I believe that DD included a range rather a fixed amount. They asked for comparative offers and she included those. But they do give room for you to make any other comments and DD had some good ideas about what made her situation different.
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Usually Full Ride means tuition + room/board. I’ve seen people call just full tuition a Full Ride but that wouldn’t necessarily be correct.
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I am very curious to see those who mentioned full ride what they are referring to. This is important to me, because some of those who have previously mentioned full ride are some of the schools my daughter has applied to.
Had my son call MSM to see if they have any update on when we might get the financial aid package and now they are saying early next week. I HATE HATE HATE feeling like this is going to be such a last minute decision.
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I looked up our text messages. three years ago my son received the last update of merit awards on 4/24, and the last update was decisive. The merit negotiation was unexpectedly long and complicated that caused more stress than the auditions. He only had 3 schools to appeal at. I can’t imagine having to deal with more.
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MSM aid response just came in.
Zero. Nada. Zilch.
Appeal on the way…
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Yeah same here. Appealing now as well. They basically offered us 2 loans that helps get us to cover tuition. I guess they expect cash for the rest or maybe my son can just live in a box
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DD just committed elsewhere, so there’s some MSM merit getting freed up…it wasn’t a ton but it’s going back into the pool.
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Yeah, I’m not sure how they figure “family contribution” doesn’t include loans… It’s not like they’re giving us that money.
Loans have always been part of a financial aid package at many colleges. In some cases schools have switched to “no loans” (NYU for instance).
Loans are more expensive than tuition itself. So it’s good if not offered. They are saving one from getting in over their head.
Of course “no loans” is better and are evidence of improvement in financial aid at some schools. Maybe I wasn’t clear.
A wrap for us too. Deposit paid. Son headed to Rice Shepherd for BMus Cello performance. Let me know if there are any other strings Shepherd commits lurking out there !
(So happy to have this crazy journey in the rear view. Good luck to everyone still on the ride)
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Unless there’s some last minute change of heart and/or amazing upgrade to funding somewhere, looks like mine is bound for ASU (MM, bass clarinet). It was one of his top 2 from the start (or at least from the time he auditioned and had actually seen everywhere in person), so he’s happy (with the usual sadness about the places he doesn’t get to go/people he doesn’t get to work with…at least for now). He did not get the assistantship he was hoping for, but the $$$ should work out okay after some last minute scrambling to figure it all out. He’s likely going to be appreciating the high minimum wage in Arizona, though! So it’s on to logistics of part time job-hunting/searching for roommates and an apartment, figuring out how to actually get him and his stuff to Tempe, etc. etc.
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Congrats!
I cannot agree with that more, if there is one thing I am firm on is to avoid loans at all costs, no matter what music schools say or do (several my son got into UG didn’t even bother with aid but sent applications for parental student loans and called it aid….)
Loans these days are problematic in many fields because of the difficulty of getting jobs with a decent career track, but with music it has always been so. I have seen people take out huge loans to go to their dream school and think they were going to come out of music school and get into one of the major orchestras right away so they would be okay. It doesn’t work like that in music, even for people who have made it as soloists or into major orchestras or successful ensembles, it has been a long path before they made it to any kind of real success financially, and even then pay for soloists and groups can fluctuate.
And schools are no help, I still see schools that encourage kids to take out loans and basically imply (without outright telling the kids it) that going to their great program, they of course will do well. You look at merit awards and think wow, those look great, until you look at the cost of going to the school, and the merit aid hasn’t kept up with with the costs.
As others have said, you can go to a more affordable program then get into a grad program where they tend to be better with aid.
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I just posted a new thread with a Boston Globe article on an AI course at Berklee, which discusses issues that may crop up for music in general.
My son received an email from the professor he was assigned at Peabody asking if he was going to commit. I just had him craft a response email mentioning that we have already appealed and wasn’t given enough, and also mentioned how at both UM Frost and Berklee he’d only have to pay housing and food. We left it as us not closing the door on Peabody just yet just in case he has someone else that can work some magic. I’m wondering if they haven’t had enough people commit to his studio that he’s starting to personally reach out to folks asking what’s going on.
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Shrewd.
May 1 gets closer every day. They have numbers to worry about too.
We had a professor speak at our audition day at a large midwestern university (names withheld to protect the innocent!) who stressed to us “once you are accepted, you have the leverage” re: negotiation, merit, the schools retention, etc. I imagine we’ve all been in our respective staring contests this month, but with each passing day the pressure shifts to the schools.
I feel like this is some ugly talk….but money tends to do that.
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We are gearing up to likely being done/decided by end of the week. He sent two emails to 2 of the 4 schools last week saying that he will need to decline the spot without any music merit. One on Monday, the other on Thursday, and haven’t heard a word. Then, he’s got a zoom meeting this week with the professor at the 3rd school. He got no music merit there either but it sounds like it’s a deep waitlist so they probably think they can fill the spot without merit. So if nothing changes this week, which I don’t think we expect it to, he is likely committing to IU.
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