all we got was a shiny acceptance letter with confetti and that’s just about it. I knew going into it that they didn’t give much. I should have pushed my son harder and said sorry but no we aren’t going to schools we know we cannot afford because they won’t give us the money we need.
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Thank you for calling and asking!
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@Jaygee1 @anotheroboemom Thanks for that information. I’m going to create a list for last yr, this yr, and next yr for the schools of interest. Dd is only a 10th grader so we have time to collect data. She is the youngest of a large family and siblings attended on merit scholarships. Music has forced me to research completely new aspects.
I have the benefit of her having heard these conversations her entire life bc of her siblings. There are no dream school delusions. But, I am surprised by some of the lack of scholarship outcomes from some of the schools based on what I have read before.
What are your thoughts on FSU? It is one we have looked at bc at one pt she had considered music therapy. She changed her mind, but for some reason I still have it on my list (maybe bc of academic scholarships since she will most likely be competitive for those. )