Deadline for Financial Aid

March 1, 2013

The Scholarship Committee and the Associate Dean of Enrollment Management will first deliberate on those students whose files are complete by the deadline. Students who file materials after the established deadlines will receive lower awards due to reduced availability of funds.

Required Financial Aid Materials Checklist

• College Scholarship Service (CSS) PROFILE Form

• Scholarship/Grant History Form (if you attended college before)

• International Student Affidavit of Support Given/Received

• Parent and Student Income Statements for 2012: translated and converted to U.S. currency

• Any other information we deem necessary after preliminary review

Financial Aid Procedures

As an International student interested in applying for scholarship, you are required to complete the College Board CSS PROFILE Form. In addition, you are required to submit all income tax and earnings statements related to the information on this form. These documents must be officially translated into English.

Filing the CSS PROFILE Form (Manhattan School of Music’s code is 2396): This is not a free form. Manhattan School of Music uses the information on this form, along with your audition score and your admissions materials, to determine your eligibility for Manhattan School of Music Scholarship or the President’s Award. Your application process begins by completing CSS PROFILE. You can connect and complete the application any time of day (you will need a valid credit card). The fee is $25 for the initial application and one school report that is sent to the school you designate.

The College Board will electronically transmit your PROFILE data to us. The PROFILE application is required of all international students. If you have any questions about or need help with the CSS PROFILE, you may email the College Board at help@cssprofile.org or you can call 305-829-9793.

Once we have received the processed results of your PROFILE application, a record will be created on our financial aid database. We will track all received materials and send you a letter indicating all other documents (listed at the top of this page) that we will require for a complete application.

Parent information is required of all dependent students. Students who are required, but fail to complete the parent information, will not be brought to the Scholarship Committee for deliberation. All financial aid documents, along with your audition score and your admissions materials, will be used to evaluate your eligibility for Manhattan School of Music Scholarship or the President’s Award. We will notify you if you are missing information, but valuable time will have been lost, and any scholarship that you may be deemed eligible to receive most likely will be less than if the information had been provided by the deadline.

IT WILL CAUSE A DELAY IF YOU DO NOT...

• SIGN and DATE all application materials. Regulations require signatures; therefore missing signatures may create processing delays and may even require that the forms be returned to you.
• Answer ALL questions. If a question does not apply to you, enter N/A or 0. Questions left blank may require you to be contacted for the answer and a reprocessing of the form.

IMPORTANT NOTES

• If you are applying for need-based merit MSM Scholarship, you are required to complete the entire scholarship application process. If you want to be considered for the no-need, merit-only President’s Award, please direct a letter to the Office of Financial Aid indicating such. Please keep in mind that the President’s Award amounts generally range from US $1000 - $5000 maximum.
• If you are not awarded scholarship, there are loan opportunities available. Banks require you to have a U.S. citizen for a cosigner. Borrowing amounts vary and depend upon your co-signer and the bank.
• If you or your parents feel that the family's 2012 income will be drastically different from the reported 2011 income on the CSS PROFILE Form, you must submit a letter of explanation to Amy Anderson, Associate Dean of Enrollment Management. Reasons for drastic change in income include unemployment, separation, divorce, serious illness, or death. In the letter please project, to the best of your ability, the new 2012 anticipated taxable and non-taxable income from any and all sources.  Please provide documentation of these circumstances, such as a letter from your employer, medical documents, a separation agreement or divorce decree.
• We strongly recommend that you make photocopies of all application materials that you submit to the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid. Create a file at home that will resemble the file we have in our office. This will make any conversations we have more productive and beneficial.

AND LAST…

Please, ASK QUESTIONS if you do not understand any part of our application process. We understand that the scholarship/financial aid process is, at times, frustrating and intimidating. We want to assist and support you from start to finish. It is our goal to make applying for scholarship and financial aid as pleasant and painless as possible. When students and parents ask how they can speed up the process, we always begin by saying, provide all the required information by the required deadline, and be as accurate as possible when completing your forms - if you do your part, we are able to do our part.” If you have suggestions or comments, or if you experience problems, please call our office at 917-493-4463. Financial Aid counselors are available to assist you. If necessary, you may schedule either a phone or in-person appointment.