Kevin3

Am I to understand that they do not offer merit scholarships to undergraduate? Or am I missing something here?

ImperialZeppelin

I'll be. Just checked both the university and School of Music site and it is financial need based aid only. OUCH!

violadad

Zep- maybe there's conflicting info.

I'm assuming your asking about a music scholarship. From Northwestern's own webpage here http://www.ugadm.northwestern.edu/freshman/financing/ I quote:

<In the 2007-08 academic year Northwestern will provide more than $70 million of its own funds for financial aid for undergraduate students. Ninety-nine percent of this money is in the form of grants which are awarded solely on the basis of financial need as demonstrated through the FAFSA and CSS Profile. The other one percent is in the form of scholarships awarded to National Merit Scholars and talent-based awards for Music students.>

Doing the math, that's $700k for undergrad music talent awards and National Merit Scholars. Northwestern does not specify (in the quick read I did) as to whether the need based grants mentioned are mutually exclusive if awarded a music talent award.

Most music talent scholarships are awarded solely on the basis of the audition, the better audition=better award. It can also depend to a degree on the need for your instrument (or specific talent) to round out a studio or a performance ensemble.

I have no idea as to the dollar amounts or typical ranges of music talent awards at Northwestern, but it can be a fairly competitive audition process depending on the instrument the year you apply.

Just guessing... there could be a smaller number of fairly large awards to attract the really great prospects or a large amount of small awards to hold a small carrot in front of a lot of candidates. Anybody else have any experience?

ImperialZeppelin

Interesting. That's buried about 5 layers deep. Guess they like to keep it a secret...

violadad

Yep. Sometimes the info is hard to find. In this case, seemed like fine print.

Kevin3

HA! I guess it helps to know where to look huh? That still does not seem like a lot of $$ for all the music majors...jeez

violadad

It's not all for music awards either. If you read the parameters, the $700k is for Nat'l Merit Scholars AND music talent awards. Doesn't seem to be a large pool of capital.

RedHerring

For Fall 2007, my violist D was fortunate to be admitted to every school where she played an audition including Northwestern, Rice, Oberlin, Vanderbilt, and Furman. Every school, EXCEPT Northwestern, offered her a substantive merit scholarship.

kyler242

As a general rule of thumb, merit scholarships offered by any of the U.S. News top 15 are either incredibly rare or nonexistent (the major exceptions to this rule being WUSTL, and to a lesser extent, Duke).

ImperialZeppelin

Since they were the first to break the $50K barrier, WUSTL had better be a bit more on the generous side...

violadad

Not necessarily a valid comparison, but just an example from what I know of my son's Hartt experience:

The Hartt Performance 20/20 honors chamber program http://harttweb.hartford.edu/about-p...formance+20+20 is a full tuition, audition based program. Extremely competitive, it had (has) a base of about 25 grad and undergrad students comprising the rotating mixed ensembles. The program is open to incoming freshmen, transfer students, and current students upon studio teacher's recommendation. At the current Hartt tuition of $25,800, that's funding of $645k just for this group alone.

In addition, Hartt offers music talent awards in varying amounts based on the strength of the audition. Additionally, there are a number of smaller endowed music exclusive scholarships for continuing students at Hartt. (Northwestern had a long list of these as well on one of their pages.)

I do know that University of Hartford policy prohibits a Hartt music talent award recipient being eligible for any university academic grade/stat based merit award. This policy tends to vary widely by institution.

This isn't presented as an endorsement of Hartt over Northwestern, but just an illustration as how talent/merit awards can be distributed, the confusing wordings, and the sometimes vague info provided online and in printed materials.

In a lot of instances, you have to really read through the info cover to cover and be ready to be clicking link after link.

And if you still can't find it, pick up the phone and call.

kyler242

ImperialZeppelin, what is the “$50K barrier”?

ImperialZeppelin

A year attending Washington University in Saint Louis will set one back over $50,000. They are the first school in the country to break the "$50K barrier," a dubious distinction, IMHO.

violadad

Another barrier- I remember back when Wille Mays broke the $100k barrier in baseball salary. Things have changed considerably both tuition wise and the dollar value of sports talent.

violadad

For the newbies, there's a discussion of some past merit/talent award experiences here: Master List of Scholarships and Merit Aid