Forget trucking, I don’t really like the idea much, the training period is godawful, and the culture is blech…I’ve decided I just want to dance again. Full-bore private studio training frankly costs a lot of money and hasn’t gotten me anywhere, which of late has inspired me to investigate more structured collegiate programs.
I already have a bachelor’s degree, mind you, but it’s in business administration; the overlap with a new degree in dance is minimal (beyond “general education” courses, which I would simply transfer over to my hypothetical new degree program in dance). The obvious go-to would be a master’s degree in dance, but an MFA somewhere like CalArts, while surprisingly forgiving in terms of the basic credential requirements (you can apply with a bachelor’s in any field; once you have that they evaluate more or less purely on artistry), demands a level that rusty ol’ me frankly is not going to exhibit without some serious training…which means I’d be looking at returning to the undergraduate level.
California being what it is, even community colleges can have robust offerings in the arts; Santa Monica College has been the most obvious choice in my mind, since it’s relatively close to my mailbox, my gym, my hair salon, and my tanning salon (and my legal address, though since the Palisades Fire I haven’t had a home, per se), and it has robust facilities to develop in the art of dance as well as deep connections across the west side of Greater Los Angeles (think Hollywood and circles like that).
It’s not elite level, but the essential requirements to enter an MFA in dance are strong technical skill, multiple creative projects of artistic merit, video of performances from how you directed other people (choreography says hello!) as well as your own dancing, and, most importantly, recommendations from professors, faculty, and other mentors. I already have seven years of experience doing dance from beforehand; I just am currently missing these other pieces, which a structured undergraduate-level program could easily provide.
And over the course of a few semesters, no less; since I already have a bachelor’s degree, it appears that at Santa Monica College my general education requirements could be waived more or less completely, which means that I could concentrate all of my coursework on my dance major (with the obvious credential to exit with being an associate of arts (AA) in dance, though there are a few other options available as well). I could take six dance courses in any given semester, which would add up to more practice, studio, and performance time than I’ve enjoyed in my best years in the private sector of dance training world…but at a much more affordable cost.
As in “zero”, that kind of affordable. I’m a California resident; I’ve voted here every year three years in a row, I’ve registered a vehicle here two years ago, I recently finally got my driver’s license here, I have a real estate license, I have a substitute teaching license (along with a membership in CalSTRS…yes, really), I’ve gotten all my mail here for two years, I’ve even worked here a bit…it’s all quite indisputable even if I lack the classic “lease, utility bill, and W2” stack.
And since I’m a California resident, I qualify for in-state tuition rates to begin with; at Santa Monica College that would be $46 per unit, which works out to $1,350 per semester for a full-time student. As a sufficiently low-income resident, I qualify for the “California College Promise Grant”, formerly known as the “Board of Governors Fee Waiver”, which reduces my tuition rate to…$0.
Notably, the fact I earned a bachelor’s degree and even a master’s degree before is irrelevant; I still qualify for the CCPG. I do not qualify for the confusingly-similarly-named and more famous “Cal Grant”, which is only for people earning their first undergraduate degree. For the same reason, I also don’t qualify for a federal Pell Grant. I could, however, take out the maximum annual allocation of federal student borrowing, which in my case would be in the neighborhood of $5,000 per semester; even though my tuition would be $0, the official “cost of attendance” at Santa Monica College is well upward of $20,000, due to living expenses.
Since none of it would cover any tuition, essentially the entire federal loan I could take out would be deposited into my bank account as cash (known as a “refund” of financial aid). Which strikes me as very interesting; my bank account’s balance may well increase as a result of attending college, and for a field I already know I like anyway and would love to pursue further, if the opportunity presented itself.
Since I already have a bachelor’s degree, albeit in an unrelated field, once I have the portfolio one can get in a robust AA program, I could skip over to the MFA level…which takes us out of community college world and into the world of four-year universities. Unhappily, the California College Promise Grant, unlike Cal Grant, only waives tuition at community colleges, not four-year universities such as a UC or a Cal State. So would I be stuck paying five-figure tuition if I wanted to pursue an MFA in dance? Surprisingly, the answer is…no?
When exploring the application for Santa Monica College, I encountered a mandatory section about veteran status, which notably had an option in the drop-down menu to indicate if you’re the child of a veteran. As it turns out, I am: my father was in the United States Army and retired after 20 years of honorable service. He also happened to have a 20% disability rating from the VA. And that’s all I need.
It turns out that the state of California waives tuition and fees for a child of a veteran who had a disability rating from the VA. It doesn’t matter if they’re 100% disabled (any rating above 0% is accepted), and it does not matter if they died from a service-related cause; the mere fact of having been a veteran with a disability rating suffices to grant me the benefit of tuition-free public university at any community college, California State University, or University of California. It doesn’t matter if the veteran ever even set foot in the state of California, only if I’m a resident. It also doesn’t matter how old I am (there is no age limit), how many degrees I earned previously, or how many years I use it. All that does matter as the child of a disabled veteran is if my income is low enough (under $22,000…but since I don’t even earn enough income to file tax that’s no problem; mercifully for me, there is no asset or net-worth test either, all they care about is income).
As I am now, I have a lifelong entitlement to attend any California public college of my choice and I will not be charged tuition or fees. This even includes graduate and professional study; most MFAs in dance, for example, would be covered, as well as fields such as theater, film, acting…notably I could also attend a public law or medical school as well, entirely tuition-free.
Which I know is a tremendous benefit — how many people are there who would kill to become a doctor tuition-free?… — but frankly I don’t believe I could withstand medical school or law school, even if I did want to become a doctor or lawyer…which I don’t. I could study as much arts as I wanted tuition-free, however, and it’s something I’d like to do. And the provisions of CalVets mean that I could take half a dozen arts degrees and if I feel up to law school then…I could just go then, still tuition-free.
The only category of expense CalVets does not cover is supplies, books, equipment…which still makes becoming an airplane pilot, for example, a very heavy lift financially. Expenses to get enough flight hours alone can easily net $100,000 before you can even start working in aviation, even if your base tuition is $0. Which is too bad, because of all the big-money careers, being an airline pilot is about the only one I’d even like at all.
But even if it was all zeroed out…do I really want to go off into the wild blue yonder this semester? Or would I rather be in a dance studio again? I think I already know the answer to that question. I want to dance again. And it seems from re-entry at AA level all the way through an MFA, the state of California says “yes, you can”…
I wanna go…