Was anyone else accepted but struggling to afford attending?

[mgm0286]

Hello! I was admitted to Columbia's Film MFA in Creative Producing with a $30,000/year scholarship, but I'm really struggling to decide if the debt is worth taking on. It's my dream program, but the tuition looks like it's going to be $118,000 a year. Does anyone have any advice?

 

[FilmNerd47]

Feirstein is around $10k per semester isn't it?

The actual cost comes in just under $12,000 once additional fees are factored in. The school has removed remote access to much of the software required for coursework, leaving students to either purchase their own subscriptions or travel to campus to do homework, an unrealistic option for those commuting from outside the city.

To their credit, they do disclose the possibility of additional costs, though it's buried in fine print on their website. What's harder to overlook is the lack of flexible scheduling. The limited class offerings make it nearly impossible for students to maintain full-time employment, yet financial support is scarce. Scholarships are rarely, if ever, proactively offered, a sentiment echoed by multiple students I spoke with. Most had to seek out funding entirely on their own. As a result, many are left to choose between an inconvenient work schedule or taking on additional loans to get by.

 

[rhinoman]

I got into UT Austin's film MFA Program, but even with the second and third years being funded by a TAship, I'd still be looking at around 35k in loans for the three years. Which is "cheaper" compared to other schools of its caliber but still probably too much for me to really attend, especially since you can only take out max 20,500 in direct loans now so I'd have to do an income-based-repayment plan, which has a higher interest rate. Someone tell me I'm not crazy for turning down the opportunity because of the cost.

 

[mgm0286]

I got into UT Austin's film MFA Program, but even with the second and third years being funded by a TAship, I'd still be looking at around 35k in loans for the three years. Which is "cheaper" compared to other schools of its caliber but still probably too much for me to really attend, especially since you can only take out max 20,500 in direct loans now so I'd have to do an income-based-repayment plan, which has a higher interest rate. Someone tell me I'm not crazy for turning down the opportunity because of the cost.

Hi! I'm from Texas and have experience in the industry around here if you want to shoot me a DM. I was accepted to UT as a transfer for undergrad and decided to turn it down for another public in-state school.