My daughter is in all 5 schools that she auditioned including U Mich and Vanderbilt. We are disappointed that we are offered no merit scholarship and expected to pay 100k/year. We are prepared to pay for it, but we were hoping to conserve for graduate school. Is anyone planning to appeal for merit scholarships?
We are in similar shoes. I’m not ready to say more tonight, but just know you’re in good company.
(No merit even at Vandy? It seems like they gave $ to people last year.)
That doesn’t bode well for us, no mention of scholarship.
How did you find out about financial aid at UMich?
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Haven’t heard from U Mich regarding scholarship yet.
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Woke up to the financial aid stuff from USC and yeah well we surely can’t afford that 
all that was offered was work study
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USC was here this am
I’m sorry that so many of these schools are not offering merit aid. I know it is both disappointing and frustrating for all of you. I am reading along and taking notes bc the outcomes are shaping our list since significant merit $$ is a necessity for our dd. Thank you for sharing your experiences.
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Nothing from USC, so I guess a no to scholarship.
Definitely don’t waste time traveling to a school that you are seeing isn’t giving enough or any merit especially if you really need it to make it work.
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So last year Peabody released on 3/28 which was a Friday, so hopefully they’ll do the same this year and release tomorrow 
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Numbers from previous years could be informative,
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son (cello) only applied to five schools and auditioned at each. Nothing was early or rolling so these letters are trickling in as of mid-last week. We’ve heard from IU, Eastman, and Rice. We were pleased with scholarship letters at Eastman and Rice the last two days.
Any insights on timing for MSM and NEC decisions which are his two remaining?
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I couldn’t figure out when MSM released last year, but it looks like the previous year they may have released on April 1st.
Not official, but April 1 is the word on the street for MSM. Conflicting info for NEC - one comment here said “not before Friday of this week”; but Wednesday (which has now passed) had been a possibility. Last year, NEC was on Wednesday of this week. So, who knows?
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this was grad, for Rice stating $ with acceptance
@mom2aphysicsgeek — Good morning! Your post finally got me to unlurk. (Thanks to all of you who have been terrific posters to this list! It’s been really helpful through this crazy process for this first-time music family.)
Regarding reducing your list by affordability based on past years’ merit awards, I’d encourage you to perhaps not use that as a first filter. Based on what I read in the list yesterday and our own family’s experience, merit can be dispersed differentially at some schools. I’m guessing it might vary by instrument, studio, applicant, or some black box criterion, but - it does vary. And then there is the possibility of negotiation or appeal with schools, so I hear - that’s our next journey.
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I was about to post the same. Merit awards can be highly variable by year, studio and institutional priorities. While there may be some trends, there are also huge outliers.
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Heard via faculty Friday for NEC and Juilliard, but faculty aren’t pushing send buttons….
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Aghhh i hope this is true.. thank you for sharing