Over the years, the elements below have been discussed on this site for high merit (not financial aid) for UG:
High academics can make a difference at university with conservatories or LACs. The mix of the academic and talent scholarship can significantly reduce tuition.
Some instrumentalist seem to get big pops of merit. They may have been playing for years.
Vocalist are very young in their training and in their voice…so I just think it’s harder to tell their true talent for UG. Being a male with an outstanding voice (and top academics) could produce more merit. A talented soprano with strong (but not stellar) academics may not get the big dollars.
Applying for schools that give in-state to all that are accepted or are known for more merit dollars. Some schools just give more. They may be selective but just without the big name.
Quite a few years ago, it seemed safe to say…you may not get the elusive full tuition for music school that you had have wondered about as you started this process. I saw many cases where a talented, strong student would get near in-state tuition plus a “premium” of maybe $5000 or worst case $10,000 (which could be whittled down…maybe…based on how it played out in Aug). However, I have lost track of how expensive these schools have become…to the point that I wonder if its instate plus a premium of $10,000 to $20,000! Idk.
This is all OPINION. There will be acceptance on the extreme…from nothing (or an insulting $5000 plus loans) to usually some solid offers (but still a load out of your pocket) to full tuition to the lucky and talented. I stay on here bc my D has done well and works professionally…but NO one was offering her free tuition. We pretty much paid in-state plus a small premium for UG.
I hope that this helps in some way. You will move out of March Madness into April Angst shortly. May will be better!
DS24 just got financial award info from Jacobs. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as much as I was hoping for. I know we do not qualify for Federal Aid, so we’re not expecting additional $$. OOS tuition is $28K more than in-state and his offer of $15K is barely more than half. The real kicker is that the offer letter says that a tuition increase is expected in June. I am, however, relieved to have the information. We’re still waiting to hear from CIM. All this waiting (on top of other life stuff) has me stressed, so it’s a relief to have one less thing to be waiting on.
Re: disappointing merit offer
My son received an email from the Michigan SMTD professor just a little bit ago before having contacted him. the professor obviously had not seen the merit offer before it went out and told my son that he was disappointed that the offer was low and encouraged him to appeal with the music admissions department and gave us the email to send it to. He encouraged him to include any other offers he had received from other schools. my son is working on his appeal email now. I’m so glad we have the support of the teacher.
That is great! I hope it works for him; I’m sure it will help to have the professor in his corner, possibly advocating. We may try something similar if that is where he decides he would like to go.
Sorry if this is an obvious question but how are merit aid decisions made? I’m talking outside the National Merit Scholarship program; the merit aid that individual colleges and universities offer.
Are they given out to the highest achieving kids (with the highest GPAs plus leadership, extracurricular accomplishments, etc.)?
When it comes to music majors, do they also flag kids who they view as the most talented?
Do schools use merit to entice kids that they want but think might have better options elsewhere?
Does the kid’s financial situation figure into it at all?
based on what was mentioned in several descriptions of scholarships at places my son applied, it seems to be based in large part on the quality of your live audition. my impression is the only time that grades or other stats matter is when a school of music is associated with a university. So it could matter for the university merit aid.
Regarding merit v. financial aid. From our experience, the music departments had less “merit aid” to work with than you’d think. Financial Aid kicks in and takes over the bulk of the scholarship money usually (excepting Curtis and Colburn). The largest merit scholarship my son was offered four years ago was at CIM ($37,000) but he received much larger combined offers from NU and Rice, largely made up of need based aid. Some universities (ie the Ivies) have no merit aid, it’s all need based. So, if you don’t get ‘merit’ awards, wait for the financial aid (it’s delayed this year due to the late FAFSA). My son did end up with some merit from Rice (Shepherd) but they save most of the departmental aid for graduate students, who are usually awarded at least partial tuition if not full.
Like everything else about the music major journey there are some unknowns and variables and not really a way to get a behind the scenes look at the process.
But here are some generalizations. I’m basing my comments on my experience with my son who applied to both conservatories and university based music programs. Classical instrumental and Music Performance for all.
For conservatories (and likely for university based programs) the ranking of your audition compared to others auditioning that year for that specific studio/instrument largely if not entirely determines merit. This is why you see the same applicant with multiple high merit awards at different programs.
In my experience , university based programs can offer money from both academic funds and music talent funds to make the best possible offer. My son had a “combined” close to full tuition award at IU with about half coming as an academic award. He was a strong but by no means outstanding student. So I can guess that the school was trying to increase the total award by incorporating academic money.
Some programs seem to prioritize grad students for merit awards over undergrads. And vice versa.
There can be quite a lot of variability in awards for the same applicant at different programs. Maybe this is because there was a less than perfect audition day. Maybe that is the best award that school gives.
There can be a lot of variability at one program for different applicants at different studios. Again it depends on ranking…teachers seek the students they want, but also the student needs to be a good fit for the studio.
Hang in there everyone…your kids have had some amazing auditions and acceptances. The dust will settle in a few more days and the next big challenge will be making the budget fit. But it seems to always work out. Hugs to you all at this stressful time!
I think Mama Bear’s is mandatory for auditioning musicians! I second the Soma restaurant recommendation.
We had a similar Jacobs experience. It definitely has nice facilities, the one downside is the sheer size of their 1600 music major program! But that also provides a lot of variety and opportunities.
A very important bonus for us was the local church is very proactive in reaching out to the student body, so that aspect our future college student’s life has a better chance of success, too.
We had lots of questions and the niceness of the students and faculty was impressive, whether they were actually part of the audition program or just random people we interacted with during our visit.
Thank you for sharing those notes. It is extremely helpful to others to get the anecdotal stories of what is observably happening, as it helps keep expectations realistic.
The info packet and Q&A at Colburn definitely lets you know that you’ll be on the hook for a moderate sum of about $2k to $3k. Tuition, room, and board are covered for all students. It’s also very tough to get in for ANY instrument.
Probably only better if he then listed all the ones he met and knew and said he’d be pleased to join any of their studios if they also felt a good connection. They’re used to dealing with teens.
I am, however, relieved to have the information. We’re still waiting to hear from CIM. All this waiting (on top of other life stuff) has me stressed, so it’s a relief to have one less thing to be waiting on.