Oh I so agree! Had I known that CMU doesn’t support UG financially, we would have never waisted all that money auditioning. I already knew we couldn’t afford Julliard or NYU, but was clueless with regards to some other schools. Choose wisely. We also had the big idea she would get full rides. Ha! I feel so foolish. And the worst part was her dream schools didn’t come through with merit. And the reality of knowing she was accepted to a couple dream schools, but couldn’t attend financially was very hard on her. She had this image and impression in her mind of these schools. But guess what happened? After we let her deal with her emotions for a couple of days, we sat with her and went over all pros and cons of the school that gave her the most money. And do you know now she is excited to attend there? Just for the sake of things, we are appealing to a couple of schools but we doubt they will fork up the big bucks to get her there. (Giving us funding of 80% off COA so our out of pocket is only 16K a year). And she said now she prefers the one that gave us the most money. It showed their commitment to her. And also guess what? She didn’t initially even consider all the positive points we made about the school. All she was looking at was the name and the quality of the campus. This is just a word of advise. Don’t get tunnel visioned with name or supposed reputation. There are lots of great schools out there. Each kid has a personality and not all schools fit that personality. (ie large school vs. smaller intimate school, highly competitive vs. more nurturing etc). And what I have learned in this journey is a big name school is not the golden ticket to success, especially more so for UG. It is the kid’s hard work, dedication and perseverance that will help propel them to success. And just as important is how they work with the teacher. I always recommend a trial lesson at some point along the way. Just because a certain professor has a big name doesn’t mean they are a good fit for the kid.
Every family has their own ideas about what makes a school great. For us it is financial and teacher connectivity.
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