<p>Great thanks everyone !</p>
<p>To add what I was told by one of the teachers: schools always offer more aid than they have in their budgets, on the assumption of a certain yield. When you appeal for more aid, it probably depends in large part on how their yield had been that year and whether they were still within their aid budget in total based on the responses thus far. Thus it can be that people can be offered a lot more aid late in the cycle; a friend of mine, for example, was told that she would receive no aid, but late in April, received another update that she was being given a full tuition scholarship. I assume that meant that some other student higher up in the audition rankings had turned that down, the school was still well within budget, and it was therefore passed to her.</p>
<p>I agree with the prior responses that you should probably push harder only with your first choice school, or at least leave no false impressions that you would definitely go if the increase is given if it is not in fact your first choice school.</p>
<p>Should have posted this earlier … not a big offer, but from our home state school, The University of Kansas, S received this offer: </p>
<p>1K performance scholarship
2K academic scholarship</p>
<p>Following another sample lesson, S is very interested in KU. He loves Lawrence and the more we learn about the Voice & Opera program at KU, the more comfortable we become with this option.</p>
<p>Slight edit: In the above post, I was referring to the fact that S loves the city of Lawrence. He also really likes Lawrence University, another of his options. Side note: Lawrence, KS is named after Amos Lawrence, who traveled to the territory of Kansas from New England and founded the town of Lawrence. Lawrence University, set in Appleton, WI, is also named after Amos Lawrence who was a large benefactor to the school.</p>
<p>Oberlin’s Dean Scholarships go as high as $26,000 a year. I am a student who received $24,000 a year.</p>
<p>At Oberlin, is the aforementioned Dean’s Scholarship from the College or the Conservatory? Is it an academic or music merit award? Assuming it is an academic merit award, can one stack a major music merit award on top of it? [Not asking for S, but for a future hopeful Obie.]</p>
<p>I believe obieforever means the Conservatory Dean’s Award, which is based on the audition. They are usually in the $6K to $12K range, however. Getting $24K that way means that the school really wanted him or her. I have occasionally heard of Conservatory students getting full tuition awards, but I do not know if that was packaged as a Dean’s Award plus a need-based grant, or solely as a merit-based award.</p>
<p>As far as I know, the Conservatory does not grant academic scholarships.</p>
<p>Those who are in the dual degree program can get an academic scholarship through the College. The College offers the John F. Oberlin Scholarship, which can also be quite substantial. Note that the same office handles financial aid for both the College and the Conservatory and that they do co-ordinate all forms of aid. It would be unusual to get a really large JFO Scholarship in addition to a really large Con Dean’s Award. The College also offers National Merit Scholarships of $1K to $2K to finalists in the National Merit Scholarship program who list Oberlin College as their first choice school on the PSAT.</p>
<p>There are also some restricted programs for children of Oberlin employees, those who have attended Oberlin High School, and for international students from Africa and Japan.</p>
<p>$24,000 at Oberlin for merit in the Con is a real outlier - there are some named scholarships at Oberlin Conservatory for large sums, but the Conservatory Dean’s Talent Scholarships (that’s the official name) I’ve seen have been considerably less than that - the highest I’m aware of is $16,000. For double-degree admittees, there definitely is an overall limit on merit awards between the college and conservatory - so a big award in one may mean a small or no award in the other. The Con merit awards tend to be higher than those in the college, even for those with stellar academic records - though Oberlin students in the college may also be able to show that they have very competitive options elsewhere, it seems that the college is less willing to enter that type of bidding competition than the Con.
The NM award is not guaranteed either. If you are a NM $2500 winner (this is a one-time award from NM) or get a corporate award, you may not get anything from Oberlin even if the total you would have gotten over the 4 years is lower - i.e., Oberlin may not make up the difference. It seems to vary from year to year. If you are in this situation, ask the Con first, not the college.</p>
<p>By the way, obieforever, were you accepted to Oberlin this admissions cycle or are you a current student there. If the former, we would like to add your information to the <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/817953-master-list-acceptances-fall-2010-a-61.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/817953-master-list-acceptances-fall-2010-a-61.html</a> and would like to know your major.</p>
<p>We were told in the admissions mtg at Oberlin Con this past December that the highest merit award is $20,000 . Just looked back at my notes.</p>
<p>Yes, I was talking about the Conservatory Dean’s Award. I am a current freshman here (piano performance major).</p>
<p>I got this in the mail yesterday, so here we are: 15k merit scholarship to NYU Steinhardt. </p>
<p>Obieforever, that’s an amazing scholarship! Congrats :)</p>
<p>Son got the unusual # of $17,750 Howard Hanson Merit award at Eastman. Not sure how/why they came up with that, but we are pleased, and yet… I see there have been 18 and 18,500. He is close to deciding on Eastman, if he does, who would he appeal for more money, and is it better for the student or the parent to appeal.
Other offers included NW/Bienen $2000 merit/14,600 aid - which will disappear when older D finishes college in a year. MSM - 10,000 Merit and Indiana $9,000 academic $8,0000.</p>
<p>It’s difficult to appeal if the amount is your best offer, I believe. However, I assume Indiana would end up less to attend? If your son is deciding between those two, and would prefer Eastman but because of money is leaning towards Indiana, then it’s always worth a try. Northwestern’s merit scholarships rarely go above 5,000 I believe, and any merit from Northwestern, as this Forum can attest, is rare.</p>
<p>Hey, quick update. I talked to NEC about scholarship and they gave me 2.5K, not including loans…that’s something!</p>
<p>Great, job tunesmiths! Everything helps! Hope you enjoy the rest of your year!</p>
<p>I still haven’t heard from SUNY Purchase about any scholarship or financial aid. I called; they said I had to use email. I emailed… nothing. I emailed again last week… Still nothing. What should I do?</p>
<p>How about calling to confirm that they received your email?</p>
<p>Jazz performance bass S received the following offers, all renewable merit only:</p>
<p>Eastman: 19,000 later increased to 20,500 (lesson learned: if you don’t ask, you don’t get)
McGill: 5,000 Schulich scholarship
Berklee: 11,000
NEC: 7500 for being on From the Top
New School: $5150
MSM: bupkis</p>
<p>For future applicants: Violin performance (BM) merit only renewable awards:
Baylor: $15 000 music; $15 000 academic
CIM: $22 000
Juilliard: $20 000
McDuffie (Mercer): ~$30 000+
Schulich (McGill): $10 000 music; $3 000 academic
Shepherd (Rice): $12 000 </p>
<p>Cost of attendance (without awards factored in) is the lowest by far at McGill (tuition is ~Cdn$5500 per year and 1st years can live off-campus reducing R&B).</p>