<p>I’m hoping someone can answer my question or point me in the right direction.</p>
<p>I would like to be a Musical Theatre major next Fall (2010) and am having some issues paying for college.</p>
<p>My parents refuse to pay for my application fees, and because I am a student and can only work after school and on weekends, I am having trouble paying for the $100+ application fees that come with deciding to be an MT.</p>
<p>I am unable to obtain fee waivers from the conservatories I am applying to because my parents make enough money so that I am not eligible for financial aid. I have tried to explain my situation to my guidance counselor and the schools I am applying to, and no one is really helping me. </p>
<p>Can I still get a fee waiver if I am paying for my own applications but my parents make too much money for me to be eligible for a waiver?</p>
<p>Tell your parents to stop being dicks?</p>
<p>I am sorry your parents are not helping you. Do they plan to help with tuition? There is not a lot of merit aid for musical theater, and if you don’t qualify for need based aid, how do you plan to pay for college?</p>
<p>Put your earnings toward the schools to which you MOST want to apply. Get your list down to 2 or 3 safeties, 2 matches and 1 reach. Check this thread to see if there are schools you are interested in to which it is free to apply: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/444532-list-colleges-free-apply.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/444532-list-colleges-free-apply.html</a> Good luck!</p>
<p>Will your parents pay for your college education? If the answer is “no,” then you need to be realistic about where you apply. Colleges won’t give you fee waivers or need-based scholarships if your parents have money but refuse to use it for your applications or college education. If colleges were to give aid/waivers based on such a criterion, few parents would be willing to pay for their students’ apps and college educations. </p>
<p>If your might qualify for need-based financial aid (don’t rule out this possibility unless you’ve run your family’s financial info through an expected family contribution calculator), will your parents provide their tax information so you can apply? If your parents won’t, you won’t be able to qualify for need-based aid. </p>
<p>Will your parents cosign loans for you? Even if they will, it probably would be unwise to take out loans to cover what your family normally would be expected to pay. The average student takes out a total of about $17 k to cover all of their college education. That won’t even cover one year of tuition at most colleges.</p>
<p>Probably not. Fee waivers are usually based on parent’s ability to pay, not willingness to pay. If they make too much for you to be eligible for those waivers then you are in a difficult situation. I doubt there is much your guidance counselor can really do to help you. Have you checked to see if there are any schools that maybe waive application fees for other reasons such as high stats. When my daughter was applying for college (a while back now) I seem to remember her being offered fee waivers for a couple of schools if she applied before a certain date and because of her ACT scores. I seem to recall OCU being one of them (they have a MT program though she was not applying for that).</p>
<p>How will you be paying for college? FA (including fee waivers) is based mainly on your parents income and assets.</p>
<p>My first question is…</p>
<p>If your parents won’t pay for apps, then are they likely to pay for your college education?</p>
<p>If your parents will pay for your education, I would do this…</p>
<p>Sit down and ask your parents if they will pay for 3-4 applications. If they still refuse, ask them to loan you the money and then pay them back out of the checks you’ll get for birthday, Christmas/holiday, and graduation gifts. </p>
<p>Frankly, any parent that expects their kid to pay for all of his applications out of a measly paycheck is likely to be very unreasonable about how much he expects you to financially contribute to your college costs.</p>
<p>BTW…</p>
<p>What schools are you looking at for musical theatre? (I’m dumb about MT…is that a single major or a double major?)</p>
<p>What is your GPA, SAT, ACT? </p>
<p>The reason I’m asking is …If your parents are going to be unreasonable about how much they’ll pay for your education, you may need to look at schools that will give you merit money.</p>
<p>BTW…have your parents SPECIFICALLY said HOW MUCH they will pay for your education? The whole thing (tuition, room, board, books, etc)??? Just tuition??? Some of tuition??? Do they know how much it costs to go to college these days? Private and public???</p>
<p>Conservatories are not the places you want to go if money is an issue. I have known many kids get accepted to them and then not be able to attend because of costs. Two kids I know even had parents that could afford it, but when it came down to it, the parents were not comfortable with spending that much money on a conservatory program.</p>
<p>If you can figure out how to pay the application fees, then go ahead and apply and see how it falls out, BUT have a backup plan. That will probably be a regular 4-year public univ. with a decent musical theatre program.</p>
<p>^^^
'rent is so right… </p>
<p>BTW…are your parents being stubborn because of your chosen major? Are they wanting you to major in something else? What’s up with them???</p>
<p>If you haven’t checked it out yet, go here:</p>
<p>[Musical</a> Theater Major - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/]Musical”>Musical Theater Major - College Confidential Forums)</p>
<p>There are some knowledgeable people there.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids…if this OP is applying as a music theater major, it is very likely that any “merit aid” received will be based on this student’s audition, not stats. This is especially true in conservatory programs. At some universities, they will give academic merit aid as well but not all even do that.</p>
<p>I would suggest that this student look into schools that offer a BA in Musical Theater and are not audition based programs. I know this isn’t what the student wants to hear, but in my opinion, these are the places that are most likely to give merit money (if the student even HAS the stats to qualify for it).</p>
<p>Agreed with others…if the parents won’t pay for the applications, will they pay for college? It doesn’t do a speck of good to apply (and pay to do so), be accepted, and then be unable to attend because no one is going to pay the bills. This student needs to find out WHY the parents are not willing to pay for the college applications.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Thumper is right. And thanks for the heads up about the audition aspect for $$$. I’m dumb about that. I only know of a few (must not require auditions) schools that will give $$ based on stats, including musical $$. </p>
<p>Totally agree with your statement…"It doesn’t do a speck of good to apply (and pay to do so), be accepted, and then be unable to attend because no one is going to pay the bills. This student needs to find out WHY the parents are not willing to pay for the college applications. "</p>
<p>This is just my gut feel…but I’m thinking that the parents are either against the MT major (maybe they think it’s flaky or won’t prepare for a good job)…OR…they are financially strapped and don’t want to tell their kid, and they’re hoping he won’t be able to afford to apply. If the latter is the case, they are just delaying the inevitable.</p>
<p>The OP needs to have a CALM sit down with his parents and ask the following… (in this order)</p>
<p>First…have both parents present at the same time!!! And tell them that you need honest answers…</p>
<p>How much will you pay each year towards my college education? (if the answer is little to none, you don’t have to ask anymore questions.)</p>
<p>Why won’t you pay for my applications?</p>
<p>Do you have an issue with my chosen major?</p>
<p>Do you expect me to contribute $$ towards my college education? If so, how much per year?</p>