Update for duff62’s daughter: Jacobs merit: 16K
Is your ds instate or OOS for Jacob’s? (Trying to gauge if it is financially worth it to consider.)
We are trying to figure out how much debt for a student is financially worth it to go to a conservatory type music school like Jacob’s and Cincinnati vs our local in-state school that’s not known for music. D wants to play in a an orchestra in a city, horn. We just don’t know enough about the orchestra world and i would love input. Is it possible to make it into the orchestral world without being at a music school for college? D is in the top five players in the state each year. So not number one, but not lower either. Thanks
We are in the same position except we will not take on any debt for college. That is a firm position in our family. For music, we see this as especially true since our goal will be to support her as she finds her feet after college. But, we also have been talking to her about realistic goals. Reality is that she will most likely end up gigging, teaching, playing in a regional orchestra, and doing pit work.
My goal right now is to help her create a reasonable application list when the time comes. There is no pt in applying to schools that we know will be too expensive. Auditions take time and $$. I don’t want to waste both.
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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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Adding mine. This thread has been very helpful
Music Ed, Bassoon
UT - did not pass prescreen
U Michigan SMTD - accepted, no merit
Frost - Accepted, $25k merit
Indiana - Accepted, $34k merit
CU Boulder - Accepted - $22k merit + academic scholarship
SMU - Accepted - $20k academic, no word on music
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We made the same mistake with CMU. I had the impression that they gave good merit (maybe I heard that about the grad program and misunderstood?), so we added it to her list as a “wild card.” I wish we had done Peabody or something instead because I’m seeing that they are giving great merit. Oh well.
We have some solid choices but are going to need to negotiate some. I can see this decision coming down to the wire for us.
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Did USC say tell you no merit? On Vocal Perfomance Facebook site, someone said they were told that USC would issue merit notifications mid April. D25 (Vocal Performance) was accepted at USC but we have not yet received any financials.
I called the admissions office yesterday. I spoke to what sounded like a student and he told me that all merit scholarships went out last week and that if my son had received one it would be in his portal as an update. When we toured Thornton last year they made it clear to not expect a scholarship, so we weren’t too disappointed.
Son is in for Popular Music maybe VP is different 
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Update for Jarinko’s daughter:
Eastman: Accepted, 40.5K Merit scholarship
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I didn’t mean to sound in any way ungrateful for what we have received. We are extremely grateful because it gets us closer to maybe having her dreams of attending a music school come true. We would not be able to do it without the scholarships. I have simply been surprised how competitive everything is. Thanks everyone for your input. How wonderful is it that we have so many excellent kids?
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I hear you on the negotiations side. It sounds like your D is extremely talented, so you should have hope that the financials will work out for you. My D teacher told her to negotiate with SFCM and Jacobs, so we will also have to wait, but my daughter is now thrilled to attend Peabody. ( It wasn’t originally her first choice…San Francisco has always been her first choice. We live on the west coast so she wanted to stay a bit closer to home and their facility is state of the art! It is honestly remarkable.) So she will likely end up at Peabody. I doubt Jacobs and SFCM will be able to match what Peabody is giving her.
I have a freshman cellist who is dying to go to SFCM (we are also west coast) but I have a feeling we will end up in a similar situation with the cost.
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You ask a really great question that’s specific, and fortunately, researchable: “Is it possible to make it into the orchestral world without being at a music school for college?” Because you know D’s goal - to play horn in an orchestra based in a city, you can look up the orchestral rosters of the horn players of each target orchestra and read their bios. Just looking at the NY Phil’s horn section, the most junior horn player went to U of Wis (BM) and Yale (MM). A brief, not-comprehensive perusal indicates that performance degrees are the norm. So, I’d look for BM, rather than BA, degree programs. Accruing unmanageable debt is not wise, IMO, for the music world, but perhaps some degree of debt is realistic to achieve D’s goals. Idk. By the way, what does it mean to be a “top five players in the state each year?”
Update on my son (Undergrad) Jazz performance, tenor sax
Berklee accepted with $15k/yr merit aid in Oct. (applied during '24 Aspire)
JMU accepted with 2 yrs free housing for merit (EA, accepted in Jan, aid info in Feb)
GMU - accepted with $8K in merit aid (EA, accepted in Feb)
U Maryland - accepted in Feb (EA) with $10k music merit, $5K academic
DePaul - auditioned 2/9, accepted March 10, $25K merit
Frost/U-Miami - accepted March 14 no merit mentioned and it looks like there won’t be any but everyone on this listserv with an accepted seems to have gotten some, so this one is bittersweet
Peabody – accepted I think late March with I think $10K in merit
Unless Frost “finds” a missing scholarship, he’s leaning DePaul and if not, then Maryland
SUNY Purchase - Informed in late Feb. that he didn’t pass prescreen, they asked if he was willing to audition later on if they needed to round things out in the future, S declined
U Michigan - auditioned but rejected March 11
Eastman - didn’t invite for an audition
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Update:
Son has chosen USC 
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Update: Our son has chosen Frost School of Music at University of Miami!
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Congrats to all those who have made decisions! I’ll try to get the list updated tonight or tomorrow.
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Fingers crossed for us all. Same exact spot here, where the ‘top picks/studios/faculty’ consideration might be secondary to the financial results. Just hoping it doesn’t have to come to that. Ugh - it’s so nerve-wracking!
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