I will PM you. I can’t speak on the music school, but I can give you a little bit of info about Macon.
Paging @Momofviolinboy
I believe she has a current student there?
So sorry @Pianowanderer. I intended to respond to your message, then…life, lol. My son is graduating from the Center for strings. Coincidentally, I’m in Macon right now for his senior recital and last concert with the MMSO. We love Macon! You’ll have no problem finding decent, affordable housing (depending on what you’re used to), and there’s lots to do . It’s quaint enough that it offers southern charm, but at the same time, is large enough that it offers lots of activities. The campus is beautiful and there’s lots of activities on campus. The Center for strings, while a part of Townsend School of Music, is very specialized and is almost separate from the main SOM so there isn’t a lot of collaboration between the two. The Center students perform with the principles of the Atlanta Symphony as a combined Macon-Mercer Symphony Orchestra. So I really can only speak to the Center activities. Still, throughout the years I’ve seen lots of very good offerings from the Townsend students. Let me know if I can answer any additional questions. I’m happy to!
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My son was invited to visit the McDuffie center in fall 2022. He went on his own, and gave quite some positive comments, mainly towards the people there (faculty and students). He said it felt cozy and very welcoming. He didn’t apply there though.
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Hello, all! I’d love to be posting that D committed, but I don’t believe we will be able to do so until the end of next week. I thought we’d narrowed it down to IU and UMich. We were waiting on an appeal to UMich to see if they might match the offer from IU which covers tuition. Today D received an updated offer from Michigan State for the same…full tuition. So now we have these two wonderful offers and we’re back to square one! After speaking with the UMich SoM AO, we submitted this new offer for our appeal and will wait for everything to be reviewed. We were told we’d know by next Friday. 
Hopefully D can move out of this limbo and on to her future, but we know we’re extremely fortunate to have these opportunities and are excited by all of the possibilities! If there’s anyone out there still waiting for their complete financial picture before deciding, we are with you!
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We are waiting for the same from U Mich! It’s so painful…
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This is my first time dealing with all of this. We are also waiting on appeals from UM SMTD and CMU. Received Jacobs appeal response yesterday. I do not understand if there is possibility of need based money from UM or IU or UGA. None of the out of state schools included anything appearing to be need based even though UM has CSS profile Both Boston University and CMU packages indicated need and merit so that was clear. Do you know if UM or IU try to meet need at all? We don’t qualify for Pell but their offers are still well above our SAI.
This has been the most painful segment of waiting in the whole prescreen/audition process!
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I just don’t want to have him commit to a school based on financials if one of the other schools may actually offer some need based aid. Right now the most expensive school on his list would cost us the least…by a lot. But it is one of just two schools that sent merit and need based aid. The others, haven’t included need based and I don’t know if it is because they won’t offer any or they just aren’t done processing the FAFSA. I searched for answers so I will have to call unless someone here happens to know.
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There are people in the community that can probably answer this far better than I, but here’s what I understand:
These schools are not obligated to meet any need for OOS students. They don’t even have to offer work/study opportunities to OOSers. Hence, the reason many students appeal their financial award, making a case for what they can bring to the table if their costs are lowered. Some of the financial packages we received were completely merit-based, and some indicated a portion of the award was need-based. Not every OOS school will offer need-based money, simply because they don’t have to. State schools, especially, reserve those funds for their in-state students.
Don’t know if this answers your question, but this is all I’ve got! As stated before, there are some wonderful veterans in this community who can probably more clearly shed light on this.
I would definitely call to see if they are still processing the FAFSA and if that could impact your financial award. For the schools that used the CSS, their calculations were pretty dead on to our SAI, so they already awarded the need-based money we’d qualify for under FAFSA.
You can usually see in admissions portals if your FAFSA has been processed or not as well.
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I don’t have any real answers other than to say that my daughter just got an email from IU Jacobs on Thursday saying her FAFSA had just been received. And University of Illinois just sent out her offer based on FAFSA yesterday. I wouldn’t give up hope yet.
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Our UM was $19000 over SAI. The other CSS profile schools were dead on or lower due to Merit. . Thanks for the information!
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That is wonderful news about the Michigan State offer! But it does make the process even more difficult/agonizing. We’re still in limbo here, too, waiting on an appeal. I’ve just had to learn to live in the tension and (try to) be patient. 
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Good things come to those who wait…and wait…and wait… 
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Not sure if it would be relevant to put the entire thing in this thread, so if anyone has relevant input it would be appreciated: IU JSOM Dual-Degree BM/BME
any pianists / pianist parents from Eastman here willing to message me please? just have a few questions…
In the San Francisco Bay Area, all the top notch violin teachers (and other strings) start at $200 per hour and go up and up from there, unfortunately. It’s part of our frustration when applying out of state. They look at our family income and think we are upper middle class or rich, when by our area we are slightly under the median household income.
It’s not just the $6 per gallon for regular 87 octane gas, or a state income tax rate that’s the highest in America…it’s every single thing costs more. Usually a lot more.
It’s crazy to me that some people spend $400 and $500 per hour for lessons, but people are willing to pay it, so…
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Well…, hopefully when our kids graduate, someone wants to to pay them a few hundred dollars an hour for the years of grueling practice and expensive education they had.
That being said…. I don’t want money to be a barrier to anyone appreciating the arts. It’s kind of a challenging dichotomy
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This is the post I’ve been waiting to make…
D committed to UMich! I feel exhilarated and sick all at the same time. Not a lot of time to celebrate, as we have a concert tonight! Story of our lives, lol.
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