I just wanted to 3rd the suggestion to head on over to the music sub forum! That is such a friendly crowd and many of us are going through this process this year.
I spent hours here digging around to get hints of which schools may be generous with aid for undergrads. I think it also depends if you’re full pay vs. have need as to where you should apply for best results. We have a list that includes 2 public “safeties” (they are still auditioned so hoping to get into at least 1 of them) we assume we will be full pay at and then a slew of other schools my kid is applying to in order of fit and likeliness to be generous with aid. We do have a little give, but we’re looking for offers within range of the full pay publics. And he has a couple very long shots he might throw out there too. Many of these schools are more generous with grad school students when they aren’t looking at parents finances so we’re looking toward that as well and just being educated about what different options look like. My kid is applying primarily to schools set in universities/colleges and he may get merit aid too.
We have done sample lessons at schools before but my kid is applying to other schools potentially he has not had a lesson at and/or even visited. Setting up a sample lesson hasn’t always worked out for us timing wise.