Funding experiences? VCU, MICA, MCAD, MICA, CalArts, Cranbrook?

[stephanieb]

Hi there, 

I've been talking to schools to get a sense of typical funding (NOT loans). I made like, no money in 2015 bc I was in school half the year and then had trouble finding steady work, hopefully that puts me in a better position. This year hasn't been great either.

I've talked to a few of them and found that they like to give out ambiguous information about this- giving wide ranges or saying "up x%"

So wondering if anyone has heard of/had ACTUAL (or at the very least typical) experiences with funding from these schools. Below is the vague info I have already-

CalArts told me "up to 50%" but I've seen some people here complain that they're typically not very generous. 

I've heard MICA ranges between 20%-60%. I saw one person on this forum mention getting 15k (about 30%). I heard of someone getting 50%

VCU (waiting for them to get back to me) I've seen on this forum people mentioning 70% (???) but this seems like it can't be typical? I also saw on their website they offer graduate assistantships that cover the tuition fully! Anyone have experience with this? Sounds amazing! They do mention on their site that they're dedicated to getting people to graduate with a low amount of debt

Cranbrook got back to me and said they potentially award scholarships the first year based on your application and portfolio, but there's no guarantee you'll get it the second year- and in fact it's very competitive in the second year. The person I spoke with said they're not generally in the position to offer half or full tuition but a combination of need based grants, which they also give (she made is sound like $10k was on the high end and rare,) and scholarship might cover up to half the tuition (though she said she would not describe this as typical or average)

SAIC I've seen mentions of 30% and 50%

MCAD - waiting to hear back. Their site makes it sound like they're generous and have a lot to give out- but their merit scholarships, at the very least, seem low (2k-4k)

Any experiences/thoughts appreciated!

 

 

[tugbamina_871]

what is your area of study? i know that saic has 1-2 full tuition merit scholarships per department. northwestern has an extremely small program but everyone is fully funded (incl. stipend). I would check out this thread: 

 

[Xxanderr]

- Honestly I don't think SAIC practice the one full scholarship per department or they just don't  give it out every year.  For sure the 30-50% might be the better bet.

- Seems to be general rule of thumb that top AICAD schools rarely give full rides if ever at the MFA level. 

- I herd conflicting funding stories regarding VCU, so please share their response. 

-If money is an issue then look into fully funded state programs. They tend to offer full scholarship with sizable  stipends, supply funds, free health insurance packages and generous international travel grants, etc...

 

[stephanieb]

Thanks for the replies! 

I've referred to that list but unfortunately since I'm applying for a graphic design MFA a lot of those schools aren't an option for me bc they don't have design departments. Northwestern included, unfortunately. 

I've been looking at some state schools too, but it seems like well funded programs with a solid design department are hard to come by, haven't found one yet. Will post if I find anymore though, and if anyone has anymore suggestions for other schools to look into for design-  

And will post again when I hear back from VCU. Emailed SAIC too just now to confirm if they do that one tuition waiver per department every year or not as well. 

[stephanieb]

Just wanted to confirm if anyone is interested- 

VCU awards merit graduate assistantships (I spoke to someone in the Design Dept. so I don't know if this is across the board), which will cover 100% of your tuition that semester, minus 2-2.3k in fees, in addition to a monetary stipend of $5000 or more. Apparently in the last second year class, all 6 students had been given assistantships for for 2 or 3 semesters, reducing their total tuition cost by 50%-75%

SAIC got back to me with this link- http://www.saic.edu/financialaid/saicscholarshipsandgrants/meritscholarships/ . There are scholarships that in combination with need based aid (assuming this means loans as well) will cover 20%-100%

Nonetheless, would love to hear from students or those who were made an offer from the schools I mentioned (or know someone who has) to hear their experiences and get an idea what's average or to be expected realistically.