AFI Scholarship for Fall 2021

[lucychoi97]

Hi guys, first of all Merry Christmas to y'all
I'm an international student and submitted my application to AFI screenwriting for Fall 2021 and am about to apply for scholarship as well.
I have a question. So the question for the AFI scholarship form asks to write down the amount of money (scholarship) that I want to receive. How am I supposed to write that? Deep inside I want to go for full funding scholarship, but I know that's not gonna happen since they rarely give out full funds. My question is how much would be just right?
Any thoughts?

 

[llueve]

I am looking into applying for MFA production design next year , their website is confusing and its yet to be updated for 2022 admissions. I am a PD in my home country , have been int he industry for past 10 years , beyond all this the only way I can get through AFI without selling my kidney will be scholarship . how did you guys apply , do you get to the admission process first and then apply for scholarship or you happy to apply for scholarships simultaneously .

Hi jayashree, When you apply to AFI, first you fill out and submit your application to the school and then you send a separate application for financial aid.
When you send your financial aid application, you do not yet know if you have been accepted into the school.
AFI will send every applicant a link to the financial aid application.

I was told by financial aid, after being admitted, that the maximum scholarship amount last year was $10,000 per school year ($20,000 total across your 2 years). Additionally, there are 3 (and only 3) full-tuition scholarships that are discipline-specific, but I do not know which disciplines they are for.

I turned down my place at AFI this year because of the financial burden. I knew scholarships were very hard to get prior to applying, but I did not know they were so low until after I was admitted.

I strongly encourage you to reach out to the financial aid office before applying so you understand what amount of aid might be available to you in your discipline in the best-case scenario.

Below are a screenshots of what the questions looked like for this past admissions year, in case it helps you:

 

[juliak]

I am looking into applying for MFA production design next year , their website is confusing and its yet to be updated for 2022 admissions. I am a PD in my home country , have been int he industry for past 10 years , beyond all this the only way I can get through AFI without selling my kidney will be scholarship . how did you guys apply , do you get to the admission process first and then apply for scholarship or you happy to apply for scholarships simultaneously .

Hi! You apply for the scholarship separately and if I remember correcly the deadline is somewhere in January (so about a month longer than the application deadline).
I'd also encourage you to start looking for scholarships/grants outside AFI beacuse their scholarships are not that high compared to tuition (I think around 10 grand maximum).

 

[jayashree narayanan]

Hi! You apply for the scholarship separately and if I remember correcly the deadline is somewhere in January (so about a month longer than the application deadline).
I'd also encourage you to start looking for scholarships/grants outside AFI beacuse their scholarships are not that high compared to tuition (I think around 10 grand maximum).

yea thanks a lot , lot of them have been telling , they don't have fully funded . yes I will try for scholarship and private scholarship are possible post I get admitted ( especially as an International l student )so I think now I will wait for the application to go live for next year .

 

[jayashree narayanan]

Hi jayashree, When you apply to AFI, first you fill out and submit your application to the school and then you send a separate application for financial aid.
When you send your financial aid application, you do not yet know if you have been accepted into the school.
AFI will send every applicant a link to the financial aid application.

I was told by financial aid, after being admitted, that the maximum scholarship amount last year was $10,000 per school year ($20,000 total across your 2 years). Additionally, there are 3 (and only 3) full-tuition scholarships that are discipline-specific, but I do not know which disciplines they are for.

I turned down my place at AFI this year because of the financial burden. I knew scholarships were very hard to get prior to applying, but I did not know they were so low until after I was admitted.

I strongly encourage you to reach out to the financial aid office before applying so you understand what amount of aid might be available to you in your discipline in the best-case scenario.

Below are a screenshots of what the questions looked like for this past admissions year, in case it helps you:

View attachment 2462View attachment 2463View attachment 2464View attachment 2465

This is such a useful information . thanks a lot . since am applying for 2022 , my application will go live post September ?? they haven't updated their website for next year .
these questions will help me prepare better thanks a lot

 

[llueve]

yea thanks a lot , lot of them have been telling , they don't have fully funded . yes I will try for scholarship and private scholarship are possible post I get admitted ( especially as an International l student )so I think now I will wait for the application to go live for next year .

If I can add some more advice, it would be a good idea to start looking for independent scholarship opportunities before you get accepted.

The reason being that you will get your acceptance, waitlist, or rejection notification around March 15th and will have to say Yes or No to the program by about April 15th -- this includes making a monetary deposit to secure your place. It is only one month, which is not a lot of time to find external funding.
Full tuition for your first semester will be due around July 15th, so that gives you three extra months.

I don't know what scholarships are like for you at home -- if they can cover international schools, if they will cover masters degrees in film or the arts, if they are big or small, and what their deadlines are -- but the independent scholarships available in the US tend to be very small, a lot of them don't cover international students, a lot of them don't cover masters degrees in film or the arts, and many have deadlines *before* April 15th.

For all these reasons, I suggest starting your scholarship search even as early as now if you can, although it is a lot of work.

 

[jayashree narayanan]

Y

If I can add some more advice, it would be a good idea to start looking for independent scholarship opportunities before you get accepted.

The reason being that you will get your acceptance, waitlist, or rejection notification around March 15th and will have to say Yes or No to the program by about April 15th -- this includes making a monetary deposit to secure your place. It is only one month, which is not a lot of time to find external funding.
Full tuition for your first semester will be due around July 15th, so that gives you three extra months.

I don't know what scholarships are like for you at home -- if they can cover international schools, if they will cover masters degrees in film or the arts, if they are big or small, and what their deadlines are -- but the independent scholarships available in the US tend to be very small, a lot of them don't cover international students, a lot of them don't cover masters degrees in film or the arts, and many have deadlines *before* April 15th.

For all these reasons, I suggest starting your scholarship search even as early as now if you can, although it is a lot of work.

Thank you so much & You are absolutely right .
even in India we don’t have great scholarships for arts . ( it’s mainly for STEM departments)
So I have been doing the research , I will have to vouch on what’s available on the AFI website .
2) applying to chapman as well
Since these are the only two colleges providing 2year MFA .
For its Been 12 years into work . I don’t want to take a longer break .
If one of them offer me good scholarships I will be able to take a call .
many other universities you guys are aware with good funding kindly let me know
.

 

[llueve]

Thank you so much & You are absolutely right .
even in India we don’t have great scholarships for arts . ( it’s mainly for STEM departments)
So I have been doing the research , I will have to vouch on what’s available on the AFI website .
2) applying to chapman as well
Since these are the only two colleges providing 2year MFA .
For its Been 12 years into work . I don’t want to take a longer break .
If one of them offer me good scholarships I will be able to take a call .
many other universities you guys are aware with good funding kindly let me know
.

Ah yes, I applied to Chapman as well. I think on their website it says their financial aid caps out at $10,000, but their school then told me maybe it caps at $15,000/year? You should double-check by asking them directly, I'm not confident about those numbers.
Chapman is cheaper than AFI but it was still not cheap enough for me, so this stuff is seared into my memory now, you know what I mean?

I'll try to think on other Production Design-specific Masters programs. As you already implied, there are not a lot of them.

Best of luck with reaching your goals! Be it through an MFA or otherwise : )

 

[Mahima Gala]

hi planning on going to the same collg as u from india for production design. it would be great to have a input from a person who can actually relate to the problems here. do contact

 

[pn4]

Y


Thank you so much & You are absolutely right .
even in India we don’t have great scholarships for arts . ( it’s mainly for STEM departments)
So I have been doing the research , I will have to vouch on what’s available on the AFI website .
2) applying to chapman as well
Since these are the only two colleges providing 2year MFA .
For its Been 12 years into work . I don’t want to take a longer break .
If one of them offer me good scholarships I will be able to take a call .
many other universities you guys are aware with good funding kindly let me know
.

Hi Jayashree. I am an international student from India planning to apply to AFI for production design as well but the tuition fees are so high. How was your application experience? Were you able to get a good scholarship?

 

[pn4]

i just received the email from robin bailey-chen (the james bridges scholarship). i also got a full ride to nyu so i’m not sure yet! im honestly in shock

i just got a full ride for afi screenwriting!

Oh my god! That is so amazing! I'm a little late to the thread but congratulations! I am planning to apply to AFI this year. How did you manage to get the full scholarship? Would you mind sharing the details?