Our plan was to let S apply to a few expensive schools (for OUR family’s budget and knew we would not qualify for needs-based scholarships/grants) - but only to those within “easy” driving distance. We knew that if by some chance he got in AND got good merit/talent award (we’d heard the rumors about boys getting more), that paying travel costs to get him home - or for us to visit/see shows - would be prohibitive. We had honest discussions about costs from the very beginning. The two “expensive” schools he was accepted to both offered nice merit/talent scholarships, but not enough to attend without acquiring student (and parent) loans. He was not accepted at the “most expensive” programs he auditioned for. Now that he is doing summer theater work and sees how little he is making in comparison to how much he needs to eat, he is VERY glad there will be no student loans to impact his post-graduation options.
We were fine with taking the chances on the more expensive schools - paying the app fees and traveling to auditions. As others have said, we had a wonderful chance to travel with our S as he went through the journey. And he doesn’t have to wonder “what if. . .” about some of the more select/expensive schools.