<p>I agree with a lot of the comments here. There are several steps that I think can help improve your merit aid package.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Good targeting of your schools - matching student to school. Important to this process is getting out and visiting and meeting with faculty and doing trial lessons. This helps you calibrate where you stand. The faculty will let you know. Build contacts at desirable schools so that when your student auditions they know who you are.</p></li>
<li><p>Develop more than one alternative that your student would be happy to be at AND that seems to be a good fit, NOT taking finances into account. I think you need at least two to three schools (and maybe more if you are in a highly competitive category) that are very interested in your student and that you are equally interested in.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>These two strategies should help you get admitted at several schools with merit packages. If your top choice school does not have the best financial package, including merit, your student should then go back to the top choice school (as described in various other CC music board discussions) and petition for a better package given your other offers, explaining the situation and providing the documentation. With any luck your top choice school will match the offer or come close. It is absolutely key that you have more than one acceptance and merit offer to be able to calibrate and negotiate with your top choice school.</p>
<p>Hope this is helpful.</p>