I think it depends on the school….MSM does say that their scholarships are need-informed, but at most schools my kid applied to for undergrad, there were separate need-based and merit awards (though I don’t think the process is totally blind for most schools; i.e. I think they put together a package of the two different kinds of aid informed by financial need and also I’m sure by how much they want a kid/what they think it will take to get them to go there).
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Honestly, I have no idea. Do we need all the aid we can get? Of course. The awards she received were mainly following her auditions and not need-based. That said, it’s still a mystery to me.
Hmm.
I suppose it varies, but nothing about this is very transparent, is it? Our situation is such that we would not qualify for needs-based adjustments. But despite that, DD was offered what I considered competitive and appropriate merit awards. Apart from what individual schools publish about their financial aid protocols, it’s hard to discern. I will say that DD’s auditions all went about the same. Despite that, she ended up with merit awards that ranged from $0 - $44K. I’m assuming that this difference lies, at least in part, in the degree to which the school considers need in the calculations. Our two lowest - U Michigan ($0) and MSM ($15K) apparently are need-aware; so that tracks. I feel like the rest - Oberlin, Eastman, NEC, etc. - seemed to be purely merit-based.
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What instrument? My daughter is at Peabody
I agree with this! We got no aid from Eastman. Only merit, but most schools, with the exception of a few outliers, gave merit so that out of pocket was around the 55K. Some have merit and aid so that OOP was around the 55K. Ummmm that is no where near what we can afford! FAFSA and CSS is a complete joke! I am not selling stocks or our rental home to pay an already inflated price.
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Oberlin meets demonstrated need, so anyone with financial need would see that separately from any merit. I’ve had two kids accepted at Oberlin–college not con, but I’m pretty sure the FA works the same–and both were awarded merit and need-based aid, which showed up as separate items in the FA package. So presumably the merit awards there are handed out without regard to financial need…but also I imagine there’s some behind the scenes finagling of packages and how to balance need vs. merit amounts for assorted budgetary reasons. Otherwise there wouldn’t be any reason to give merit awards to kids with financial need, but many schools that meet need do.
Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences! We’re hoping our student will have some private school options next year that come in close to our SAI. If not, our instate public will be around $25,000, (slightly lower than our SAI) so that’s our backup plan.
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Was your student awarded a large merit scholarship to Vanderbilt, then? It lists $15k coa. What instrument? (That is a great outcome if not need based aid! I had told dd to strike it off her list, but maybe??)
My daughter is a 2nd year at McGill violinist studies with Nelson Lee - the cost is cheaper than our state school full price - cheaper this year as she is in an apartment. US schools could not touch the price. Really great school - for her she wanted the university experience also. Orchestra is amazing. They call it the Harvard of Canada - it is hard but she will have a great foundation coming out. A conservatory for grad school she wants but can help her now as cost is low for undergrad! My son also did this in another field - he attends a small LAC for physics and will be attending Brown for masters in commutational science. We were not eligble for need based aid so had to make smart choices for undergrad. Grad school more scholarships available.
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Daughter, BM Violin Performance:
Temple - $20K academic merit (OOS) + $10K music merit
CCM - $13K academic merit (OOS); withdrew before notified of any music merit
McGill - Accepted; no scholarship (US student)
Frost - Stamps String Quartet music merit (full tuition, fees, room, board, & summer stipend)
Eastman - $37K music merit; appealed, but committed elsewhere before their response
NEC - Not accepted
Juilliard - Not accepted
Peabody - $25K music merit + $25K need-based grant + additional $20K grant after appeal = $70K total aid: COMMITTED 
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Wow congrats!!!
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All financial aid! But it is weird because most other schools seem to think we can pay 55K. I am thinking that some of that “aid” includes some form of merit. We should not qualify for that amount…or maybe we should, since we can not afford 55K and all the other schools got it wrong! Lol
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Congratulations! My daughter is a current freshman violist at Peabody! We also could mot beat the great financial aid package and merit they gave her.
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I was stunned by how generous the FA at Vanderbilt was when I first saw DS’s offer. I don’t think any of the other schools on your list claim to meet need, so it would make sense that Vandy would be the strongest for need-based. I’ll also say that they’ve been very generous about funding for stuff like summer programs, travel expenses for assorted things, etc.
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Classical Voice/ Opera 
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Results for jazz bassist (only on the upright for one year!). Low GPA, so all talent $.
Loyola New Orleans - 29k
U of Denver - 27k
VCU (oos) - 20k
Temple (oos) - 10,500k
New School - 20k
Depaul - 25k committing!
Crazy process, in everywhere he applied!
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Jazz Performance Tenor Saxophone - Son
Merit (per year):
NEC - $34,894 (2 appeals) - Accepted!
Berklee College of Music (1 appeal) - $26,000
William Paterson University - $26,778 (full tuition)
MSM - in-person audition but not accepted
Juilliard - pre-screen but didn’t advance
My son purposely kept his list of schools small per advice from his professional sax teacher. My son had his sights set on going to school on the east coast, and we are in the Midwest, so more travel for auditions would have been costly and time-consuming. My son felt he had enough options to compare and ultimately decided he wanted to go to a conservatory. I’ve learned that jazz saxophone is ultra competitive, and my son is grateful for the offers received and thrilled to be attending NEC in the fall!
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@FSUSammy you can update MSU to this for me
MSU: prospective lesson in January, in person audition 2/20, admission 3/11 into music school. Only 3 available spots. $30k academic merit, met with prof / informal appeal on no music merit, updated offer to $15k music merit - basically covering tuition in total. COA $15k
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CONSOLIDATED LIST
FSUSammy****** (Son - Jazz Guitar)******
12/12: FIU (100% Bright Futures)
12/12: FSU (100% Bright Futures + $1500/yr Talent )
12/18: Berklee – (Full Tuition)
1/30: Frost/ U Miami – ($64,700/yr Talent + $9,860/yr State Grant + 100% Bright Futures)
2/4: Michigan State – ($6k/yr Talent, $20k/yr Academic)
2/8: UNT ($7k/yr Academic, $2k/yr Talent)
3/21: Oberlin ($44k/yr Talent)
3/25: USC
3/25 Northwestern - Waitlisted
3/27: Peabody ($38k/yr Talent), appealed merit went up by an additional $10k total of $48k/year
3/31: MSM ($35k/yr Talent), appealed merit (awaiting decision)
KS_BassDad****** (Son - Jazz Bass)******
UNT - Meritorious Scholarship (full cost of attendance + $5000 annual stipend)
Berklee - full tuition
Eastman - $33,500 merit
NYU - accepted with no merit
Lawrence Conservatory - $47,000 merit
UMKC - $7500 academic merit and $3,200 music merit
NEC - $28,894 merit
DePaul - $32,000 merit
Oberlin - waitlisted
USC - auditioned but not admitted
Appealed Eastman
momto5kidz
UNT : COA $20K
Eastman : COA $52K
IU Jacobs: COA :$40K
U of Miami Frost: COA: $29K
Vanderbilt : COA: $15K
UMich : COA : $55K
USC : COA: $56K no mention of merit yet
abstele12
Son, clarinet performance, but with plan to double major in data science or biostatistics, so focus was on state schools with music programs. SAT 1510, unweighted gpa 4.05, weighted 4.7, with 9-10 APs.
umich: passed prescreen, bombed audition 1/23. not a surprise when got a decline. Great practice though. 8-12 spots available.
CU-boulder: online audition 1/16, with follow-up prospective lesson after. Admission into normal school 1/22, admission into music school 3/4. Academic merit $6.25k/year. No music merit although was told on scholarship list. COA mid-60ks. Not gonna happen without more $$$.
UW-Seattle: in person audition and lesson on 2/6. Was told 2-4 spots available. Admission into normal school and music school on 3/11 (even normal admission is hard so he was happy). Academic merit $4.2k/year. COA low-60ks. This school does not invest in the music programs - it was clear with the facilities and the lack of scholarships.
MSU: prospective lesson in January, in person audition 2/20, admission 3/11 into music school. Only 3 available spots. $30k academic merit, met with prof / informal appeal on no music merit, updated offer to $15k music merit - basically covering tuition in total. COA $15k
IU (in state): prospective lesson in December, in person audition 2/28, music school admission 3/17, music merit received 3/31. Academic merit $1k/year, merit from music school for both talent and academic $12k, COA $15k.
While he has no connection to any instructor at IU (his prospective lesson was with a guy who announced his retirement), it is currently difficult to pass on IU’s COA.
TacetConsentit
DD (BM Violin performance)
· IU Jacobs - Accepted ($22K merit)
· U. Michigan - Accepted ($0 merit → $85K COA, more than any other listed school!)
· Eastman - Accepted ($35K merit)
· Oberlin - Accepted ($41K merit)
· NEC - Accepted ($31K merit, appealed → $37K merit), and committed 2026-04-10
· MSM - Accepted ($15K merit)
· Glenn Gould School - Waitlisted
· McGill - Accepted ($0K merit, unsurprising as Québec is hurting right now)
· University of Toronto - Accepted (some merit, forgot amount)
· University of Ottawa - Accepted? (We think. They were so irritating with asking for incremental details on the academic side, that we abandoned the process.)
percussionmom3
BM percussion performance:
IU Jacobs: Accepted (22.5k merit so far, will appeal), COA is the closest to our budget right now
Northwestern Bienen: Waitlisted, set letter of continued interest
Frost U Miami: Accepted with 26k merit (apparently there are two presidential scholarships, 1 and 2- he got 2 but knows kids who got offered both). COA is still over 70k, so appealing
ASU: Accepted but withdrew app, as he loved the professor but school isn’t best fit
Vanderbilt/ Blair- passed prescreen but audition didn’t go as well as he hoped, so got a decline
Peabody: Waitlisted
dovular
Hello all! I am new to this forum but I wanted to share my results and perspective in case it helps anyone!
Here are my stats for some background: I was supposed to graduate high school in 2021, but I dropped out due to some personal circumstances which thankfully are no longer affecting me. My SAT was 1420. I got my GED in January 2022 with an average section score of around 190. Since then, I’ve taken two full years of community college classes and achieved an Associate of Science with a 3.67 GPA. I applied to 5 music schools as a transfer student, and here are my results so far (I am a male vocalist):
Berklee: Auditioned 1/10 (for voice), accepted 1/29 with 20k scholarship
UM Frost: Accidentally applied for classical voice, never completed my application
NYU Steinhardt: Auditioned 4/10 (contemporary voice), awaiting results
Belmont University: Accepted 12/30 (no audition) with 7k scholarship
USC Thornton: Auditioned 1/31 (singer-songwriter), awaiting results
I will update this once I hear back from Thornton and NYU! Berklee seems like a great environment though, so even if they’re both a no, I’ll still be happy about my results.
countrysquire
Michigan: net cost 55k
Maryland net cost 23k
Rice net cost 27k
Eastman waitlist
Juilliard, MSM, NEC - not accepted
tryingtokeepupDad
Violin
Oberlin COA 21K
Eastman COA 40k- Withdrew app.
Juilliard COA 50k Submitted appeal
NEC COA 35K appeal
USC Thornton - received Tuition Exchange Scholarship for 80% 2-3 weeks after admission but apparently they are in no rush to consolidate with their prior offer. 39K with TE.
Colburn- Got an audition and made it to the call backs, very proud of DD. But a no.
Musicianmommi
Daughter, Classical Voice/ Opera, Bachelors
Applied to Boston Conservatory, MSM, New School Mannes, Carnegie Mellon, Peabody.
*Boston Conservatory: Accepted 24K– appealed but not enough awarded. Withdrew
*MSM: Accepted 44K Withdrew
*New School Mannes: Accepted 46K Withdrew
*CMU: Accepted 45K Withdrew (was excited but decided that she wanted a conservatory)
*Peabody: Accepted 74K - COMMITTED 
waaslander
Daughter, BM Violin Performance:
Temple - $20K academic merit (OOS) + $10K music merit
CCM - $13K academic merit (OOS); withdrew before notified of any music merit
McGill - Accepted; no scholarship (US student)
Frost - Stamps String Quartet music merit (full tuition, fees, room, board, & summer stipend)
Eastman - $37K music merit; appealed, but committed elsewhere before their response
NEC - Not accepted
Juilliard - Not accepted
Peabody - $25K music merit + $25K need-based grant + additional $20K grant after appeal = $70K total aid: COMMITTED 
cjrosie
Loyola New Orleans - 29k
U of Denver - 27k
VCU (oos) - 20k
Temple (oos) - 10,500k
New School - 20k
Depaul - 25k committing!
pc150
Jazz Performance Tenor Saxophone - Son
Merit (per year):
NEC - $34,894 (2 appeals) - Accepted!
Berklee College of Music (1 appeal) - $26,000
William Paterson University - $26,778 (full tuition)
MSM - in-person audition but not accepted
Juilliard - pre-screen but didn’t advance
What instrument is your kid? Rice is definitely worth considering as a program, they have great facilities and a real committment to the music program and their orchestra program is top notch. Not an expert on voice if that is what you kid is in, but they put a lot of effort into the vocal program, built an incredible space for opera and music performance. Ultimately going to be where your kid felt comfortable and cost and teacher of course.