BassDad

It also depends on what aspects of NYC datripp's S is looking for. Westminster is an excellent school and Princeton is a great college town on a rail line leading to NYC, but living there is very different from living in NYC. Personally, I'd take living in Princeton and occasionally commuting to the city over living there full time, but not everyone would make the same choice.

cartera45

It's not automatic at Westminster that you can take classes at Princeton - students with a 3.50 average can petition to take one class per term and only 10 kids per semester are approved.

vocalmom

Look into Manhattanville, my d is still deciding, but was offered 15000/yr as a vocal performance major. This was audition based. It is not midtown but you can see the skyline and the trip in is 30 mins. The campus actually has busses into the city every weekend.

stringfollies

George Washington University has a "Presidential Arts Scholarship" which is audition-based. You are required to major or minor in music, but they do not offer a performance degree. The scholarship is $15K/year, but their tuition is huge ($50K). My son won this, but is not going there.

srw

I know that OCU is more talked about over in the MT area, but they have an excellent VP program and are very generous with their money, you can receive $ for academics and for talent. They have been extremely generous with my S on both counts.

datripp

srw, OCU sounds great to me, but I'd have to drag S there kicking and bellowing to see it. I know they turn out wonderful singers, in both MT and opera, and I'd love to hear more about your son's experience there. Vocalmom I will certainly look into Manhattanville. Does anyone have experience w/Steinhardt?

violadad

On the whole NYU is often lamblasted for their "paltry" scholarship/grant and aid packages.

Yet there have been some quite generous exceptions for many Steinhardt admits. It is a competitive program, and draws many highly qualified applicants from a number of disciplines. If it meets your other criteria, there's no reason not to try, but I'd anticipate any windfall packages as a blessing, not a reasonable expectation.

Linnlew

Our experience has been that the small liberal arts colleges give much more award money (academic & music) than state schools.

Northwestern was good to us. Indiana Jacobs School of Music was not!

shennie

I am going to add this to the list although it will not help the OP. UW-Madison will starting offering next year a full scholarship to one soprano. The scholarship is available to both in state and out of state students, will cover all tuition, room, board, and additional expenses. They are also offering one for piano as well.

stringfollies

My son got nice, not huge awards from Michigan and IU Jacobs. The state schools are cheaper to begin with so they are looking very attractive right now for us. UW Madison typically gives very small merit awards, if at all (I think the max is $4K). IU also has generous GPA-based merit scholarships for OOS students which can bring the price tag down even more ($4-8K).

mommybird

Good point, Stringfollies, about lower cost. If cost is important it is a good idea to make a table for each school including tuition, all fees, room, board, scholarships, travel costs, etc. and get a bottom-line cost of attendance for each school. I wouldn't count loans offered, assuming similar loans can be obtained for each school if necessary. Other factors like quality of education and teacher should matter more in the final decision, but at least you can see clearly the cost and not be too swayed by a flattering larger grant (toward a larger tuition).
On another scholarship topic, I've heard that instrumentalists tend to get more money for equal talent than vocalists at some schools. Has anyone else heard or noticed that?

cartera45

mommybird - we were also led to believe that, but perhaps not about all instruments. I think that certain instruments are as plentiful as sopranos. I think that male vocalists may also be in a good position from the results I have heard. Makes sense.

ImperialZeppelin

It's all supply and demand. On the instrument side items like low brass, bassoons and other instruments are in demand so there are significant financial incentives available. Violins and flutes are the other end the "dime a dozen" end of the spectrum.

mercymom

My S is a baritone and the two schools that have treated him the best financially (and in general) are LSU and Furman. I guess if you're dead set against the south they might not appeal to you, but we're from the south and liked both schools. Also, S has outstanding grades and test scores so we counted on a lot of his scholarship money being academic. Plus we found out through a friend of his at LSU that there are extra ways to earn money while being a voice major.

For example, the LSU friend is in two school choirs and gets paid to be in them. He is paid to attend rehearsals and performances - even though his major requires him to be in the choirs, they still pay him! He also has a church job. My S has already been contacted by a church choir director to be a section leader in their chancel choir and will get paid $100/week (50 for rehearsal, 50 for the service). It's like getting paid to go to church, which (I assume) he was going to do anyway.

LSU gave him full tuition and fees, plus $1,000 towards room and board (academic merit). No music scholarship. Furman gave him $8,000 music scholarship and a $15,000 grant (no academic merit). I think he's going to go to LSU as Furman is still expensive even with the aid, but we were really impressed with Furman overall, and just remember male singers are a lot more in demand than sopranos, so count your blessings.

ksstringdad

My D isn't a voice major, but Vanderbilt (Blair School of Music) is ranked 2nd by US News Report in terms of financial assistance in the form of merits and grants. Blair also recently received a very substantial contribution to go toward scholarships.