I thought it would be nice to condense in a topic thread the one or two most helpful pieces of advice to those coming into this next year. D is finished for the season but I realize some are still waiting.
If you want, please list the biggest thing you wished you'd known or done before you began.
I'll start:
Get your grades up!
It doesn't matter if you get into every program in existence if you can't afford it. We encouraged D to get up from a 3.3 to a 3.6 or above. That seems to be the cut off for getting some of the MOST money allotted by financial aid scholarships. A lot of programs would have been affordable to D if she had just raised her grades. She didn't believe that or was distracted or whatever but it was easily doable for her and yet she, well, didn't. Also know 2 friends who got in nowhere perhaps due to their 2.2 and 2.3 grades?? Who knows.
We thought we had a well rounded field.
How it broke down for us:
0 aid from Fasfa in loans, grants or whatever. We knew that going in.
5 schools she applied to were schools we could afford without aid. Rejected by each. Bummer.
11 schools she applied to were schools we needed aid to afford. Accepted by 5. Two gave no aid. Three gave far too little though we know they give a lot to students who are better academically so she missed the mark.
She got talent money from 2 of those schools but even in combo it was less than 25% off sticker price.
And on 2 more of those 11 she was waitlisted. Considering what has happened so far with aid, we will see.
Yes, of course we asked for more but it wasn't forthcoming.
My parting advice would be that the audition process is only the first part. Money is a very important factor and great grades are the ticket to more options!! I never thought we could be closed out of the game on this but it did happen. Don't make the same mistake! Better grades or find 10-15 schools you can afford without aid. I realize this applies to only a minority segment of the college population but for those who can relate-be warned!
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