I am a thirteen year old girl who is trying to carve a career pathway in performing arts. I can't find a good college in my state that will prepare me for this career. I will need to go to school somewhere else but my family has a middle class income. What are some things I can do to save and prepare for my college? Any tips will help me. Thank you.
If you are thinking about the University of California or New York University then it will likely be unaffordable.
Public colleges generally don’t give financial aid to out of state students (with a few exceptions: UVA and UNC meet full need, for example.) Private colleges, while generally more expensive, sometimes give financial aid to middle class students. Look into schools that meet full financial need (http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2015/09/14/colleges-that-report-meeting-full-financial-need) and schools that give merit aid for your stats.
What is your home state?
How much will your parents pay each year?
Look at private schools with scholarships that offer merit awards. That is money that is rewarded for good grades and test scores, or perhaps based on auditions for performing arts.
One that you might consider is Ithaca College in Ithaca NY. It’s school of performing arts is highly regarded and many graduates go on to successful careers. If you can combine merit scholarships with work study positions or working as an RA after freshman year, it will often be less expensive than a public school. Especially for out of state students.
It’s fairly close to NYC, and many students are awarded internships in the City.
What state is this? I find it hard to believe that any state flagship lacks a performing arts department.
I live in Kentucky. It is a state of almost no opportunities. Have you heard of any good performing schools in Kentucky? I promise I am not trying to be rude I really wan to know.
What type of performing arts? Voice? Acting? Instrumental?
At this point…you are 13. Have you even started HS yet?
If you are looking at bachelors in fine arts programs…it’s likely you will need to audition for these. The best thing you can do is prepare yourself well for what will be a very competitive audition.
Some colleges where you can major in performing arts do give scholarships as performance awards to top accepted auditioned students.
But I have to be candid…schools with performing arts majors are not typically generous with financial aid.
If you are thinking about heading to LA…or NYC…college will likely be very costly. Also keep in mind the cost of living in those places as well.
What colleges are on your very preliminary list? And what area of performing arts do you wish to pursue?
As soon as you mentioned Kentucky, I thought of Western Kentucky University, in Bowling Green KY. I have known many students who were music majors and very involved in theater who headed up to Bowling Green to attend WKU. I just took a look at WKU’s website, and they offer a robust performing arts program. Why wouldn’t a school like WKU work for you?
You said you want to carve a career in the performing arts. Well, I would expect that you would be bringing some actual talent to any performing arts program, and that you would really want to go somewhere where you could hone your talents, and where you would have many opportunities to perform whatever it is you are hoping to perform. No college will be able to hand you a successful career in the performing arts, not even one of the big name “prestigious” programs. Even Tom Hanks only attended a California community college and then a state university, and why did that work for him? Because both of those schools (I worked at one and attended the other) offered him what he needed to hone his craft - many opportunities to perform, and I am sure he only paid about $7.50 per credit at the community college, and less than $500 a year at the state university during the years he attended, which meant he left college without the stranglehold of debt.
You should start by exploring every college in Kentucky and keep an open mind, because your best chance to keep costs low will be to stay in your home state. Go to each website and read about their Performing Arts programs. Go attend some performances there if you can. Then, after doing this research, if you still cannot find a program in Kentucky, then expand your search. More generally, you are going to want to find a liberal arts college with a great performing arts program where you can qualify for in-state tuition (if a public university), and that will have generous scholarship programs so that you have a chance to graduate without much debt so you can pursue your dreams without the albatross of student loan debt hanging around your neck. Obviously, you are going to need to graduate from high school with a high GPA and high ACT scores. Check out the colleges listed at Colleges That Change Lives or at the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. Start going through the lists of colleges here at CC that are highlighted for offering generous academic scholarships and go to every single website and read about their arts programs. You are fortunate to have all of this information at your fingertips, and you have the time to work on this.
I can recommend one school outside of Kentucky to you: the University of Montevallo in Montevallo, Alabama (about 20 minutes west of Birmingham.) I mention Montevallo because I have a student headed there this fall, and it is a wonderful hidden treasure, particularly for creative students.
As of right now (and things can certainly change by the time you are applying for college), the University of Montevallo rewards out of state students with automatic in-state tuition with ACT scores of 23 or above. In addition, students with great ACT scores and high GPAs are awarded very generous academic scholarships. There are also scholarships available to performing arts students (you would have to read the information on the website to learn the requirements, i.e, auditions, portfolios, etc.) On top of that, tuition is already lower at Montevallo than many other colleges. Most importantly, given your desire to pursue the performing arts, the theatre, music, and fine arts programs at Montevallo are fantastic with many opportunities for students to develop and showcase their talents.
From experience, I know you are going to find the most affordable tuition as well as the most generous academic scholarships at schools in the South. Don’t head to school in California or New York. If you think you need to go to LA or NYC, then just pack your bags and go and don’t bother with college - just go do the proverbial waitressing and auditioning life for a while and see what happens. However, if you prefer the idea of attending college to hone your talents (while you also gain some other life skills, and earn a degree), then stay focused on keeping costs low and, no matter where you attend college, get involved with every performing arts group on campus that you can. Don’t allow yourself to be tempted by those expensive performing arts schools that sell a dream at a very steep price.
Beside Ithaca, another top program would be Muhlenberg in Pennsylvania.
What performing arts are you interested in ?
If music…Shenendoah is also good.
But really…what area of performing arts are you interested in? Right now…everyone here is guessing.
P