<p>Well - we think we know. Unless something really drastic happens with aid, as in the first choice school can offer more money, or if our revised fafsa changes the award down signficantly at what we think will be the one (girl in FA office said it probably wouldn’t) then we think we know.</p>
<p>It’s not the most affordable school on her list, but it’s the best school that is affordable for us. By affordable I mean we can find the money: I don’t mean it won’t hurt some. But it won’t bankrupt us. Her favorite is just beyond what I can imagine being able to do without not only all the Stafford loans but the OTHER loans too, and that is a firm and automatic NO.</p>
<p>There are two state programs she could go to that would not involve us finding another dime - we have enough saved - but I don’t know - it’s not the programs themselves I object to, though one I have heard that someone we know of is unhappy about some things at one of them, and the other isn’t an MT program, it’s Acting. It’s a good Acting program but I can’t find any source for voice training that isn’t strictly and only classical voice training -that would probably not be the end of the world, BUT, we visited again Saturday and I just didn’t feel good about it.</p>
<p>But as I say it’s not the programs themselves, it’s the academics. I just think that D would be more challenged (in the good sense, not the euphemism for “in over her head” sense) and exposed to the kind of personal growth opportunities at the private but still affordable school. (golly I hope I’m not jinxing anything and that the stupid 3 thousand dollar income increase doesn’t get her award lowered dollar for dollar cause that increase was a one time thing) </p>
<p>It’s the academics and the town - the town is her favorite in the world, except for NYC. While I think the town is down on the list as far as what is most important, in this case, there’s more opportunity in this town for directly and positively impacting her education - outside theater opportunities, a wonderful ballet company where she can take extra dance classes on a drop in basis (very few schools offer advanced pointe and she’d like to stay in practice) and she simply is so happy whenever she’s there. </p>
<p>Although the other school was our first choice, this school is only slightly below it as far as the program and academics.</p>
<p>The ironic thing is, it’s one of the handful of schools we visited long before we were even aware of CC or how this whole MT audition process works. Also, (and this is HARD for me to let go of but I have to somehow) it is the only school she missed the audition. It happened when she was sick. It was for money, not admission to program, which is a BA with a review - and the range of monies there for talent is 500 to 2000 which isn’t staggering BUT STILL, and now that it comes down to it, 2000 would have been a decent chunk out of what we still need to find. And they don’t reaudition every year - that was the one shot. RRRR. But even so it’s still the only private school that is actually within our range from what I know at the moment.</p>
<p>I am not meaning to imply that private schools are automatically better than public schools but on our particular list, the public schools were in fact a few notches below the private schools, academically, and while she’s not Smarty McBrainiac, she is very much wanting the whole liberal arts, mind broadening, Socratic discussions with the professor, type of experience and dreads the idea of 13th grade type classes.</p>
<p>So…it’s not for certain but the Magic 8 ball is saying “it’s a strong possibility.”</p>
<p>We had choices but when it came down to really good schools AND programs that we could actually afford, it narrowed down pretty darn quick.</p>