<p>Curtis and Colburn are highly selective undergraduate (mostly) programs that offer 100 % MERIT awards to their admitted students. While Colburn offers living expenses, I doubt Curtis frequently offers any significant “financial aid” to assist with room and board.</p>
<p>I believe this is true with most all the nations private conservatory schools. They generally have some generous donors who have set up scholarships that award a few selective merit awards that cover 100% of a student’s tuition. NEC, for example, usually has maybe 5 to 10 of these p/a, and they almost always go to pianists or violinists. Juilliard offers 100% merit awards to many of their best applicants each year as well.</p>
<p>However, in my experience it is very rare to see packages from any conservatory that covers an entire tuition based purely on financial need. They are almost always merit awards instead. Students who demonstrate financial need, and are not competitive enough for large merit awards, are generally offered a combination of scholarships, financial aid, loans, and work study.</p>
<p>100% coverage of tuition is very rare. It occurs much more often in graduate programs - especially at the PhD level where most all large universities offer generous fellowships and teaching assistantships to their most deserving students.</p>