One thing that really needs emphasis here is that there is not, in my experience, any single “best known” school for MT training. One person’s dream school (eg CMU) may fall low on many kids’ lists (eg our D’s), may not admit the most talented students (eg may be seeking specific types in any given year) and may not impress all casting directors (eg due to a type mismatch or a prior bad experience with grads). As has been said often in this thread, “fit” is far more important than brand and most kids will ultimately regret taking on college debt for MT training as well as potentially needing to later support aging parents who raided retirement savings to finance a dream school.
I have personally seen each of these situations unfold. A family takes huge loans to finance kid’s dream MT school (including downsizing housing), and a couple years later said kid switches majors after realizing they are not as castable as they’d hoped when up against top talent. Another family takes on debt for an expensive “big name” school which turns out to be a bad fit, so the kid transfers after a year and needs to do a full extra year of school. A kid gets “poached” from lesser-known program for a national tour lead, and begins a steady run of fabulous contracts with no degree. Another kid graduates from a top program, lands a great gig in a national tour, is on the road a year and then is unemployed for years. Another kid graduates from a top program, gets solid representation and never lands a contract.
Every actors journey will be unique, but in very few cases will college debt make the road any easier. When D considered options, she was more concerned with which degree would still have value in 20 years rather than what would open doors for 2 years after graduation (though so far it looks like she’s gotten both short and long-term value).
Oh…and I forgot to mention the dreaded injuries (both vocal and dance-related) which were MT career-ending but did not retire student debt.
I should add that our D is fortunate to be able to graduate from her top choice school debt free, and has enjoyed a full year of great Equity contracts her entire senior year in large part due to school-related contacts, so I do see firsthand that a strong school certainly won’t hurt IF it is a great fit and is within a family’s budget.
It’s all a bit of a gamble isn’t it? One can find ancectodal evidence to support the lesser known school choice as well as find plenty of situations where the big name school also worked out just fine. Add to that the contrary where neither worked out. The takeaway is one needs to do what is right for them and obtain value from your choice - however you define it. Then work your butt off and create your opportunities. The next big star that steals the limelight from our children may very well come from an unconventional background - I’m sure the odds favor that. That does not diminish the choices many of us are making right now.
Having a choice is a great first world problem to have, and some of those choices are between expensive and expensiver (new word). After all, a school that rhymes with Schmexas State has only so much room and can’t take us all. So, we lay down the big bucks betting on the dream that we so very much have - we wouldn’t be here conversing in cyberspace if we (and our kids) weren’t huge risk takers.
So, if you go for the big expensive big name school, do it knowing they won’t owe you anything once the training is complete and graduation is when the deal ends. If you go for the lesser known school and your kid makes it big, I hope I’m in the audience and notice some unknown school credit in the Playbill. I will smile and think of this.
It’s just money. Doing this is NOT a financial decision. It is a life decision.
(and yes, D’s older Sis is still her #1 fan even though she is now poorer for it )
@soozievt I said in my post that you were correct. Your response makes me feel a greater apology is needed. I am sorry that I went afield from what you and others were discussing. I thought I had read within the discussion, where someone posted a question about how students could graduate with a large debt when federal loans are capped. My post was merely to point out that students can obtain loans with a co signer and thus end with greater debt. I wasn’t addressing you or snyone else in particular, just offering an explanation for a student having a large debt burden. Again I apologize…I was not commenting directly to your posts nor was I speaking about you or your kids’ experience. I was just offering another explanation for debt.
@CTownMom there is nothing to apologize about! It is merely a discussion and I was wondering about how certain things were possible (as were others) and you offered information and then I looked things up to further my own knowledge and understanding and posted what I knew. On a message board, people respond to the content of posts and offer up their own information or in some cases, opinions, or experiences, but it is not directed at a person, but merely to the topic and content being discussed. No worries.
@CTownMom our student received a portion of his loan with me (Mom) as his co-signer. The loan is a private student loan which we are paying on as he goes. We expect to continue to make payments for a time after he graduates. If the loan is in good standing for 24 months (or 36 months -I don’t have the number in front of me) after graduation, the cosigner can be released. Arguably, within that time frame, our student will be working and able to take over his payments.
@artskids that seems to best explain what we were questioning. Under your scenario, a parent could co-sign $100.000 worth of debt and make payments for 2-3 years and then release to student. I now see how students are still graduating with large debt despite cap on borrowing ( not intended to be a dig or estimation on your situation, I’m just hypothetically speaking). Thanks for sharing that!
@IfYouOnlyKnew I think you are correct (about the situation, not the amount of debt!). Of course we will have to see where he is on terms of earning capacity before we turn the loan over. We have 4 kids; I suspect we’ll adjust how we do this as we go (our S is our first college student)!
Here’s the thing. You can’t prove the negative. You can’t say that the same outcome wouldn’t have happened had X kid gone to “not name brand” Y school instead of “big name brand” Z school. Or that an even “better” outcome - booked a Broadway show - wouldn’t have happened had X kid gone to Z school. Or even “never heard of” B school.
There is always the road you didn’t take- and you never get to know how it would turn out if you had gone another way. The best you can do is follow YOUR heart, and YOUR path, work hard, and let the universe unfold
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