Although my kid is still an undergraduate (violin) I’d like to plan ahead, and am wondering which top conservatories tend to be generous with merit aid for their masters students.
Curtis and Colburn, of course, and Yale I believe, but I was wondering, specifically, about Rice, Juilliard, and NEC.
My kid is at Colburn now, and in case he applies elsewhere for his masters (and possibly beyond) some advance knowledge would help.
I know that of course its largely individual, and I do have a general idea (although I could be wrong or misinformed) of the general overall level of generosity these schools extend to undergraduate applicants, but I’m thinking the overall level might be different (for better or worse) for masters applicants.
My kid could not afford a stand alone master’s and got one in a school that had a master’s as part of a funded doctoral program, though with the option to leave after the master’s. We also looked at McGilll because Canada is more affordable, and the UK where master’s are shorter. Others can respond about merit at top conservatories: just adding another angle.
My son has just gone through this for his masters. Although not truly conservatories, Rice offered full tuition ($34k) plus $4k stipend, USC originally was $25k, got $3k more with appeal.
Your violinist can likely find out a lot about grad programs and likely funding from older students graduating out of their Colburn studio. Generally by their third and fourth undergrad years, students have a good sense of teachers, programs and merit opportunities for grad schools.
Your schools above would be pretty much what I would include. Know that in general, Curtis takes younger students on violin, meaning undergrad age or younger. So that may be more than the usual long shot odds at Curtis.
Compmom, during early high school, options such as the Royal Conservatory were discussed-my kid actually was really was interested in studying abroad and had the view that it could be a really neat adventure. But by senior year, we figured out that auditioning in the US alone was a herculean endeavour, and he couldn’t have even imagined adding foreign schools to the list. Not to mention he knew no teachers based abroad.
I dont know how much things will change by grad school; even at summer festivals I dont think theres alot of opportunity to meet foreign teachers, but I could be wrong. I do think though that there’s huge value in studying abroad and should be looked into as a serious option.
I realize this matter is a ways off, and that he’ll be speaking with classmates about their choices, but for us, the financial background and planning, and really just knowledge, way in advance, is a must. For undergrad, we dug in and tried to figure out where the optimal funding lies, and we’ll do the exact same for grad. I’d like my kid to be able to work on what he wants to work on without the often crushing financial worries that can accompany musical studies.
My kid only applied to the Royal Conservatory of the Hague, and made just one trip. They also went abroad for some summers during undergrad- Italy, Sweden and Germany.
They ended up at a doctoral program that was fully funded plus stipend of $20k+ (some schools pay more), no tuition, free health insurance- and opportunities to TA and eventually teach. The master’s was along the way and also funded at that level, with TA experience (sections, grading, office hours). There was an option to leave after the master’s was completed but they stayed. Seven years total.
Their program has both PhD and DMA (and MA and MM) and is well-regarded internationally. Fairly progressive.
Their search was guided by financial considerations, teachers and the prevailing aesthetic of schools. They are more interested in 20th and 21st century music.
Rice is a great campus and Shepherd is really a top notch program, my S got his master’s there and still has ties to it. In general with aid it can depend a lot on the teacher IME (does that mean that is the only factor at every school). My S at Rice basically had full tuition (one of the nice things about Rice is that the apartment rentals are nowhere near as crazy as places like Boston or NYC) and the teacher was involved in the process for sure. Other kids who went to grad school there with him had a similar experience. He still has ties to Rice and some of the faculty, and the impression I get is they still are pretty generous with the finances.
NEC (my son’s UG school) wasn’t great with grad tuition and they pretty much told him there were no appeals. It wasn’t anywhere near what the other programs offered (one of them, Yale SOM, was of course tuition free), but the other schools all were near or full tuition.
That said, this was almost 8 years ago and it could have changed, the financing at schools can swing even year to year IME. It could be NEC these days is doing much better, hopefully someone on here will have had kids apply there.
Rice is quite generous with merit scholarships. They typically offer additional stipends of around $2,000 to $4,000 per year to MM students.
Indiana is also generous. They often provide almost a full ride to students who play at a decent level (especially if your S is from Colburn).
Yale, of course, offers the largest stipends for graduate students — $11,000 per year — and also provides TA opportunities, which can increase the total stipend beyond $11,000.
Northwestern also has great teachers, and I received a $50,000 merit scholarship there.